MARCH18
1858 - Birth of Rudolf Christian Karl Diesel, German inventor and mechanical engineer, famous for the invention of the Diesel engine.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_Diesel
1874 - Birth of Adolphe Aloys Marie Hubert duBois d'Aische, Belgian WWI flying ace
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolphe_DuBois_d'Aische - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/belgium/duboisdaische.php
1880 - Birth of Walter Hohmann, German engineer who made an important contribution to the understanding of orbital dynamics.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Hohmann
1887 - Birth of Sterling Rohlfs, American test pilot.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sterling_Rohlfs
1892 - Birth of Hans von Freden, German WWI fighter ace
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_von_Freden - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/germany/freden.php
1896 - Birth of Otto Jindra, Austro Hungrian WWI flying ace who, post war, became Czechoslovakian citizen and was instrumental in raising a Czechoslovak Air Force.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Jindra - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/austrhun/jindra.php
1896 - Birth of Eugene Weismann, French WWI flying ace (as an aerial gunner) who also served in WWII.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_Weismann - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/france/weismann.php
http://vlecalvez.free.fr/Hommes28eRI_EWeissmann/Eugene_Weissmann.html
1898 - Birth of Leon A. "Jake" "The Bullfrog" Swirbul, American aviation pioneer and co-founder of Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jake_Swirbul
1904 - Birth of William John "Jack" Frye, American aviation pioneer, Commercial and raid pilot. He built TWA into a world class airline.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Frye
1906 - Traian Vuia, Romanian inventor and aviation pioneer, flew his early own designed and built aircraft "Vuia 1" on about 12 m (40 feet) at Montesson, France . This was the first well-documented unassisted takeoff and landing on a level surface by an engine-driven monoplane with a completely-wheeled undercarriage
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traian_Vuia
1908 - 2nd flight of the Red Wing (or Aerodrome #1), early aircraft designed by Thomas Selfridge and built by the Aerial Experiment Association, finish in a crash after only 37m. It was named for the bright red color of its silk wings - chosen to achieve the best result with the photography techniques of the day.
http://www.aviastar.org/air/usa/aea_redwing.php
1913 - Birth of Werner Mölders, WWI II German Luftwaffe pilot and leading German fighter ace in the Spanish Civil War. Mölders became the 1st pilot in aviation history to claim 100 aerial victories—that is, 100 aerial combat encounters resulting in the destruction of the enemy aircraft.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werner_M%C3%B6lders - http://www.luftwaffe.cz/molders.html
1916 - Birth of Squadron Leader William Arthur 'Bill' Waterton Canadian test pilot and correspondent for the Daily Express. He was awarded the George Medal for saving the flight data when he landed at great risk the prototype Gloster Javelin after it lost its controls during a test flight
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Waterton
1918 - Death of John Anthony "Jack" McCudden, British WWI flying ace and younger brother of British ace James McCudden, killed in action in his SE5a.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McCudden - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/england/mccudden2.php
1919 - Death of Orazio Pierozzi, Italian WWI pilot, killed in a crash.
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orazio_Pierozzi - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/italy/pierozzi.php
1920 - Death of Franz Büchner, German WWI fighter ace, killed during a reconnaissance flight against communist revolutionaries near his hometown of Leipzig
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_B%C3%BCchner - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/germany/buchner.php
1925 - 1st flight of the SPAD S-51-2, French single seat biplane fighter, evolution of the S-51 for export to Poland.
http://www.aviastar.org/air/france/bleriot_s-51.php - http://www.aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=126
1925 - Alan Cobham, A. Elliott and Sir Sefton Branker lands back their de Havilland DH50 in London after a flight to Rangoon in Burma and back.
1937 – Emilio Casco flies the human-powered aircraft, Pedaliante, over 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) outside Milan.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bossi-Bonomi_Pedaliante
1939 - While being demonstrated to representatives of KLM with two engines inoperative on one wing, the 1st Boeing 307 Stratoliner, 1st commercial transport aircraft with a pressurized cabin, went into a spin and crashed, killing all 10 on board (Including KLM test pilot Albert von Baumhauer, Boeing test pilot Julius Barr, Boeing Chief Aerodynamcist Ralph Cram, Boeing Chief Engineer Earl Ferguson).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_307#Operational_history
1940 - 1st flight of the Amiot 356, 4 seat twin engine medium bomber prototype, evolution of the Amiot 351.
http://www.aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=3178
1944 - Death of Mario Calderara, Italian engineer and aviator. 1st italian licenced pilot and 1st italian builder of a seaplane.
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario_Calderara
1944 - Birth of Dick Smith, (born Richard Harold Smith), Australian entrepreneur, businessman, aviator, and political activist.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Smith_(entrepreneur)
1945 - Death of Piotr Konstantinovich "Daddy" Kozachenko, Soviet Fighter ace during the Sino Japanese war, Finnish-Soviet Winter War and WWII, killed in action in his Lavochkin La-5.
http://www.cieldegloire.com/015_kozachenko_p_k.php - http://surfcity.kund.dalnet.se/soviet_kozachenko.htm
1945 - The largest United States Army Air Force (USAAF) daylight raid on Berlin takes place, with 1,250 bombers and an escort of 670 fighters.
1945 - 1st flight of The Douglas A-1 (formerly AD) Skyraider, American single-seat attack aircraft.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_A-1_Skyraider
1952 - 2 USAF F-84 Thunderjets landed in Neubiberg, Germany, after a 2,800-mile flight without refueling. The planes crossed 7 nations, averaged 585 mph, and were airborne for 4 hours, 48 minutes.
http://www.af.mil/information/heritage/milestones.asp?dec=1950&sd=01/01/1950&ed=12/31/1959
1953 - An American Convair RB-36H Peacemaker bomber on a 25-hour journey as part of a simulated combat mission flying from Lajes, Azores back to the Rapid City base, struck at night in bad weather an 896-foot hill at 800 feet with a ground speed of 202 knots. The aircraft was co-piloted by Richard Elmer Ellsworth, USAF commander during the early part of the Cold War.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_E._Ellsworth#Death
1954 - Birth of James Francis Reilly, II, Ph.D.,American geologist and a former NASA astronaut
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_F._Reilly
1957 - Birth of Arne Christer Fuglesang, Swedish physicist and an ESA astronaut and 1st Swedish citizen in space.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christer_Fuglesang
1957 - A Lloyd Aereo Boliviano Douglas DC-3 (registered CP-535), which had been on a passenger flight from Cochabamba to Oruro, crashed into a mountain near Sayari. All 16 passengers and 3 crew members died
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lloyd_A%C3%A9reo_Boliviano#Accidents_and_incidents
1958 - Death of Gordon Percy Olley, WWI flying ace who later formed his own airline, Olley Air Services. 1st pilot to fly a million miles in total
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Olley - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/england/olley.php
1961 - 1st flight of The Tupolev Tu-28 (prototype Tu-28-80 - NATO reporting name Fiddler) , long-range interceptor aircraft.It was the largest and heaviest fighterever in service
http://www.aviastar.org/air/russia/tu-28.php
1963 - The Dassault Balzac V , vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) testbed developped from Mirage III, makes its 1st transitions from vertical to horizontal flight and back.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dassault_Balzac
1965 – Cosmonaut Aleksei Leonov, leaving his spacecraft Voskhod 2 for 12 minutes, becomes the 1st person to walk in space.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleksei_Leonov
1966 - United Arab Airlines Flight 749 Antonov An-24 crashed while attempting to land in bad weather in Cairo, Egypt, killing all 30.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Arab_Airlines_Flight_749
1966 - An Aermacchi MB-326 (or Macchi MB-326), Italian light military jet aircraft, Set an altitude record of 56,807 ft (17,315 m).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aermacchi_MB-326
1970 - Death of Louis Béchereau, french pioneering aircraft designer.
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_B%C3%A9chereau
1980 – At Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia, 48 people are killed by an explosion of a Vostok-2M rocket on its launch pad during a fueling operation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vostok_rocket
1980 - Death of Konstantin Konstantinovich Artseulov, Russian test-pilot, WWI pilot and glider designer, one of the founders of the soviet gliderism.
http://ww1talk.co.uk/showthread.php?405-Konstantin-Konstantinovich-Artseulov-1891-1980
1982 - Death of Sir Lawrence James Wackett, Australian WWI pilot and aircraft designer, widely regarded as "father of the Australian aircraft industry".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Wackett
1989 - STS-29, NASA Space Shuttle Endeavour mission, is back on earth.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-29
1994 - STS-62, Space Shuttle Columbia mission, is back on earth.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-62
1995 - STS-67, Space shuttle Endeavour mission, is back on earth
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-67
1995 - Launch of Space Flyer Unit, Japanese spacecraft carrying testing materials and research data that held value to NASA.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Flyer_Unit
1995 - Death of James Howell 'Jim' Howard, American WWII fighter ace, businessman, author, and airport director.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_H._Howard - http://cieldegloire.com/014_howard_j_h.php
1997 – The tail of a Russian Antonov An-24 charter plane breaks off while en-route to Turkey causing the plane to crash and killing all 50 on board and leading to the grounding of all An-24s.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stavropolskaya_Aktsionernaya_Avia_Flight_1023
1997 - Douglas DC-3C HK-337 of Aliansa crashed 10 kilometres (5.4 nmi) from Tame on a domestic non-scheduled passenger flight from Camilo Daza International Airport to El Alcaraván Airport, Yopal. All eight people on board were killed
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_accidents_and_incidents_involving_the_DC-3_in_the_1990s#1997
2010 - 1st flight of The Avicopter AC313, Chinese civilian helicopter based on the earlier Harbin Z-8, itself a development of the Aérospatiale Super Frelon.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avicopter_AC313
2010 - Soyuz TMA-16, Russian manned flight to and from the International Space Station (ISS), is back on earth.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_TMA-16
2010 - 1st vertical landing of The Lockheed Martin F-35B Lightning II, american single-seat, single-engine, fifth generation multirole fighter for ground attack, reconnaissance, and air defense missions with stealth capability.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_Martin_F-35_Lightning_II#Testing
2013 - Death of Muhammad Mahmood Alam , Pakistani indo-Pakistan war Flying ace.