1912 – Harry Hawker wins the British Empire Michelin Cup for endurance and Altitude . He flies for 8 hours and 23 minutes in a Burgess-Wright airplane.
1919 – Birth of Frank Piasecki, American engineer and helicopter aviation pioneer; he later pioneers tandem rotor helicopter designs and creates the compound helicopter concept of vectored thrust using a ducted propeller.
1942 – The daylight bombing attack on Italy is mounted by the Royal Air Force when 88 Avro Lancasters of No.5 Group are sent to Milan.
1944 – U.S. Navy pilot David McCampbell (shown above), in a Grumman F6F Hellcat, scores nine victories against the Japanese after shooting down five Mitsubishi A6M Zekes and a pair each of A6M3 Hamps and Nakajima Ki-43 Oscars; he is the only American becoming twice an “ace in a day,” setting a U.S. single mission aerial combat record.
2000 – First flight of the Lockheed Martin X-35A, an American experimental aircraft for the Joint Strike Fighter Program; it is the predecessor of the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II.
2010 – Death of Franciszek Jarecki, a pilot in the Polish Air Force who became famous for having escaped Soviet-controlled Poland in a Mikoyan Gurevich MiG-15 jet.
