AUG18

1805 - 1st woman solo flight with a balloon, French Sophie Blanchard lift off from the garden of the Cloister of the Jacobins in Toulouse.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophie_Blanchard#Early_life_and_career

1823 - Death of André-Jacques Garnerin, French balloonist and inventor of the frameless parachute.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9-Jacques_Garnerin

1870 - Birth of Waldino Correa, Argentinian early aviator, one of the pillars in the birth of Argentine aviation.

http://earlyaviators.com/ecorreae.htm

1871 - Charles-Alphonse Pénaud achieves the 1st flight of an inherently stable airplane when his Planophore is flown 131 feet in 11 seconds before the Société de Navigation Aérienne in the Tuileries Gardens, Paris.

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alphonse_P%C3%A9naud#Le_Planophore

1893 - Birth of Frank Linke-Crawford, Austro Hungarian WWI 4th ranking fighter ace.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Linke-Crawford - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/austrhun/linke-crawford.php

1894 - Birth of William Carpenter 'Bill' Lambert, American WWI fighter ace (probably the second-ranking American ace of WWI) Engineer, and civilian pilot who also served in WWII.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_C._Lambert - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/usa/lambert.php

1894 - Birth of Reed McKinley Chambers, American WWI flying ace who founded Florida Airways, which received the 1st private air mail contract awarded by the U.S. Government. He also gounded the US Aircraft Insurance Group, US 1st aviation insurance company.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reed_Chambers - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/usa/chambers2.php

1896 - Birth of François Eugene Marie Antoine de Boigne, French WWI flying ace

http://theaerodrome.com/aces/france/de_boigne.php

1897 - Birth of Oliver Campbell Bryson, British WWI flying ace, one of the British aviators ordered to Russia in 1919 to support the White Army in its counter-revolution against the Bolsheviks. He served in the RAF until 1943.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Bryson - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/england/bryson.php

1903 - Karl Jatho makes a flight with his self-made motored gliding airplane, 4 months before the 1st flight of the Wright Brothers, in front of 4 people. His craft flies up to 200 feet (60 m) up to to 10 ft (3 m) high above the ground in a powered heavier-than-air craft.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Jatho - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_flying_machines#20th_century - http://www.karl-jatho.com/html/we_were_the_first.html

1911 - 1st flight of the Royal Aircraft Factory F.E.2 (1911 version) with Geoffrey de Havilland at controls.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Aircraft_Factory_F.E.2#F.E.2_.281911_version.29

1911 - Death of Theodore J. Ridge, Assistant Superintendent at the Army Balloon Factory and who just earned his pilot certificate the day before, killed in the crash of the sole Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.1, (Santos Experimental), British experimental aircraft built at the Army Balloon Factory

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Aircraft_Factory_S.E.1

1911 - Henry Harley "Hap" Arnold sets an altiture record of 4,167 feet (1,270 m)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_H._Arnold#Military_aviation_pioneer

1916 - Birth of Kaneyoshi "Kinsuke" Muto, 2d Sino-Japanese War and WWII japanese Fighter ace.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaneyoshi_%22Kinsuke%22_Muto - http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%AD%A6%E8%97%A4%E9%87%91%E7%BE%A9

http://www.cieldegloire.com/010_muto_k.php

1916 - Death of Marcel-Georges Brindejonc des Moulinais, French Pioneer aviator, raid pilot and WWI fighter pilot, killed by mistake by 2 other French Nieuports.

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

1918 - British WWI flying ace John Carbery Preston scores 5 victories on a single mission with his Sopwith Camel (2 S.S. D.III and 3 Albatros D.V)

http://theaerodrome.com/aces/england/preston.php

1919 - Death of Umberto Calvello, Italian WWI flying ace

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umberto_Calvello - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/italy/calvello.php

1921 - Birth of Lydia Litvak, Soviet fighter pilot, one of the world's only two female fighter aces.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lydia_Litvak - http://cieldegloire.com/015_litvyak_l_v.php

1922 - HAWA H 1 'Vampyr', claimed to be the model for all modern sailplanes, sets a world record flying 1 hour 6 minutes on a distance of 8.9 km.

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/HAWA_Vampyr

1922 - The sole Bellanger-Denhaut, french glider prototype, crashed during a meeting at Combegrasse, France.

http://www.aviafrance.com/bellanger-denhaut-aviation-france-10265.htm

1924 - 1st flight of the Blériot-SPAD S.81/3, modified prototype version with a frontal radiator of the S.81, French biplane fighter aircraft.

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bl%C3%A9riot-SPAD_S.81#Versions

1926 - A Blériot Bl-155, French 4 engine biplane airliner, F-AIEB Operated by Air Union crashed due to engine failure in bad weather at Hurst, Kent, killing 3 over 15.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_1926_Air_Union_Bl%C3%A9riot_155_crash

1928 - Death of Flavio Torello Baracchini, Italian WWI fighter ace.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flavio_Baracchini - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/italy/baracchini.php

1930 - Wolfgang von Gronau and crew takes off with a Dornier Wal D-1422 for the 1st east to west crossing of the Atlantic from Germany to New York.

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfgang_von_Gronau#Vorgeschichte

1930 - Eddie August Henry Schneider aged 19, flying a Scarab powered Cessna sets a new Est to West junior transcontinental record of 29 hours and 55 minutes in 4 days from Westfield, New Jersey to Los Angeles, California

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcontinental_air_speed_record#Junior_transcontinental_air_speed_record

1932 - James Allan ("Jim") Mollison takes off to perform an East-to-West solo trans-Atlantic in a Havilland Puss Moth flight from Portmarnock, Dublin, Ireland to Pennfield, New Brunswick, Canada

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Mollison#Aviation_career

1932 - Auguste Piccard and Max Cosyns set a new balloon altitude record of 16,201 m (53,153 ft).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auguste_Piccard - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Cosyns

1933 - 1st Soviet Air Fleet Day is held at Tushino airfield, northwest part of Moscow, Russia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_air_show#Soviet_Air_Fleet_Day

1933 - 1st Soviet liquid-fueled rocket, Gird-09, is launched.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_space_program#Prewar_efforts

1933 - 1st flight of the Loire 601, French 4 seat parasol wing single engine flying boat prototype.

http://aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=10038

1934 - 1st flight of the SPCA 82, French single-engined high-wing cantilever monoplane prototype with a fixed tailskid landing gear specifically for police duties, Issued from the SPCA 81.

http://aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=4572

1935 - 1st flight of the Heston Type 1 Phoenix, British single-engined five-seat high wing light transport monoplane.

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

1938 - 1st flight of the Bloch MB-151, French low-wing, all-metal monoplane fighter aircraft with retractable landing gear and enclosed cockpit issued from the MB-150.

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloch_MB.150_%C3%A0_MB.157#Un_appareil_int.C3.A9rimaire.2C_le_Bloch_MB.151 - http://www.aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=816

1940 - "The Hardest Day" of the Battle of Britain. It had the greatest number of casualties to both sides.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Britain#Main_assault

1940 - Death of Horst "Jakob" Tietzen, German WWII Luftwaffe fighter ace who also served during the spanish war, shot down by Hurricanes over the Thames Estuary during the Battle of Britain.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horst_Tietzen - http://www.luftwaffe.cz/tietzen.html

1941 – The Butt Report is issued. It reveals a widespread failure of Royal Air Force Bomber Command aircraft to deliver their payloads to the correct target.

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

1941 - A Blenheim dropped an artificial leg over France for captured Wing Commander Douglas Bader.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Bader#Prisoner_of_war

1942 – RAF Bomber Command’s Pathfinder Force flies its 1st mission, with 31 Pathfinder aircraft attempting to mark the target – The German submarine base at Flensburg – For a main force of 87 bombers. The raid is a complete failure; Flensburg is untouched, and the aircraft scatter their bombs widely over the towns of Sønderborg and Aabenraa in Denmark. One Pathfinder aircraft and three other bombers fail to return

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pathfinder_(RAF)#Early_action

1943 - 1st flight of The Sikorsky H-5, (aka R-5, S-51, HO3S-1, or Horse) (R-5 until 1948; company designation VS-327), US helicopter which served in all US military divisions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sikorsky_H-5

1943 - Death of Hans Jeschonnek, German WWI fighter pilot, Generaloberst and a Chief of the General Staff of Nazi Germany's Luftwaffe during WWII. He shot himself after having erroneously ordered Berlin's air defenses to fire upon 200 German fighters who had mistakenly gathered near the Reich's capital.

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

1944 - Death of Mitsuyoshi Tarui, Japanese WWII Fighter ace, killed on ground by allied aircrafts straffing the airfield.

http://www.cieldegloire.com/010_tarui_m.php

1944 - Death of Alexandru "Alecu" Serbanescu, leading Romanian fighter pilot and flying ace in WWII, Killed in his Me-109G over Buzau county, Romania, while engaging a swarm of Lightnings and Mustangs, 5 days before the 'coup d'état' which made Romania switch to the Allied side.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandru_%C5%9Eerb%C4%83nescu#Death - http://cieldegloire.com/012_serbanescu_a.php

1945 - In the last WWII Japanese combat mission, Japanese fighter ace Sadamu Komachi attacked two B-32 Dominators on a photo-reconnaissance mission over Tokyo, only one B-32 was damaged but returned to base.

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

1954 - Birth of Umberto Guidoni, Italian politician and ESA astronaut.

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

1955 - Death of Giorgio Parodi, Italian aviator and co-founder of the italian motorcycle company Moto Guzzi.

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

1958 - Birth of Sergei Yevgenyevich Treshchov, Russian Air force pilot and cosmonaut.

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

1960 - A Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcar recovers a data capsule from the Discoverer 14 satellite in mid-air. 1st successful recovery of film from an orbiting satellite and the 1st mid-air recovery of an object returning from Earth orbit.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discoverer_14

1965 - 1st flight of The Kamov Ka-26 (NATO reporting name Hoodlum), Soviet light utility helicopter with co-axial rotors.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamov_Ka-26

1967 - 1st flight of The Handley Page HP.137 Jetstream, British small twin-turboprop airliner, with a pressurised fuselage.

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

1976 - Luna 24 (lunik 24), Soviet unmanned space probe lands on the moon.

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

1988 - Death of Alexandr Vladimirovich Shchukin, Russian air force pilot, civilian Buran test pilot, killed in the crash of a Su-26M aerobatic aircraft at Zhukovsky Flight Research Center.

http://www.astronautix.com/astros/shchukin.htm

1998 - 1st flight of the Aero L 159 ALCA (Advanced Light Combat Aircraft), Czech-built multi-role combat aircraft in a single seat version.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aero_L-159_Alca

2012 – Suffering engine trouble, an Aviatour Air Piper PA-34-200 Seneca I crashes in the sea off Masbate in the Philippines, killing three of the four people on board and injuring the lone survivor. Among the dead is Philippine Secretary of the Interior Jesse Robredo.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Philippine_Piper_Seneca_crash