AUG09

1884 - Built by Frenchmen Charles Renard and Arthur Krebs, the airship 'La France' powered by a 9 hp electric motor driving one large propeller, makes a fully-controlled circular flight while traveling about 5 miles at 14 mph, 1st full round trip flight.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_France_(airship) - http://rbmn.free.fr/Ballon_photos_19.html

1885 - Birth of Clément Guillaume Jean van Maasdijk, Dutch early aviator.

http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cl%C3%A9ment_van_Maasdijk

1888 - Birth of Eduard Ritter von Schleich, German WWI fighter ace, Airliner pilot, he was given control of the Hitler Youth flying programmes and promoted to general just before WWII.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduard_Ritter_von_Schleich - http://theaerodrome.com/aces/germany/schleich.php

1890 - Birth of Hans Rosencrantz, German WWI flying ace (as observer)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Rosencrantz - http://theaerodrome.com/aces/germany/rosencrantz.php

1892 - Birth of Norman MacMillan, Scottish WWI flying ace, test pilot and author who also served in WWII

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_MacMillan_(pilot) - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/scotland/macmillan.php

1896 - Otto Lilienthal's glider N°11 stalled. He fell from a height of 17 m (56 ft), breaking his spine. He will die the following day.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Lilienthal#Final_flight

1898 - Birth of Roman Schneider, German WWI flying ace.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Schneider - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/germany/schneider2.php

1909 - Birth of Alfredo De Luca, Italian aviator.

http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfredo_De_Luca

1910 - Birth of Paul Rudolf 'Rudy' Opitz, German Glider pilot, Luftwaffe Chief test pilot for the Me-110 and the Me-163

http://www.riverviewfh.com/obituary.php?w=1220

1912 - Birth of Edgar Duncan Goodenough Lewin, WWII British naval aviator who was involved in the Battle of the River Plate, attacks on the German battleship Tirpitz and aircraft carrier commander during the Korean War, managing director of Blackburn Aircraft Limited and later of Hawker Siddeley.

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

1916 - Birth of William Edwin "Ed" Dyess, USAAF WWII fighter pilot. Captured after the Allied loss at the Battle of Bataan, He endured the subsequent Bataan Death March before escaping from his POW camp. He provided the 1st widely published eye-witness account of the brutality of the Death March.

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

1918 - Italian poet and nationalist patriot Gabriele D'Annunzio, with 11 Ansaldo S.V.A. from his team, the 87ma squadriglia (squadron) called "La Serenissima", flew for over 1,200 km in a roundtrip from the squadron's military airfield near San Pelagio at Due Carrare near Padua to Vienna to drop some thousands of propaganda leaflets. This epic action is known as 'The Flight over Vienna'.

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

1918 - WWI flying aces American James Keating and british Observer/gunner Edward Simpson shot down 4 Fokker D.VII with their DH9 on that single day.

http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/usa/keating.php - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/england/simpson1.php

1919 - Birth of Nakakazu Ozaki, Japanese WWII fighter ace.

http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%B0%BE%E5%B4%8E%E4%B8%AD%E5%92%8C - http://www.cieldegloire.com/010_ozaki_n.php

1920 - Birth of Frank Kendall "Pete" Everest Jr., USAF WWII fighter, aeroengineer and test pilot.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Kendall_Everest,_Jr.

1924 - Birth of James Wayne Wood, USAF test pilot.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_W._Wood

1933 - Death of Chester Ellis Wright, American WWI flying ace

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chester_Wright - http://theaerodrome.com/aces/usa/wright1.php

http://freepages.military.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~sunnyann/93aero/1933wrightdeath-01.jpg

1934 - James Ayling and Leonard Reid made the 1st non-stop flight from Canada to England, in a de Havilland DH.84 'Trail of the Caribou', taking 30 hours 50 minutes for the flight.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Havilland_Dragon#Operational_service

1935 - 1st flight of the Tupolev ANT-46 (DI-8), Soviet twin engine two-seat heavy fighter prototype.

http://www.aviastar.org/air/russia/ant-46.php

1937 - Sir Hugo Cunliffe-Owen, chairman of British-American Tobacco, founded BAO at Eastleigh near Southampton

http://www.aviastar.org/air/england/cunliffe-owen_oa-1.php

1941 – Flying a Dornier Do 215B-5 night fighter, Luftwaffe Oberleutnant Ludwig Becker achieves Germany’s 1st aerial victory employing airborne radar, using a FuG 202 Lichtenstein B/C radar to detect and close with a British Vickers Wellington bomber participating in a raid on Hamburg, Germany, before shooting down the Wellington.

http://www.cieldegloire.com/001_becker_l.php

1944 - Death of Darrell Robins Lindsey, WWII USAAF bomber pilot and posthumous recipient of the Medal of Honor. Lindsey's B-26 was heavily damaged and both the right engine and wing set afire during the bombing run. Although knocked out of formation, Lindsey recovered his place and led the group over the target, then stabilized the aircraft so that his crew could parachute. According to the crew's bombardier, Lindsey severely lessened his own chance to escape to prevent the aircraft from spinning, which proved fatal when a fuel tank exploded just after the last crewman exitted the aircraft.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darrell_R._Lindsey

1945 - B-29 'Bockscar' drops a plutonium-239 nuclear weapon, 'Fat Man', on Nagasaki, second atomic weapon used against Japan.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bockscar - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fat_Man

1945 - Death of Robert Hampton "Hammy" Gray, Canadian naval officer, WWII pilot, last Canadian Victoria Cross recipient, while attacking the japanese destroyer Amakuza with his Corsair. The destroyer sank after Gray's bomb exploded the ammunition locker. Brief seconds later his burning aircraft rolled over, hit the water at high speed, and broke up.

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

1947 - 1st flight of The I.Ae. 27 Pulqui I, Argentinian jet fighter prototype.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FMA_I.Ae._27_Pulqui_I

1950 - 1st Flight of the Canadair CL-13 Sabre (Canadian manufactured F-86 Sabre jet), Alexander John 'Al' Lilly becoming the 1st canadian to break the sound Barrier.

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

1952 - Lt Peter Carmichael of No. 802 Squadron FAA aboard HMS Ocean claims the Fleet Air Arm's 1st MiG-15 kill, from a Hawker Sea Fury, only recorded victory of a British piston-engined aircraft over a jet fighter.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Carmichael#MiG_kill

1956 - 1st flight of The Fiat G.91, Italian light jet strike-fighter, winner of the NATO competition in 1953 as standard equipment for Allied air forces.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_G.91

1958 - Central African Airways Vickers Viscount crashed on approach 9 kilometers southeast of Benina International Airport in Libya, killing 36 over 54.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1958_Central_African_Airways_plane_crash

1961 - Cunard Eagle Airways Vickers 610 Viking 3B crashed 18 nautical miles north-east of the airport on to Holteheia Norway, a steep mountainside at an elevation of 1600 feet, 30 feet below the summit, killing all 39 on board, mainly a school class of boys aged 13 to 16 and two masters.

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

1965 - 1st flight of the Vintras-Bouillier VB-20 'Isard', French twin seat low wing monoplane tourer homebuilt aircraft.

http://aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=9474

1968 - British Eagle Flight 802 Vickers Viscount 739A crashed in West Germany on the Munich—Nuremberg highway near Langenbrück in a slightly nose-down attitude. The aircraft broke up upon impact killing all 48 occupants.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Eagle#Accidents_and_incidents

1970 - LANSA Flight 502 Lockheed L-188A Electra operated by Líneas Aéreas Nacionales Sociedad Anónima crashed shortly after takeoff, killing 99 of the 100 people on board, plus two people on the ground

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LANSA_Flight_502

1971 - Birth of Roman Yurievich Romanenko, Russian Air force pilot and cosmonaut.

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

1973 - Launch of Mars 7, unmanned soviet spacecraft to explore Mars.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_6#Mars_7

1974 - UN Flight 51, a Canadian Forces De Havilland Canada DHC-5 Buffalo (Buffalo 461) operating for the United Nations is shot down over Syria by missile with the loss of five crew and four passengers

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_461

1976 - 1st flight of The Boeing YC-14, American twin-engine short take-off and landing (STOL) tactical transport prototype. It was Boeing's entrant into the United States Air Force's Advanced Medium STOL Transport (AMST) competition, which aimed to replace the Lockheed C-130 Hercules as the USAF's standard STOL tactical transport

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_YC-14

1976 - Launch of Luna 24 (lunik 24), Soviet unmanned space probe to the moon.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_24

1977 - Death of George Churchill Kenney, WWI pilot and USAAF general during WWII, who was commander of the Allied air forces in the Southwest Pacific Area (SWPA) from August 1942 until 1945.

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

1980 - Death of Jacqueline Cochran, pioneer American aviator, considered to be one of the most gifted racing pilots of her generation. She was an important contributor to the formation of the wartime Women's Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC) and Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP)

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

1990 - Soyuz TM-9, 9th expedition to the Russian Space Station Mir, is back on earth.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_TM-9

1991 - Death of Jan Gerthofer, Slovak WWII fighter ace who served on the Eastern front with the Axis Forces until The Slovak National Uprising (armed insurrection organized by the Slovak resistance movement during WWII), Airliner pilot post WWII.

http://en.valka.cz/viewtopic.php/title/Gerthofer-Jan/p/315139

1995 - Aviateca Flight 901 Boeing 737-200, on an IFR flight plan, collided with the side of the San Vicente (Chichontepec) volcano, 15 miles northeast of San Salvador International Airport killing all on board.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aviateca_Flight_901

1996 - Death of Air Commodore Sir Frank Whittle, British Royal Air Force (RAF) engineer officer. He is credited with independently inventing the turbojet engine and is hailed by some as the father of jet propulsion.

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

1998 - Death of Alvin Roubal Luedecke, USAAF general during WWII. He commanded the Armed Forces Special Weapons Project after the war.

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

2003 - The Spirit of Butts Farm (also known as TAM 5) , model aircraft, takes off to cross the Atlantic Ocean from Cape Spear near St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador.

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

2005 - Space Shuttle Discorery (STS-114) returns on Earth.

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

2006 - 1st flight of The BAE Systems Skylynx II, British unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) developed to support US Marine Corps Tier II regiment-level reconnaissance, surveillance and target acquisition missions.

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

2006 - Death of James Alfred Van Allen, American space scientist.

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

2007 - Air Moorea Flight 1121 de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter crashed shortly after taking off from Temae Airport on Moorea island killing all 20 on board

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Moorea_Flight_1121

2010 - Launch of Yaogan 10, Chinese remote sensing satellite.

http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/masterCatalog.do?sc=2010-038

2011 - Avis Amur Antonov An-12BP crashed northeast of Magadan after an engine fire was reported en route, killing all 11 on board.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Avis_Amur_Antonov_An-12_crash