FEB27

1885 - Birth of Theodore Gordon 'Spuds' Ellyson, USN pilot, 1st United States Navy officer designated as an aviator ("Naval Aviator No. 1").

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

1887 - Birth of Pyotr Nikolayevich Nesterov, Russian WWI pilot, aircraft technical designer and aerobatics pioneer.

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

1890 - Birth of Arthur Roy 'Art' Smith, Early american aviator, aircraft designer who also perfected the art of night time sky writing, WWI Instructor, and Airmail pilot.

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=37273034

1896 - Birth of Otto Brauneck, Geramn WWI flying ace

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Brauneck - http://theaerodrome.com/aces/germany/brauneck.php

1896 - Birth of James Tennant, Scottish WWI flying ace.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Tennant_(aviator) - http://theaerodrome.com/aces/scotland/tennant.php

1897 - Birth of Norman William "Bill" Reginald Mawle, British WWI flying ace

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Mawle - http://theaerodrome.com/aces/england/mawle.php

1898 - Birth of Phillip Andrew Johnston, Australian WWI flying ace

http://theaerodrome.com/aces/australi/johnston2.php

1898 - Birth of Maryse Bastié, French aviatrix. Born Marie-Louise Bombec. Aerobatic, raid and record Pilot.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maryse_Basti%C3%A9

1906 - Death of Samuel Pierpont Langley, American astronomer, physicist, inventor of the bolometer and pioneer of aviation.

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

1910 - Birth of Clarence Leonard "Kelly" Johnson, American aircraft engineer and aeronautical innovator, member of the Lockheed Skunk Works. While at Lockheed, Johnson designed the P-38 Lightning fighter, made Fowler flaps work on the Model 14 Super Electra, and played a major role in converting the type into the Royal Air Force's Lockheed Hudson on short notice in 1938. He worked on the development of the Constellation for Howard Hughes' TWA airline.

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

1912 - The Public Safety and Accidents Investigation Committee of the Royal Aero Club is established.

http://www.aaib.gov.uk/about_us/100_years_of_aircraft_accident_investigation.cfm - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flanders_F.2

1915 - Birth of Giuseppe Cenni, Spanish war and WWII italian flying ace.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giuseppe_Cenni - http://www.cieldegloire.com/009_cenni_g.php

1918 - Birth of Harold Brownlow Morgan "Micky" Martin, Australian WWII bomber pilot (who flew with the 'Dambusters' 617 Squadron) and RAF post-war High ranking officer.

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

1918 - Death of Miles Jeffrey Game Day, British WWI flying ace and war poet, killed in action in his Sopwith Camel by the crew of German seaplane he was attacking. It is said that he wrote poetry whilst flying.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffery_Day - http://theaerodrome.com/aces/england/day2.php

1919 - Death of Howard Redmayne Harker, British WWI flying ace

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Harker - http://theaerodrome.com/aces/england/harker.php

1920 - Major Rudolph W. Schroeder of the US Army Air Service sets a new world altitude record when he flies a Packard-Le Peré LUSAC-11 fighter equipped with one of the first turbochargers to the height of 33,143 feet. During the flight over McCook Field in Dayton, Ohio he nearly loses his life when his oxygen system fails

http://history.nasa.gov/Timeline/1920-24.html - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Packard-Le_Per%C3%A9_LUSAC-11

1921 – Birth of Theodore Van Kirk, American navigator of the Enola Gay when it dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

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

1924 - Death of Hans Georg Friedrich Groß, German balloonist and airship constructor.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Georg_Friedrich_Gro%C3%9F

1928 - Death of Theodore Gordon 'Spuds' Ellyson, USN pilot, 1st United States Navy officer designated as an aviator ("Naval Aviator No. 1"), killed in ithe crash of an aircraft in the lower Chesapeake Bay while on a night flight from Norfolk, Virginia to Annapolis, Maryland.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_Gordon_Ellyson#Post-war_service_and_death

1935 - Latècoère's giant seaplane Blériot BL-5190 'Santos Dumont' lands with a cargo of mail after a record flight of 53 hours 4 minutes from Natal, Brazil to Paris, with two stops en route.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Aviation/Historical_anniversaries/February_in_aviation/February_27

1936 - 1st flight of The Fokker D.XXI fighter, low-wing monoplane with a steel tube fuselage covered in large part by fabric, designed for use by the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army Air Force.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fokker_D.XXI

1938 - 6 USAAC B-17 Flying Fortresses lands after a goodwill tour of Latin America, traveling 12,000 miles (19,312 km) to Lima, Buenos Aires, Santiago and back.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B-17_Flying_Fortress

1942 – The aircraft tender USS Langley (AV-3) (which once had been the U. S. Navy’s 1st aircraft carrier as USS Langley CV-1) trying to deliver Curtiss P-40 fighters from Australia to Java, is severly damaged by Japanese Aichi D3A1 "Val" dive bombers and sunk in the Indian Ocean.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Langley_(CV-1)#Seaplane_tender

1942 - 1st flight of The Blackburn Firebrand, British single-engine fleet fighter aircraft

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

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1945 - 1st flight of the Breguet Br. 500 'Colmar, French twin engine airliner prototype based on the earlier four-engined Breguet 482 bomber

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breguet_500_Colmar - http://www.aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=790

1945 - 1st flight of The Curtiss XF15C, US mixed-propulsion (propellor and turbojet engines) fighter prototype.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtiss_XF15C

1947 - 1st flight of the Morane-Saulnier MS-474, french twin-seat fighter trainer, naval version of the Morane-Saulnier MS-472 'Vanneau'.

http://www.aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=912

1947 - Death of William Thomas Ponder, American WWI flying ace, who flew beer in from Mexico into Texas during prohibition for servicemen dying in hospitals who were in need of a last beverage of their choice. He worked for Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation and founded the Ponder Aircraft Sales Company.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Ponder - http://theaerodrome.com/aces/usa/ponder.php

1948 - 1st flight of the SNCASO SO-7010 'Pégase', French low wing monoplane small transport prototype, Twin engined driving a sole propeller.

http://www.aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=9771

1958 - 1st production of The Morane-Saulnier MS.760 Paris, French four (or six) seat jet trainer and liaison aircraft, makes its 1st flight.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morane-Saulnier_MS.760_Paris

1958 - Silver City Airways Bristol 170 Freighter crashed in poor weather into Winter Hill (also known as Rivington Moor) several hundred yards away from the Independent Television Authority's Winter Hill transmitting station, Due to a number of navigation errors in respect to the radio compass bearings and altitude readings, killing 35 over 42.

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

1960 - Death of Oszkár Asboth, Hungarian aviation engineer often credited with the invention of the helicopter.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oszk%C3%A1r_Asboth

1961 - Max Conrad takes off from Miami in a PA-23 Aztec named New Frontiers (registration N4445P) for an Around-the-world record.

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

1963 - 1st flight of The Hughes OH-6 Cayuse, single-engine light helicopter with a four-bladed main rotor used for personnel transport, escort and attack missions, and observation

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hughes_OH-6_Cayuse

1965 - 1st flight of The Antonov An-22 Antei (NATO reporting name "Cock") , Soviet large military transport aircraft Powered by four pairs of contra-rotating turboprops.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonov_An-22

1969 - Beagle Aircraft Limited, British light aircraft manufacturer gets into voluntary liquidation

http://www.aviastar.org/manufacturers/0336.html

1976 - Death of Harry von Bülow-Bothkamp, German WWI and WWII flying ace, one of the few two-war aces in history.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_von_B%C3%BClow-Bothkamp - http://theaerodrome.com/aces/germany/bulow-bothkamp1.php

http://www.frontflieger.de/3buelow0t.html

1994 - Death of Laurence Cardee Craigie, American aviator and USAF General, 1st pilot of the Armed Forces to fly a jet-propelled plane, director of the Flying Tiger Line.

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

2002 – Ryanair Flight 296 (Boeing 737-800, EI-CSA) catches fire at London Stansted Airport. Subsequent investigations criticize Ryanair's handling of the evacuation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryanair_Flight_296#Accidents_and_incidents

2006 - Death of Robert Lee Scott Jr., Brigadier General in the United States Air Force. Scott is best known for his autobiography 'God is My Co-Pilot' about his exploits in WWII with the Flying Tigers and the United States Army Air Forces in China and Burma.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Lee_Scott,_Jr.

2007 - 1st flight of The Bell 429, American light, twin-engine helicopter capable of single-pilot IFR and Runway Category A operations, the Bell 427.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_429

2009 - Ándalus Líneas Aéreas, Spanish regional airline, begins operations.

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