APRIL29
1890 - Birth of Hans Kummetz, German WWI flying ace.
http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/germany/kummetz.php
1890 - Birth of John Edwardes Pugh, Canadian WWI flying ace
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Pugh_(aviator) - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/canada/pugh.php
1891 - 1st model airplane flight in Japan : Chuhachi Ninomiya flies a rubber-band-powered monoplane with a four-bladed pusher propeller and three-wheeled landing gear. It makes flights of 3 and 10 m (10 and 33 feet).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C5%ABhachi_Ninomiya#Idea_for_flying
1893 - Birth of Gordon Percy Olley, British WWI flying ace who later formed his own airline, Olley Air Services. 1st pilot to fly a million miles in total
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Olley - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/england/olley.php
1893 - Birth of Solomon Clifford Joseph, British WWI flying ace
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solomon_Clifford_Joseph - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/england/joseph.php
1894 - Birth of Alfred Williams "Nick" Carter, Canadian WWI fighter ace.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Williams_Carter - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/canada/carter2.php
1896 - Birth of Maurice Hurel, French engineer and aircraft designer, famous for his studies on lengthened wings.
http://www.wikimanche.fr/Maurice_Hurel
1897 - Birth of Walter Alfred Southey, British WWI fighter ace
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Southey - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/england/southey.php
1905 - Daniel Maloney is launched by balloon in a tandem-wing glider designed by John Montgomery to an altitude of 4,000 feet before release and gliding and then landing at a predetermined location as part of a large public demonstration of aerial flight at Santa Clara, California.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Aviation/Historical_anniversaries/April_in_aviation/April_29
1913 - Birth of Chandler Cole 'Chan' Ross, American engineer. Director of numerous advanced projects at Aerojet (including Aerotojet, Aerorocket, NERVA).
http://www.astronautix.com/astros/rosschan.htm
1917 - German WWI fighter ace Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen scored 4 victories on that single day with his Albatros D.III (1 SPAD VII, 1 F.E.2d, 1 B.E.2e and 1 Sopwith triplane)
http://theaerodrome.com/aces/germany/richthofen2.php
1917 - Birth of Eric James Brindley Nicolson, British WWII fighter pilot, only Battle of Britain pilot and the only pilot of RAF Fighter Command to be awarded the Victoria Cross.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Brindley_Nicolson
1918 - Captain Edward Vernon Rickenbacker downed his 1st enemy plane, an Albatros Scout.
http://www.firstflight.org/shrine/edward_rickenbacker.php
1918 - 1st flight of the Westland Wagtail, British single-engined tractor biplane fighter prototype.
http://www.aviastar.org/air/england/west_wagtail.php
1930 - 1st Flight of Polikarpov I-5, single-seat biplane which became the primary Soviet fighter between its introduction in 1931 through 1936, after which it became the standard advanced trainer
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polikarpov_I-5
1931 - 1st flight of the Boeing YB-9, 1st all-metal monoplane bomber aircraft designed for the US Army Air Corps.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_YB-9
1932 - Birth of Dmitri Alekseyevich Zayikin, Soviet fighter pilot, Cosmonaut, instructor and lead engineer at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonauts Training Center.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dmitri_Zaikin
1932 - The Heinkel He 64a (the only He 64 with the characteristic Heinkel ellipsoid- shaped wing) crashed, killing its Pilot, Oskar Notz.
http://he64.com/?menu=3&site=europefly_europefly1932&lang=en-us
1933 - The Reichsluftfahrtministerium ("Reich Aviation Ministry") is formed by the Nazi government.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichsluftfahrtministerium
1933 - 1st flight of the Latécoère 550, French four-engined mounted on the wings in tandem, tractor-pusher pairs. bomber/torpedo bomber high-wing monoplane seaplane prototype.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lat%C3%A9co%C3%A8re_550 - http://www.aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=931
1933 - 1st flight of the Caudron C.344 'Phalène Junior', French High win monoplane single seat single engine tourer prototype.
http://www.aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=9961
1934 - 1st flight of the Wico Wizard, Single-seat single engined low-wing sport aircraft built by Australian Aircraft Co.
http://dbdesignbureau.buckmasterfamily.id.au/aus_aircraft.htm
1936 - The sole Caudron C.712, french racer prototype, is destroyed during an attempt to break a speed record. French Raymond Delmotte, Caudron test pilot, succesfully bailed out. The estimated speed reached was 620/630 Kmh.
http://www.aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=5608
1938 - In the largest air battle of the Second Sino-Japanese War to date, 18 Mitsubishi G3M bombers and approximately 30 Mitsubishi A5M fighters encounter 60 to 80 Soviet-built Nationalist Chinese fighters over Hankow. The Japanese claim the destruction of 51 Chinese fighters and admit losing two fighters and two bombers, while the Chinese admit the loss of 12 aircraft and claim to have shot down anywhere from 21 Japanese aircraft to as many as 45.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Aviation/Historical_anniversaries/April_in_aviation/April_29
1938 - 2 Heinkel He 116, German 4 engine long-range mail plane purchased by Manchurian Air Transport, lands in Tokyo after a 54 hours 17 minutes flight (15,251 km /9,477 mi) from Berlin.
http://www.aviastar.org/air/germany/he-116.php
1938 - The sole Caudron C.712 is destroyed during an airspeed record attempt.
http://cnum.cnam.fr/CGI/fpage.cgi?4KY28.134/105/100/439/0/0 - http://www.aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=5608
1939 - 2nd prototype TSKB-30 (Ilyushin DB-3, long-range bomber ,twin-engined metal low-wing monoplane) 'Moskwa' takes off from Moscow, flown by Vladimir Konstantinovich Kokkinaki and Mikhail Gordienko in an attempt to reach New-york using the great circle route, ends in crash-landing on Miscou Island off New Brunswick, Canada, after battling head winds and bad weather, as well as bitter cold, having achieved 4,970 miles in 22 hours, 56 minutes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Kokkinaki#Records
1940 - Birth of Jürgen Schumann, German military pilot and commercial pilot.
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%BCrgen_Schumann
1940 - The Fl 265 V1 D-EFLV, German Helicopter, was removed from service.
http://www.aviastar.org/helicopters_eng/flettner_kolibri.php
1941 - Charles Lindbergh resigns his commission as a Colonel in the reserves.
http://www.charleslindbergh.com/history/paris.asp
1942 - Death of Harold Huston 'pursuit' George, American WWI flying ace, Senior WWII USAAF officer, Killed when a Curtiss P-40 of the 49th Fighter Group lost directional control on take off and struck the parked Lockheed C-40 in which he had just arrived at Batchelor Field, southeast of Darwin, Australia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_H._George - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/usa/george.php
1945 - Operation Manna begins : 11,000 tons of food will be dropped into the still-unliberated western part of the Netherlands, with the acquiescence of the occupying German forces, to help feed civilians who were in danger of starvation in the Dutch famine
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operations_Manna_and_Chowhound
1948 - Leonardo Bonzi and Maner Lualdi set a light plane distance record of 4,170 km (2,591 miles) flying from Campoformido (Italy) to Massawa (Eritrea )in an Ambrosini S.1001
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambrosini_S.1001
1951 - American Airlines introduced DC-6B on its US transcontinental services
http://www.aviastar.org/air/usa/douglas_dc-6.php?p=1
1952 - Air France Douglas DC-4 (registration F-BELI) operating a German internal service from Frankfurt Rhein-Main Airport to Berlin Tempelhof Airport came under attack from two Soviet MiG 15 fighters while passing through one of the Allied air corridors over East Germany.. Although the attack had severely damaged the aircraft, necessitating the shutdown of engines three and four, the pilot landed it safely at West Berlin's Tempelhof Airport.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_France_accidents_and_incidents
1953 - Birth of Nikolai Mikhailovich Budarin, Russian Cosmonaut.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Budarin
1953 - Death of Walter Richard Brookins, 1st pilot trained by the Wright brothers for their exhibition team and Wrights' 1st pilot instructor.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Richard_Brookins
1954 - 1st flight of the Boisavia B-605 'Mercurey', French 2-seat high-wing braced monoplane with fixed tailwheel undercarriage light aircraft prototype, evolution of the B-60.
http://www.aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=9701
1955 - The XV-1 (experimental compound helicopter, designated as a convertiplan) made its 1st transition from vertical to horizontal flight.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_XV-1
1959 - 1st flight of The Dornier Do 28 Skyservant prototype, german twin-engine STOL utility aircraft.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dornier_Do_28
1959 - Death of Harold Blackburn, British aviation pioneer, aircraft designer, test pilot, WWI pilot in Egypt, 1st pilot to carry newspapers for commercial sale by air 1st to pilot a scheduled airline service in Great Britain.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Blackburn_(pioneer_aviator)
1961 - 1st flight of the Potez 840, French 4-engined 18-passenger executive monoplane, last aircraft to use the Potez name.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potez_840 - http://www.aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=5001
1964 - Vickers VC10 was introduced to regular passenger service between London and Lagos.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vickers_VC10
1964 - Robert Rushworth flies the X-15 at 3,905 mph (6,284 km/h) at a height of 19.2 miles (30.9 km).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_X-15#Fastest_flights
1965 - 1st flight of the Bell Model 208, American two-bladed, twin-engined, medium helicopter, experimental development of the 205 which will lead to the Model 212.
http://www.aviastar.org/helicopters_eng/bell_212.php
1965 - A YCH-54A (Sikorsky CH-54 Tarhe) sets a world record by carrying a pod with 90 passengers.
http://www.aviastar.org/helicopters_eng/sik_s-64.php
1966 - 1st flight of the Neiva N621 Universal, Brazilian propeller-driven basic trainer and ground attack aircraft manufactured by Indústria Aeronáutica Neiva
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neiva_Universal
1971 - 1st Flight of the Piper PA-48 Enforcer,turboprop powered light close air support/ground-attack aircraft built by Piper Aircraft Corp. Lakeland, Florida. It was the ultimate development of the original WWII North American P-51 Mustang.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piper_PA-48_Enforcer
1972 - McDonnell F-4 SFCS (USA) is the 1st to fly with a computer integrated "fly by wire" control system (Survivability Flight Control System).
1975 - Launch of Operation Frequent Wind, evacuation by helicopter of American civilians and 'at-risk' Vietnamese from Saigon, South Vietnam, during the last days of the Vietnam War. More than 7,000 people were evacuated from various points in Saigon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Frequent_Wind
1977 - British Aerospace plc (BAe), UK aircraft, munitions and defence-systems manufacturer is formed by the merger of British Aircraft Corporation, Hawker Siddeley Aviation, Hawker Siddeley Dynamics and Scottish Aviation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Aerospace
1981 - 1st flight of The Myasishchev VM-T Atlant 'Bison', variant of Myasishchev's M-4 Molot bomber (the "3M-T") Soviet strategic-airlift airplane modified to carry rocket boosters and the Soviet space shuttles of the Buran program.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myasishchev_VM-T
1985 - Launch of STS-51-B, 17th flight of a Space Shuttle and the 7th flight of Challenger.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-51-B
1988 - 1st flight of the Boeing 747-400, American jet airliner
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_747-400
1990 - STS-31, Space shuttle mission Discovery, is back on earth.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-31
1991 - 1st Flight of Cessna CitationJet/CJ series (Model 525) , American business jet.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cessna_CitationJet
1999 - 1st flight of the Sukhoi Su-33KUB Navy Flanker, russian shipboard development of the Su-27 family.
http://www.aviastar.org/air/russia/su-33.php
2006 - Death of Alvin Swauger White, American test pilot, engineer, and USAF astronaut, Chief test pilot for the XB-70.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alvin_S._White
2009 - Bako Air Boeing 737-275 TL-ADM crashes near Massamba, Democratic Republic of the Congo, killing all seven crew. The aircraft is destroyed
http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=20090429-0&lang=en
2010 - A stripped-down AS350 B3 helicopter succeeded in rescuing three alpinists from Annapurna at 7,100 m, one at a time, the highest such rescue ever.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurocopter_AS350
2013 - 1st (powered) Flight of the Scaled Composites Model 339 SpaceShipTwo (SS2), American suborbital, air-launched spaceplane designed for space tourism.