APRIL09

1828 - Birth of Samuel Archer King, ballooning pioneer in the United States.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Archer_King

1888 - Birth of Byron Quinby Jones, American pionneer aviator, 1st army pilot to stall and loop an aircraft without crashing

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byron_Q._Jones

1893 - Birth of Clive Beverley Glynn, British WWI flying ace

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clive_Glynn - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/england/glynn.php

1898 - Birth of Wilfred Barrat Green, British WWI flying ace

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilfred_Green_(aviator) - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/england/green4.php

1899 - Birth of Hans Jeschonnek, German WWI fighter pilot, Generaloberst and a Chief of the General Staff of Nazi Germany's Luftwaffe during WWII.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Jeschonnek

1899 - Birth of Lawrence Percival Coombes, British WWI fighter ace and aero engineer

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Coombes - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/england/coombes.php

1899 - Birth of James Smith "Mac" McDonnell, American aviation pioneer and founder of McDonnell Aircraft Corporation, later McDonnell Douglas.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Smith_McDonnell

1899 - Birth of Harry Neville Compton, Canadian WWI flying ace

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Compton - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/canada/compton.php

1903 - Birth of Stanislaw Wigura, Polish aircraft designer and aviator, co-founder of the RWD aircraft construction team.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanis%C5%82aw_Wigura

1911 - The Avro Type D, british biplane, becomes the 1st seaplane to take off from British sea water.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avro_Type_D#Floatplane_development

1914 - 1st naval/air skirmishes, an important turning point in naval and aviation history. A Constitutionalist Glenn L. Martin Company biplane flown by Captain Camina dropped bombs on two Huertista gunboats off the coast of western Mexico during the Mexican Revolution.; they all missed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_of_9_April_1914

1915 - 1st meeting of the Australian Aero Club is held at the Café Francais in Melbourne.

http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/1509465 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Victorian_Aero_Club

1917 - Death of Robert Martinet, Early French Aviator, in a flying accident at Micra airfield on Salonica Front

http://earlyaviators.com/emartrob.htm

1917 - British WWI fighter ace Alan Machin Wilkinson, scored 4 victories with his Bristol F.2a on that single day.

http://theaerodrome.com/aces/england/wilkinson.php

1920 - 1st flight of the Potez VIII, French two-seat tourer/ elementary trainer .

http://www.aviastar.org/air/france/potez-8.php - http://www.aviafrance.com/potez-viii-aviation-france-9630.htm

1924 - Birth of Milburn G. "Mel" Apt, US test pilot, 1st man to exceed Mach 3

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milburn_G._Apt

1928 - Birth of Iris Wittig, 1st military woman pilot of GDR.

http://home.snafu.de/veith/iris.htm

1929 - The French airline Air Union starts to operate a nightly service from Paris to London.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Aviation/Historical_anniversaries/April_in_aviation/April_9

1931 - Charles William Anderson Scott lands his DH.60 Moth in Darwin in Australia , breaking the England–Australia solo flight record, coming from Lympne.

http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/research/history-of-aviation-timeline/interactive-aviation-timeline/british-civil-aviation/1931.aspx

1937 - Masaaki Iinuma, Japanese Navy aviator, lands his 'Kamikaze', a Mitsubishi Ki-15 Karigane aircraft, in Croydon after a 51 hours, 19 minutes and 23 seconds flight (average speed: 162,8 km/h or 101 miles/h) from Tokyo, 1st Japanese-built aircraft to fly from Japan to Europe

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamikaze_(1937_aircraft) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masaaki_Iinuma

1939 - Eugène Przysiecki takes off with a RWD-13, Polish touring three-seater high-wing monoplane, from Warsaw, Poland, bringing it as a gift of the governement for the Iranian king in Teheran.

http://rwd-dwl.net/pracownicy/przysiecki/index.htm

1942 – World War II: The Japanese Navy launches an air raid on Trincomalee in Ceylon (Sri Lanka); Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Hermes (1st aircraft carrier ever to be sunk by aircraft) and Royal Australian Navy Destroyer HMAS Vampire are sunk off the island's east coast.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Hermes_(95)

1944 - Death of Evgeniya Maksimovna Rudneva, Soviet military air navigator. She perished valiantly while flying her 645th night combat mission on the old and slow Polikarpov Po-2, shot down by Flak along with her pilot Panna Prokofyeva.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evgeniya_Rudneva

1945 - During a general RAF bombing raid on the dockyard by over 300 aircraft, German pocket battleship Admiral Scheer was struck, and capsized at her berth.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_pocket_battleship_Admiral_Scheer

1945 – The United Kingdom transfers the escort aircraft carrier HMS Biter to France, which immediately commissions her into the French Navy as Dixmude. Dixmude is France’s 1st aircraft carrier since the demilitarization of Béarn in 1942.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Biter_(D97)

1947 - 1st flight of the Avro 688 Tudor IV, British piston-engined airliner based on the 4-engine Lincoln bomber, lengthened Evolution of the Tudor Series

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avro_Tudor#Tudor_IV

1949 - 2nd prototype of the SNCAC NC 211 'Cormoran', french large four-engined aircraft for passengers and cargo, makes it's 1st flight.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SNCAC_NC_211

1950 - Birth of Kenneth Dale "Taco" Cockrell, American astronaut and a veteran of five space shuttle missions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Cockrell

1953 - 1st official flight of the Convair F2Y Sea Dart, unique American seaplane fighter aircraft that rode on twin hydro-skis for takeoff. It only flew as a prototype, and never entered production, but it is still the only seaplane to exceed the speed of sound.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convair_F2Y_Sea_Dart

1957 - 1st flight of The Let L-200 Morava, two-engine touring and light passenger aircraft , designed and produced in Czechoslovakia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let_L-200_Morava

1958 - Two-man crew of a Canberra bomber which explodes over Derbyshire make the highest recorded, emergency escape from an aircraft at 17,070 metres (56,000 feet)

http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/research/history-of-aviation-timeline/interactive-aviation-timeline/british-military-aviation/1958.aspx

1959 – Project Mercury: NASA announces the selection of the United States' 1st seven astronauts, whom the news media quickly dub the "Mercury Seven".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Mercury

1960 - The giant Tupolev Tu-114 Rossiya (turboprop powered long-range airliner) sets a new world speed record for propeller-driven airplanes of 545.07 mph. It was carrying a 55,116-pound payload at the time and flew around an official 3,107-mile closed circuit in the USSR.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupolev_Tu-114

1963 - Birth of Timothy Lennart Kopra, colonel in the United States Army and NASA astronaut.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Kopra

1964 - 1st flight of The de Havilland Canada DHC-5 Buffalo, short takeoff and landing (STOL) utility transport, a turboprop aircraft developed from the earlier piston-powered DHC-4 Caribou.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Havilland_Canada_DHC-5_Buffalo

1964 - Official retirement of the RCAF Lancaster at Downsview, Ontario.

http://canadianaviationhistory.pbworks.com/w/page/13801114/On-this-day-in-Canadian-Aviation-History-April

1966 - Death of Herbert Victor Rowley, British WWI flying ace, who remained in the RAF postwar, rising to the position of Air Commodore during WWII

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Rowley - http://theaerodrome.com/aces/england/rowley.php

1967 - 1st flight of The Boeing 737, short- to medium-range, twin-engine narrow-body jet airliner.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_737

1968 - 1st launch of a Rocket (Veronique, French sounding rocket) from Kuru, French Guyana.

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fus%C3%A9e_V%C3%A9ronique

1969 - 1st U.K.-assembled supersonic transport, Concorde 002, makes a successful 1st flight from Filton to RAF Fairford in England.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concorde

1974 - Death of James Geoffrey Coombe, British WWI flying ace

http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/england/coombe.php

1976 - Birth of Serena Maria Auñón, American physician, engineer, and NASA astronaut.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serena_M._Au%C3%B1%C3%B3n

1980 - Launch of Soyuz 35, Soviet manned space flight to the Salyut 6 space station

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_35

1983 - Death of Robert H. McIntosh 'All-Weather Mac', British aviator, WWII fighter pilot, Test pilot which flying career spanned 54 years between 1917 and 1971.

http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/research/history-of-aviation-timeline/interactive-aviation-timeline/british-civil-aviation/1983.aspx

1983 - Challenger (STS-6 NASA Space Shuttle mission) lands at Edwards AFB.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-6

1994 - Launch of STS-59, Space Shuttle Endeavour mission

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-59

1997 - Production Lockheed F-22 Raptor model (single-seat, twin-engine fifth-generation supermaneuverable fighter aircraft that uses stealth technology) is unveiled at Lockheed Georgia Co., Marietta, Georgia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_Martin_F-22_Raptor

2008 - Oasis Hong Kong Airlines, long-haul low-cost airline based in Hong Kong, Cease operations.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oasis_Hong_Kong_Airlines