APRIL21
1871 - Birth of Edson Fessenden Gallaudet, American pioneer in the field of aviation, 1st person to experiment with warped wings.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edson_Fessenden_Gallaudet
1879 - Birth of Oskar Erbslöh, german aviation pioneer.
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oskar_Erbsl%C3%B6h
1892 - Birth of Henry Neilson Wrigley, Australian pioneer aviator and theorist, WWI pilot and Senior commander in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Wrigley
1894 - Birth of Jacques Michael Swaab, American WWI flying ace later worked in the Hollywood film industry (technical advisor on "The Dawn Patrol").
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Swaab - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/usa/swaab.php
1897 - Birth of Charles Dawson Booker, British WWI fighter ace.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Dawson_Booker - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/england/booker.php
1914 – 1st news movie shot from the air is filmed by cameraman Bentfield Charles Hucks, Warwick Bioscope Chronicle Film, England. He flies down to within 400 ft. of the royal yacht with King George aboard, crossing the English Channel from Dover, England to Calais, France.
http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1914/1914%20-%200433.html
1918 – German fighter ace Manfred von Richthofen, known as "The Red Baron", is shot down and killed over Vaux-sur-Somme in France (by Canadian capt Roy Brown of 209 Squadron ... but a controversy about that exists).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manfred_von_Richthofen - http://net.lib.byu.edu/~rdh7/wwi/comment/richt.htm
1919 - Death of Jules Vedrines, French early aviator, on board of his Caudron C-23 at St Rambert d'Albon while inaugurating the Paris-Roma airline.
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jules_V%C3%A9drines
1928 - Birth of John "JE" Ernsting, senior British military commander and renowned researcher in the Altitude Division of the RAF Institute of Aviation Medicine, working on Partial-pressure suit assemblies.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Ernsting
1928 - Sir (George) Hubert Wilkins and his pilot Carl Ben Eielson complete the 1st ever crossing of the Arctic by airplane from Point Barrow, Alaska, to Spitsbergen in their Lockheed Vega.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubert_Wilkins - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Ben_Eielson
1929 - 1st midair collision involving a U.S. airliner : Maddux Air Lines Ford 5-AT-B Tri-motor was involved in a midair collision with a single-engine U.S. Army Boeing B-PW-9D pursuit biplane shortly after taking off from San Diego. All 5 from the trimotor and the fighter pilot were killed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maddux_Air_Lines#Accidents
1933 - 1st flight of the Potez 432, French three-seat single-engine high-wing monoplane light utility and sports aircraft.
http://www.aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=6898 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potez_43
1933 - 1st flight of USS Macon (ZRS-5) It was a rigid airship built and operated by the US Navy for scouting. She served as a "flying aircraft carrier", launching Curtiss F9C Sparrowhawk biplane fighters.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Macon_(ZRS-5)
1941 - Death of Cesare Barro, Italian WWII bomber pilot
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cesare_Barro
1943 - The 1st of 30 C-46 Commandos (an untried cargo transport whose performance was superior to the C-47's in cargo capacity and ceiling) arrived in India through the 'Hump' route.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hump
1944 - A Heinkel He-111 crashed shortly after takeoff in Salzburg at Ainring, killing German General of WWI and WWII Hans-Valentin Hube.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans-Valentin_Hube#World_War_II
1944 – Southeast door of blimp hangar at Naval Air Station Houma, Louisiana, goes inoperable, is chained open. A gust of wind carries three Goodyear ZNP-K airships, all of ZP-22, out into the night; K-56, BuNo 30178, travels 4.5 miles (7.2 km), crashes into trees, K-57, BuNo 30179, explodes and burns 4 miles (6.4 km) from the air station, K-62, BuNo 30184, fetches up against high-tension powerlines a quarter mile away, burns. K-56 is salvaged, sent to Goodyear at Akron, Ohio, repaired and returned to service.
1945 - Death of Yoshishige Hayashi, Japanese WWII flying ace, killed in action while intercepting B-29s
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/343_kokutai#Actions_de_guerre_et_faits_d.27armes_notoires
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_World_War_II_aces_from_Japan#H
1945 – Deutsche Luft Hansa Focke-Wulf Fw 200B-2, D-ASHH, "Hessen", hastily loaded with baggage of the Berlin Headquarters Staff, departs for Barcelona, Spain via Munich, piloted by Flugkapitän August Künstle, with five crew and 16 passengers. Condor reaches Munich safely, but never appears in Spain. Extensive inquiries in Germany, Switzerland and Spain turn up no clues to fate. In 1954, evidence finally is discovered that the overloaded transport crashed and burned with no survivors near Piesenkofen Kreis Mühlberg, Bavaria.
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_K%C3%BCnstle - http://www.dorf-binabiburg.de/articles.php?article_id=43
1945 - A single Canadian Sikorsky R-4 became the 1st helicopter to rescue a downed crew in the Arctic.
http://www.aviastar.org/helicopters_eng/sik_r-4.php
1946 - RCAF No. 168 (Heavy Transport) Squadron was disbanded at Rockcliffe. It had completed 636 trans-Atlantic flights between 15 Dec 1943 and 02 Mar 1946.
http://www.rcaf.com/Squadrons/squadronDetail.php?No.-168-Squadron-58
1949 - 1st flight of The Aubert PA-204 'Cigale Major', French 4 seat high-wing cantilever monoplane evolution of the PA-201
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aubert_Cigale#Aubert_PA-204_Cigale_Major
1949 - After being released overhead Blagnac, test pilot Jean Gonord lit up the engine of the Leduc 010 and established a climb using only the ramjet engine. It was the world's 1st aircraft to fly powered solely by a ramjet.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leduc_0.10 - http://aerostories.free.fr/constructeurs/leduc/page8.html
1950 - 1st flight of the SNCASO SO-1110 'Ariel' I, French light all-metal helicopter with an enclosed two-seat cabin, experimental tip-jet helicopter.
http://www.aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=9904
1950 - 1st flight of the English Electric Canberra B.2, 1st production version of the british jet-powered light bomber.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Electric_Canberra#Prototypes_and_first_flights
1951 - Birth of Aleksandr Ivanovich Laveykin, Soviet cosmonaut.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleksandr_Laveykin
1951 - 1st Flight of the Chase XCG-20 , 1st jet transport to fly in the United States and the 1st to fly with pod-mounted engines.
http://www.aviastar.org/air/usa/chase_xcg-20.php
1953 - 1st flight of the Kaman HOK-1 (HUK-1, H-43A "Huskie"),American helicopter, used for aircraft firefighting and rescue in the close vicinity of air bases, but was later utilized as a short range overland search and rescue aircraft during the Vietnam War.
http://www.aviastar.org/helicopters_eng/kaman_hok.php
1956 - 1st flight of the Douglas F5D Skylancer,development of the F4D Skyray jet fighter for the US Navy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_F5D_Skylancer
1958 - Death of Russell Lowell Maughan, American pioneer aviator, WWI fighter pilot, Raid pilot, record setter and WWII high ranking officer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell_Maughan
1958 - Mid-Air Collision near Las Vegas, NV between United Air Lines Flight 736, Douglas DC-7 (N6328C) / North American F-100F (56-3755)
http://www.lostflights.org/Commercial-Aviation/42158-United-Air-LinesUSAF-DC/5008004_3v4fz
1961 - 1st flight of the Mikoyan-Gurevich Ye-152, prototype single-seat fighter/interceptor , part of the Mikoyan-Gurevich Ye-150 family.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikoyan-Gurevich_Ye-152
1961 - USAF Major Robert Michael "Bob" White pilots the X-15A research airplane from Edwards Air Force Base in California on its 1st flight at full throttle, reaching a speed of 3,074 mph at an altitude of 79,000 feet, before climbing to 105,100 feet.
1962 - Birth of Sergei Viktorovich Zalyotin , Russian cosmonaut and a veteran of 2 space missions.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Zalyotin
1962 - Death of Sir Frederick Handley Page , English industrialist who was a pioneer in the design and manufacture of aircraft, founder of Handley Page Limited.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Handley_Page
1963 - Death of Arthur William 'Spud' Murphy, Australian engineer and aviator in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), raid pilot, WWI pilot and WWII high ranking officer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_William_Murphy
1964 – A Transit-5bn satellite fails to reach orbit after launch; as it re-enters the atmosphere, 2.1 pounds of radioactive plutonium in its SNAP RTG power source is widely dispersed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transit_(satellite)
1964 - 1st flight of the MBB HFB 320 Hansa - twin-jet executive transport/ feederliner
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamburger_Flugzeugbau_HFB-320_Hansa_Jet - http://www.hansajet.de/indexeng.htm
1967 - 1st flight of the Sud Aviation 'Caravelle' 11R, French short/medium-range jet airliner, evolution nof the serie with a cargo door to carry a mixed load of passengers and cargo.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sud_Aviation_Caravelle#Variants
1967 - 1st flight of The Rollason Beta, British midget racing monoplane.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rollason_Beta
1972 - Apollo 16, lands on the moon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_16
1975 - 1st flight of The Dominion Skytrader, American conventional high-wing, strut-braced monoplane with fixed tricycle undercarriage twin engined prototype STOL utility aircraft.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominion_Skytrader
1980 - No.2 prototype of Bell 301 / XV15 (American tiltrotor VTOL aircraft) reached 485km/h at 2530m.
http://www.aviastar.org/helicopters_eng/bell_xv-15.php
1993 - The F-15 HIDEC was landed using only engine power to turn, climb, and descend. Gordon Fullerton was the pilot on this milestone event, which was part of what became the Propulsion Controlled Aircraft project.
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/about/Dryden/90.html
1994 - 1st flight of the Bell Model 407 demonstrator, American four-blade, single-engine, civil utility helicopter, derivative of the Bell 206L-4 LongRanger.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_407
1997 - 1st flight of the 3rd Airbid A300 - 600St 'Beluga',version of the standard A300-600 wide-body airliner modified to carry aircraft parts and over-sized or awkward cargo.
http://www.aviastar.org/air/inter/airbus_belouga.php
1997 - A Pegasus-Xl Rocket 'Founders-Flight' is launched, carrying for the 1st time cremated remains of people, 1st space burial and deploying Minisat 01 , Spanish artificial satellite to study interstellar gas.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celestis - http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minisat
1998 - 1st flight of the Guilie CAP TR, French Single seat low wing monoplane aerobatic aircraft.
http://www.aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=9954
2002 - 1st flight of the Irkut A-002 - russian Three-seat autogyro.
http://www.aviastar.org/helicopters_eng/irkut.php
2006 - Death of John "Johnny" Milne Checketts, New Zealand WWII fighter ace, responsible for introducing the de Havilland Vampire to form the RNZAF's 1st jet squadron.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Checketts - http://www.cieldegloire.com/002_checketts_j_m.php
2007 - Soyuz TMA-9, Soyuz mission to the International Space Station (ISS), is back on earth.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_TMA-9
2007 - Lieutenant Commander Kevin 'Kojak' Davis crashed during the final minutes of a Blue Angels air show at the Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort in Beaufort, South Carolina
http://www.maritimequest.com/in_the_news_pages/2007_04_23_blue_angel_crash.htm - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Blue_Angels_South_Carolina_crash
2010 - 1st flight of the Camber Corporation Raytheon T-1A aircraft with the modification to support Combat Systems Officer (CSO) training.