JAN09

1886 - Birth of Marcello Arlotta, Italian WWI dirigible pilot.

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

1889 - Birth of Roger Amedee Del'Haye, Canadian WWI flying ace.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._A._Del'Haye - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/canada/delhaye.php

1892 - Birth of Charles Meredith Bouverie Chapman, British WWI flying ace.

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

1892 - Birth of Rothesay Nicholas Montagu Stuart Wortley, British WWI flying ace and aviation journalist.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rothesay_Stuart_Wortley - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/england/stuart_wortley.php

1897 - Birth of Edgar Taylor, American WWI flying ace.

http://theaerodrome.com/aces/usa/taylor2.php

1898 - Birth of Robert John Orton Compston, British WWI fighter ace.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_J._O._Compston - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/england/compston.php

1898 - Birth of Albert Edward Woodbridge, British WWI flying ace.

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

1900 - Birth of Richard Halliburton, American traveler, adventurer, and author, Best known today for having swum the length of the Panama Canal and paying the lowest toll in its history (36 cents), and having flown round the world (Flying Carpet Expedition) in a Stearman C-3B.

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

1903 - Birth of Melitta Schenk Gräfin von Stauffenberg (born Melitta Schiller), German aviatrix who served as a test pilot for the German Luftwaffe before and during WWII.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melitta_Schenk_Gr%C3%A4fin_von_Stauffenberg

1911 - Death of Edvard Rusjan, Slovene flight pioneer and airplane constructor in the crash of his prototype "Sokol".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edvard_Rusjan - http://www.edvard-rusjan.it/rusing.html

1911 - Joseph Joel "Joe" Hammond, reaches a speed estimated at 44-47mph and an altitude of 2,500 feet while giving a demonstration attended by the Governor of Western Australia.

http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/research/history-of-aviation-timeline/interactive-aviation-timeline/world-aviation/1911.aspx

1916 - 1st flight of the Grigorovich M-9 (ShCh M-9 or Shchetinin M-9), Russian WWI-era biplane flying boat.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grigorovich_M-9

1918 - Death of Max Ritter von Müller, German WWI fighter ace, his Albatros D.Va shot down by 2 SE5a fighters near Moorslede.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Ritter_von_M%C3%BCller_(aviator) - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/germany/muller3.php

1923 - 1st flight of a practical gyroplane or rotocraft is made by Juan de la Cierva's C-4 Autogyro, which is flown by Spenser Gomes at Cuatro Vientos Airfield in Madrid, Spain.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autogyro - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cierva_C.4

1926 - Death of Maurice Albert Rousselle, French WWI flying ace.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Rousselle - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/france/rousselle.php

1939 - 1st flight of the Bloch MB-174, French twin engine 3 seat reconnaissance bomber issued from the MB-170

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloch_MB.170_%C3%A0_MB.178#MB.174 - http://www.aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=4494

1941 - 1st flight of the Avro Lancaster, British four-engined WWII heavy bomber.

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

1943 - 1st flight of The Lockheed L049 (C-69) Constellation ("Connie"), American propeller-driven airliner powered by four 18-cylinder radial Wright R-3350 engines, with a triple-tail design and dolphin-shaped fuselage.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_Constellation - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_C-69_Constellation

1945 - 1st prototype Boeing C-97 Stratofreighter, piloted by Major Curtin L. Reinhardt, flew from Seattle to Washington, DC in 6 hours 4 minutes, at an average speed of 383 mph (616 km/h) with 20,000 pounds (lb) of cargo, setting a transcontinental record.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_C-97_Stratofreighter#Design_and_development

1951 - 1st flight of The Tupolev Tu-85 'Barge', Soviet prototype strategic bomber based on the Tu-4, an unlicensed copy of the Boeing B-29 Superfortress.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupolev_Tu-85

1952 - Death of Antonie Strassmann, German aviatrix and actress.

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonie_Stra%C3%9Fmann

1959 - Death of Roger Carpentier, French test pilot, killed in the crash of the 2nd Sud Aviation SE-116 'Voltigeur' prototype.

http://213.198.1.32/fredshangar/se116_voltigeur.htm - http://www.aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=7352

1956 - The Luftwaffe (Bundeswehr) is re-formed.

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luftwaffe_(Bundeswehr)

1956 - 1st flight of the Mikoyan/Gurevich Ye-50/1, soviet Swept-wing, experimental high-altitude interceptor. (Initial MiG-21 Variant)

http://www.aviastar.org/air/russia/mig-e50.php

1960 - Death of Ernesto Cabruna, Italian WWI fighter ace.

http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernesto_Cabruna - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/italy/cabruna.php

1962 - 1st flight of The Hawker Siddeley HS 121 Trident, British short/medium-range three-engined airliner, 1st airliner to make a fully automatic approach and landing in revenue service

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

1963 - 1st flight of The Yakovlev Yak-36 'Freehand' (tethered hover flight), Soviet technology demonstrator for a VTOL combat aircraft.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakovlev_Yak-36

1970 - Death of Frederick Libby, 1st American ace of WWI, founder of Western Air Express

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Libby - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/usa/libby.php

1975 - USAF Convair VT-29D collided with a Cessna 150H over the James River near Newport News, Virginia, at an altitude of 1,500 feet due to the reduced nighttime conspicuity, killing all 9 on both planes.

http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19750109-0 - http://www.airdisaster.com/reports/ntsb/AAR75-10.pdf

1975 - Golden West Airlines Flight 261 De Havilland DHC-6 Twin Otter 100 collided with a Cessna 150 near Whittier, California, as each crew failed to see and avoid the other aircraft because of the position of the sun, killing all 14 on both planes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_West_Airlines_Flight_261 - http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19750109-1

1983 - A Michigan Air National Guard McDonnell-Douglas F-4C Phantom II on a Special Military Instrument Intercept Clearance Mission to intercept a private Beechcraft D-55 Baron, collided in poor visibility with the light-twin killing all 7 from the beechcraft while the F-4 returned safe to base.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_accidents_and_incidents_involving_military_aircraft_(1975%E2%80%931999)#1983

1990 - Launch of STS-32, Space Shuttle Columbia mission to deploy the SYNCOM IV-F5 defense communications satellite (also known as LEASAT 5) and a number of mid-deck scientific payloads, some of which had already been flown on previous shuttle missions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-32

1997 - Balloonists Per Lindstrand and Richard Branson abandon their non-stop, round-the-flight in Virgin Global Challenger, when its hydrogen gas buoyancy cell develops a leak.

http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/research/history-of-aviation-timeline/interactive-aviation-timeline/world-aviation/1997.aspx

1997 - Comair Flight 3272 operating an Embraer EMB 120 Brasilia aircraft, crashed while on approach into Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport. All 29 aboard were killed

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comair_Flight_3272

2001 - Launch of Shenzhou 2, 2nd chinese unmanned Shenzhou spacecraft. Inside the reentry capsule were a monkey, a dog and a rabbit in a test of the spaceship's life support systems.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shenzhou_2

2003 - TANS Perú Flight 222 Fokker F28-1000 Fellowship crashes while on approach to Chachapoyas Airport, killing all 46 on board.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TANS_Per%C3%BA_Flight_222

2007 - AerianTur-M Antonov An-26 crashed while attempting to land at the U.S. military base in Balad, Iraq, killing 34 over 35. Officials claim the crash was caused by poor weather conditions, but other sources claim that this is a cover-up and the plane was actually shot down by a missile.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Balad_aircraft_crash

2011 - Iran Air Flight 277 Boeing 727-286Adv crashed near Urmia Airport, West Azarbaijan province, Iran, after a go-around was initiated during final approach, in poor weather conditions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_Air_Flight_277

2012 - Launch of Ziyuan 3 (ZY-3), Chinese Earth observation satellite.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ziyuan_3