1898 – Birth of Geoffrey William Hemming, British World War I flying ace.
1904 – Gabriel Voisin successfully flies a modified Archdeacon glider at Berck sur Mer, Picardie, in northern France; Voisin added a canard to the design and his longest flight on this day is 25 seconds.
1933 – Two British aircraft, a Westland PV-3 and a Westland PV-6, make the first flight over Mount Everest.
1944 – Death of Evelyn Genevieve “Sharpie” Sharp (shown next to cockpit), American aviator and one of the first female airmail pilots and an original Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS) pilot; she is killed the crash of a Lockheed P-38 Lightning she was ferrying in Cumberland County, Pa.
1965 – The first jet-to-jet combat of the Vietnam War occurs; although all American aircraft involved return safely, the North Vietnamese Air Force claims to have shot down a U. S. Navy Vought F-8 Crusader and in future years celebrates April 3 as “North Vietnamese Air Force Day. ”
2008 – A Blue Wing Airlines Antonov An-28 crashes upon landing in southeastern Suriname; the plane’s 19 passengers and crew perish.
