JUNE26

1918 - Death of Edward Carter Eaton, canadian WWI flying ace, killed in action in his Sopwith Camel.

http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/canada/eaton.php

1918 - Death of Kurt Schönfelder, German WWI flying ace, killed in his Fokker D.VII by a Sopwith Camel

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

1918 - Death of Werner Steinhäuser, German WWI flying ace, killed in action in his Fokker DR.I

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

1918 - On a single mission, 4 Fokker DVII are shared by WWI flying aces american Kenneth Russell Unger, British Lawrence Percival Coombes and Ivan Couper Sanderson all 3 flying sopwith Camels.

http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/usa/unger.php - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/england/sanderson.php - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/england/coombes.php

1925 - Birth of Pavel Ivanovich Belyayev, Soviet fighter pilot with extensive experience in piloting different types of aircraf and 1st commander of the cosmonaut corps and the cosmonaut who commanded the historic Voskhod 2 mission which saw the 1st man walk in space

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

1926 - 1st flight of SPAD S-60, french Twin seat fighter biplane prototype.

http://www.aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=124 - http://www.aviastar.org/air/france/bleriot_s-60.php

1926 - Brothers Ludovic and Paul Arrachart take off from le Bourget to Bassorah in the Potez 28/2 (french Biplane twin seat raid aircraft) for an attempt to set a world distance record.

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potez_28 - http://aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=9820

1926 - 1st flight of The Avro 566 Avenger, British fighter prototype ,single-seat, single-engine biplane of wood and fabric construction.

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

1932 - 1st flight of the TsAGI 1-EA, russian Basic experimental helicopter with 4-blade main rotor and four small 2-blade anti-rotation propellers (with variable pitch),installed in pairs at the ends of fuselage.

http://www.aviastar.org/helicopters_eng/brat_1ea.php

1933 - 1st flight of the Bloch MB-200, French twin-engined high-wing monoplane with a fixed undercarriage bomber.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloch_MB.200

1934 - 1st flight of the Caudron C.530 'Rafale', french twin seat single engine monoplace sports aircraft.

http://aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=9841

1934 - 1st flight of The Airspeed AS.6 Envoy , British light, twin-engined transport aircraft.

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

1935 - 1st flight of The Breguet-Dorand Gyroplane Laboratoire designed by Louis Breguet, considered by some to be the 1st practical helicopter in the world.

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

1936 - 1st flight of The Focke-Wulf Fw 61 (Fa 61), 1st functional helicopter with two side-by-side rotors.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focke-Wulf_Fw_61

1941 - 3 unidentified planes of apparently Soviet origin bombed Kassa, today Košice (Slovakia),then a part of Hungary, killing and wounding over a dozen people and causing minor material damage. This attack became the pretext for the government of Hungary to declare war on the Soviet Union.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ko%C5%A1ice_attack

1942 - Death of Antonio Larsimont Pergameni, Spanish war and WWII italian flying ace, killed in action in North Africa in his Macchi MC.202.

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

1942 - Death of Stanislaw Jakub Skarzynski, Polish Air Force and aviator famous for his transatlantic solo flight in 1933, and WWII pilot. He helped in transferring Polish pilots, fleeing from Poland, through Romania to France where the Polish Air Force was recreated. His Wellington had to ditch in the North Sea due to engine damage. Leaving the Wellington last, he was washed out to sea and was the only crew member lost.

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

1942 - 1st flight of The Grumman F6F Hellcat, US carrier-based fighter aircraft.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F6F_Hellcat

1944 - Death of Juraj Puškár, Slovak WWII flying ace who served on the Eastern front with the Axis Forces, killed in his Me-109 G6 in a dogfight with P-51 Mustangs.

http://en.valka.cz/viewtopic.php/title/Puskar-Juraj/t/127813

1946 - The U.S. Army Air Force and Navy adopt the "knot" and "nautical mile" as standard aeronautical units for speed and distance. A nautical mile is about 6.080 ft. (1,853 m), and knot is the equivalent of one nautical mile per hour.

http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/research/history-of-aviation-timeline/interactive-aviation-timeline/world-aviation/1946.aspx

1948 - The Berlin airlift begins, 32 C-47s lifted off for Berlin hauling 80 tons of cargo, including milk, flour, and medicine.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Blockade#The_Airlift_begins

1950 - Australian National Airways Douglas DC-4 'Amana' crashed after takeoff from Perth Airport, killing all 29 people on board.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1950_Australian_National_Airways_Douglas_DC-4_crash

1952 - Birth of William Arthur Pailes, USAF pilot, Computer Scientist and NASA astronaut

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_A._Pailes

1954 - 1st flight of The BAC Jet Provost (originally built by Hunting Percival),British jet-powered trainer aircraft.

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

1955 - Death of Engelbert Zaschka, German chief engineer, chief designer and inventor, one of the 1st German helicopter pioneers.

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

1956 - Birth of Bernard Anthony Harris, Jr., NASA astronaut and 1st African American to perform an extra-vehicular activity (spacewalk)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_A._Harris,_Jr.

1959 - TWA Flight 891 Lockheed L-1649A Starliner broke up after take off from Milan Malpensa Airport, probably due to a lightning strike which caused the explosion of the fuel vapors contained in tank No.7, followed immediately by either an explosion of pressure or a further explosion in tank No.6. All 68 were killed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TWA_Flight_891

1961 - Death of Hélène Dutrieu, Belgian - French cycling world champion, stunt cyclist, stunt motorcyclist, automobile racer, stunt driver, pioneer aviator, wartime ambulance driver, and director of a military hospital.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%A9l%C3%A8ne_Dutrieu

1961 - 1st flight of the Wassmer WA-22 'Super Javelot', French single seat glider

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wassmer_Javelot#Variants - http://aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=3762

1964 - 1st flight of the Curtiss-Wright X-19A, American experimental VTOL tiltrotor airplane.

http://www.aviastar.org/manufacturers/0650.html

1973 - At Plesetsk Cosmodrome, a Kosmos-3M, soviet Orbital carrier rocket, explodes on the launch pad killing 9.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmos-3M#Accidents

1973 - Death of Vance Breese, American aviation engineer, manufacturer and test pilot.

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

1974 - 1st flight of The Eurocopter AS350 Ecureuil (Squirrel), single-engined intermediate helicopter

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurocopter_AS350

1978 – Air Canada Flight 189 McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32 to Toronto overruns the runway and crashes into the Etobicoke Creek ravine.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Canada_Flight_189

1981 - Dan-Air Flight 240 Hawker Siddeley HS 748-108 series 2A crashed near the village of Nailstone, Leicestershire, following major structural failure caused by the failure of a cabin door, resulted in the aircraft's destruction and the deaths of all three on board (both pilots and a cabin attendant)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan-Air_Flight_240

1983 - 1st flight of The Ilyushin Il-78 (NATO reporting name Midas), Russian four-engined aerial refueling tanker based on the Il-76.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilyushin_Il-78

1988 - Air France Flight 296 Airbus A320 on a demonstration flight at an airshow at Mulhouse-Habsheim crashes and kills four people, including the pilot and co-pilot.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_France_Flight_296

1994 - Air Ivoire Fokker F-27 Friendship 400M crashes 3nm short of the runway of Abidjan-Felix Houphouet Boigny Airport, Ivory coast, with flaps and undercarriage still retracted, killing all 17 on board.

http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19940626-0

1995 - Death of Samuel Kurtz Hoffman, American engineer who specialised in rocket propulsion,developed the F-1 engines that would power the Saturn V rocket, and later worked on the Space Shuttle Main Engine.

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

2003 – The NASA Helios prototype (solar- and fuel-cell-system-powered unmanned aerial vehicles), breaks up and falls into the Pacific Ocean about ten miles (16 km) W of the Hawaiian Island Kauai during a remotely piloted systems checkout flight in preparation for an endurance test scheduled for the following month. Cause was flight through wind shear on a day when the conditions had been pronounced "marginal".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_Helios#Crash

2005 - Death of Gordon Leonard Sinclair, British WWII flying ace.

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

2010 - Launch of Chollian, known as Communication, Ocean and Meteorological Satellite 1(COMS-1), South Korean satellite for communication, oceanography, and meteorological observation, Along with Arabsat 5A, Saudi Arabian communications satellite.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chollian - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabsat-5A

2013 - Shenzhou 10, Chinese space flight to the Tiangong-1 space station, is back on earth.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shenzhou_10