1892 – Birth of James Joseph Wellwood, Australian World War I flying ace.
1933 – First run of the Rolls-Royce Merlin, a British V-12 piston engine; initially known as the PV-12, the 1,650-cu. in. liquid-cooled powerplant became known as the Merlin when the company began naming its piston aero engines after birds of prey.
1946 – Death of of Hermann Wilhelm Göring, German politician, military leader, and a leading member of the Nazi Party; he also was a World War I fighter ace and was later appointed commander-in-chief of the Luftwaffe until the end of World War II.
1962 – Operation Rho Delta, a Royal Canadian Air Force mission to move newly built Canadair CF-104 Starfighters to Europe aboard Lockheed CC-130s, begins.
1985 – First flight of the Fairchild T-46 “Eaglet” (shown above), an American light jet trainer aircraft prototype.
2007 – Airbus delivers its first A380 superjumbo jet, a double-decked airliner capable of carrying more than 800 passengers, to Singapore Airlines.
