FEB01

1858 - 1st flight in Australia in a Balloon, the 'Australasian', is made by William Dean at Cremourne Gardens near Richmond.

http://www.aarg.com.au/Aviation-EarlyAustralian.htm

1876 - Birth of Francis Kennedy 'Frank' McClean, English civil engineer and pioneer aviator, One of the founding members of the Royal Aero Club and one of the founders of naval aviation and amateur flying.

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

1885 - Death of Stanislas Charles Henri Dupuy de Lôme, French naval architect and Navigable balloons designer.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Dupuy_de_L%C3%B4me

1887 - Birth of Henry Meyrick Cave-Browne-Cave, British engineering officer in the Royal Naval Air Service during WWI and senior commander in the RAF.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Cave-Browne-Cave

1888 - Birth of Henri Péquet, french pioneer aviator, WWI pilot and test pilot.

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_P%C3%A9quet

1891 - Birth of Mario Fucini, Italian WWI flying ace

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario_Fucini - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/italy/fucini.php

1891 - Birth of Corradino D'Ascanio, Italian aeronautical engineer who designed the 1st production helicopter, for Agusta, and designed the 1st motor scooter for Ferdinando Innocenti.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corradino_D'Ascanio

1893 - Birth of Loudoun James MacLean, British WWI flying ace

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudoun_MacLean - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/england/maclean.php

1896 - Birth of James Henry Forman, Canadian WWI flying ace and WWII instructor.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Henry_Forman - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/canada/forman.php

1898 - Birth of John Carbery Preston, British WWI flying ace

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

1898 - Birth of Francis Jefferies Williams, British WWI flying ace

http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/england/williams2.php

1902 - Death of Rudolf Max Wilhelm Hans Bartsch von Sigsfeld, German airship designer and pilot.

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

1902 - Birth of Irvin Alberta 'Bert' Woodring, American aviator, one of the U.S. Army Air Corps' "Three Musketeers", 1st US display team.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enid_Woodring_Regional_Airport#I._A._Woodring - http://www.dmairfield.com/people/woodring_ia/index.html

1906 - Birth of James Denis, French WWII flying ace.

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Denis - http://cieldegloire.com/004_denis_j.php

1911 - Burgess and Curtiss becomes the US's 1st licensed aircraft manufacturer, receiving a license to build Wright aircraft from the Wright Brothers, who held several key aeronautical patents.

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

1912 - 1st flight of The Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2 (Blériot Experimental), British single-engine two-seat biplane.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Aircraft_Factory_B.E.2

1913 - Birth of Jeffrey Kindersley Quill, British WWII RAF officer, RNVR officer and Test pilot. He test-flew every mark of Spitfire.

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

1914 - Birth of Joachim Schlichting, German flying ace of Spanish war and WWII, High ranking officer post WWII.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joachim_Schlichting - http://www.luftwaffe.cz/schlichting.html - http://www.cieldegloire.com/001_schlichting_j.php

1914 - Birth of Paul Gildner, German WWII night fighter ace.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Gildner - http://www.cieldegloire.com/001_gildner_p.php

1920 - American Charles J. "Charlie" Fern carried the 1st paying passenger on an inter-island flight, giving him the distinction of being the 1st commercial pilot in Hawaii.

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

1920 - South African Air Force is established as an independent air arm.

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

1920 - Death of Field Eugene Kindley, American WWI fighter ace, killed during training manoeuvres when a control cable broke and his SE-5a biplane crashed to the ground.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Field_Eugene_Kindley - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/usa/kindley.php

http://www.century-of-flight.net/Aviation%20history/airplane%20at%20war/upload3/Field%20Kindley.htm

1922 - Birth of Guy Pierre Bordelon, US Navy only ace And only Night fighter ace of the Korean War

http://acepilots.com/korea_bordelon.html - http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=20668237 - http://www.cieldegloire.com/014_bordelon_g_p.php

1923 - Danish Army Flying Corps is established

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Aviation/Historical_anniversaries/February_in_aviation/February_1

1929 - 1st flight of The Lublin R-X , Polish Mixed construction (steel and wood) braced high-wing (parasol) monoplane liaison aircraft.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lublin_R-X

1929 - The aviation and space operations of Boeing and Pratt&Whitney are merged to form the United Aircraft&Transport Corp.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Aviation/Historical_anniversaries/February_in_aviation/February_1

1930 - San Francisco's 1st air ferry service starts to operate, cutting journey time across the Bay to 6 minutes. The ferry flies from San Francisco to Alameda, and from Oakland to Vallejo.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Aviation/Historical_anniversaries/February_in_aviation/February_1

1931 - Polish pilots Stanislaw Jakub Skarzynski and Andrzej Markiewicz start a round-Africa flight with a Polish-designed aircraft PZL L-2.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislaw_Skarzynski#Early_military_career

1933 - 1st flight of the prototype Boeing XF6B-1 / XBFB-1,Boeing's last biplane design for the USN, carrier based fighter/bomber biplane, derivative of the F4B.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_XF6B

1935 - Birth of Vladimir Viktorovich Aksyonov, Soviet pilot and cosmonaut.

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

1939 - Reserve Command is formed under the command of Air Marshal C.L. Courtney.

http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/research/history-of-aviation-timeline/interactive-aviation-timeline/british-military-aviation/1939.aspx

1940 - Death of Megumu Ono, Japanese fighter ace during the sino-japanese war, killed in a flying accident.

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

1940 - The Southern Rhodesian government forms Southern Rhodesian Air Services.

http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/research/history-of-aviation-timeline/interactive-aviation-timeline/world-aviation/1940.aspx

1940 - Death of George de Bothezat, Russian American engineer, businessman and pioneer of helicopter flight.

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

1941 - Birth of Enzo Venturini, Italian Air force pilot.

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

1944 - Death of James Alexander Connelly, Jr., American WWI flying ace and businessman.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Connelly_(aviator) - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/usa/connelly.php

1945 - 1st flight of The Kawasaki Ki-100, japanese fighter aircraft.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kawasaki_Ki-100

1949 - Women's Royal Air Force (WRAF) revives, offering women a full professional career in the air force for the 1st time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women's_Royal_Air_Force

1950 - 8 Grumman F9F Panthers land on the USS Valley Forge to complete the 1st aircraft carrier night landing trials by jets.

http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/research/history-of-aviation-timeline/interactive-aviation-timeline/world-aviation/1950.aspx

1954 - A USAF Curtiss C-46D-15-CU Commando suffered an in-flight fire and crashed as the pilot attempted to ditch in the Tsugaru Straits between the islands of Honshu and Hokkaido, killing all 35.

http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19540201-0&lang=en

1956 - Death of Harry T. Brackett, American Aviator, Vought test pilot, killed in the crash of his Vought F8U-1 Crusader N of Edwards AFB.

http://www.ejection-history.org.uk/Aircraft_by_Type/F_8_Crusader/PART_ONE_CRUSADER.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_accidents_and_incidents_involving_military_aircraft_(1955%E2%80%931959)

1957 - Northeast Airlines Flight 823 Douglas DC-6A crashed in poor visibility shortly after takeoff from New York City's LaGuardia Airport , killing 20 over 101.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_Airlines_Flight_823

1958 - Launch of Explorer 1, 1st US Earth satellite.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Explorer_1

1958 - A USAF Douglas C-118A Liftmaster collided at night with a US Navy Lockheed P2V-5F Neptune patrol bomber, killing all 47 and 1 on ground.

http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19580201-1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_accidents_and_incidents_involving_military_aircraft_(1955%E2%80%931959)

1961 - Birth of Daniel Tani, American engineer and NASA astronaut.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_M._Tani

1961 - 1st launch of a LGM-30 Minuteman, U.S. nuclear missile, land-based intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGM-30_Minuteman

1963 - Middle East flight 265 Vickers 745D Viscount collided with a Turkish Air Force Douglas C-47 in a cloud bank in the afternoon over Ankara. Both plane crashed killing 17 on both planes and 87 on ground.

http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19630201-0

1968 – Canada's three military services, the Royal Canadian Navy, the Canadian Army and the Royal Canadian Air Force, are unified into the Canadian Forces.

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

1970 - Captain Raymond Munro makes the 1st hot air balloon crossing of the Irish Sea from Brittis Bay in Cop Wicklow to Ennerdale in Cumberland

http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/research/history-of-aviation-timeline/interactive-aviation-timeline/british-civil-aviation/1970.aspx

1971 - Death of Amet-khan Sultan, WWII Soviet fighter ace and test pilot, while making a test flight on Tu-16 test-bed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amet-khan_Sultan - http://www.testpilot.ru/memo/70/ametkhan_e.htm

1973 - Death of George Clapham Dixon, Canadian WWI flying ace

http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/canada/dixon.php

1975 - In the previous 16 days all 8 world time-to-height records have been captured by a specially modified McDonnell Douglas F15 Streak Eagle. The final record sets a time of 3 minutes 27 seconds from standstill on the runway to a height of 30,000 metres (98,425 feet).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_Douglas_F-15_Eagle#Research_and_test

1979 - Death of Carlos Bayo Alessandri, Spanish Nationalist flying ace of the civil war, Volunteer for combat in Russia with 1a Escuadrilla Azul part of the german LuftFlotte 2, and later General in the Spanish Air Force.

http://www.cieldegloire.com/018_bayo_alessandri_c.php - http://surfcity.kund.dalnet.se/spain_bayo.htm

1981 - Death of Donald Wills Douglas, Sr. , US aircraft industrialist and founder of the Douglas Aircraft Company.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Wills_Douglas,_Sr.

1982 - Death of Richard B. Kershner, American Chief Designer. Developper of the Transit navigation satellite system.

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

1987 - People Express Airline ceased operations. It is merged with Continental Airlines.

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

1991 – A runway collision between USAir Flight 1493 Boeing 737-300 and SkyWest Flight 5569 Fairchild Swearingen Metroliner at Los Angeles International Airport results in the death of 34 persons, and the injury of 30 others.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USAir_Flight_1493

1993 - Soyuz TM-15, 15th expedition to Mir Station, is back on earth.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_TM-15

1996 - Launch of Palapa C-1, Indonesian communication satellite

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palapa#Series_C

2003 - Space shuttle Columbia disintegrates during re-entry. All seven astronauts on board died.

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

- Michael Philip Anderson, USAF Colonel and NASA astronaut - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_P._Anderson

- David McDowell Brown, USN Captain, Test Pilot and NASA astronaut - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_M._Brown

- Kalpana Chawla, Indian-American NASA astronaut - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalpana_Chawla

- Laurel Blair Salton Clark, medical doctor, USN Captain, NASA astronaut. - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurel_Clark

- Rick Douglas Husband , USAF Colonel, test pilot and astronaut. - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_D._Husband

- William Cameron "Willie" McCool , USN Commander, test pilot and NASA - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_McCool

- Ilan Ramon, fighter pilot in the Israeli Air Force, and 1st Israeli in space. - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilan_Ramon

2006 - UAL. Corp, United Airlines' parent company emerges from bankruptcy after being in such position since December 9, 2002, the longest such filing in history.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Airlines#Bankruptcy_and_reorganization