1904 – Birth of Albert Aubrey “Aub” Koch, pioneering Australian military and civil pilot; he was the captain of the only Qantas aircraft known to be shot down during World War II.
1917 – Death of Colin Geen Orr MacAndrew, Scottish World War I flying ace, killed in action in his Bristol Fighter.
1941 – Heini Dittmar sets an airspeed record of 624 mph in a Messerschmitt Me 163A Komet. The record is unofficial because the flight, and the Me 163 program, is kept secret.
1946 – First flight of the Vought F6U Pirate, Vought’s first jet fighter, designed for the U.S. Navy. It pioneers the use of turbojet power as the first naval fighter with an afterburner and composite material construction.
1980 – A Westland Sea King of the Royal Air Force No. 202 Squadron rescues 22 passengers from the Swedish ship Finneagle in the North Sea.
1996 – Aeroperú Flight 603, a Boeing 757 (shown), crashes in the Pacific Ocean near Pasamayo, Peru, killing all 70 aboard. The cause of the crash is instrument failure; tape covering the static ports necessary to provide correct instrument data to the cockpit was not removed during maintenance.
