1887 – Birth of Vivian Claude Walsh, New Zealand pioneer aviator and the first man to fly in New Zealand; he becomes the co-founder (with brother Austin Leonard Walsh) of the New Zealand Flying School.
1929 – First flight of the Junkers G.38 (shown above), a large German four-engined transport aircraft that features a blended wing design which provides access to all four power plants.
1945 – A Ryan FR-1 Fireball, designed to utilize its piston engine during takeoff and landing, has a piston engine failure on final approach; U.S. Navy Ensign Jake West starts the jet engine and unintentionally performs the first carrier landing of a jet-powered aircraft aboard U.S.S. Wake Island (CVE-65).
1956 – The world’s first ship-based helicopter-borne assault takes place, as Royal Navy craft from H.M.S. Ocean and H.M.S. Theseus land 425 men of the Royal Marines’ 45 Commando and 23 tons of stores in Port Said, Egypt.
1976 – Death of Hans Waldhausen, German World War I flying ace.
1986 – In the British International Helicopters Chinook crash, a Boeing 234LR Chinook falls into the Atlantic on approach to Sumburgh Airport in the Shetland Islands; 45 of the 47 aboard are lost and Chinooks are later removed from North Sea oil field operations.
