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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 craft 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. 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 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

British Airways Boeing 747-400 taking off at Heathrow Airport in October 2007
British Airways Boeing 747-400 taking off at Heathrow Airport in October 2007
British Airways is the flag carrier airline of the United Kingdom and its largest airline based on fleet size, international flights and international destinations. When measured by passengers carried it is second-largest, behind easyJet. The airline is based in Waterside near its main hub at London Heathrow Airport. A British Airways Board was established by the United Kingdom government in 1972 to manage the two nationalised airline corporations, British Overseas Airways Corporation and British European Airways, and two smaller, regional airlines, Cambrian Airways, from Cardiff, and Northeast Airlines, from Newcastle upon Tyne. On 31 March 1974, all four companies were merged to form British Airways. After almost 13 years as a state company, British Airways was privatised in February 1987 as part of a wider privatisation plan by the Conservative government. The carrier soon expanded with the acquisition of British Caledonian in 1987, Dan-Air in 1992 and British Midland International in 2012. British Airways is a founding member of the Oneworld airline alliance, along with American Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Qantas, and the now defunct Canadian Airlines. The alliance has since grown to become the third-largest, after SkyTeam and Star Alliance. British Airways merged with Iberia on 21 January 2011, formally creating the International Airlines Group (IAG), the world's third-largest airline group in terms of annual revenue and the second-largest in Europe. (Full article...)

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Did you know

...that Alejandro Maclean, Spanish television producer and Red Bull Air Race World Series pilot, is nicknamed "The Flying Matador"? ...that Wing Commander Stanley Goble and Flying Officer Ivor McIntyre, piloting a single-engined seaplane (pictured), became the first men to circumnavigate Australia by air in 1924? ... that Arthur Hartley developed the Fog Investigation and Dispersal Operation which is credited with safely landing 2,500 aircraft during World War Two?

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
Read and edit Wikinews

Associated Wikimedia

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

Selected biography

AIR VICE-MARSHAL GEORGE JONES
Air Marshal Sir George Jones KBE, CB, DFC (18 October 1896 – 24 August 1992) was a senior commander in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). He rose from being a private soldier in World War I to Air Marshal in 1948. He served as Chief of the Air Staff from 1942 to 1952, the longest continuous tenure of any RAAF chief. Jones was a surprise appointee to the Air Force’s top role, and his achievements in the position were coloured by a divisive relationship during World War II with his head of operations and nominal subordinate, Air Vice Marshal William Bostock.

Jones first saw action as an infantryman in the Gallipoli campaign of 1915, before transferring to the Australian Flying Corps the following year. Initially an air mechanic, he undertook flying training in 1917 and was posted to a fighter squadron in France, achieving seven victories to become an ace. After a short spell in civilian life following World War I, he joined the newly-formed RAAF in 1921, rising steadily through training and personnel commands prior to World War II.

He did not actively seek the position of Chief of the Air Staff before being appointed in 1942, and his conflict with Bostock—with whom he had been friends for 20 years—was partly the result of a divided command structure, which neither man had any direct role in shaping. After World War II Jones had overall responsibility for transforming what was then the world's fourth largest air force into a peacetime service that was also able to meet overseas commitments in Malaya and Korea. Following his retirement from the RAAF he continued to serve in the aircraft industry and later ran unsuccessfully for political office.

Selected Aircraft

An A400M flying
An A400M flying

The Airbus A400M Atlas is a four-engine turboprop aircraft, designed by Airbus Military (now Airbus Defence and Space) to meet the demand of European nations for military airlift. Since its formal launch, the aircraft has also been ordered by Malaysia, Kazakhstan and Indonesia.

The A400M is assembled at the Seville plant of Airbus Military. The first test flight occurred in December 2009.

  • Span: 42.4 m (139 ft 1 in)
  • Length: 45.1 m (148 ft)
  • Height: 14.7 m (48 ft 3 in)
  • Engines: 4 EPI TP400-D6 (8,250 kW power)
  • Cruising Speed: 780 km/h (480 mph, 420 knots)
  • First Flight: 11 December 2009
  • Number built: 119 as of 31 August 2023
More selected aircraft Read more...

Today in Aviation

November 15

  • 2012 – Israeli aircraft strike 70 underground rocket-launching sites in the Gaza Strip in 60 minutes.[1]
  • 2009 – Introduction: Mil Mi-28 (Mi-28 N)
  • 2008 –An OH-58 Kiowa Warrior strikes a tower near Mosul, killing the two pilots.[2][3]
  • 2007 – China Southern Airlines officially joins the SkyTeam alliance on November 15. Because of this, SkyTeam is the first airline alliance with a mainland china carrier. It is also a major push into the global network for mainland China.
  • 2005 – Boeing formally launches the stretched Boeing 747-8 variant with orders from Cargolux and Nippon Cargo Airlines.
  • 2003 – Two UH-60L Black Hawks from 4–101st Aviation Regiment(93-26531) and 9–101st Aviation Regiment(94-26548) collide and crash after one aircraft coming under fire; 6 and 11 soldiers (crew and passengers) on board are killed, respectively, and 5 others on board the first AC are injured in Mosul.[4][5]
  • 2003 – Two United States Army Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters collide near Mosul, Iraq. Twenty-two soldiers were on both aircraft and 17 were killed.
  • 2000 – A chartered Antonov AN-24 crashes after takeoff from Luanda, Angola, killing more than 40 people.
  • 1999 – The U. S. Postal Service unveils the new 33-cent “Jumbo Jet” postage stamp honoring the Boeing 747.
  • 1992 – An Aerocaribbean Ilyushin IL-18 flying from Santo Domingo to Puerto Plata in Dominican Republic, crashes into a mountain, killing all 34 occupants.
  • 1990 – Launch: Space Shuttle Atlantis STS-126 at 18:48:13 EST. Mission highlights: Seventh classified DoD mission. Likely SDS2-2 deployed.
  • 1987 – Continental Airlines Flight 1713, a McDonnell Douglas DC-9, crashes on take-off during a snowstorm at Denver's Stapleton International Airport, killing 25 passengers and 3 crew.
  • 1985 – A United States Navy turboprop Convair C-131H Samaritan, BuNo 542817, of VR-48, Naval Air Facility, Washington, D.C., crashes shortly after take-off from Napier Field, Dothan, Alabama, killing two pilots of the Navy's Fleet Logistic Support Squadron, Andrews AFB, Maryland, and a flight engineer, also of Andrews AFB.
  • 1979 – American Airlines Flight 444 was a Boeing 727 flying from Chicago to Washington DC, which was attacked by the Unabomber. The bomb planted in the cargo hold failed to detonate, but gave off large quantities of smoke, and twelve passengers had to be treated afterwards for smoke inhalation. It was later determined that the bomb was powerful enough to have destroyed the aircraft had it worked correctly.
  • 1978 – Icelandic Airlines Flight LL 001, a Douglas DC-8 on a charter flight, crashes into a coconut plantation while on approach to Katunayake, Sri Lanka for a refueling stop; 183 out of 262 people on board are killed.
  • 1972 – Ansett Airlines Flight 232 was an attempted hijacking of a Fokker Friendship bound for Alice Springs from Adelaide on Wednesday, 15 November 1972. It was the first aircraft hijacking in Australia. The would-be hijacker died in the incident.
  • 1971 – A U.S. Navy Grumman A-6A Intruder, BuNo. 151563, of VA-42, on a maintenance test flight out of NAS Oceana, Virginia, suffers failure of the drogue chute gun in the pilot's ejection seat, pulling the two ejection seat cables and ejecting Lt. Dalton C. Wright. The bombardier-navigator, Lt. John W. Adair, with no pilot in the aircraft, is forced to eject. Jet comes down 15 miles from Oceana. The Navy investigation later determines that five or six flight accidents and one hangar accident may have been caused by the same problem. One source cites date of 15 October 1971.
  • 1970 – US Navy Grumman S-2 Tracker crashes at Fort Dix, New Jersey killing four. Wreckage found on 16 November in wooded area off Range Road. Killed were pilot Navy Lt. J.G. James K. Larson, 24, of Milltown, New Jersey, co-pilot 1st Lt. (USMC) Carleton C. Perine, 25, of Orange, New Jersey, and passengers Navy Airman Apprentice Robert Suttle, 20, of Bricktown, New Jersey, and Navy Airman Apprentice Gary B. Warner, 19, of Central Bridge, New York.
  • 1968 – The last official maintenance test flight of the RCAF sabre at the STU, Chatham.
  • 1967 – On the 191st flight of the North American X-15 program out of Edwards AFB, California, the third X-15 of three, S/N 56-6672, suffers problems during reentry from the 266,000-foot altitude, 3,750 mph mission. Airframe has massive structural failure, killing pilot Michael J. Adams, the only fatality in X-15s.
  • 1966 – Pan Am Flight 708, a Boeing 727, crashes near Berlin, Germany; all three crew members are killed.
  • 1965 – A Boeing 707 makes the first polar circumnavigation of the world.
  • 1964 – Bonanza Air Lines Flight 114, a Fairchild F27, slams into a mountain in poor weather while on a nighttime approach to Las Vegas, Nevada; all 29 aboard perish when the plane crashes only 10 feet (3 m) below a ridge; initially blamed on a pilot's misreading his approach chart, years later the chart maker agrees to pay a settlement of US$490,000 to some of the victims' heirs after it is shown the chart had incorrect markings.
  • 1957 – In the 1957 Aquila Airways Solent crash, a flying boat crashes near Chessell, Isle of Wight, UK, due to engine failure, killing 45 out of the 58 on board.
  • 1957 – First flight of the Tupolev Tu-114
  • 1957 – USAF Boeing TB-29-75-BW Superfortress, 44-70039, c/n 10871, of the 5040th Radar Evaluation Flight, 5040th Consolidation Maintenance Group, Elmendorf AFB, Alaska, crashed 39 miles (63 km) SE of Talkeetna, Alaska at ~1822 hrs. Mission departed Elmendorf on a ground radar calibration mission at 0954 under instrument flight rules on flight path to the Aircraft Control and Warning radar stations at Campion near Galena and then Murphy Dome, N of Fairbanks. Flight covered 1,800 nmi (3,300 km). with ~ten hours in the air. Superfortress had fourteen hours' fuel and a crew of eight plus an instructor pilot. On final leg of approach to Elmendorf, bomber came down on glacier now known as "Bomber Glacier", three crew with major injuries and one with a minor injury later upgraded to major, others KWF. Due to remoteness of crashsite, wreckage is still there.
  • 1956 – A Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) Douglas DC-7 C sets a new distance record for commercial airlines by flying 6,005 miles nonstop from Los Angeles to Stockholm, Sweden, following the Great Arctic Circle route.
  • 1954 – No. 433 Squadron was reformed at Cold Lake, Alberta and equipped with Avro Canada CF-100 fighters
  • 1952 – A United States Air Force Fairchild C-119C-23-FA Flying Boxcar, 51-2570, c/n 10528, disappears on a flight from Elmendorf AFB to Kodiak Naval Air Station with 20 on board.
  • 1945 – First flight of the PZL S-1.
  • 1943 – First of three prototypes of the Curtiss XP-55 Ascender, 42-78845, on test flight out of Lambert Field, St. Louis, Missouri, crashes when pilot is unable to recover from a stall, engine then quits, Curtiss test pilot J. Harvey Gray divorces airframe after 16,000-foot (4,900 m) plummet, landing safely, fighter impacts inverted in an open field.
  • 1942 – The German submarine U-155 torpedoes and sinks the British aircraft carrier HMS Avenger off Gibraltar with the loss of all but 12 of her crew.
  • 1941 – No. 418 (Intruder) Squadron was formed in England.
  • 1941 – (November 15-December 5) The Luftwaffe carries out 41 raids on Moscow. Soviet air defenses claim an average of 30 to 40 German aircraft shot down per day during the attacks.
  • 1937 – Squadrons of the NPAAF were renumbered by adding 100 to their number, e. g. No. 10 Squadron became No. 110 Squadron.
  • 1936 – (15-17) The German Condor Legion sees its first action of the Spanish Civil War, supporting Nationalist forces fighting to take Madrid.
  • 1932 – On first flight of United States Navy Hall XP2H-1 four-engine flying boat, BuNo A-8729, it noses straight up on take-off due to incorrectly rigged stabilizer, test pilot Bill McAvoy and aircraft's designer Charles Ward Hall, Sr., manage to chop throttles, plane settles back, suffering only minor damage. Incident occurred at NAS Anacostia, Washington, D.C.. This sole prototype was the largest four-engine biplane the U.S. Navy ever procured, with a wingspan of 112 feet.
  • 1929 – The McDonnell Doodlebug makes its first flight. The Doodlebug was a two-seat, low-wing monoplane and was the first airplane James McDonnell both designed and built.
  • 1926 – T. Neville Stack and B. S. Leete leave England in an attempt to reach India by air in a de Havilland DH.60. They will arrive in Karachi on January 8 1927.
  • 1919 – Alameda officials make an announcement stating that suspected criminals will be subjected to perilous flight to make them confess their crimes.
  • 1916 – The Model C two-place training seaplane, the first “all-Boeing” designed aircraft, makes its first flight.
  • 1906 – Curtis LeMay, U. S. Air Force general, is born (d. 1990). Lemay took over a B-17 Flying Fortress unit in England in October 1942, as part of the Eighth Air Force and led it in combat until May 1943, notably helping to develop the combat box formation. He was a general in the United States Air Force and the vice presidential running mate of independent candidate George C. Wallace 1968.

References

  1. ^ Brulliard, Karin, "Attacks Intensify Along Gaza Border," The Washington Post, November 16, 2012, Page A1.
  2. ^ "US military in Iraq says helicopter down". International Herald Tribune. 2005-11-15. Retrieved 2005-11-15.
  3. ^ Ernesto Londoño (2008-08-05). "2 U.S. Copters Crash in Iraq; 1 Iraqi Is Killed". Washington Post. Retrieved 2010-02-17.
  4. ^ "US helicopters crash over N Iraq". BBC News. 2003-11-16. Retrieved 2010-04-17. Seventeen coalition soldiers have been killed and five wounded in a mid-air collision between two US helicopters.
  5. ^ "US probes Iraq helicopter crash". BBC News. 2003-11-16. Retrieved 2010-04-18. The US army in Iraq is examining the wreckage of two Black Hawk helicopters which crashed in the northern city of Mosul, killing at least 17 soldiers.
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