MARCH06
1867 - Birth of Samuel Franklin Cowdery (later known as Samuel Franklin Cody), American early pioneer of manned flight, most famous for his work on the large kites known as Cody War-Kites that were used in WWI as a smaller alternative to balloons for artillery spotting. He was also the 1st man to conduct a powered flight in Britain.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Cody
1886 - Birth of Townsend Foster Dodd, American pioneer aviator.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Townsend_Foster_Dodd
1887 - Birth of Reuben Hollis Fleet, American aviation pioneer, industrialist and army officer, founder of Consolidated Aircraft.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reuben_H._Fleet
1893 - Birth of Fritz Otto Bernert, Gearman WWI fighter ace.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fritz_Otto_Bernert - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/germany/bernert.php
1894 - Birth of Elia Antonio Liut, Italian Aviation pioneer.
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elia_Antonio_Liut
1901 - Birth of Wladimir Sergejewitsch Pyschnow, Soviet Aerodynamic engineer.
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wladimir_Sergejewitsch_Pyschnow
1910 - 1st flight of the ASL monoplane N°2, Early british canard pusher aircraft.
http://flyingmachines.ru/Site2/Crafts/Craft28420.htm
1911 - Birth of Lazar Sergeyevich Chapchakhov, Soviet flying ace of the Finnish-Soviet Winter War and WWII.
http://www.cieldegloire.com/015_chapchakhov_l_s.php - http://surfcity.kund.dalnet.se/soviet_chapchakhov.htm
1913 - Birth of Alexander Ivanovich Pokryshkin, WWII Soviet fighter Ace and tactician.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Pokryshkin - http://cieldegloire.com/015_pokryshkin_a_i.php
1915 – 1st fatal accident involving Japanese Naval aviators occurs when Yokosho Navy Type Mo Large Seaplane (Maurice Farman 1914 Seaplane), serial number 15, crashed at sea with Sub-Lieuts. Tozaburo Adachi, Takao Takerube, and W/O 3/c Hisanojo Yanase on board were killed
http://flyingmachines.ru/Site2/Crafts/Craft28795.htm
1918 - The Finnish Air Force (FAF or FiAF) is founded.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_Air_Force
1918 - Death of Harry William MacKintosh MacKay, Scottish WWI flying ace (Observer/Gunner), from wounds received in action in his De Havilland D.H.4 just after having scored 4 of his 5 victories (2 Pflaz DIII and 2 Albatros DV) with his pilot, british fighter ace David Arthur Stewart.
http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/scotland/mackay2.php - http://theaerodrome.com/aces/england/stewart1.php
1918 - 1st successful flight of a powered unmanned heavier-than-air craft, the Curtiss-Sperry Flying Bomb takes place. Precursor to modern unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), it flew over the planned distance of 900 m (1000 yds).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hewitt-Sperry_Automatic_Airplane#Curtiss-Sperry_Flying_Bomb - http://www.designation-systems.net/dusrm/app4/sperry-fb.html
1919 - Death of Werner Preuss, German WWI fighter ace, killed in a crash as serving in the air component of the Schleswig-Holstein Freikorps.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werner_Preuss - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/germany/preuss.php
1927 - Birth of Leroy Gordon Cooper, Jr., (also known as Gordo Cooper), American aeronautical engineer, test pilot and NASA astronaut. Cooper was one of the seven original astronauts in Project Mercury, the first manned space effort by the United States. He was the first American to sleep in orbit, flew the longest spaceflight of the Mercury project, and was the last American to be launched alone into Earth orbit and conduct an entire solo orbital mission.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Cooper
1931 - The sole Vought XF2U, American prototype biplane fighter aircraft, is destroyed in a crash.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vought_XF2U
1932 - French Emile Munch, Max Dévé and Charles Verneilh take off with the Couzinet 33 'Biarritz', French 3 engine mailplane, for the 1st France New-Caledonia flight.
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9_Couzinet
1934 - French aviatrix Maryse Hilsz lands her Breguet 27 S (a Bre 330 N°2 modified) christened 'Joe III' in Tokyo, half way of her Asian tour Paris-Tokyo-Paris.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breguet_270_Series#Operational_history - http://www.aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=9720
1935 - 1st flight of the A.N.F. Les Mureaux 115 R2B2, French Single engine High wing monoplane 2 seat Bomber.
http://www.aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=3175
1937 - Birth of Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova, Soviet pilot and cosmonaut, 1st woman in space.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentina_Tereshkova
1938 - A new parachute descent record of 35,450ft. is achieved by the French parachutist James Williams (Jean Niland) when he jumps from the cockpit of an ANF Les Mureaux 113 high-wing monoplane after taking off from the airfield at Chartres. Dropping to a height above the ground of 650 ft. in 2 minutes 50 seconds before opening his parachute, Williams easily achieves a world free-fall record
1939 - Death of Jeanne Pallier, early French aviatrix, probably the 1st woman pilot to fly over Paris.
http://earlyaviators.com/epallier.htm
1943 - Death of Kanichi Kashimura, 2nd Sino-Japanese War and WWII flying ace, instructor, missing in action with his Zero over Russell islands while escorting 'Val' bombers which were intercepted py P-39s.
http://www.cieldegloire.com/010_kachimura_k.php
1946 - Birth of Patrick Pierre Roger Baudry, French Air Force pilot And CNES astronaut.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Baudry
1947 - 1st flight of the SNCASO SO-94 'Corse', french low wing twin engine mail and passenger transport aircraft.
http://www.aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=7199 - http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/SNCASO_SO.95_Corse
1950 - Death of Vladimir Petrovich Vetchinkin, Soviet scientist in the field of aerodynamics, aeronautics, and wind energy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Vetchinkin
1951 - 1st flight of the Fouga CM-88R 'Gémeaux' I, French engine test-bed aircraft, unusual as it was 2 aircrafts joined by a common wing.The V-tails fitted to each fuselage were joined at the top in a W configuration.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fouga_CM.88_Gemeaux - http://www.aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=9244
1952 - 1st flight of the North American AJ-2P Savage , Photo Reconnaissance version of the American AJ-2 twin engine carrier-based bomber aircraft.
http://www.aviastar.org/air/usa/na_savage.php
1960 - Death of Augustus Roy Knabenshue, American aeronautical engineer and aviator, 1st to make a dirigible flight over New York City in 1905.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._Roy_Knabenshue - http://www.earlyaviators.com/eknabens.htm -
https://sites.google.com/site/richardarthurnorton/royknabenshuebibliography
1961 - 1st flight of the Boeing B-52 H Stratofortress, Upgraded version of the american long-range, subsonic, jet-powered strategic bomber
http://www.boeing.com/history/boeing/b52.html
1963 - 1st flight of the Alpavia Fournier RF-3, French single seat motor glider.
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fournier_RF-3 - http://www.aviafrance.com/alpavia-rf-3-aviation-france-9698.htm
1964 - 1st flight of The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25 ,(NATO reporting name: Foxbat) , soviet supersonic interceptor and reconnaissance aircraft
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikoyan-Gurevich_MiG-25
1965 - The 1st nonstop transcontinental helicopter flight across the United States - flown off the deck of the carrier USS Hornet at San Diego, California to the deck of the carrier USS Franklin D. Roosevelt off Jacksonville, Florida - is completed successfully. The U. S. Navy Sikorsky SH-3A Sea King flew 2,116 miles.
1968 - Air France Flight 212 Boeing 707-328C crashed into the northwestern slope of La Soufrière Mountain, in Guadeloupe, killing all 63. Probable cause was a visual approach procedure at night in which the descent was begun from an incorrectly identified point.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_France_Flight_212_(1968)
1969 - 1st flight of the Hughes 300c, Light utility Helicopter.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sikorsky_S-300
1970 - BEA opens its charter service, BEA Airtours
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Aviation/Historical_anniversaries/March_in_aviation/March_6
1976 - An Aeroflot Ilyushin Il-18E crashed after an electrical power failure occurred, disabling the compass system, two main gyros and autopilot. There were 111 occupants aboard; another 7 people were killed on the ground.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeroflot_accidents_and_incidents_in_the_1970s
1984 - 1st flight of The Skyship 600, British modern commercial non-rigid Airship.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airship_Industries_Skyship_600
1986 - Japan Air Lines embarks the world's heaviest man, an 880-lb Austrian flying from Frankfurt, Germany, as a passenger; 16 seats are removed from the cabin to make room for him.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Aviation/Historical_anniversaries/March_in_aviation/March_6
1987 - Death of Charles Gossage Grey, American WWI flying ace
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Gossage_Grey - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/usa/grey.php
1993 - Death of Aioi Takahide, Japanese Sino-Japanese war and WWII flying ace.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takahide_Aioi
1994 - Death of Birth of Melvin N. Gough, American test pilot, director of flight research activities at Langley, director of NASA activities at the Atlantic Missile Range and director of the bureau of safety at the Civil Aeronautics Board.
http://www.astronautix.com/astros/gough.htm
1998 - 1st flight of The Bell Eagle Eye, Model 918, American tiltrotor unmanned aerial vehicle prototype.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_Eagle_Eye
2003 - Air Algérie Flight 6289, a Boeing 737-200 (registered 7T-VEZ) on a domestic flight from Tamanrasset to Algiers via Ghardaïa, crashed shortly after take-off from Aguenar – Hadj Bey Akhamok Airport because of an engine failure, killing 96 passengers and all 6 crew members on board
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Alg%C3%A9rie_Flight_6289
2003 - 1st flight of the Bell/Agusta BA609, civil twin-engined tiltrotor VTOL aircraft with a configuration similar to the Bell/Boeing V-22 Osprey.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell/Agusta_BA609
2003 - Hooters Air, American airline, begins operations.