DEC30

1931 - Birth of Charles Arthur "Art" Bassett, II, American engineer, USAF test pilot and NASA astronaut.

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

1933 - 1st flight of The Polikarpov I-16, Soviet fighter aircraft of revolutionary design; it was the world's 1st cantilever-winged monoplane fighter with retractable landing gear.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polikarpov_I-16

1933 - Klm pilot Ivan Vasilyevich Smirnov complete a record breaking flight from Amsterdam to Batavia (Jakarta) on Java (Indonesia - formerly the Dutch East Indies)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Vasilyevich_Smirnov#Postwar_Activity

1933 - Imperial Airways Avro 618 Ten 'Apollo' collided with a radio mast Due to fog at Ruysselede, West Vlaanderen, Belgium and crashed killing all 10 people on board

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1933_Imperial_Airways_Ruysselede_crash

1934 - 1st flight of The Martin M-130, American 4 engine commercial flying boat.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_M-130

1935 - Italian bombers destroy a Swedish Red Cross unit in Ethiopia during the 2nd Italo-Abyssinian War.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcel_Junod#The_Second_Italo-Abyssinian_War_1935.2F1936

1936 - French Maryse Bastié lands her Caudron C.635 'Jean Mermoz' in Natal, a distance of 3100km averaging 264km/h from Dakar (Senegal) , completing a transatlantic Solo flight.

http://www.aviastar.org/air/france/caudron_c-630.php - http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maryse_Basti%C3%A9

1938 - The Piaggio P.23R (Piaggio P.123), Italian twin engine commercial transport aircraft prototype for propaganda purposes, carried a payload of 5000 kilograms (11,023 pounds) at an average speed of 404 kilometers per hour (250.8 miles per hour), setting new world records over both the 1,000-kilometer (620 mi) and 2,000-kilometer (1,200 mi) distances.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piaggio_P.23R

1942 - Death of Orville "Tubby" Alfred Ralston, american WWI flying ace, killed in the crash of his USAAF B-17 in Musselshell, Montana.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orville_Ralston - http://theaerodrome.com/aces/usa/ralston2.php

1943 - Death of Josef "Joschi" Pöhs, German WWII fighter ace and test pilot, killed in the crash of his Me 163 rocket-powered fighter upon takeoff at Bad Zwischenahn.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josef_P%C3%B6hs - http://www.luftwaffe.cz/pohs.html

1944 - Death of Alexandre Léonel Pierre 'Lionel' de Marmier, French WWI flying ace, Nieuport test pilot, pioneering airliner and airmail pilot, Air France test pilot, Spanish war and WWII pilot. Disappearing at sea in a Lockheed C-60A-5-LO Lodestar.

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lionel_de_Marmier - http://theaerodrome.com/aces/france/de_marmier.php

http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19441230-2 - http://www.cieldegloire.fr/004_de_marmier_l.php

1945 - Birth of John Kevin Moorhouse, British test pilot.

http://www.searchengine.org.uk/dailyhistory/December/30.htm

1946 - 1st flight of the Tupolev ANT-63P, Night fighter prototype version of the Tupolev TU-2.

http://www.aviastar.org/air/russia/ant-63.php

1946 - A USN Martin PBM Mariner crashed during a blizzard on Thurston Island, Antarctica while supporting Operation Highjump (Mission to establish the Antarctic research base Little America IV) killing 3 over 9.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1946_Antarctica_PBM_Mariner_crash

1947 - 1st flight of The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15, Soviet jet fighter, one of the 1st successful swept-wing jet fighters

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikoyan-Gurevich_MiG-15

1950 - A RAAF CAC Wirraway patrolling for sharks crashed on a beach at Maroochydore, Australia, killing 3 children and injuring 14 other people. Pilot and his observer survived

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

1953 - Birth of Daniel Thomas Barry, American engineer, scientist, and NASA astronaut.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_T._Barry

1954 - The Convair B-58 Hustler is the 1st jet bomber to exceed Mach 1.

http://www.aviastar.org/air/usa/convair_hustler.php

1958 - Birth of Steven Lee Smith, American technology executive and NASA astronaut.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Smith_(astronaut)

1959 - 1st flight of the Sud Aviation Caravelle III, French short/medium-range jet airliner, reengined evolution of the Caravelle I.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sud_Aviation_Caravelle#Variants - http://www.aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=1985

1964 - Death of Hermann Frommherz, German WWI flying ace, commercial pilot and high ranking Officer during WWII.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Frommherz - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/germany/frommherz.php

1971 - Death of Richard Michael Trevethan, American born British WWI flying ace.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_M._Trevethan - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/england/trevethan.php

1978 - 1st flight of the Vulcanair SF.600 Canguro, Italian Feederliner, high-wing cantilever monoplane of conventional configuration with a fuselage of rectangular cross-section and a high-set tail.

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

1985 - Death of Alfred Marie-Joseph Heurtaux, French WWI fighter ace.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Heurtaux - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/france/heurtaux.php

1995 - Launch of The Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE), NASA satellite that observes the time structure of astronomical X-ray sources.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rossi_X-ray_Timing_Explorer

2010 - 1st flight of The TAI Anka, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) developed by Turkish Aerospace Industries for use by the Turkish Air Force.

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