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The Aviation Portal

A Boeing 747 in 1978 operated by Pan Am

Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. Aircraft includes fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as lighter-than-air aircraft such as hot air balloons and airships.

Aviation began in the 18th century with the development of the hot air balloon, an apparatus capable of atmospheric displacement through buoyancy. Clément Ader built the "Ader Éole" in France and made an uncontrolled, powered hop in 1890. This was the first powered aircraft, although it did not achieve controlled flight. Some of the most significant advancements in aviation technology came with the controlled gliding flying of Otto Lilienthal in 1896; then a large step in significance came with the construction of the Wright Flyer, the first powered airplane by the Wright brothers in the early 1900s. Since that time, aviation has been technologically revolutionized by the introduction of the jet which permitted a major form of transport throughout the world. (Full article...)

Selected article

Computer-generated image of Flight 1907 and N600XL about to collide. The Legacy's left winglet sliced off nearly half of the Boeing's left wing.
Computer-generated image of Flight 1907 and N600XL about to collide. The Legacy's left winglet sliced off nearly half of the Boeing's left wing.
Gol Transportes Aéreos Flight 1907 was a Boeing 737-8EH, registration PR-GTD, on a scheduled passenger flight from Manaus, Brazil, to Rio de Janeiro. On 29 September 2006, just before 17:00 BRT, it collided in midair with an Embraer Legacy business jet over the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso. All 154 passengers and crew aboard the Boeing 737 died when the aircraft broke up in midair and crashed into an area of dense rainforest, while the Embraer Legacy, despite sustaining serious damage to its left wing and tail, landed safely with its seven occupants uninjured. The accident, which triggered a crisis in Brazilian civil aviation, was the deadliest in that country's aviation history at the time, surpassing VASP Flight 168, which crashed in 1982 with 137 fatalities near Fortaleza. It was also the deadliest aviation accident involving a Boeing 737 aircraft at that time. It was subsequently surpassed by Air India Express Flight 812, which crashed at Mangalore, India, on 22 May 2010 with 158 fatalities. The accident was investigated by both the Brazilian Air Force's Aeronautical Accidents Investigation and Prevention Center and the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), with a final report issued on 10 December 2008. CENIPA concluded that the accident was caused by errors committed both by air traffic controllers and by the American pilots, while the NTSB determined that all pilots acted properly and were placed on a collision course by a variety of "individual and institutional" air traffic control errors. (Full article...)

Selected image

Swiss rescue helicopter in action.

Did you know

...that British Airways unveiled a new corporate identity in 1997 which involved repainting its fleet with around 20 daring tailfin designs by world artists? ..that Elm Farm Ollie in 1930 became the first cow to be milked while flying in an airplane? ... that when Lilian Bland built an aircraft in 1910, she used her aunt's ear-trumpet and a whisky bottle to feed petrol to the engine?

More Did you know facts

General images - load new batch

The following are images from various aviation-related articles on Wikipedia.

In the news

Wikinews Aviation portal
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Associated Wikimedia

The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:

Selected biography

Portrait of Flynn taken in 1929.

The Reverend John Flynn (25 November 1880 – 5 May 1951) was an Australian Presbyterian minister and aviator who founded the Royal Flying Doctor Service, the world's first air ambulance.

Throughout his ministerial training, Flynn had worked in various then-remote areas through Victoria and South Australia. As well as tending to matters spiritual, Flynn quickly established the need for medical care for residents of the vast Australian outback, and established a number of bush hospitals. By 1917, Flynn was already considering the possibility of new technology, such as radio and the aeroplane, to assist in providing a more useful acute medical service, and then received a letter from an Australian pilot serving in World War I, Clifford Peel, who had heard of Flynn's speculations and outlined the capabilities and costs of then-available planes. Flynn turned his considerable fund-raising talents to the task of establishing a flying medical service.

The first flight of the Aerial Medical Service was in 1928 from Cloncurry. In 1934 the Australian Aerial Medical Service was formed, and gradually established a network of bases nationwide. Flynn remained the public face of the organisation (through name changes to its present form) and helped raise the funds that kept the service operating.

Selected Aircraft

Airbus A380
Airbus A380

The Airbus A380 is a double-deck, four-engined airliner manufactured by Airbus S.A.S. It first flew on 27 April 2005 from Toulouse–Blagnac Airport. Commercial flights began in late 2007 after months of testing, with the delivery of the first aircraft to launch customer Singapore Airlines. During much of its development phase, the aircraft was known as the Airbus A3XX, and the nickname Superjumbo has also become associated with the A380.

The A380 is double decked, with the upper deck extending along the entire length of the fuselage. This allows for a spacious cabin, with the A380 in standard three-class configuration to seat 555 people, up to maximum of 853 in full economy class configuration. Only one model of the A380 was available: The A380-800, the passenger model. It is the largest passenger airliner in the world superseding the Boeing 747. The other launch model, the A380-800F freighter, was canceled and did not join the ranks of the largest freight aircraft such as the Antonov An-225, An-124, and the C-5 Galaxy.

  • Span: 79.8 m (261 ft 10 in)
  • Length: 73 m (239 ft 6 in)
  • Height: 24.1 m (79 ft 1 in)
  • Engines: 4 * Rolls-Royce Trent 900 or Engine Alliance GP7200 (311 kN or 69,916 lbf)
  • Cruising Speed: 0.85 Mach (approx 1,050 km/h or 652 mph or 567 kn)
  • First Flight: 27 April 2005
  • Number built: 254 (including 3 prototypes)
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Today in Aviation

May 5

  • 2013 – Israeli aircraft strike Mount Qassioun, which overlooks Damascus, Syria, targeting surface-to-surface missiles sent from Iran to Hezbollah.[1][2] The Syrian government claims the strike targeted a scientific research facility.[3]
  • 2009 – United States Marine Corps Bell AH-1W SuperCobra belonging to HMM-166, based at MCAS Miramar, California, crashes at 1154 hrs. PST into the Cleveland National Forest, California, killing both pilots.
  • 2008 – Philippine Airlines’ regional carrier PAL Express began operations with 8 daily flights between Manila and Malay with Bombardier Dash-8-400 turboprops.
  • 2007 – Kenya Airways Flight 507, a Boeing 737-800 (5Y-KYA) scheduled to fly to Nairobi, Kenya, crashes just after takeoff from Douala, Cameroon. All 114 occupants are killed after the pilot departs without clearance and then does not realize the aircraft is banking hard to the right in time for correction due to improper auto-pilot inputs. The aircraft strikes a forested swamp a few miles to the south of the airport, where a reporter would find one year later that aircraft wreckage and human remains are still present.
  • 2007 – Eos Airlines begins flights from London Stansted to Newark, New Jersey with their 48-seat Boeing 757-200 aircraft.
  • 2006 – Siberia Airlines renames their airlines to S7 Airlines, and repainting their aircraft to a bright green, which is partly so the aircraft can be spotted among the tundra of Russia in the event of a crash.
  • 2006 – During the Children's Day flight exhibition (Suwon Air Base, South Korea), Capt. Kim Do-hyun of the Republic of Korea Air Force's Black Eagles display team is killed when he loses control of his Cessna A-37B Dragonfly.
  • 2005 – First flight of the Dassault Falcon 7X, a large-cabin, long range business jet manufactured by Dassault Aviation
  • 1998 – A Peruvian Air Force Boeing 737-282, FAP-351, c/n 23041, line number 962, chartered from Occidental Petroleum, crashes at ~2130 hrs. during poor weather near Andoas, Peru killing 75 of the 88 people on board.
  • 1994 – A 1st Fighter Squadron pilot from Tyndall Air Force Base near Panama City, Florida, safely ejected from his McDonnell-Douglas F-15C Eagle of the 1st FS, 325th FW, before it crashed into the Gulf of Mexico about 5 miles south of Port St. Joe, Florida. On a training mission, student pilot lost control due to G‑induced loss of consciousness; was rescued from the gulf by an MH-53 Pave Low Helicopter from the Air Force Special Operations Command at Hurlburt Field.
  • 1993 – Jet Airways begins commercial airline operations with four Boeing 737-300 airliners.
  • 1990 – A Douglas DC-6 (N84BL) operated by Aerial Transit Company crashes after takeoff from Guatemala City, Guatemala, killing all 3 on the aircraft and an additional 24 on the ground. The cargo flight destined for Miami, Florida, develops engine trouble and strikes the ground while trying to make its way back to the airport.
  • 1988 – Birth of Jessica Dubroff, a seven-year-old pilot trainee who died attempting to become the youngest person to fly an airplane across the United States.
  • 1985 – Due to air traffic control errors, a Tupolev Tu-134 operating as Aeroflot Flight SSSR-65856 with 79 people on board and a Soviet Air Forces Antonov An-26 with 15 people on board collide at 13,000 feet (3,962 m) near Zolochev in the Soviet Union’s Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, killing all 94 people on board the two planes. Among the dead are the Estonian table-tennis player Alari Lindmäe, two Soviet Army generals, and Nikolai Dmitrijev, a Hero of Socialist Labor and one of the Soviet Union’s most decorated civil airline pilots who had been the captain of the Tu-134.
  • 1983 – Eastern Air Lines Flight 855, a Lockheed L-1011 Tristar, loses power from all engines 30 minutes after takeoff from Miami International Airport; the pilot is able to return to Miami after restarting one engine; no casualties are reported on board.
  • 1972 – Alitalia Flight 112, a Douglas DC-8 flying from Leonardo da Vinci Airport, Rome, Italy, to Palermo International Airport crashes into Mount Longa, about 5 km (3.1 mi) south-west of Palermo while on approach, killing all 115 passengers and crew; it remains the deadliest single-aircraft disaster in Italy.
  • 1969 – USAF North American F-100D-70-NA Super Sabre, 56-3214, one of two 452nd TFS, 81st TFW, RAF Lakenheath, Super Sabres on gunnery mission over Holbeach Range, Cambs., UK, suffers engine failure, forcing pilot Capt. R.E. Riggs to eject. Fighter impacts into farmland, missing group of workers by 400 yards (370 m), airframe demolished in explosion, only fin and rudder assembly intact.
  • 1968 – A Grumman Gulfstream II becomes the first executive jet to make a non-stop Atlantic crossing after completing a 3,500-mile (5,633 km) flight from Teterboro, New Jersey to London Gatwick.
  • 1967 – Launch of Ariel 3, first artificial satellite designed and constructed in the UK.
  • 1965 – Birth of Colonel Fei Junlong, Chinese military pilot and an astronaut. He flew on the second manned spaceflight of the Shenzhou program.
  • 1965 – Iberia Airlines Flight 401, a Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation, crashes after striking a tractor on the runway at Los Rodeos Airport, Tenerife, during a go-around in foggy weather; 30 of 49 passengers and crew die.
  • 1961 – Commander Alan Shepard, Jr., U. S. Navy, becomes the second man to explore space when he rides his Mercury Freedom 7 capsule, launched by a Redstone missile, to 115 miles above the Earth. It is three weeks since Yuri Gagarin’s first manned space flight.
  • 1960 – Birth of Douglas H. Wheelock, American astronaut and the commander of International Space Station (ISS) Expedition 25.
  • 1959 – A Kamov Ka-15S, Soviet 2 seat Helicopter, Set a record of 170.455 km/h over 500 km.
  • 1958 – A Royal Air Force Miles Marathon T.2 (XA253) crashes after landing at Topcliffe RAF Station in the UK after the crew accidentally retracted the landing gear instead of raising the flaps.
  • 1958 – Birth of Lieutenant Colonel Ron Arad (pilot), Israeli Air Force weapon systems officer (WSO) who is officially classified as missing in action since October 1986, but widely presumed dead. (lost on a mission over Lebanon, captured by Shiite group Amal and was later handed over to the Hezbollah)
  • 1958 – Lt. Gerald Stull steers his failing Convair F-102A-75-CO Delta Dagger, 56-1348, of the 327th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, away from residential homes while attempting a landing at Truax Field, Madison, Wisconsin, at 1330 hrs., and aims it for Lake Monona, ejecting at the last moment, too late to save himself. Posthumously awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross at Tyndall AFB, Florida, on 5 August, a trust fund was established to provide an education for the pilot's infant son. A memorial to Stull's heroism is installed at Hudson Park near the lake 51 years later.
  • 1955 – An agreement was concluded between the United States and Canada for the construction and operation of distant early warning (DEW) radar defense line.
  • 1953 – Christopher Draper, WWI Ace & WWII Pilot, ("the Mad Major"), upset at the government's treatment of veterans, protest by flying under the Thames bridges.He flew a rented, 100 h. p. Auster monoplane under 15 of the 18 bridges. It was a spectacular stunt; the bridge arches were only 40 to 50 feet high; Draper was flying 90 mph and dodged around a ship. According to news accounts, he pulled off his stunt as a means of seeking attention and soliciting job offers. He was arrested, charged with flying too low in an urban area, and assessed a nominal ten guineas court costs.
  • 1950 – Prototype Scottish Pioneer II (VL515), civil registered as G-AKBF makes its first flight.
  • 1949 – Birth of Oleg Atkov, Russian cosmonaut. (Soyuz T-10/Soyuz T-11)
  • 1945 – (5-6) The British aircraft carriers HMS Emperor, HMS Hunter, HMS Khedive, and HMS Stalker resume support of Operation Dracula, bombing Japanese forces south of Rangoon and attacking shipping off Burma’s Tenasserim coast.
  • 1942 – Rabaul-based Imperial Japanese Navy aircraft raid Port Moresby, New Guinea.
  • 1942 – Operation Ironclad, the British invasion of the Vichy French-controlled island of Madagascar, begins with a destructive surprise strike at dawn by aircraft from the British aircraft carrier HMS Indomitable on French airfields in the vicinity of Diego Suarez.
  • 1942 – Royal Air Force Mustang Mark I – The British version of the North American P-51 A Mustang – Tactical reconnaissance aircraft of No. 26 Squadron see combat over the English Channel. It is the first combat action by any version of the P-51 Mustang.
  • 1941 – Major George Putnam Moody (13 March 1908 - 5 May 1941), an early Air Force pioneer, is killed while flight-testing a Beechcraft AT-10-BH Wichita advanced two-engine training aircraft at Wichita Army Airfield, Kansas when it stalls/spins. Major Moody earned his military wings in 1930 and flew U.S. airmail as a member of the United States Army Air Corps in 1934. Valdosta Airfield, Valdosta, Georgia, opened 15 September 1941, is renamed Moody Army Airfield on 6 December 1941 in honor of Maj. Moody. The AT-10 is used extensively at Moody AAF during World War II.
  • 1941 – Two Dutch pilots succeeded in evading an escorting German-flown Fokker G. I and escaped to England. Their G.IB was taken to the Royal Aircraft Establishment, Farnborough, for examination, and used subsequently by Phillips and Powis (Miles Aircraft) at Reading for research into wooden construction.
  • 1940 – The British aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal begins a week and a half of support to Allied forces in the Narvik area of Norway.
  • 1936 – The Second Italo-Abyssinian War ends in an Italian conquest of Ethiopia as Italian forces enter Addis Ababa. Facing no opposition, the Italian Royal Air Force (Regia Aeronautica) has played a decisive role in Italy’s victory in the eight-month war, but has engaged in a brutal campaign – In which Benito Mussolini’s sons Vittorio and Bruno and son-in-law Count Ciano voluntarily participate – of indiscriminate terror bombing and widespread use of mustard gas.
  • 1934 – Carina Massone Negrone establishes her first altitude record (5 544 m) with a Seaplane Class C.
  • 1931 – Death of Glen Kidston, record-breaking aviator and motor racing driver from Britain. His borrowed de Havilland Puss Moth broke up in mid-air while flying through a dust storm over the Drakensberg mountains (South Africa).
  • 1931 – Richard Waghorn lost control of his Hawker Horsley biplane bomber in high winds. He and his passenger parachuted from the aircraft but was seriously injured and died 2 days later.
  • 1930 – First solo flight from England to Australia by a woman begins with British Amy Johnson in her de Havilland D. H.60G Moth 'Jason'. She flies from Croydon, England to Darwin, Australia in 19 days.
  • 1928 – USN LT’s Arthur Gavin and Zeus Soucek, with a PN-12 seaplane, flew a total of 36 hours and 1 min, setting the world duration record for Class C seaplanes.
  • 1923 – Birth of Nikolai Vasilevich Sutyagin, Soviet WWII fighter pilot, Korean war fighter ace and high-ranking officer.
  • 1918 – Death of Giovanni Nicelli, Italian WWI flying ace, killed in action
  • 1913 – Birth of Robert William Prescott, American WWII flying ace, founder and president of Flying Tiger Line, pioneer of the air cargo industry.
  • 1904 – Birth of Squadron Leader Robert Kronfeld, AFC, Austrian-born gliding champion and sailplane designer. He became a British subject and an RAF test pilot.
  • 1887 – Birth of Charles Richard Fairey, British aircraft manufacturer, involved with the development of many of the companies most important products including; aircraft, rotorcraft, marine craft, mechanical engineering and rocketry.

References

  1. ^ "'IAF strike in Syria targeted arms from Iran'". Jerusalem Post. May 4, 2013.
  2. ^ Cohen, Gili (May 5, 2013). "'Israel overnight strike targeted Iranian missile shipment meant for Hezbollah'". Ha'aretz. Retrieved May 5, 2013.
  3. ^ Sly, Liz, and Suzan Haidamous, "Syrian Report: Israel Bombs Outskirts of Damascus For Second Time in Recent Days," washingtonpost.com, 5 May 2013, 10:00 a.m. EDT.
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