FEB14

1914 - An official American nonstop duration and distance record is made when Lt. Townsend Dodd and Sgt. Herbert Marcus fly the U.S. Signal Corps Burgess H tractor biplane in 4 hours 43 minutes. Although it established a record for two people in one airplane, it also exceeded the previous single-seat record.

http://books.google.fr/books?id=U9mM41CQRG4C&pg=PA14&lpg=PA14&dq=Herbert+Marcus+aviation&source=bl&ots=uBqFaqInZn&sig=T5Yo-JAoDTr6oiwv0nKjpkDTDnw&hl=fr&sa=X&ei=7A4SUbXeIqrV0QXYmoGoBA&ved=0CHMQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=Herbert%20Marcus%20aviation&f=false

1916 - A flight of 10 Lohner and Lloyd two-seaters, conducted by Rudolf Szepessy-Sokoll Freiherr von Negyes et Reno, attacked Milan in what may have been the 1st strategic bombing mission in history.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_Szepessy-Sokoll - http://theaerodrome.com/aces/austrhun/szepessy-sokoll.php

1921 - Birth of Werner Utter, German pilot, one of the 1st pilot for Lufthansa, who flew more of 100 types of aircraft from sailplanes to Jumbo Jet.

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

1922 - Death of Herbert Brian Richardson, British WWI fighter ace,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Richardson_(aviator) - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/england/richardson1.php

1926 - 1st flight of The Ryan M-1, American mail plane, conventional parasol-wing monoplane with two open cockpits in tandem and fixed, tailskid undercarriage

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryan_M-1

1928 - 1st flight of The Short Calcutta (S.8), British three engine biplane airliner flying boat, 1st airliner with a full kitchen.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_S.8_Calcutta

1932 - Ruth Nichols flies her Lockheed Vega from Floyd Bennett Field, New York to an altitude of 19,928 feet, a new world record for diesel-engined airplanes.

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

1936 - 1st flight of The Hawker Hector, british single engine biplane co-operation aircraft, developped from the Hawker Hart.

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

1939 - Death of Lucien Marcel Gasser, French WWI flying ace, killed in an air crash.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucien_Gasser - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/france/gasser.php

1942 - 1st flight of the Douglas DC-4, 4-engined propeller-driven airliner, US Navy version designed C-54.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_DC-4

1943 - The Vought F4U Corsair naval fighter makes its operational debut in Solomon Island, escorting PB4Y-1 Liberators (the US Navy's version of the B-24) raiding Bougainville.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vought_F4U_Corsair

1943 - Birth of Shannon Matilda Wells Lucid, American biochemist and NASA astronaut

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

1945 – On the 1st day of the bombing of Dresden, the British Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Forces begin fire-bombing Dresden, the capital of the German state of Saxony. Prague is also bombed probably due to a mistake in the orientation of the pilots.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Dresden_in_World_War_II - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Prague

1945 - Death of Otto "Bruno" Kittel, German WWII flying ace On his 583rd combat mission,shot down and killed by the air gunner of a Shturmovik.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Kittel - http://www.luftwaffe.cz/kittel.html

1947 - Birth of Pham Tuân, Vietnam Air Force aviator, 1st Vietnamese citizen and 1st Asian (outside of Russia) in space.

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

1951 - 1st flight of the Sud-Est SE.2415 Grognard II, 2nd prototype issued from the SE.2010 Grognard I, two-seat development that included a "stretched" fuselage incorporating a raised cockpit with a bubble canopy and reduced 32° wing sweep back of the french low-level ground-attack aircraft.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sud-Est_Grognard - http://www.aviastar.org/air/france/sud-est_grognard2.php

1951 - Death of Raymond 'Ray' Shuey Wetmore, US Army WWII leading fighter ace, killed in the crash of his F-86 Sabre on approach at Otis Air Force Base

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Shuey_Wetmore - http://www.cieldegloire.com/014_wetmore_r_s.php

1952 - 1st flight of the North American FJ-2 Fury, Prototype Naval version of the F-86 Sabre.

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

1955 - 1st flight of The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 (Ye-2), soviet supersonic jet fighter aircraft,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikoyan-Gurevich_MiG-21

1956 - Death of Harold Edward "Whitey" Dahl, mercenary American flying ace during the Spanish Civil War, member of the "American Patrol" of the Andres Garcia La Calle group, he Served as instructor in the RCAF during WWII and airliner pilot. Kileld in the crash of his DC-3 Cargo in bad weather near Fort Chimo, Canada.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Edward_Dahl - http://surfcity.kund.dalnet.se/us_dahl.htm

1963 - The Indian Air Force receives its first batch of Soviet fighters, Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21s

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Aviation/Historical_anniversaries/February_in_aviation/February_14

1963 - Launch of Syncom 1, 1st geosynchronous communications satellite.

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

1966 - Death of Adrian Lindley Trevor "King" Cole, Australian WWI flying ace and RAAF WWII high ranking officer.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrian_Cole_(RAAF_officer) - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/australi/cole1.php

1972 - Launch of Luna 20, Soviet lunar sample return missions

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_20

1973 - Death of Charles Ronald Steele, British WWI flying ace, High ranking officer in WWII and Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief at RAF Coastal Command post war.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Steele - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/england/steele.php

1975 - 1st flight of the Aérospatiale AS-350B 'Ecureuil', French 5 seat transport helicopter.

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurocopter_AS350_%C3%89cureuil - http://www.aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=2377

1975 - Death of Arthur Hicks Peck, British WWI flying ace

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Peck - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/england/peck.php

1978 - 1st flight of The Cessna T303 Crusader, American six-place light twin aircraft.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cessna_T303_Crusader

1979 - Sabrina Jackintell sets an open class glider altitude record of 12 637 m with her Burkhart Grob G-102 Astir CS.

http://records.fai.org/file?i=2&f=348

1984 - 1st production Cessna Model 550 Citation / SII makes its 1st flight.

http://www.aviastar.org/air/usa/cessna_citation2.php

1986 - 1st flight of The Short Tucano T1 (S.312), british two-seat turboprop basic trainer, licence-built version of the Brazilian Embraer EMB-312 Tucano.

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

1989 - 1st modern Block-II GPS Satellite is launched.

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

1990 - Indian Airlines Flight 605 Airbus A320-231 crashed on its final approach to Bangalore airport, killing 92 people.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Airlines_Flight_605

1990 - Voyager 1 took the 1st ever "family portrait" of our Solar System as seen from outside,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_1#Interstellar_mission

2000 - The spacecraft NEAR Shoemaker enters orbit around asteroid 433 Eros, 1st spacecraft to orbit an asteroid.

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

2007 - German paraglider Ewa Wisnierska Cieslewicz, praticing for a contest in Australia, is sucked into a cumulonimbus cloud. She survived lightning, pounding hail, minus 40-degree temperatures and oxygen deprivation after a storm system sucked her to an altitude higher than Mount Everest. At that same time, Chinese paraglider He Zhongpin is killed by a lightning in the same cloud.

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ewa_Wi%C5%9Bnierska

2011 - Central American Airways Flight 731 Let L-410 Turbolet crashed in poor weather on approach to Toncontín International Airport, Tegucigalpa, Honduras, killing all 14

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_American_Airways_Flight_731

2012 - Last flight of The Boeing YAL-1 American Airborne Laser Testbed, American megawatt-class chemical oxygen iodine laser (COIL) weapon mounted inside a modified Boeing 747-400F, primarily designed as a missile defense system to destroy tactical ballistic missiles (TBMs), while in boost phase.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_YAL-1

2013 - Death of Kazuo Tsunoda, Japanese flying ace during the sino-japanese war and WWII.

http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%A7%92%E7%94%B0%E5%92%8C%E7%94%B7 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kazuo_Tsunoda