APRIL06
1820 - Birth of Gaspard-Felix Tournachon (aka Nadar), French photographer, caricaturist, journalist, novelist and balloonist who took the 1st aerial (balloon) photograph.
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nadar
1889 - Birth of Sheldon Harley Wheeler, early American miltary aviator.
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=16380816
1890 - Birth of Otto Jäger, Austro Hungarian WWI flying ace.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_J%C3%A4ger - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/austrhun/jager.php
1890 - Birth of Anthony Herman Gerald 'Anthony' Fokker, Dutch pioneer airman and aircraft manufacturer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Fokker
1892 - Birth of Noel Keeble, British WWI flying ace
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noel_Keeble - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/england/keeble.php
1892 - Birth of Donald Wills Douglas, Sr.,United States aircraft industrialist and founder of the Douglas Aircraft Company in 1921 (the company later merged into McDonnell Douglas Corporation).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Wills_Douglas,_Sr.
1893 - Birth of Robert B.C. Noorduyn, Dutch engineer, businessman, aircraft designer and manufacturer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_B.C._Noorduyn
1897 - Birth of James Fitz Morris, Scottish WWI fighter ace and instructor.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Fitz-Morris - http://theaerodrome.com/aces/scotland/morris.php
1899 - Birth of Robert Johnstone Owen, Welsh WWI flying ace who also served in WWII.
http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/wales/owen3.php
1903 - Birth of Ademaro Nicoletti Altimari, Italian parachute pioneer raid pilot and WWII pilot.
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ademaro_Nicoletti_Altimari
1907 - The Daily Mail newspaper sponsors the first model aircraft show at the Agricultural Hall in London. The first prize of £75 is won by Alliott Verdon Roe in a model aircraft 'fly-off' at Alexandra Palace.
1907 - Horatio Frederick Phillips, British early aviation pioneer and designer, flew 500 ft with his Multiplane, which had 200 individual airfoils and was powered by a 22 hp engine driving a 7 ft propeller, 1st successful powered flight in Britain, though he did not claim it as a flight as such.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horatio_Frederick_Phillips
1909 - 1st machine wholly designed by Anglo-French air pioneer Henry Farman takes to the air at Bouy, France. Called either the Henry Farman III or, because it represents a new departure, the HF1, the biplane is the 1st aircraft to incorporate practical ailerons attached to the trailing edges of the wings.
http://www.aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=7336 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farman_III
1910 - 1st flight of the Etrich Taube (rumpler Taube), pre-WWI monoplane aircraft, 1rst mass-produced military plane in Germany.
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etrich_Taube
1911 - Birth of Horia Agarici, Romanian WWII flying ace
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horia_Agarici - http://cieldegloire.com/012_agarici_h.php
1917 - Death of Hans Berr, German WWI flying ace, killed in a crash following a mid-air collision with one of his Jasta pilots.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Berr - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/germany/berr.php
1917 - German WWI flying ace Joachim von Bertrab, flying his purple Albatros D.III with its unique comet insignia, shot down 4 British aircraft in 3 hours (2 Martinsyde G.100 and 2 Sopwith 1½ Strutter)
http://theaerodrome.com/aces/germany/bertrab.php
1917 - German WWI fighter ace Wilhelm Frankl, flying his Albatros DIII shot down 3 F.E.2b and 1 B.E.2c on that single day.
http://theaerodrome.com/aces/germany/frankl.php
1917 - Death of Horace Leonard Short, Co-founder of the Short aircraft company
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_Brothers#The_early_years
1918 - Death of Sydney Philip Smith, British WWI flying ace, killed in his Sopwith Camel by Manfred von Richthofen in a Fokker DR.I.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Philip_Smith - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/england/smith10.php
1918 - Death of Wilfred Harry Sneath, British WWI flying ace, killed in his Sopwith Camel just after scoring his 5th victory (a Fokker DR.I) near Lens.
http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/england/sneath.php
1920 - Birth of John Randall Daniel 'Bob' Braham, British WWII fighter pilot and one of the most highly decorated airman of the RAF in WWII, top scoring RAF ace flying twin-engined fighters and was fifth among RAF fighter pilots in all theatres of war. He resigned postwar in the RCAF.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Randall_Daniel_Braham
1924 - Birth of William Ecker, US navy pilot, most famous for having led the 1st low-level reconnaissance flight over Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Ecker
1924 - 1st successful flight around the world officialy starts as 4 United States Army Air Service Douglas World Cruisers (nicknamed Seattle, Chicago, Boston, and New Orleans)leave from Seattle, Washington.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_aerial_circumnavigation#Douglas_World_Cruiser_circumnavigation
1926 - Varney Speed Lines begins operations in the US with a Swallow biplane. It will later become Continental Airlines
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varney_Speed_Lines
1926 - Death of Celestino Usuelli, Italian aviation pioneer and balloonist.
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celestino_Usuelli
1930 - The Wright XF3W 'Apache', American racing aircraft prototype, set the landplane altitude record of 43,166 ft (13,157 m) with United States Navy Lieutenant Apollo Soucek at controls.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_XF3W
1930 - Franck Hawks, in the Texaco Eaglet (custom-made 50-foot/15 m wingspan glider built by R.E. and Wallace Franklin) towed by a Waco ASO biplane, flown by J.D. "Duke" Jernigan Jr for proving the feasibility of long-distance glider-towing, lands in New York after 8 days and 44 hrs from San Diego.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Hawks#Gliding
1937 - Masaaki Iinuma, Japanese Navy aviator, takes off with his 'Kamikaze', a Mitsubishi Ki-15 Karigane aircraft for a flight to England.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamikaze_(1937_aircraft) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masaaki_Iinuma
1938 - 1st flight of The Bell P-39 Airacobra, one of the principal American fighter aircraft in service at the start of WWII. It was the 1st fighter in history with a tricycle undercarriage and the first to have the engine installed in the center fuselage, behind the pilot.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_P-39_Airacobra
1941 - 1st aircraft ejection seat, a compressed air unit, is fitted to the German Heinkel He280 jet fighter
1944 - Death of Cvitan Galic , Croatian WWII fighter ace, Killed at Zalužani airfield near Banja Luka when a bomb dropped by a Spitfifire hit his Morane-Saulnier M.S.406 he had just landed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cvitan_Gali%C4%87 - http://cieldegloire.com/011_galic_cvitan.php
1948 - 1st flight of Vickers VC.1 Viking 1B by Chief test pilot J 'Mutt' Summers, fitted with two Rolls-Royce Nene turbojet engines and upon this flight, became the world's first entirely jet-powered airliner (albeit only a prototype).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vickers_VC.1_Viking
1949 - 1st flight of the Morane-Saulnier MS-563, French low wing single seat monoplane tourer prototype.
http://www.aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=9960
1949 - 1st flight of The Nord 1401 Noroit, French reconnaissance and air-sea rescue flying-boat, only 2 built.
http://www.aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=9675
1949 - A Sikorsky S-51 completes a record helicopter flight of 3,750 miles from Elizabeth, New Jersey to Port Angeles, Washington.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Aviation/Historical_anniversaries/April_in_aviation/April_6
1950 - 1st flight of the Brochet MB-71, French high wing monoplane 2 seat tourer prototype
http://www.aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=9346
1957 - Olympic Airways is created by shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis, from the ashes of bankrupt hellenic state airline T.A.E. (Technical and Aeronautical Exploitations).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympic_Airways
1957 - Birth of Paolo Angelo Nespoli, Italian astronaut.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paolo_A._Nespoli
1958 - Capital Airlines Flight 67 Vickers 745D Viscount crashed on final approach to Freeland, Michigan, during a severe snowstorm killing all 47 on board.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_Airlines_Flight_67
1960 - The Short SC.1 (British fixed-wing vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft) makes its 1st transition from vertical to horizontal flight and back.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_SC.1
1962 - The RCAF retired the last Canso flying boat (162 Squadron) at Downsview, Ontario.
1965 - The BAC TSR.2 (Cold War strike and reconnaissance aircraft) is cancelled in favour of the General Dynamics F-111 for the Royal Air Force (which is not, in the end, bought either)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BAC_TSR.2
1965 - The Bell 533, American research helicopter built to explore the limits and conditions experienced by helicopter rotors at high airspeeds, became the 1st rotorcraft to reach 217 knots (250 mph, 402 km/h). In addition to the higher speeds, Bell test pilots were able to demonstrate that the additional thrust from the auxiliary engines allowed the compound helicopter to maintain sustained 2 g turns at 60-degree bank angles.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_533#Independent_testing
1965 - Launch of Intelsat I (nicknamed Early Bird for the proverb "The early bird catches the worm"), first (commercial) communications satellite to be placed in geosynchronous orbit.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelsat_I
1967 - TWA became one of the USA's 1st all-jet airlines with the retirement of their last Lockheed L-749A Constellation and L-1649 Starliner cargo aircraft. That morning throughout the TWA system, aircraft ground service personnel placed a booklet on every passenger seat titled "Props Are For Boats."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans_World_Airlines
1972 - Death of Francesco Aurelio Di Bella, WWII Italian pilot . He was the pilot to took the family of House of Savoy outside italy in exile.
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francesco_Aurelio_Di_Bella
1973 - Launch of Pioneer 11 (also known as Pioneer G),259-kilogram (569 lb) robotic space probe for studying the asteroid belt, the environment around Jupiter and Saturn, solar wind, cosmic rays, and eventually the far reaches of the solar system and heliosphere.[1] It was the first probe to encounter Saturn and the second to fly through the asteroid belt and by Jupiter. Due to power constraints and the vast distance of the probe, communication has been lost since November 30, 1995.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pioneer_11
1974 - Death of Sir Wilmot Hudson Fysh, Australian aviator and businessman, WWI flying ace, founder of the Australian airline company Qantas.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hudson_Fysh - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/australi/fysh.php
1984 - Launch of STS-41-C, 11th space shuttle mission and the 5th for Challenger.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-41-C
1992 - Death of Robert William Deiz, American WWII fighter pilot with the Tuskegee Airmen.
1994 - A surface-to-air missile struck one of the wings of the Dassault Falcon 50 carrying Juvénal Habyarimana (President of Rwanda) and Cyprien Ntaryamira (President of Burundi), before a second missile hit its tail on approach of Kigali International Airport. The plane erupted into flames in mid-air before crashing into the garden of the presidential palace, exploding on impact.The plane carried three French crew and nine passengers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Juv%C3%A9nal_Habyarimana_and_Cyprien_Ntaryamira
2000 - Death of Dennis Cambell, British naval aviator, rear admiral, inventor of the Angled Deck for air-craft carriers.
http://www.denniscambell.org.uk/
2009 – An Indonesian Air Force Fokker F-27 Friendship 400M crashed in Bandung, Indonesia killing all 24 occupants on board. The cause of the incident was said to be heavy rain. The plane reportedly crashed into a hangar during its landing procedure and killed all on board. The casualties include: 6 crew, an instructor and 17 special forces trainee personnel.
http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=20090406-0