JAN28
1852 - Birth of Louis Brennan, Irish-Australian mechanical engineer, inventor and early helicopter designer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Brennan
1871 - The last balloon to leave Paris during the Persian siege, takes off with orders for the French fleet to bring food and supplies to replenish the French capital, an armistice having been signed. The flight of the 'General Cambronne' flown by Auguste Tristan ends a period of almost exactly 5 months during which the advantages of balloons were put to efficient use.
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballon_mont%C3%A9#Liste_des_ballons_mont.C3.A9s
1884 - Birth of Auguste Antoine Piccard (twin brother of Jean), Swiss physicist, inventor and explorer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auguste_Piccard
1884 - Birth of Jean Felix Piccard (twin brother of Auguste), also known as Jean Piccard, Swiss-born American chemist, engineer, professor and high-altitude balloonist.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Piccard
1891 - Birth of David Luther Burgess, Canadian WWI flying ace and politician.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Luther_Burgess - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/canada/burgess.php
1892 - Birth of Willi Rosenstein, German WWI flying ace.
http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/germany/rosenstein.php - http://www.flieger-album.de/geschichte/portraits/rosensteinwilli.php
1892 - Birth of David Mary Tidmarsh, Irish WWI flying ace who also served in WWII
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Tidmarsh_(aviator) - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/ireland/tidmarsh.php
1894 - Birth of Bernard Henri Barny de Romanet, French WWI fighter ace and successful sporting pilot.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Barny_de_Romanet - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/france/barny.php
1899 - Birth of David Sinton Ingalls, only United States Navy Flying Ace of WWI, and 1st ace in U. S. Navy history.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Ingalls - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/usa/ingalls.php
1905 - Birth of Luther George Simjian, Armenian-American inventor of numerous devices and owner of over 200 patents. He gained commercial success during World War II with another invention, his Optical Range Estimation Trainer, a kind of simple flight simulator, made from mirrors, light sources and miniature airplanes, used to train US military pilots in estimating the speed and distance of airplanes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luther_George_Simjian
1911 - Theodore Gordon 'Spuds' Ellyson becomes the 1st Naval Aviator as he took off in a Curtiss “grass cutter” plane. . With a blocked throttle, this ground plane was not supposed to fly, and Ellyson was not proficient enough to fly. He slewed off left, cracking up the plane somewhat by making a wing-first landing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_G._Ellyson#Naval_Aviator_Number_One
1917 - 1st flight of The Junkers J.I (manufacturer's designation J 4 / Not to be confused with the J 1), German armored sesquiplane low-level ground attack, observation aircraft, 1st all-metal aircraft to enter mass production.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junkers_J.I
1917 - Death of Frank Widenham Goodden, chief test pilot for the Royal Aircraft Factory, killed in a crash after his Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5 broke up in flight.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Goodden
1919 - Birth of Francis Stanley "Gabby" Gabreski (Franciszek Gabryszewski), top American fighter ace in Europe during WWII, and jet fighter ace in Korea.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabby_Gabreski - http://cieldegloire.com/014_gabreski_f_s.php
1920 - Death of Aristide Faccioli, Italian engineer, aircraft designer, automobile and aviation pioneer.
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristide_Faccioli
1927 - Death of William Geoffrey Meggitt, british WWI flying ace, killed in an accident at Norbury while flying an Armstrong Whitworth Siskin.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Meggitt - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/england/meggitt.php
1927 - The Boeing Airplane Co. signs a contract with the U.S. Postal Department to fly airmail on the 1,918-mile route between Chicago, Ill., and San Francisco, Calif., using the Model 40A mail plane with an air-cooled engine. William E. Boeing later points out that his planes are designed to carry mail and people rather than radiators.
http://www.boeing.com/history/chronology/chron03.html
1931 - Death of Gunther Plüschow, German aviator, aerial explorer and author, Only German Prisoner of war (in either WW) to escape from britain back to Germany. Killed in a crash near the Brazo Rico , part of Lake Argentino.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunther_Pl%C3%BCschow
1935 - 1st flight of the Potez 62, French twin-engine high wing civil airliner.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potez_62 - http://www.aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=1381
1936 - 1st flight of the Gourdou-Leseurre GL-432, French parasol-wing monoplane dive-bomber prototype.
http://www.aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=492
1936 - 1st flight of the Gourdou-Leseurre GL-821 HY, French low-wing 4 seat seaplane torpedo bomber prototype.
http://www.aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=9314
1939 - Birth of John McCreary Fabian, USAF pilot and NASA Astronaut
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_M._Fabian
1941 – Final air battle of the French-Thai War. Martins B-10 of the 50th Bomber Squadron set out on a raid on Sisophon, escorted by thirteen Hawk 75Ns of the 60th Fighter Squadron. Japanese-mediated armistice goes into effect later in the day.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French-Thai_War#War
1946 - 1st prototype Short S.35 Shetland I, British high-speed, long-range, four-engined flying-boat, burnt out at its moorings as a result of a galley fire.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_Shetland#Short_S.35_Shetland_I
1948 - A Douglas C-47B-40-DK Skytrain carrying 28 migrant farm workers who were being deported from California back to Mexico, crashed in Los Gatos Canyon, 20 miles west of Coalinga in Fresno County, California, killing all 32. Considering the racist mistreatment of the passengers before and after the accident, American singer-songwriter and folk musician Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Guthrie wrote a protest song the day after : "Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deportee_(Plane_Wreck_at_Los_Gatos)
1949 - 1st flight of the SNCAC NC-271, French Experimental glider, reduced model of the swept wing jet bomber NC-270.
http://www.aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=10035
1950 - 1st flight of the Brochet MB-70, French twin seat high wing single engine tourer aircraft.
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brochet_MB-80#Brochet_MB-70 - http://www.aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=9760
1950 - Birth of David Carl Hilmers, USMC officer and NASA astronaut.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_C._Hilmers
1951 - Birth of Leonid Kostyantynovych Kadenyuk, Soviet test pilot and only NASA astronaut of independent Ukraine.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonid_Kadeniuk
1951 - Death of Dominic Salvatore "Don" Gentile, USAF WWII fighter ace and test pilot, killed in the crash of his T-33A-1-LO Shooting Star trainer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominic_Salvatore_Gentile - http://www.cieldegloire.com/014_gentile_d_s.php
1953 - A point to point record between London and Mauripur in Karachi is set by Flight Lieutenant L.M. Whittington and Flight Lieutenant J.A. Brown in an English Electric Canberra covering 3,921 statute miles in 8 hours 52 minutes 28 seconds.
1962 - Death 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
1963 - Death of René Paul Louis Dousinelle, French WWI flying ace.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9_Dousinelle - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/france/dousinelle.php
1963 - Death of Jean Felix Piccard , also known as Jean Piccard, Swiss-born American chemist, engineer, professor and high-altitude balloonist.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Piccard
1964 - A Soviet MiG-19 shoots down a T-39 Sabreliner which accidentally entered East German airspace. All 3 crew killed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-39_Aircraft_Incident
1966 - Lufthansa Flight 005 Convair CV 440 crashed just beyond the runway in Bremen, stalling due to icing and poor visibility on a go-around after an aborted landing, killing all 46.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lufthansa_Flight_005
1971 - Commander Donald H. Lilienthal, USN flew a P-3C Orion to a world speed record for heavyweight turboprops. Over 15–25 kilometers, he reached 501 mph
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_P-3_Orion#Notable_events.2C_accidents.2C_and_incidents
1984 - 1st flight of the Bumble Bee, american single engine single seat biplane which held the record of being at that time the smallest aircraft in the world.
http://www.pimaair.org/collection-detail.php?cid=254
1986 - STS-51-L mission – Space Shuttle Challenger breaks apart after liftoff killing all seven astronauts on board.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Challenger_disaster
- Francis Richard "Dick" Scobee, USAF test Pilot and NASA Astronaut. - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Scobee
- Michael John Smith, usually known as Mike Smith, USN Test pilot and NASA Astronaut - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_J._Smith_(astronaut)
- Ellison Shoji Onizuka, 1st Asian American to reach space, USAF Pilot and NASA Astronaut - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellison_S._Onizuka
- Judith Arlene Resnik, American engineer and a NASA astronaut - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judith_A._Resnik
- Ronald Ervin McNair, Ph.D., American physicist and NASA astronaut. - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_E._McNair
- Christa McAuliffe, American teacher and NASA astronaut. - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christa_McAuliffe
- Gregory Bruce Jarvis, American engineer, USAF test pilot and NASA astronaut - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Jarvis
1992 - Azerbaijani Air Force transport helicopter Mil Mi-8 is shot down during the Nagorno-Karabakh War by a heat-seeking missile near the Azerbaijani town of Shusha, killing all 44.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1992_Azerbaijani_Mil_Mi-8_shootdown
1993 - Death of James William Pearson, American WWI fighter ace, Believed to be the last American surviving ace of WWI.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_William_Pearson - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/usa/pearson1.php
1998 - A Eurocopter Super Puma helicopter operated by Bristow Helicopters lifts a record payload of 2 crew and 41 passengers, more than twice the normal number of passengers, during flood relief operations in Northern Australia.
1998 - Andy Nelson and navigator Bertrand Piccard, lift off in the Breitling Orbiter II in an attempt of a round the world flight.
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertrand_Piccard#Deuxi.C3.A8me_tentative
2002 – TAME Flight 120, a Boeing 727-100 crashes in the Andes mountains in southern Colombia, while on approach to Tulcán's Teniente Coronel Luis A. Mantilla International Airport, due to Inadequate navigation and operation of the aircraft by the pilot in command, killing all 94.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TAME_Flight_120
2010 - Launch of Globus-1M No.12L (Raduga-1M 2), Russian military communications satellite.