JAN12
1866 - The Aeronautical Society of Great Britain is founded in London (later to become the Royal Aeronautical Society) and is still in existence today.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Aviation/Historical_anniversaries/January_in_aviation/January_12
1879 - Birth of Calbraith Perry Rodgers, pioneer American aviator who made the 1st transcontinental airplane flight across the U.S.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calbraith_Perry_Rodgers
1883 - Birth of Gustav Otto, German aircraft and aircraft-engine designer and manufacturer, inventor of the four-stroke internal combustion engine.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustav_Otto
1891 - Birth of Jean Georges Bouyer, French WWI flying ace.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_G._Bouyer - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/france/bouyer.php
1891 - Birth of Leo C. Young, American radio engineer who had many accomplishments during a long career at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory. Although self-educated, he was a member of a small, creative team that is generally credited with developing the world's first true radar system.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_C._Young
1893 - Birth of Mikhail Iosifovich Gurevich, Soviet aircraft designer, partner (with Artem Mikoyan) of the famous MiG military aviation bureau.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhail_Iosifovich_Gurevich
1893 - Birth of Hermann Wilhelm Göring, German politician, military leader, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. WWI fighter ace, He was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Luftwaffe until the end of WWII
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_G%C3%B6ring - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/germany/goring.php
1894 - Birth of Hiram Franklin Davison, Canadian WWI flying ace.
http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/canada/davison.php
1899 - Birth of John Todd, Scottish WWI flying ace.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Todd_(aviator) - http://theaerodrome.com/aces/scotland/todd1.php
1899 - Birth of Clennell Haggerston "Punch" Dickins, pioneering Canadian aviator and bush pilot
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punch_Dickins
1904 - Birth of Richard Llewellyn Roger Atcherley , British racing pilot, senior commander in the RAF who also served as chief of Air Staff for the Royal Pakistan Air Force.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Atcherley
1904 - Birth of Modesto Madariaga Spanish aviation mechanic who took part in the historic flight of the Cuatro Vientos from Seville, Spain to Camagüey, Cuba
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modesto_Madariaga
1907 - Birth of Sergei Pavlovich Korolev, lead Soviet rocket engineer and spacecraft designer in the Space Race between the USA and the Soviet Union during the 1950s and 1960s. He is considered by many as the father of practical astronautics
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Korolev
1912 - 1st flight of The Curtiss Model F, American early flying boat
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtiss_Model_F
1913 - Birth of Chitoshi Isozaki, Japanese 2nd Sino-Japanese War and WWII fighter ace
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chitoshi_Isozaki - http://www.cieldegloire.com/010_isozaki_c.php
1915 - The sole Burgess Model I (Burgess I-Scout or Coast Defense Hydroaeroplane), American reconnaissance seaplane (a conventional Wright Model B design but with an engine mounted amidships in an enclosed fuselage, driving by chains two large pusher propellers mounted on the interplane struts. The undercarriage consisted of twin pontoons), crashed into the sea near Corregidor. It is notable as the 1st U.S. Army aircraft to conduct two-way radio communication with the ground.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burgess_Model_I
1915 - Gnome et Rhône, major French aircraft engine manufacturer is formed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnome_et_Rh%C3%B4ne
1916 - German aces Max Immelmann and Oswald Boelcke, with 8 kills, are the 1st pilots awarded with Pour le Mérite ("the Blue Max")
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pour_le_M%C3%A9rite
1917 - Death of Thomas Mottershead, British WWI pilot, from injuries after a dogfight with two Albatros D.III 5 days before, managing to take his burning FE-2d back to the Allied lines and made a successful forced landing saving his observer's life.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Mottershead
1922 - 1st flight of The Mitsubishi 2MR (Navy Type 10 Carrier Reconnaissance Aircraft or C1M), Japanese carrier-based reconnaissance biplane aircraft.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitsubishi_2MR
1926 - 1st flight of the Polikarpov DI-1 (also known as 2I-N1), prototype Soviet two-seat fighter
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polikarpov_DI-1
1930 - 1st flight of The Wedell-Williams Model 44, American racing aircraft, dominant racer of the 1930s, setting innumerable records including setting a new world speed record in 1933.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wedell-Williams_Model_44
1931 - 1st flight of The Vickers Type 163, prototype British biplane bomber.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vickers_Type_163
1933 - 1st flight of The Bernard 201T, French high wing 4 seat light touring aircraft.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_200#Variants - http://www.aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=497
1933 - Jean Mermoz takes off with his Couzinet 70 'Arc en Ciel' from Paris-Le Bourget to Buenos Aires for a south-Atlantic crossing.
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Mermoz#La_travers.C3.A9e_de_l.27Atlantique_Sud
1935 - Amelia Earhart becomes the 1st woman pilot to fly solo between Hawaii and the USA. She took off from Wheeler Field, Oahu, Honolulu, to fly her Lockheed Vega across the eastern Pacific to Oakland, California. Earhart lands after 18 hours 15 minutes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amelia_Earhart#Other_solo_flights
1936 – In the Second Italo-Abyssinian War: the Regia Aeronautica begin the Battle of Genale Doria by dropping 2 tons (1,814 kg) of mustard gas on Ethiopian positions
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Genale_Doria#Battle
1937 - Western Air Express Flight 7 Boeing 247B from Salt Lake City to Burbank, crashed into a mountain near Newhall, California, killing five. Among the dead was Martin Johnson of Martin and Osa Johnson fame (adventurers, authors, and documentary filmmakers).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Air_Express_Flight_7
1939 - 1st flight of the Bloch MB-135, French 4 engine low wing monoplane medium Bomber prototype.
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloch_MB.134#Quadrimoteur.2C_le_MB.135 - http://www.aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=4584
1942 - Death of Vladimir Mikhailovich Petlyakov, Soviet aircraft designer, killed in an air crash near Arzamas while flying a Pe-2 to Moscow.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Petlyakov
1942 - Death of Erbo Graf von Kageneck, German fighter pilot and WWII flying ace, from wounds received in action.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erbo_Graf_von_Kageneck - http://www.luftwaffe.cz/kageneck.html
1942 - Death of Owen Morgan Baldwin, British WWI fighter ace
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owen_Baldwin - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/england/baldwin.php
1944 - Death of Lance Cleo "Wildcat" Wade, American fighter ace with the Royal Air Force, in the crash of his Auster after a spin at Foggia, Italy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lance_C._Wade - http://www.cieldegloire.com/002_raf_wade_l_c.php
1952 - 1st prototype of the Vickers-Armstrongs Valiant, British four-jet bomber, is lost due to an in-flight fire.
http://www.aviastar.org/air/england/vickers_valiant.php?p=1
1953 - The United States Navy (USN) begins operational flight tests from the 1st angled-deck aircraft carrier, the USS Antietam (CV-36).
1955 - A TWA Martin 2-0-2A on takeoff from Boone County Airport (now the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport) collided in mid-air with a privately owned Douglas DC-3 that had entered the airport's control space without proper clearance, killing all 15 on both planes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1955_Cincinnati_mid-air_collision
1960 - Death of Nevil Shute Norway, popular British novelist and a successful aeronautical engineer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nevil_Shute
1961 - Henry Deutschendorf and his crew secured the 2000km closed-circuit record at 1708.8km/h with a Convair B-58 Hustler.
http://www.aviastar.org/air/usa/convair_hustler.php
1966 - Birth of Sergei Nikolayevich Revin, Russian cosmonaut and pilot.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Revin
1970 - Death of Blanche Stuart Scott, also known as Betty Scott, possibly the 1st American woman aviator.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blanche_Stuart_Scott
1973 - A US Navy F-4B Phantom of VF-161 scores the 197th and final US air-to-air victory of the Vietnam War, A MIG-17F.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Aviation/Historical_anniversaries/January_in_aviation/January_12
http://www.acig.org/artman/publish/article_244.shtml
1973 - Death of Francesco Brach Papa , Italian aviation pioneer.
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francesco_Brach_Papa
1979 - Pilatus Aircraft acquires Britten-Norman
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Aviation/Historical_anniversaries/January_in_aviation/January_12
1985 - Death of Karl Deilmann, German WWI flying ace and industrial.
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Deilmann - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/germany/deilmann.php
1986 - Launch of STS-61-C, last shuttle mission before the Space Shuttle Challenger disasterOn Board is the 1st Costa Rica-born astronaut, Franklin Chang-Diaz.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-61-C
1990 - Air Inter and UTA (Union des Transports Aériens) are merged into Air France.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_France
1994 - 1st flight of the Kamov Ka-32A1, firefighting version of the Kamov Ka-32, russian Multirole medium helicopter.
http://www.aviastar.org/helicopters_eng/ka-32a1.php
1997 - A non-stop, round-the-world balloon flight by Bertrand Piccard and Vim Verstraeten ends in failure when a fuel leak forces the balloonists to ditch in the Mediterranean shortly after take-off.
1997 - Launch of STS-81, Space Shuttle Atlantis mission to the Mir space station.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-81
1998 - Operation Manu Tama'i, Chilean air Force mounts a training operation sending F-5E Tigers refueled by a Boeing KB 707 to Rapa Nui (Easter Island).
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuerza_A%C3%A9rea_de_Chile#Manu_Tama.27i
2005 - Launch of Deep Impact, NASA space probe, designed to study the composition of the comet interior of 9P/Tempel, by releasing an impactor into the comet.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Impact_(spacecraft)
2008 - A Mil Mi-17 transport helicopter belonging to the Armed Forces of the Republic of Macedonia, crashed on foggy conditions 50–100 metres from the village of Blace, situated in the region of Katlanovo, Macedonia, killing all 11.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Macedonian_Armed_Forces_Mil_Mi-17_crash
2009 - Alitalia (Linee Aeree Italiane S.p.A) cease operations, bought by the private company Alitalia (Compagnia Aerea Italiana)