JAN25
1886 - Birth of Dean Ivan Lamb, American pilot, hired as a mercenary during the Mexican Revolution and who made that was quite possibly the 1st dogfight in history (pilots firing pistols at each other) against Phil Rader. He also helped to establish the Honduran Air Force.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dean_Ivan_Lamb
1889 - Birth of Giuseppe 'Jean' Cei, Italian aviation pioneer.
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giuseppe_Cei
1894 - Birth of Alfred Michael Koch, Candian WWI flying ace.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Michael_Koch - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/canada/koch1.php
1895 - Birth of Theophile Henri Condemine, French WWI balloon buster and WWII high ranking officer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Th%C3%A9ophile_Henri_Condemine - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/france/condemine.php
1912 - Henry Harley "Hap" Arnold sets an altiture record of 4,764 feet (1,452 m)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_H._Arnold#Military_aviation_pioneer
1926 - 1st flight of The Stinson Detroiter, American 6-seat cabin monoplane for passengers or freight.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stinson_Detroiter
1927 - 1st flight of the Morane-Saulnier MoS-121 (Morane-Saulnier MS 121), French single-seat parasol monoplane fighter prototype of mixed construction and Morane-Saulnier's 1st fighter design after WWI.
http://www.aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=1542 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morane-Saulnier_MoS-121
1930 - American Airways is formed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Airways
1933 - Mr. H. J. Penrose accompanied by Air Commodore P. F. M. Fellowes, set out from Westland aerodrome to perform a test climb which would prove that Everest could be cleared by a comfortable margin. They returned after an absence of an hour and forty minutes, having taken the Westland PV.3 to a height of over 10500m, where the temperature was less than -60°C
http://www.aviastar.org/air/england/west_pv-3.php
1934 - The Wright Bellanca WB-2 'Columbia' rechristened 'Maple leaf' is destroyed in a hangar fire at the Bellanca factory in Newcastle, Delaware.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright-Bellanca_WB-2_Columbia#Operational_history
1944 - Death of Shigeo Nango, Japanese WWII fighter ace, Killed in action in his KI-43 over Wewak.
http://www.cieldegloire.fr/010_nango_s.php - http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%8D%97%E9%83%B7%E8%8C%82%E7%94%B7
1947 - Spencer Airways Douglas C-47A Skytrain heavily loaded aircraft failed to get airborne in poor visibility from Croydon Airport, located near London, and crashed into a parked and empty CSA Douglas C-47 destroying both aircraft and killing 12 over 23.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1947_Croydon_Dakota_accident
1951 - Death of Ambroise Goupy, French engineer and aircraft designer.
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambroise_Goupy
1952 - Death of Paul Joseph "Ginty" McGinness, Australian WWI flying ace who also served the RAAF during WWII, co-founder of Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services (QANTAS).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_McGinness - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/australi/mcginness.php -
http://www.qantas.com.au/travel/airlines/history-founders/global/en#jump0
1956 - Death of Otto Könnecke, German WWI flying ace, one of the founding pilots of Deutsche Luft Hansa and who had a great involvment in the development of the new Luftwaffe after WWI.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_K%C3%B6nnecke - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/germany/konnecke.php
1959 - 1st domestic airline to fly its own jets is American Airlines Flying Boeing 707s.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_707#Operational_history
1964 - A Thor Agena rocket launched Echo 2, American metalized balloon satellite acting as a passive reflector of microwave signals.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Echo
1965 - Death of Sumner Sewall, American WWI fighter ace, Airline executive and politician.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumner_Sewall - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/usa/sewall.php
1967 - Death of Eric John Stephens, Australian WWI flying ace and early Qantas airliner pilot.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_John_Stephens - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/australi/stephens.php
1972 - Death of Erhard Milch, German Field Marshal who oversaw the development of the Luftwaffe as part of the re-armament of Germany following WWI.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erhard_Milch
1975 - 1st flight of The Birdman TL-1, American extremely minimalist aircraft sold in kit form, a boom connecting a set of wings with a V-tai, pilot's seat and a pedestal carrying the pusher engine attached to the top of the boom just forward of the wing and Flight control provided by a series of spoilers. Held to be the lightest aircraft to have been flown at the time.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birdman_TL-1
1983 - 1st flight of The Saab 340, Swedish two-engine turboprop aircraft designed and initially produced by a partnership between Saab and Fairchild Aircraft
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saab_340
1983 - 1st flight of the Jurca MJ-77 'Gnatsum', French homebuilt 3/4 scale replica aircraft based on the North American Mustang.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jurca_Gnatsum - http://www.aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=4949
1983 - Launch of The Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS), joint Satellite project of the United States (NASA), the Netherlands (NIVR), and the United Kingdom (SERC), 1st-ever space-based observatory to perform a survey of the entire sky at infrared wavelengths
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IRAS
1989 - 1st flight of The MAC Mamba, Australian strut-braced, high-wing monoplane with an enclosed glazed cabin, side-by-side configuration 2-seat light aircraft
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MAC_Mamba
1990 - Birth of Carlo Schmid, Swiss pilot, youngest pilot to fly solo around the world in 2012.
1990 - Avianca Flight 52, a Boeing 707 crashes in the town of Cove Neck, New York, due to fuel exhaustion and pilot error.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avianca_Flight_52
1994 - Launch of Clementine, NASA space probe to test sensors and spacecraft components under extended exposure to the space environment and to make scientific observations of the Moon and the near-Earth asteroid 1620 Geographos.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clementine_(spacecraft)
1996 - 1st flight of the Bombardier Challenger 604, Canadian twin engine jet business, major upgrade of the 601 design.
http://www.aviastar.org/air/canada/bombardier_challenger-604.php
2001 - RUTACA Airlines Flight 225, operated by Douglas DC-3C YV-224-C, crashed at Ciudad Bolívar killing all 24 on board plus one person on the ground.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_accidents_and_incidents_involving_the_DC-3_since_2000#2001
2003 - Launch of SORCE (Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment), NASA-sponsored satellite mission to provide state-of-the-art measurements of incoming X-ray, ultraviolet, visible, near-infrared, and total solar radiation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_Radiation_and_Climate_Experiment
2004 - Opportunity, MER-B (Mars Exploration Rover – B), American robotic rover, lands on the planet Mars
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opportunity_rover
2010 – Ethiopian Airlines Flight 409 Boeing 737-8AS crashes into the Mediterranean Sea shortly after take-off from Beirut Rafic Hariri International Airport, killing all 90 people on-board.