APRIL13
1869 - Birth of Alfred Leblanc, pioneer French aviator.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Leblanc
1888 - Birth of John Hays Hammond Jr., American inventor known as "The Father of Radio Control" .
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hays_Hammond,_Jr.
1890 - Birth of Victor Carlstrom, early swedish-American aviation pioneer.
http://earlyaviators.com/ecarlstr.htm
1891 - Birth of Leopold Anslinger, German WWI flying ace and airliner pilot.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leopold_Anslinger - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/germany/anslinger.php
1892 - Birth of Willy Kahle, German WWI flying ace
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willy_Kahle - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/germany/kahle.php
1892 – Birth of Arthur Travers 'Bomber' Harris, British WWI flying ace, Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief (AOC-in-C) of RAF Bomber Command (from early 1943 holding the rank of Air Chief Marshal) during the latter half WWII.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Travers_Harris - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/england/harris.php
1892 - Birth of Sir Robert Alexander Watson-Watt, Scottish Electrical Engineer considered by many to be the "inventor of radar".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Watson-Watt
1893 - Birth of Alfred Seymour Shepherd, Australian WWI flying ace
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Shepherd - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/australi/shepherd.php
1894 - Birth of Hermann Vallendor, German WWI flying ace
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Vallendor - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/germany/vallendor.php
1896 - Birth of Eric Douglas Cummings, Australian WWI flying ace, Aerobatic and demonstrator pilot, he also served in WWII
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Douglas_Cummings - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/australi/cummings1.php
1896 - Birth of Ira Clarence Eaker, general of the USAF during WWII and also a raid pilot.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ira_Eaker
1897 – Birth of Werner Voss, German WWI Ace, friend and rival of the famous Red Baron, Manfred von Richthofen.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werner_Voss - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/germany/voss.php
1897 - Birth of Clement Wattson Payton, British WWI flying ace
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clement_W._Payton - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/england/payton.php
1899 - Birth of Boleslaw Orlinski, Polish aviator, military, sports, test pilot and WWII pilot.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boles%C5%82aw_Orli%C5%84ski
1904 - Birth of Elwood Richard "Pete" Quesada, USAF General, FAA administrator and also a raid pilot.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elwood_Quesada
1912 - The Royal Flying Corps (RFC) , over-land air arm of the British military during most of WWI, is formed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Flying_Corps
1913 - The 'compagnie des aviateurs", belgian initial air force, is formed.
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Composante_air
1913 - Birth of James Howell 'Jim' Howard, American WWII fighter ace, businessman, author, and airport director.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_H._Howard - http://cieldegloire.com/014_howard_j_h.php
1915 - Argentinian Angel María Zuloaga reaches 6920 m in the balloon 'Newbery Eduardo' with Aeronaut Edward Bradley
http://para-pilotos.com/Historia-Aviacion-Militar/Angel-Maria-Zuloaga/
1917 - Death of Lancelot Lytton Richardson, Australian WWI flying ace, Killed in his F.E.2b.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancelot_Richardson - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/australi/richardson2.php
1917 - Geram WWI fighter ace Kurt Wolff scored 4 victories on that single day.
http://theaerodrome.com/aces/germany/wolff2.php
1917 - In an effort to counter German submarines in transit to and from their hunting ground in the shipping channels surrounding the United Kingdom, the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) institutes the 'Spider Web' patrol system centred upon the North Hinder Light Vessel.
1918 - 1st pilot to fly over the Andes is Argentinian Luis Candelaria with a Morane Saulnier type L « Parasol ».
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teniente_Luis_Candelaria_International_Airport
1919 - The Vickers Vimy Commercial, a civilian version of the bomber with an enclosed fuselage capable of holding a maximum of ten passengers, makes its maiden flight in Kent, England.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vickers_Vimy
1920 - 1st flight of The Nieuport London, British twin-engined triplane night bomber aircraft prototype.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nieuport_London
1922 - Death of Ross Macpherson "Hadji" Smith, Australian aviator, WWI flying ace, who, along with his brother, Keith Macpherson Smith, became the 1st pilots to fly from England to Australia, Killed while testing a Vickers Viking amphibian aircraft which crashed in Byfleet soon after taking off from Brooklands
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ross_Macpherson_Smith - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/australi/smith9.php
1923 - 1st flight of the SPAD S-62, Twin seat biplane trainer prototype, evolution os the SPAD S-42.
http://www.aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=119
1925 - The 1st regular U.S. air-freight service is initiated by Henry Ford, linking Detroit and Chicago.
1928 - 1st successful Trans-Atlantic aircraft flight from East to West. The Junker W 33 D-1167 'Bremen' flew from Baldonnel near Dublin in Ireland to Greenly Island off Labrador in 37 hrs. With about two hours of fuel remaining, and only a global knowledge of their location, the crew spotted a lighthouse on an island; then a pack of dogs; then four people. It was Greenly Island in the Strait of Belle Isle. The strait separates Newfoundland from Labrador and Quebec on the mainland.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bremen_(aircraft)
1931 - 1st flight of Boeing Model 215 (prototype of the Boeing YB-9, 1st all-metal monoplane bomber), carrying civil markings and the aircraft registration X-10633.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_YB-9
1932 - 1st flight of the Hawker Fury 1, Intermediate Fury, private-venture prototype of the British biplane fighter.
http://www.aviastar.org/air/england/hawker_fury.php
1935 - QANTAS and Imperial Airways provide regular connecting flights between Brisbane, Australia, and London
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Aviation/Historical_anniversaries/April_in_aviation
1937 - Frank Hawks flies his Hawks Miller HM-1, American Racer Aircraft prototype 'Time Flies', from Hartford, Connecticut to Miami, Florida, in 4 hours and 55 minutes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Hawks#Designing_his_own_aircraft
1938 - Death of Brunetto di Montegnacco, Spanish war italian fighter ace, most successful Italian pilot during the Spanish Civil War, killed colliding with another aircraft while practicing aerobatics over Ronchi dei Legionari.
http://surfcity.kund.dalnet.se/italy_montegnacco.htm
1938 - Ground was broken at Malton Airport, Toronto for the Aircraft Division of the National Steel Car Corp. The plant later became Victory Aircraft Ltd and Avro Aircraft Ltd.
1940 - RAF Bomber Command mounts the 1st Royal Air Force minelaying operation of WWII. 15 Handley Page Hampdens are despatched and of this force, fourteen lay sea mines off Denmark and one aircraft is lost.
1942 - Death of Lazar Sergeyevich Chapchakhov, Soviet flying ace of the Finnish-Soviet Winter War and WWII, killed in action in his Polikarpov I-153.
http://www.cieldegloire.com/015_chapchakhov_l_s.php - http://surfcity.kund.dalnet.se/soviet_chapchakhov.htm
1944 - While stunting over the 4th FG's airfield at Debden for a group of assembled press reporters and movie cameras, USAF fighter ace Dominic Salvatore "Don" Gentile crashed his personal P-51, named "Shangri La". Immediately grounded as a result, he is sent back to the US for a tour selling war bonds.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominic_Salvatore_Gentile
1945 - The US Navy puts its 1st radar-guided bomb into use, the SWOD-9 "Bat", dropped from Consolidated PB4Ys on Japanese shipping in Balikpapan Harbour.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Aviation/Historical_anniversaries/April_in_aviation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bat_(guided_bomb)
1947 - 1st flight of the Adam RA-15 'Major', French 2 seat high wing sporting plane, higher-powered successor to the Adam RA-14 Loisirs.
http://www.aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=10067
1949 - Birth of Jean-Jacques Favier, French engineer and a former CNES astronaut who flew aboard the STS-78 NASA Space Shuttle mission.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Jacques_Favier
1949 - 1st flight of the SNCASO SO-M2, French single seat experimental twin-jet fighter, 1/2 scaled design of the SO.4000.
http://www.aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=9360
1952 - Death of André Marcel Desoutter, British aviator, aircraft designer, who also helped to develop Gatwick and Gravesend aerodromes as airports. With his brother Charles, he formed the Desoutter Brothers Limited to manufacture artificial legs.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcel_Desoutter
1960 - The Curtiss Wright X-100,(prototype for a new, vertical take-off transport aircraft) makes his 1st transition from hover to forward flight.
http://www.aviastar.org/helicopters_eng/curtiss_x-100.php
1960 – The United States launches Transit 1-B, the world's 1st satellite navigation system.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transit_(satellite)
1960 - The UK terminates ballistic missile research, preferring to simply purchase the US-developed Skybolt missile.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Aviation/Historical_anniversaries/April_in_aviation
1962 - U.S. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Del W. Nordberg set a new rate-of-climb record when his F4H-1 Phantom II ascended from a standing start at Point Mugu to 98,425 feet in 371.43 seconds.
http://www.history.navy.mil/avh-1910/PART09.PDF
1966 - A Royal Iraqi Air Force de Havilland DH.104 Dove 1 crashed killing President of Iraq Abdul Salam Arif.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdul_Salam_Arif#President_of_Iraq
1970 – An oxygen tank aboard Apollo 13 explodes, putting the crew in great danger and causing major damage to the spacecraft while en route to the Moon.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_13
1974 - Launch of Westar 1, America's 1st domestic and commercially-launched geostationary communications satellite, launched by Western Union and NASA.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westar_1
1975 - Death of William James Arthur "Art" Duncan, Canadian WWI flying ace, Hockey player and coach post WWI.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Duncan - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/canada/duncan2.php
1976 - Death of Kazimierz Kubala, Polish WWI aviator, Polish Soviet war pilot and raid pilot.
http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kazimierz_Kubala
1984 - STS-41-C, Nasa Space sguttle Challenger mission, is back on earth.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-41-C
1988 - Death of Patrick de Gayardon, French skydiver, skysurfer and a base jumper, in Hawaii during a skydive with Adrian Nicholas using the wing-suit while testing a modification to his parachute container; his death is attributed to a rigging error he made while making the modification.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_de_Gayardon
1989 - The 1st flight-tests of the Pratt & Whitney/Allison 578-DX propfan engine are carried out in the U.S. on a McDonnell Douglas MD-80.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Aviation/Historical_anniversaries/April_in_aviation/April_13
1990 - 1st flight of The Sukhoi Su-34 (NATO reporting name: Fullback), advanced Russian 2-seat fighter-bomber
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sukhoi_Su-34
1996 - Death of Charles Alfred 'Chief' Anderson, known as 'the father of Black Aviation', 1st African American to earn a transport, or commercial, pilot's license, raid pilot and instructor for the Tuskegee airmen in WWII.
http://www.lwfaah.net/people/anderson.htm - http://www.blackwingsonline.com/tribute.html
2010 - Merpati Nusantara Airlines Flight 836 Boeing 737-322 overran the runway on landing at Rendani Airport, Manokwari, Indonesia. The aircraft broke into three pieces. All people on board survived, although 44 suffered injuries.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merpati_Nusantara_Airlines_Flight_836