APRIL10
1837 - The earliest known aeronautical experiment in Canada is conducted by Canadian schoolteacher John Rae. He successfully launches a paper balloon able to carry weight. Its lift is provided by the heating of its blackened surface by the sun.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Aviation/Historical_anniversaries/April_in_aviation/April_10
1892 - Birth of Paul Constant Homo, French WWI flying ace
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Homo - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/france/homo.php
1894 - Birth of Alwin Thurm, German WWI flying ace
http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/germany/thurm.php
1895 - Birth of Thomas Alfred Oliver, British WWI flying ace
http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/england/oliver.php
1897 - Birth of William Hodgkinson, British WWI flying ace
http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/england/hodgkinson.php
1909 - 1st flight of the Fernandez No.1, early spanish biplane, Single engined driving 2 propellers.
http://flyingmachines.ru/Site2/Crafts/Craft29278.htm - http://aviation.maisons-champagne.com/dir.php?centre=03-bio-fernandez&menu=07
1910 - 1st flight of the Clément-Bayard No.2, French military airship.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cl%C3%A9ment-Bayard_No.2
1913 - Birth of Yoshi-o Fukui, Sino-Japanese war and WWII japanese flying ace.
http://surfcity.kund.dalnet.se/japan_fukui.htm - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoshio_Fukui
1917 - Elmer "Archie" Fowler Stone became the Coast Guard's 1st aviator upon graduating from flight training at Pensacola
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elmer_Fowler_Stone
1918 - Death of Walter Göttsch, German WWI fighter ace, killed in action in his Fokker Dr.I triplane.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_G%C3%B6ttsch - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/germany/gottsch.php
1923 - Daimler Airways begins the 1st scheduled service between London and Berlin (via Bremen and Hamburg).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Aviation/Historical_anniversaries/April_in_aviation/April_10
1930 - Dame Mary Russell, Duchess of Bedford, with her personal pilot C.D.Barnard and mechanic Robert Little, takes off for a record-breaking flight from Lympne Airport to Cape Town, in the single-engined Fokker F.VII "Spider".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Russell,_Duchess_of_Bedford
1933 - Francesco Agello sets a new speed record (over water) with a Macchi M.C. 72, experimental seaplane designed and built by the Italian aircraft company Macchi Aeronautica.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macchi_M.C.72
1933 - 1st flight of the Airspeed AS.5 Courier, British six seat single-engined light aircraft that saw some use as an airliner.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airspeed_Courier
1940 - 16 Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm Blackburn Skua dive bombers sink the German light cruiser Königsberg at Bergen, Norway. It is the first time in history that dive bombers sink a major warship.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackburn_Skua#Operational_history - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_cruiser_K%C3%B6nigsberg
1941 - 1st flight of The Nakajima G5N Shinzan ("Mountain Recess"), four-engined long-range heavy bomber designed and built for the Imperial Japanese Navy prior to World War II. The Navy designation was "Experimental 13-Shi Attack Bomber"; the Allied code name was "Liz"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nakajima_G5N
1942 - RCAF No. 132 (Fighter) Squadron was formed at Tofino, BC.
1944 - Death of Carlo Faggioni, Italian WWII most decorated Bomber pilot.
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlo_Faggioni
1945 - The Luftwaffe flies it's final sortie over England (with an Arado Ar 234 on a reconnaissance mission)
http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/research/history-of-aviation-timeline/interactive-aviation-timeline/british-military-aviation/1945.aspx
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arado_Ar_234
1945 - Death of Walther Wever, German Luftwaffe WWII flying ace
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walther_Wever_(pilot) - http://cieldegloire.com/001_wever_w.php
1949 - 1st flight of the Armstrong Whitworth AW.55 Apollo, British airliner, (serial VX220) at Baginton.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armstrong_Whitworth_Apollo
1950 - Only Prototype single-seat carrier-based fighter aircraft SNCAC NC.1080 crashed during an air test flown by Pierre Gallay. The plane crashed for unknown reasons and further development was immediately halted.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SNCAC_NC_1080
1958 - 1st successful transition from vertical to horizontal and back to vertical flight of the Fairey Rotodyne, British compound gyroplane designed and built for commercial and military applications.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairey_Rotodyne#Testing_and_evaluation
1959 - 1St flight of the Northrop T-38 Talon, American twin-engine supersonic jet trainer, 2 seats version.
http://www.aviastar.org/air/usa/northrop_f-5.php
1963 - 1st flight of The EWR VJ 101, experimental German jet fighter VTOL tiltjet aircraft.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EWR_VJ_101
1964 - Death of Eino Luukkanen, Finnish fighter ace in World War II. Luukkanen scored 56 confirmed victories, becoming Finland's 3rd highest ranking ace. He flew the Fokker D-21, Brewster B-239 Buffalo, and Bf 109G.
http://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eino_Luukkanen - http://cieldegloire.com/000_luukkanen_eino.php
1967 – Gates Rubber Company acquires a controlling interest in Lear Jet Industries.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learjet#History
1972 - RCAF LCol Roy Windover awarded the Louis Bleriot medal by the FAI for reaching an altitude of 30,800 ft in a glider.
1973 - Invicta International Airways Flight 435, Vickers Vanguard 952, flying from Bristol Lulsgate to Basle-Mulhouse, ploughed into a snowy, forested hillside near Hochwald, Switzerland.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invicta_Airlines_Flight_435
1976 - Air France opens its 2nd supersonic service, from Paris to Caracas, Venezuela; the Concorde takes six hours, including a stop at the Azores.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concorde
1976 - Death of Gerald Ewart Nash, Canadian WWI flying ace and high ranking officer in WWII
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Ewart_Nash - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/canada/nash1.php
1979 - Launch of Soyuz 33, Soviet manned space flight to the Salyut 6 space station.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_33
1979 - 1st flight of The Westland 30, British medium helicopter based on the Westland Lynx.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westland_30
1981 - 1st flight of The Aermacchi S-211, italian jet-powered military trainer aircraft.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aermacchi_S-211
1982 - 1st flight of The Bombardier Challenger 601, evolution of the canadian business jet.
http://www.aviastar.org/air/canada/bombardier_challenger-604.php
1994 - Westland Helicopters is acquired by GKN.
1996 - 1st flight of the Dassault 'Falcon' 50EX, French 3 engined business jet aircraft, evolution of the Falcon 50.
http://www.dassault-aviation.com/fr/passion/avions/dassault-civils/falcon-50.html
http://www.aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=10013
2003 - Air France and British Airways simultaneously announce that they would retire Concorde due to the crash of Air France Flight 4590 (July 25 2000), registration F-BTSC, in Gonesse.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concorde
2006 – A Kenyan Airforce Harbin Yunshuji Y-12-II crashes into a hillside on approaching an airstrip near Marsabit, Eastern Province, Kenya, killing 14 over 17.
http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=20060410-0
2008 - Soyuz TMA-12 docks with Pirs, module of the International Space Station (ISS)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_TMA-12
2010 – Polish Air Force Tu-154M crashes near Smolensk, Russia, killing all 96 people on board including President Lech Kaczynski.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Polish_Air_Force_Tu-154_crash
2011 - Death of Violet "Vi" Cowden, American aviator who served as a member of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) during WWII, she one of only 114 WASP to fly the fighter planes during the war, including the P-47 Thunderbolt, P-39 AiraCobra, P-63 Kingcobra, and her favorite and the "love of her life," the P-51 Mustang.