On This Day in Aviation History

On This Day in Aviation History

1914 – Birth of Josef František, Czech World War II fighter ace who flew for the air forces of Czechoslovakia, Poland and England.

1919 – KLM, flag carrier of the Netherlands, is founded and remains the oldest airline still operating under its original name.

1940 – A Tupolev ANT-44, a Soviet four-engine flying boat, achieves a FAI record for amphibians with a maximum speed of 150 mph over 621 miles with a 4,409-pound payload.

1995 – First flight of the Mitsubishi F-2 (shown), American-Japanese multirole fighter for the Japan Air Self-Defense Force.

2000 – Death of Walter “Graf Punski” Krupinski, German World War II fighter ace; he was one of the first pilots to fly the Messerschmitt Me 262 jet fighter in combat.

2009 – A Libyan Air Force Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23 Flogger crashes during an airshow for the Third Libyan Aviation Exhibition, LAVEX 2009, at Mitiga International Airport in Tripoli. The aircraft hit a one-story house in the suburb of Souq Al-Jumaa, killing the two-man crew and injuring two civilians.

Updated: October 7, 2015 — 2:45 AM
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