On This Day in Aviation History

On This Day in Aviation History

1889 – Birth of Harry George Hawker (shown), Australian aviation pioneer and co-founder of Hawker Aircraft.

1918 – Canadian World War I fighter ace George Robert Howsam scores four victories with his Sopwith Camel.

1931 – First flight of the Bristol Type 118, a British two-seat biplane prototype for overseas markets.

1933 – Jean Mermoz lands his Couzinet 70 “Arc an Ciel” in Buenos Aires after a South Atlantic crossing from Paris-Le Bourget.

1971 – A U.S. Navy Lockheed P-3C Orion lands in Patuxent River, Md., after a flight of 15 hours and 21 minutes from Atsugi, Japan; the flight sets a nonstop distance record for a turboprop-powered aircraft of 7,010 miles.

2008 – A Pakistan Air Force Cessna T-37 jet trainer crashes during the first solo flight of Pilot Officer Raja Jahanzeb; declining ejection orders, he chose to put the plane on a campus road of GIK Institute to avoid faculty buildings. The crash kills the pilot and a gardener; Jahanzeb was posthumously awarded Tamgha-e-Basalat (Medal of Good Conduct).

Updated: January 22, 2014 — 1:25 PM
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