On This Day in Aviation History

On This Day in Aviation History

1890 – Birth of Hubert William Godfrey Jones (Penderel), a Welsh World War I flying ace, Royal Air Force display pilot, air racer and World War II officer; he later undertakes a number of expeditions to explore the Gilf Kebir plateau in Egypt and one of his expeditions with Count László Almásy loosely forms the basis for “The English Patient.”

1919 – KLM, flag carrier of the Netherlands, is founded; it’s the oldest airline still operating under its original name.

1940 – A Tupolev ANT-44 (or MTB-2), a Soviet four-engine flying boat (shown above), achieved a world record for amphibians at maximum speed of 150 mph over 621 miles with 4,409-pound payload.

1963 – First flight of the Learjet 23, an American twin-engined, high-speed business jet.

1980 – Death of Carl Frederick Falkenberg, Canadian World War I fighter ace.

2009 – A Libyan Air Force Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23 crashes while taking part during an airshow at Mitiga International Airport in Tripoli, Libya. The aircraft, traveling at low level, hits a one-story house in a Tripoli suburb; the two crewmen are killed and two civilians are injured.

Updated: October 7, 2013 — 11:45 AM
Air Age Media ©
WordPress Image Lightbox Plugin