Civilian Archives - Page 59 of 175

On This Day in Aviation History

1891 – Birth of Oswald Boelcke, German World War I German flying ace and one of the most influential patrol leaders and tacticians during the early years of air combat. 1918 – South African World War I fighter ace Andrew Frederick Weatherby “Proccy” Beauchamp-Proctor scores five victories with his Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5a. 1924 – The first aerial […]

Laos An-74 Crash Kills Officials, Others

A Lao air force Antonov An-74 TK-300 crashed while on final approach to Laos’s Xieng Khoang Airport on Saturday. Media reports indicate that all 20 passengers and crew died in the crash. A statement by the official Lao News Agency confirmed that four high-ranking officials were among the casualties, including the nation’s deputy prime minister, who was […]

On This Day in Aviation History

1918 – The Imperial German Navy recommissions the light cruiser Stuttgart after her conversion into a seaplane carrier; she is the only German seagoing aviation ship capable of working with the fleet commissioned during either world war. 1923 – Birth of Lars Paul Erich Hattinen, Finnish World War II flying ace and airline pilot. 1957 – […]

C-47 ‘Whiskey 7’ Heads Back to the Beach

The plane has no fixed seats, no flight attendants, no in-flight movie and no bathroom. It is not heated, insulated or pressurized. And on its last tour over France, somebody tried to shoot it down. But on Thursday, a septuagenarian war horse known as “Whiskey 7” will take off from a grass airstrip in central […]

F-35B Makes East Coast Debuts at Show

It’s no secret. The Lockheed Martin F-35B Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter is the future of Marine Corps aviation. That future will be revealed for the first time to the public at this weekend’s Cherry Point Air Show in North Carolina. The fifth-generation fighter jet is scheduled for its first public flight on the East […]

On This Day in Aviation History

1894 – Birth of Josef Carl Peter Jacobs, fourth German World War I fighter ace and postwar aircraft manufacturer. 1918 – Regular airmail service in the U.S., between New York and Washington, D.C., begins; the first flight is made by U.S. Army Lt. Geoffrey Boyle in a Curtiss JN-4H. 1943 – First flight of the […]

WWII Bomber Crew Fight Feds Over Date

Limping home from a World War II bombing mission on a stormy night, a U.S. B-24J Liberator slammed into the rocky flank of a remote mountain in southern China. The bomber and its 10 crew members plummeted into the ravine below. What happened to them remained a mystery until 1996, when Chinese farmers hunting medicinal […]

On This Day in Aviation History

1915 – The U.S. Navy contracts with the Connecticut Aircraft Co. for its first airship, DN-1 (shown). 1936 – First flight of the Miles Whitney Straight M.11, a two-seat light aircraft with a side-by-side cockpit configuration. 1940 – The Allies lose 110 aircraft – 70 British Fairey Battles and Bristol Blenheims and forty French planes – on one day in a disastrous attempt to bomb bridges over […]

On This Day in Aviation History

1883 – Birth of Charles Alexander Holcombe Longcroft, Britsh World War I pilot and squadron commander in the Royal Flying Corps; he went on to become a senior commander in the Royal Air Force. 1912 – A Flanders F.3 Monoplane crashes at Brooklands in England, killing the pilot and his passenger; the accident is studied […]

A B-25 Love Affair

Tom Reilly has been in the warbird restoration business for over 40 years after a chance flight in a North American P-51 Mustang in Kissimmee, Fla., in 1971. Not long after that flight Reilly had an opportunity to purchase some North American Yale Training aircraft from a friend in Canada. He ended up buying thirteen […]