JAN03

1496 – Leonardo da Vinci unsuccessfully tests a flying machine.

http://www.leonardo-da-vinci-biography.com/leonardo-da-vinci-flying-machine.html

1748 - Birth of Jean-Marie-Joseph Coutelle, French engineer, scientist and pioneer of ballooning.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Marie-Joseph_Coutelle

1889 - Birth of Ross Morrison MacDonald, Canadian WWI flying ace

http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/canada/macdonald2.php

1889 - Birth of Charles Philip Oldfield Bartlett, British WWI flying ace

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

1889 - Birth of Edward Willits 'Eddie' Hubbard, Early american aviator.

http://earlyaviators.com/ehubbard.htm

1897 - Birth of John Elmer "Jack" Drummond, Canadian WWI flying ace

http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/canada/drummond1.php

1898 - Birth of Tubal Claude Ryan, Irish-American aviator, best known for founding several airlines and aviation factories.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T._Claude_Ryan

1902 - Birth of Tommaso (Tomaso) Dal Molin, Italian Military pilot of the Schneider Trophy.

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

1916 - Birth of Horace A. Hanes, American WWII and Korean war Fighter pilot, USAF test pilot and high ranking officer.

http://www.locategrave.org/l/1165119/Horace-A-Hanes-CO - http://www.af.mil/information/bios/bio.asp?bioID=5690

1917 - 1st flight of the Zeppelin LZ88 (L 40), german dirigible.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Zeppelins#Zeppelins_constructed_during_World_War_I

1922 - 1st flight of The Aero Letňany A.10, Czech Single engine biplane airliner, 1st commercial aircraft to be built in Czechoslovakia and known as the Ae-10 Limousine

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aero_A.10

1923 - French Lieutenant Thoret makes the 1st soaring flight of 7 hours in a Hanriot HD-14 biplane as he flies with his engine stopped in a slope lift (using hill-side air currents) in Biskra, Algeria.

http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1923/1923%20-%200023.html

1925 - 1st flight of The Fairey Fox I, British light bomber and fighter biplane

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

1943 - On his 7th mission, Alan Eugene Magee, American ball turret gunner on a B-17 bomber nicknamed "Snap, Crackle, and Pop", survived a 22,000-feet (6,700 m) fall, crashing through the glass roof of the St. Nazaire railroad station. Somehow the glass roof mitigated Magee's impact and rescuers found him still alive on the floor of the station.

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

1944 – Top Ace Major Greg "Pappy" Boyington is shot down over Rabaul in his Corsair by Captain Masajiro Kawato flying a Zero. Picked up by a Japanese submarine, he finished the war as prisoner.

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

1949 - 1st flight of the Dabos-Masclet JDM 'Roitelet', French Single seat single engine low wing monoplane homebuilt aircraft.

http://www.aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=9611

1951 - 1st flight of the Brochet MB-100, French high wing monoplane single engine 3 seat light aircraft.

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brochet_MB-100 - http://www.aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=3188

1951 - 1st flight of the Morane-Saulnier MS-703 'Pétrel', French 6 seat twin engine low wing monoplane trasport aircraft.

http://www.aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=9351

1952 - 1st flight of the Bristol Type 173, British prototype twin-engine, tandem rotor military helicopter.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bristol_Type_173

1953 - 1st flight of The Cessna 310, American six-seat, low-wing, twin-engined monoplane and 1st twin-engined aircraft that Cessna put into production after WWII

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cessna_310

1957 - Death of Ottorino Pomilio, early Italian aeronautic engineer and WWI scout aircraft designer.

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

1959 - Birth of Fyodor Nikolayevich Yurchikhin, Russian cosmonaut and RSC Energia test-pilot

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

1961 - Aero Flight 311 Douglas DC-3C crashed near Kvevlax, finland, killing all 25, after both pilots (Finnish WWII flying ace Lars Paul Erich Hattinen and and co-pilot Paavo Halme) being intoxicated when flying.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aero_Flight_311 - http://www.cieldegloire.com/000_hattinen.php

1961 - Death of Hasso von Wedel, German WWI flying ace, and luftwaffe WWII fighter pilot.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hasso_von_Wedel - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/germany/wedel2.php

1962 - RCAF Piasecki H-21 helicopter 9611, from 121 (CU) Comox rescue 22 seamen from SS Glafkos.

http://canadianaviationhistory.pbworks.com/w/page/13801117/On%20this%20day%20in%20Canadian%20Aviation%20History%20January

1963 - 1st fligth of The Ilyushin Il-62 (NATO reporting name Classic), Soviet long-range jet airliner, largest jet airliner of that time with 200 seats, 1st Russian pressurised aircraft with non-circular cross-section fuselage and ergonomic passenger doors, and 1st Russian jet with six-abreast seating

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilyushin_Il-62

1965 - Death of Semyon Ariyevich Kosberg, Jewish Soviet engineer, expert in the field of aircraft and rocket engines.

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

1969 - 1st flight of the SOCATA 'Rallye' 7, French 6 seat single engine low wing monoplane tourism aircraft.

http://www.aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=1523

1969 - 1st production Cessna 207 (lengthened seven-seat 206 Super Skywagon) flew.

http://www.aviastar.org/air/usa/cessna_206.php

1987 - Varig Flight 797, a 707-379C, crashed when making a return to Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire after one of its engines failed. One person survived out of the 51 people onboard

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varig_Flight_797

1994 - Baikal Airlines Flight 130 Tupolev 154M crashes on take off Killing 125 on board plus 1 on ground. A fuel-fed fire had erupted in the area of the no. 2 engine, causing damage to hydraulic lines and control surfaces. Control was lost and the aircraft crashed amongst farm buildings.

http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19940103-2 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baikal_Airlines

1999 - Launch of Mars Polar Lander, also referred to as the Mars Surveyor '98 Lander, NASA 290-kilogram robotic spacecraft lander, to study the soil and climate of Planum Australe, a region near the south pole on Mars

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

2004 - Flash Airlines Flight 604 Boeing 737-3Q8 crashes into the Red Sea off the coast of Egypt, killing all 148 aboard.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_Airlines_Flight_604

2006 - Death of Stuart Row Childs, American WWII pilot, and chief test pilot who flew the X1-B and the X-18.

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

2013 - 1st flight of the Aeroscraft model ML866 (a 12 feet hover for several minutes in a military hanger south of Los Angeles), American planned 20-ton lifting capacity rigid airship, planned to be developped in a 60-ton ML868 and a 500-ton ML86X.

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