DEC11

1933 - 1st flight of The Bernard 82, French single-engined long-range monoplane bomber prototype.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_82

1941 - Death of Masaaki Iinuma, Japanese navy Aviator, Raid and test pilot, killed when, in a daze from hearing the news of the attack on Pearl Harbor by Japanese forces, he accidentally walked into a spinning aircraft propeller.

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

1941 - 1st flight of the Castel C-242, French 2 seat high wing glider trainer.

http://www.aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=9247

1941 - Death of John Gillespie Magee, Jr., American Aviator and Poet, killed in his Spitfire V in a mid-air collision with an Airspeed Oxford trainer over Lincolnshire. He is most famous for his poem "High Flight"a tribute to the Spitfire and pilots of all generation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Gillespie_Magee,_Jr.#Death - http://www.deltaweb.co.uk/spitfire/hiflight.htm

1942 - 1st flight of the Sud-Est SE.200 'Amphitrite', French flying boat airliner prototype, large, six-engine design with a high-set cantilever monoplane wing, and twin tails.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SNCASE_SE.200

1944 - The sole Grumman XF5F Skyrocket, American prototype of a twin-engine shipboard fighter interceptor, is written off after a belly landing, ending its development.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grumman_XF5F_Skyrocket

1945 - Supermarine Spitfire IXs of No.273 Squadron carried out strafing attacks on Viet Minh guerrillas surrounding a French force at Banme Thuet, French Indo-China. Leaflets were dropped in advance to warn the Viet Minh of this action.

http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/research/history-of-aviation-timeline/interactive-aviation-timeline/british-military-aviation/1945.aspx

1947 - 1st flight of The Sud-Ouest S.O.30P Bretagne, french twin-engined mid-wing cantilever all-metal monoplane airliner (developped from the 30N).

http://www.aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=9657

1949 - Death of Croston K. Stead, WWII USAF pilot, killed in the crash of his North American F-51D-25-NT Mustang at Reno Air Force Base, Nevada, during a mock dogfight during training mission.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Aviation/Historical_anniversaries/December_in_aviation/December_11

1954 - USS Forrestal (CV-59), American aircraft carrier is launched, 1st American aircraft carrier to be constructed with an angled flight deck, steam catapult, and an optical landing system,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Forrestal_(CV-59)

1958 - Death of Charles Godefroy, French aviator famous by his spectacular flight passing through the Arc de Triomphe in Paris in 1919.

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

1959 - Joseph Moore flies a Republic F-105B Thunderchief for a world record of 1,216.48 miles per hour (1,958 km/h) over a 62 miles (100 km) circuit.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_F-105_Thunderchief#Introduction

1961 - Death of Albert Hoyt Taylor, American electrical engineer who made important early contributions to the development of radar.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_H._Taylor

1972 - Apollo 17, 11th and final manned mission in the American Apollo space program, lands on the moon.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_17

1974 - Death of Emile John Lussier, American WWI flying ace.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emile_John_Lussier - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/usa/lussier.php

1978 - Death of John Rutherford Gordon, Ausralian WWI flying ace who served in WWII with the RAAF.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Rutherford_Gordon - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/australi/gordon2.php

1981 - 1st flight of The OMAC Laser 300 (OMAC I), American 6-7 seat business aircraft prototype of highly unusual design, with a canard layout, a pusher-mounted turboprop engine, and a high, cantilever, swept wing carrying endplate-type fins at its tips.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OMAC_Laser_300

1984 - Death of Krafft Arnold Ehricke, German rocket-propulsion engineer and advocate for space colonization.

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

1984 - Death of Ernesto ‘Gamba di Ferro’ Botto, Spanish War and WWII italian flying ace

http://surfcity.kund.dalnet.se/italy_botto.htm

1985 - 1st flight of the CHAIG Z-8 (Zhishengji-8), Chinese triple engine, multi-role helicopter.

http://www.aviastar.org/helicopters_eng/china_z-8.php

1986 - 1st flight of The McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing) F-15E Strike Eagle, American all-weather multirole fighter, derived from the McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_Douglas_F-15E_Strike_Eagle

1988 - Launch of Astra 1A, 1st satellite launched and operated by SES (Société Européenne des Satellites), to provide television coverage to Western Europe and revolutionary as one of the 1st medium-powered satellites.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astra_1A

1994 – A bomb explodes on Philippine Airlines Flight 434 Boeing 747-283B, en route from Manila to Tokyo, killing one. The captain is able to safely land the plane.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippine_Airlines_Flight_434

1997 - 1st flight of the Bell 427, American twin engine, multirole, light utility helicopter.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_427

1998 – Thai Airways Flight 261 crashes near Surat Thani Airport, killing 101. The pilot flying the Thai Airways Airbus A310-300 is thought to have suffered spatial disorientation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thai_Airways_Flight_261

1998 - Launch of The Mars Climate Orbiter, NASA robotic space probe to study the Martian climate, atmosphere and surface changes.

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

1999 - SATA Air Açores Flight 530M British Aerospace ATP crashed into the north face of Pico da Esperança on the island of São Jorge in the Azores while on descent in heavy rain and turbulence, killing all 35

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SATA_Air_A%C3%A7ores#Incidents_and_Accidents - http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19991211-0

2000 - After a catastrophic hydraulic leak and subsequent software instrument failure, a Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey fell 1,600 feet (490 m) into a forest in Jacksonville, North Carolina, killing all four aboard. This caused the Marine Corps to ground their fleet of eight V-22s

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_Boeing_V-22_Osprey#Notable_accidents

2000 - STS-97 Space Shuttle Endeavour mission to the ISS to install the 1st set of solar arrays to the ISS, is back on earth.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-97

2009 - 1st flight of The Airbus A400M, also known as the Atlas,multi-national four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft designed by Airbus Military as a tactical airlifter with strategic capabilities

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airbus_A400M - http://www.aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=10215&ID_CONSTRUCTEUR=64