On This Day in Aviation History

On This Day in Aviation History

1887 – Birth of Ruth Bancroft Law, pioneer American aviatrix and the first woman to loop the loop in an airplane as well as the first woman to make a night flight.

1927 – Charles A. Lindbergh lands his Ryan NYP monoplane Spirit of St. Louis (shown above) at Le Bourget, France; he is the first to fly a non-stop solo Atlantic crossing of 3,600 miles in 33 hours, 29 minutes.

1946 – KLM is the first continental European airline to launch scheduled service to New York.

1965 – Death of Sir Geoffrey de Havilland, a highly decorated British aviation pioneer and aircraft engineer. His Mosquito, a World War II-era fighter-bomber, has been considered the most versatile warplane ever built.

1977 – An Aerospatiale-BAC Concorde makes a special trip from New York to Paris to mark the 50th anniversary of Charles Lindbergh’s historic flight on the same route in the Spirit of St. Louis; the airliner makes the journey in less than 4 hours.

2011 – Volcano Grímsvötn in Iceland enters in eruption, causing disruption to air travel in Iceland, followed by Greenland, Scotland and Norway and northern Europe in the following days.

 

Updated: May 21, 2013 — 9:14 AM
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