On This Day in Aviation History

On This Day in Aviation History

1832 – Birth of Octave Chanute, French-born American railway engineer and aviation pioneer; he provided the Wright brothers with help and advice, and helped to publicize their flying experiments.

1923 – The Canadian Air Force is granted the prefix “Royal.”

1939 – First flight of the Martin PBM Mariner (restored A model shown).

1944 – Operation Jericho is launched: de Havilland Mosquitos of the No. 487 Squadron, Royal New Zealand Air Force, and the No. 464 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force, breach the prison walls at Amiens, France, allowing captured members of the French Resistance to escape.

1991 – Death of Liu Chi-Sheng, Chinese Sino-Japanese War flying ace, leading ace of the Republic of China Air Force and high-ranking officer.

2010 – After setting fire to his house and leaving behind a suicide note expressing displeasure with government and taxation, Andrew Joseph Stack III crashes his Piper Dakota into an office building housing an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) field office in Austin, Texas, killing himself and an IRS manager and injuring 13 others, two of them seriously.

Updated: February 18, 2014 — 1:51 PM
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