JUL30

1910 - Birth of Brunetto di Montegnacco, Spanish war italian fighter ace, most successful Italian pilot during the Spanish Civil War.

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

1910 - 1st flight of the Bristol Boxkite, 1st aircraft built and designed by the British and Colonial Aeroplane Company (later to be known as the Bristol Aeroplane Company). It was a biplane of wire -braced wood construction based on designs by Henri Farman powered by a 50 hp Gnome rotary engine driving a single pusher propellor.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bristol_Boxkite#Design_and_developement

1912 - 1st flight of the Zeppelin LZ 13 Hansa, German Airship, which will make the 1st commercial airship flight.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LZ_13_Hansa

1914 - 1st pilot to cross the North Sea, Norwegian Tryggve Gran takes off in his Blériot XI-2 monoplane 'Ca Flotte' from Cruden Bay, Scotland, and lands 4 hours 10 minutes later at Jæren, near Stavanger, Norway, after a flight of 465 kilometres

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tryggve_Gran#Career

1918 - Death of Frank Linke-Crawford, Austro Hungarian WWI 4th ranking fighter ace, killed in his Aviatik D.I by 2 Italian Hanriot HD.1 fighters

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Linke-Crawford - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/austrhun/linke-crawford.php

1918 - Death of Heinrich Drekmann, German WWI flying ace, killed in action in his Fokker D VII

http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/germany/drekmann.php

1918 - Death of Owen John Frederick Scholte, British WWI flying ace, killed in a car accident.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owen_Scholte - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/england/scholte.php

1918 - American Walter Carl Simon (pilot) with Scottish William Watson Smith (Observer) scores 5 with their Bristol F.2b on a single mission.

http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/scotland/smith12.php - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/usa/simon.php

1918 - Death of John Cowell, Irish WWI fighter ace (mainly as observer), killed in action in his Bristol F.2b .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Cowell_(RAF_airman) - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/ireland/cowell.php

1919 - Roland Rohlfs, test pilot for Curtiss Engineering Corporation set an altitude record of 30700ft with a Curtiss-18T Wasp.

http://www.oldmagazinearticles.com/pdf/SIX-MILES-UP,-for-screen.PDF

1920 - Birth of Walter Schuck, German WWII fighter ace.

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

1921 - Swiss pilot, Francois Durafour, achieves a daring 1st by landing his airplane on the slopes of Mont Blanc, Europe's highest mountain in the Alps.

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C3%B4me_du_Go%C3%BBter#Les_exploits

1923 - 1st flight of the de Havilland DH.50, British large single-engined biplane transport.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Havilland_DH.50

1924 - Two Japanese airmen, Yukichi Goto and his flight engineer Minezo Yonezawo, return to Osaka after completing the 1st flight around Japan. The flight covers 2,727 miles and takes over 33 hours.

http://www.airlinehistory.org/full_content.php?article_id=132&full=yes&pbr=1

1931 - Russell N. Boardman and John Polando, with 15 minutes of fuel left in the tank, land their Bellanca named 'Cape Cod' At Istambul, Turkey, coming from New-York, a distance of 5011.8 miles in 49 hours 8 minutes.

http://earlyaviators.com/eboardm2.htm

1931 - The 2nd Bernard HV-120, French single-engined racing floatplane prototype built for the Schneider trophy, crashed at Berre, Killing its pilot Georges Bougault.

http://www.aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=2142

1935 - Lieutenant Frank Akers of the U.S. Navy becomes the 1st person to make a "blind" landing at sea. His Berliner-Joyce OJ-2 biplane has a hooded cockpit allowing him to see only his controls and instruments. He lands on the USS Langley.

http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/frankake.htm

1935 - The sole Northrop 3A (An XFT prototype fighter aircraft modified with a retractable undercarriage), disappeared without trace on a flight over the Pacific Ocean off California with test pilot Frank Scare.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_XFT#Development_and_design

1939 - The Boeing XB-15, American 4 engine heavy bomber prototype, flown by Caleb Vance Haynes, sets a load-to-altitude records, taking a 31,205-pound payload to 8,200 feet.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_XB-15

1940 - Death of Ademaro Nicoletti Altimari, Italian parachute pioneer raid pilot and WWII pilot in the crash of his bomber after engine failure on take off, trying to save his crew from the fire of the wreckage.

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

1943 - 1st flight of The SAAB 21, Swedish fighter/attack aircraft designed as a twin boom pusher configuration.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saab_21

1944 - Death of Nikolai Nikolaevich Polikarpov, Soviet aircraft designer, known as "King of Fighters".

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

1951 - 1st flight of the CFA D21T-4 Super Phryganet, French light conventional, high-wing braced monoplane with fixed tailwheel undercarriage and a fully enclosed cabin for the pilot and two passengers

http://www.aviastar.org/manufacturers/0536.html

1953 - Birth of Aleksandr Nikolayevich Balandin, Russian cosmonaut.

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

1954 - 1st flight of The Grumman F-11 Tiger, single-seat carrier-based United States Navy fighter aircraft.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grumman_F-11_Tiger

1954 - Birth of Gregory Carl "Ray J" Johnson, USN pilot and NASA astronaut

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregory_C._Johnson

1958 - 1st flight of The de Havilland Canada DHC-4 Caribou (known in the U.S. military as CV-2 and C-7 Caribou), Canadian-designed and produced specialized cargo aircraft with short takeoff and landing (STOL) capability.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Havilland_Canada_DHC-4_Caribou

1959 - 1st flight of The Norair N-156F, prototype of the Northrop F-5A Freedom Fighter, US light supersonic fighter aircraft, exceeding the speed of sound on this 1st flight.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_F-5#Design_and_development

1962 - Birth of Vladimir Nikolayevich Dezhurov, Russian Air Force pilot and cosmonaut

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

1962 - 1st flight of the Fairchild YC-123H Provider, CJ610 auxiliary turbojet engines fitted version of the American troop and cargo transport.

http://www.aviastar.org/air/usa/fair_provider.php?p=3

1970 - Operation Rimon 20 begun. Aerial battle which pitted the Israeli Air Force against Soviet fighter pilots stationed in Egypt during the War of Attrition. 5 Soviet flown MiG-21s were downed by Israeli F-4 Phantoms and Mirage IIIs. Contributing to the conclusion of a ceasefire, it was one of the final engagements of the War of Attrition.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Rimon_20

1970 - Death of Dan Able Kimball, American WWI pilot, executive of the rocket engine producer Aerojet Engineering Company and U.S. Secretary of the Navy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_A._Kimball

1970 - 1st flight of the EMBRAER EMB-200 Ipanema, Brazilian cantilever low-wing monoplane of all-metal construction agricultural aircraft.

http://www.aviastar.org/air/brazil/embraer_ipanema.php

1971 - All Nippon Airways Flight 58 Boeing 727-281 collided with a JASDF F-86 Sabre fighter over Shizukuishi, Iwate Prefecture. Killing all 162 on the airliner, the JSDF pilot parachuted to safety.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Nippon_Airways_Flight_58

1971 – David Scott and James Irwin on the Apollo Lunar Module module Falcon land on the Moon with the 1st Lunar Rover during Apollo 15 Mission

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_15#Landing

1975 - Death of Hubert Standford Broad, English WWI aviator and notable sports and test pilot.

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

1975 - Death of Herbert Hollick-Kenyon, British aviator who made significant contributions towards aviation in Antarctica.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Hollick-Kenyon

1976 - 1st flight of The HAL HJT-16 Kiran MK.II (Ray of Light), Indian two-seat basic jet trainer, re-engined version with improved weapon-carrying capability.

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

1977 - Death of Jean de Laborde (comte Jean Joseph Jules Noël de Laborde), French Naval Aviation pioneer and Admiral, famous for the scuttling of the French fleet in Toulon.

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

1978 - Death of Umberto Nobile, Italian aeronautical engineer and Arctic explorer.

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

1987 - Soyuz TM-2, 1st manned spaceflight of the Soyuz-TM spacecraft to the Soviet space station Mir, is back on earth.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_TM-2

1988 - Death of Harold Ross Harris, notable American test pilot and USAAF officer who held 26 flying records.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_R._Harris

1992 - 1st flight of The PZL W-3A Sokól, standard version for Western certification of the Polish medium-size, twin-engine, multipurpose helicopter.

http://www.aviastar.org/helicopters_eng/pzl_sokol.php

1995 - Death of Nikolai Dmitriyevich Kuznetsov, Russian Chief Designer of the Soviet Design Bureau OKB-276 which deals with the development, manufacture and distribution of equipment, especially aircraft engines, turbines and gearboxes.

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

2001 - Death of Ennio "Banana" Tarantola, Spanish War and WWII italian flying ace.

http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ennio_Tarantola - http://surfcity.kund.dalnet.se/italy_tarantola.htm

2005 - Ugandan presidential Mi-172 helicopter crashed in a mountain range in southern Sudan, Killing John Garang de Mabior, Sudanese politician and leader.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Garang#Death

2008 - 1st flight of the Piper PA-47 PiperJet, American single-engined very light jet (VLJ) prototype.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piper_PA-47_PiperJet