On This Day in Aviation History

On This Day in Aviation History

1900 – Birth of Anselm Franz, pioneering Austrian jet engine engineer known for the development of the Jumo 004, the world’s first mass-produced turbojet engine.

1920 – Ten de havilland DH.9s (shown) are dispatched to form “Z Force” and are used for bombing, strafing and as air ambulances during the Royal Air Force’s first “Little War” against the tribal leader Mohammed bin Abdulla Hassan, the “Mad Mullah,” in British Somaliland.

1952 – First flight of the Saab 210 Draken, a Swedish scaled-down testbed for the double-delta concept used in the development of the Saab 35 Draken fighter.

1976 – The first passenger services by a supersonic airliner are begun when British Airways and Air France Concorde supersonic transports take off simultaneously for Bahrain and Rio de Janeiro.

1980 – Iran Air Flight 291, a Boeing 727, collides with the Alborz Mountains, 18 miles north of Tehran, during its approach to Tehran-Mehrabad in foggy and snowy weather conditions, due to an inoperable instrument landing system and ground radar; all 128 are killed.

2004 – Death of Kenneth Gilbert Hubbard, British World War II bomber pilot; he also flew the Royal Air Force Vickers Valiant bomber which dropped Britain’s first live megaton thermonuclear weapon in the southern Pacific Ocean in 1957.

Updated: January 20, 2014 — 11:38 PM
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