JAN05
1891 - Birth of Carl "Charly" Degelow, German WWI fighter ace, last German pilot and final German serviceman to be awarded the Blue Max.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Degelow - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/germany/degelow.php
1892 - Birth of Marcel Anatole Hugues, French WWI flying ace and WWII pilot.
http://albindenis.free.fr/Site_escadrille/As_Marcel_Hughes.htm - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/france/hugues.php
1895 - Birth of Jeannette Ridlon Piccard, American high-altitude balloonist, 1st woman to fly to the stratosphere.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeannette_Piccard
1896 - Birth of Thomas Gantz Cassady, American WWI flying ace, WWII OSS intelligence officer and businessman.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Cassady - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/usa/cassady.php
1900 - Death of Henry Tracey Coxwell, English aeronaut.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Tracey_Coxwell
1903 - Birth of Harold Charles Gatty, Australian navigator, inventor, and aviation pioneer, founder of Fiji Airways (which later became Air Pacific)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Gatty
1915 - Joseph Eugene Carberry set an altitude record of 11,690 feet (3,560 m) with a Curtiss Jenny, carrying Capt. Benjamin Delahauf Foulois as a passenger.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_E._Carberry
1916 - 1st flight of The Nieuport 11 (Bébé Nieuport), famous French WWI single seat biplane fighter.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nieuport_11
1917 - 1st flight of The Sage Type 3 (Sage N3 School), prototype British biplane training aircraft.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sage_Type_3
1918 - A giant explosion in the air base in Ahlhorn destroyed 4 Zeppelins (including L 47) and 1 non-Zeppelin-type airship, stabled in three adjacent hangars.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Zeppelins#Zeppelins_constructed_during_World_War_I
1930 - Birth of Edward Galen "Ed" Givens Jr, USAF test pilot and NASA astronaut.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Givens
1930 - During British, Australian and New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition (BANZARE), RAAF pilot Stuart Campbell and Professor Douglas Mawson with a D.H.60 Gipsy Moth confirmed an extensive new coast of ice cliffs and rocky mountains. Mawson named it MacRobertson Land.
http://www.south-pole.com/p0000099.htm
1935 - 1st flight of the De Havilland D.H.82B 'Queen Bee', British radio-controlled target aircraft, which was essentially a version of the Tiger Moth with a basic structure of wood: it had the Moth Major fuselage, Tiger Moth wings, Gipsy Major engine, a wind-driven generator to provide electrical power, and a larger-capacity fuel tank.
http://www.aviastar.org/air/england/havilland_dh-82.php
1938 - 1st flight of The Miles M.16 Mentor, British single-engined three-seat monoplane training and communications aircraft developped from the Miles M.7 Nighthawk.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miles_Mentor
1939 - Amelia Mary Earhart, noted American aviation pioneer and author, is declared legally dead after disappearance in 1937.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amelia_Earhart
1939 - 1st flight of the Bloch MB-174, French 3 seat twin engine reconnaissance bomber.
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloch_MB.170_%C3%A0_MB.178#MB.174 - http://www.aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=4494
1941 - Death of Amy Johnson, pioneering English aviator, while flying an Airspeed Oxford for the Air Transport Auxiliary from Blackpool to RAF Kidlington. She went off course in adverse weather conditions. Reportedly out of fuel, she drowned after bailing out into the Thames Estuary.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amy_Johnson#Death
1945 - 1st rescue mission ever made by a Bell helicopter took place when Jack Woolams bailed out of a P-59 Airacomet in trouble near Lockport. Floyd Carlson and Dr. Thomas C. Marriott took off in one of the Model 30s and, guided by Joe Masham flying a P-59, rescued the unfortunate pilot.
http://www.aviastar.org/helicopters_eng/bell_30.php
1949 - Charles "Chuck" Yeager using a Bell X-1 carried out the only conventional (runway) take off performed during the X-1 program, reaching 23,000 ft (7,000 m) in 90 seconds.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_X-1#Mach_1_flight
1950 - Soviet Air Force transport Lisunov Li-2 (license-built DC-3) crashed in extremely adverse weather conditions involving a heavy snowstorm with strong winds on approach to Koltsovo Airport at Sverdlovsk, killing all 19, almost the entire national ice hockey team (VVS Moscow) of the Soviet Air Force - 11 players, as well as a team doctor and a masseur.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1950_Sverdlovsk_air_disaster
1952 - 1st all cargo air service across the North Atlantic is inaugurated by Pan American World Airways (Pan-Am) using Douglas DC6s pressurised aircraft
1953 - 1st production of the SO.1221 'Djinn', French two-seat light helicopter, was flown.
http://www.aviastar.org/helicopters_eng/snias_jinn.php
1953 - 1st flight of The Ambrosini Sagittario, Italian aerodynamic research aircraft based on the manufacturer's S.7. New swept wings and tail surfaces of wooden construction were fitted to the S.7 fuselage. The wing leading edge was swept at 45 degrees. At first, the S.7's piston engine was retained and the aircraft was known as the Freccia (Arrow).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambrosini_Sagittario
1953 - British European Airways Vickers VC.1 Type 610 Viking 1B 'Lord St Vincent' crashed on approach to Belfast-Nutts Corner Airport in Northern Ireland killing 27 over 35, after it hit the pole supporting an approach light.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Nutts_Corner_Viking_accident
1956 - The 2nd prototype Piasecki YH-16A , American tandem-rotor transport or rescue helicopter, Turbo equipped, crashed near Swedesboro, New Jersey killing pilots Harold Peterson and George Callahan. This led to cancellion of the project.
http://www.aero-web.org/specs/piasecki/yh-16a.htm - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piasecki_H-16
1959 - The Fairey Rotodyne, British compound gyroplane, piloted by Wilfred Ronald 'Ron' Gellatly and John G. P. Morton, sets a world speed record for convertiplanes of 190.9 mph over a 62-mile circuit.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairey_Rotodyne#Testing_and_evaluation
1964 - 1st flight of The Short Belfast, British heavy lift turboprop freighter.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_Belfast
1967 - The sole CAARP CP-100, French Aerobatic 2-seater prototype aircraft, is destroyed in a crash after it lost an aileron and parts of wings due to an overspeeded aerobatic maneuver, killing its pilots, Gérard Verette and Jacques Gomy.
http://www.aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=9525 - http://pdennez.free.fr/hommes/html/h101a.html
1969 - Launch of Venera 5, Soviet space probe to Venus.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venera_5
1969 - Ariana Afghan Airlines Flight 701 Boeing 727-113C crashed into a house on approach to London Gatwick Airport in heavy fog, Due to pilot error the flaps were not extended to maintain flight at final approach speed, Killing 2 on ground and 50 over 62 on board.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ariana_Afghan_Airlines_Flight_701
1977 - A Beechcraft Baron 58 crashed deliberatly into the Connellan Airways (Connair) complex at Alice Springs Airport, Australia, Carried out by Colin Richard Forman, a disgruntled former employee, killing pilot and 4 on ground.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connellan_air_disaster
1981 - Death of James Martin, British engineer who, with Captain Valentine Baker, was the founder of the Martin-Baker aircraft company which is now a leading producer of aircraft ejection seats.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Martin_(engineer)
1995 - Death of Benjamin Robert Rich, 2nd director of Lockheed's Skunk Works from 1975 to 1991, succeeding its founder, Kelly Johnson. Regarded as the "father of stealth"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Rich
2006 - Independence Air, American low-cost airline, cease operations.