JUL09

1874 - Belgian Vincent de Groof is killed in an accident as he tries to do a flight using flapping wings.

http://www.techno-science.net/?onglet=glossaire&definition=8109

http://www.gettyimages.com.au/detail/news-photo/the-death-of-vincent-de-groof-on-july-9-1874-when-the-news-photo/2639029

1892 - Birth of Auguste Baux, French WWI flying ace

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auguste_Baux - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/france/baux.php

1892 - Birth of Cromwell Dixon, American early aviator and 1st person to fly across the Continental Divide.

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

1893 - Birth of Max Ritter von Mulzer, German WWI flying ace

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Ritter_von_Mulzer - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/germany/mulzer.php

1896 - Birth of Frederick Ernest Luff, American WWI flying ace

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Luff - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/usa/luff.php

1898 - Birth of William Edwin Jenkins, British WWI flying ace.

http://theaerodrome.com/aces/england/jenkins1.php

1918 - Death of James Thomas Byford McCudden, British WWI fighter ace, killed when his SE5a's engine failed on take-off.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_McCudden - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/england/mccudden1.php

1918 - Death of Helmut Dilthey, German WWI flying ace, Killed in his Albatross DVa by a DH.9 near Lille.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helmut_Dilthey - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/germany/dilthey.php

1924 - 1st recorded flight of a live bull takes place when champion breeder Nico V is flown from Rotterdam, Holland to Paris, France. The bull is carried by KLM in a Fokker F.III transport aircraft.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Aviation/Historical_anniversaries/July_in_aviation/July_9

1933 - Flying their Lockheed Sirius 'Tingmissartoq' built in 1929 and used for the 1931 survey flight of Alaska, the North Pacific and China, Charles Lindbergh and his wife begin a major route-proving tour of the North and South Atlantic.

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

1937 - Death of Bozidar Petrovich, Romanian Spanish civil war flying ace, Killed in his IL-15 by a Fiat CR.42 just after scoring his 5th victory.

http://surfcity.kund.dalnet.se/yugoslavia_petrovich.htm

1940 - 1st major fleet action of World War II between the British and Italian navies : The battle of Calabria begins. Swordfish from the British aircraft carrier HMS Eagle conduct two torpedo strikes but score no hits. 40 Italian Savoia-Marchetti SM.79 bombers attack the British aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal and other ships of Force H off Sardinia. They drop over 100 bombs but score no hits, and Blackburn Skuas from Ark Royal shoot down two SM.79 s and damage two others.

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

1940 - Death of Valerio Scarabellotto, Italian WWII pilot, killed in his Savoia-Marchetti S.M.79 during the Battle of Calabria, (known to the Italian Navy as the Battle of Punta Stilo),

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

1941 - In a span of under 3 hours, 3 Junkers Ju 88As suffer controlled flight into terrain in northeast England, believed to be due to a British radio counter-measure 'Meacon' which falsifies German navigational beacon signals and caused the planes to fly headlong into coastal hills.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_accidents_and_incidents_involving_military_aircraft_(1940%E2%80%931944)

1943 - The invasion of Sicily (Operation Husky) opens with an airborne assault mounted from airfields in North Africa. United States Army Air Force (USAAF) and Royal Air Force transport aircraft tow in the gliders (sailplanes) of the 1st British Airborne Division and drop the paratroops of the US 82nd Airborne Division.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Husky -

http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/research/history-of-aviation-timeline/interactive-aviation-timeline/british-military-aviation/1943.aspx

1943 - Birth of John Howard Casper, USAF pilot and NASA Astronaut.

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

1944 - Death of Ingvar Fredrik Hakansson, Swedish WWII pilot in the RAF, Drowned at sea near Dungeness after his Spitfire was damaged by the explosion of the V-1 he was attacking.

http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingvar_Fredrik_H%C3%A5kansson

1944 - 1st operational air launch of a V1 by a specially modified Heinkel He-111 (H22) aircraft marks the beginning of the second phase of the V1 campaign.

http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/research/history-of-aviation-timeline/interactive-aviation-timeline/british-military-aviation/1944.aspx

1945 - An RCAF Supermarine Spitfire from Rivers, Manitoba, photographed the eclipse of the sun for the 1st time in history, from 34,000 feet.

http://canadianaviationhistory.pbworks.com/w/page/13801119/On-this-day-in-Canadian-Aviation-History-July

1945 - 1st flight of the 2nd Curtiss XF15C, American mixed-propulsion fighter prototype.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtiss_XF15C

1947 - 1st flight of the Snyzer SG-IV-C 'Grey Gull', 1st canadian designed and built helicopter.

http://www.aviastar.org/helicopters_eng/sznycer_sg-6.php - http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/helicopter

1953 - New York Airways, America's 1st scheduled passenger helicopter carrier, begins service with Sikorsky S-55 military helicopters.

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

1954 - Death of Hugo Kaulen, Sr., pioneering German balloonist.

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

1956 - Trans-Canada Airlines Vickers Viscount 700 lost a propeller in flight on a flight from Chicago to Toronto and Montreal. The propeller entered the passenger cabin, killing a passenger. The aircraft made a successful emergency landing at Windsor, Ontario

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1956_Trans-Canada_Air_Lines_accident

1957 - 1st flight of The Aviation Traders ATL-90 Accountant, British twin-engined 28-passenger turboprop airliner

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

1959 - A Royal Air Force Vickers Valiant makes the 1st non-stop flight from England to Cape Town

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Aviation/Historical_anniversaries/July_in_aviation/July_9

1960 - Sabena begins airlifting Belgian nationals out of Congo. Over the next three weeks, 25,711 will fly home.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Aviation/Historical_anniversaries/July_in_aviation/July_9

http://amcmuseum.org/history/airlifts/congo_airlift.php

1960 - Death of Kurt-Bertram von Döring, German WWI flying ace, advisor with the Argentinian Air Force and the Peruvian Air Force between the Wars and Officer in WWII.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt-Bertram_von_D%C3%B6ring - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/germany/doring.php

1960 - Birth of Christopher Joseph "Gus" Loria, USMC aviator, test pilot and edically retired NASA astronaut.

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

1962 - Starfish Prime test (W49 thermonuclear warhead Launched via a Thor rocket) is successfully detonated at an altitude of 400 kilometres (250 mi) outhwest of Johnston Island in the Pacific Ocean.

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

1964 - United Airlines Flight 823 Vickers Viscount 745D crashed 2 miles northeast of Parrottsville, Tennessee after experiencing an uncontrollable fire on board, killing all 39.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Airlines_Flight_823

1965 - 1st flight of The Hawker Siddeley Andover (HS 780), British twin engined turboprop military transport aircraft.

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

1972 - Death 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

1973 - Death of Yvan Makhonine, French Russian born engineer and inventor, aircraft designer who investigated the concept of variable geometry wing.

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yvan_Makhonine

1976 - 1st flight of The Antonov An-32 'Cline', Russian twin-engined turboprop military transport aircraft.

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

1979 - Voyager 2 made its closest approach of Jupiter.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_2#Encounter_with_Jupiter

1979 - John D. Peterson, Jr., took off in a Manta Pterodactyl Fledgling (Ultra light aircraft) from Long Beach, California, for a transcontinantal flight.

http://airandspace.si.edu/collections/artifact.cfm?id=A19800372000

1982 - Pan Am Flight 759 Boeing 727-235 crashed due to a microburst shortly after take-off from New Orleans International Airport. All 145 on board of as well as 8 people on the ground were killed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan_Am_Flight_759

1987 - Death of William McKenzie Thomson, Canadian WWI fighter ace

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_McKenzie_Thomson - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/canada/thomson3.php

1992 - STS-50 (U.S. Microgravity Laboratory 1), Space Shuttle Columbia mission, is back on earth, landing at Kennedy Space Center for the 1st time ever due to bad weather at Edwards caused by the remnants of Hurricane Darby

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-50

1994 - Soyuz TM-18 is back on earth.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_TM-18

1995 – The Navaly church bombing is carried out by the Sri Lankan Air Force killing 125 Tamil civilian refugees.

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

2002 - Death of Vladimir Vladimirovich Vasyutin, Soviet pilot and cosmonaut.

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

2006 - Sibir Airlines Airbus A310, flight 778, crashes at Irkutsk International Airport, after overshooting the runway and hitting a concrete barrier.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S7_Airlines_Flight_778

2010 - The Qinetiq Zephyr, lightweight solar-powered UAV designed for use in observation and communications relay, takes off for an endurance record.

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