MAY02
1883 - Birth of Alessandro Cagno (nickname Sandrin), italian Racing driver and aviation pioneer.
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alessandro_Cagno
1891 - Birth of General Sir Hesperus Andrias 'Pierre' van Ryneveld, South African military commander, WWI Fighter ace, raid pilot and WWII high ranking officer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_van_Ryneveld
1891 - Birth of Geoffrey Hilton "Beery" Bowman, British WWI fighter ace
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_Hilton_Bowman - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/england/bowman2.php
1892 - Birth of Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen, widely known as the Red Baron, was a German fighter pilot with the Imperial German Army Air Service (Luftstreitkräfte) during World War I. He is considered the ace-of-aces of that war, being officially credited with 80 air combat victories, more than any other pilot
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manfred_von_Richthofen - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/germany/richthofen2.php
1895 - Birth of Orvil Arson Anderson, American pioneer balloonist.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orvil_Arson_Anderson
1897 - Birth of Thomas Charles Richmond Baker, Australian WWI flying ace.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Baker_(aviator) - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/australi/baker3.php
1899 - Birth of George Stacey Hodson, British WWI flying ace and RAF WWII high ranking officer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Stacey_Hodson - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/england/hodson.php
1902 - Birth of Ettore Muti, Italian aviator and Fascist politician.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ettore_Muti
1909 - John Theodore Cuthbert Moore-Brabazon becomes the 1st resident Englishman to make an officially recognized aeroplane flight in England on the Isle of Sheppey with flights of 450 ft, 600 ft, and 1500 ft.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Moore-Brabazon
1916 - 8 German Zeppelins raid the east coast of England, causing 39 casualties.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Aviation/Historical_anniversaries/May_in_aviation/May_2
1917 - Birth of Hugh Gordon Malcolm, Scottish WWII pilot, 1st RAF Victoria Cross in North Africa.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Gordon_Malcolm
1917 - Camp Borden Aerodrome was formally taken over by RFC Canada - 1st of the new training fields.
1918 - Death of Federico Fenu, Italian Balloonist.
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federico_Fenu
1918 - Death of Edgar Scholtz, German WWI flying ace, Killed in action in his Fokker DR.I
http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/germany/scholtz.php
1918 - Death of Hans Weiss, German WWI fighter ace, shot down in his Fokker Triplane by a Sopwith Camel.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Weiss_(aviator) - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/germany/weiss.php
1923 - O.G.Kelly and J.A. MacReady takes off the 1st non-stop flight from New York to Los Angeles, in 27 hours in a Fokker T-2.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Arthur_Macready#Mackay_Trophy - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oakley_G._Kelly
1925 - 1st flight of the Douglas C-1 , American biplane cargo/transport aircraft.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_C-1
1927 - Herbert Arthur "Bert" Dargue, leading the U.S. Army Pan American Flight, a public relations goodwill mission to promote U.S. aviation in South America, Flying 5 Loening OA-1A seaplanes complete the mission after having traveled 22,000 miles (35,200 km) in 59 flight days, stopping at 72 cities along the route.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Dargue
1932 - Death 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
1935 - 1st flight of The Bolkhovitinov DBA, Soviet 4 engine heavy bomber and raid aircraft.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolkhovitinov_DB-A
1936 - American parachutist, Clement Joseph 'Clem' Sohn, makes his 1st jump in England, at Hanworth airfield near London. Unusually, Sohn attached wings to his body, which were deployed when he opened his arms and legs and allowed him to glide.
1943 - Death of Nicolae Polizu-Micșunești, Romanian WWII flying ace and test pilot, Killed in the crash of his Bf-109G he was trying to land after being severly damaged in action.
http://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolae_Polizu-Mic%C8%99une%C8%99ti
1945 - Death of Eric James Brindley Nicolson, British WWII fighter pilot, only Battle of Britain pilot and the only pilot of RAF Fighter Command to be awarded the Victoria Cross, killed in the crash of a RAF B-24 Liberator in which he was flying as an observer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Brindley_Nicolson
1951 - 1st (powered) flight of the Leduc 016, French experimental research ramjet aircraft, featuring a Turbomeca Marbore I turbojet on each wingtip, to provide better control during landings.
http://www.aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=9710
1951 - Alfred William "Bill" Bedford broke the British distance record by flying 413 km from Farnborough to Newcastle with an Eon Olympia glider.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Bedford
1952 - BOAC introduces the de Havilland DH.108 Comet , world's 1st ever jet airliner, on its London-Johannesburg route, the 1st regular service flown by a jet airliner. G-AYLP makes the 1st flight.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Havilland_DH.108_Comet
1953 - BOAC De havilland DH-106 Comet 1 Flight 783/057 crashes just after take off from Calcutta dur to Structural failure, killing all 43 on board.
http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19530502-0
1957 - Birth of Dominic Lee Pudwill Gorie, American Naval officer and NASA astronaut, veteran of 4 space shuttle missions
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominic_L._Pudwill_Gorie
1957 - 1st delivery of the McDonnell F-101A Voodoo to the 27th Tactical Fighter Wing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_F-101_Voodoo
1958 - Roger Carpentier beats Watkin's two-week-old world altitude record when he flies to 79,452 feet in a Sud-Ouest SO 9050 Trident III in Istres, France.
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/SO.9000_Trident#SO.9050_Trident_II - http://jpcolliat.free.fr/trident/trident-1.htm
http://www.aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=9365
1963 - Death of Fritz Horn , german pioneer of Civilian Aviation.
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fritz_Horn_(Pilot)
1967 - Delivery to the USAF of the A-37A and named Dragonfly begins.
http://www.aviastar.org/air/usa/cessna_dragonfly.php?p=1
1968 - Death of Edwin Charles "Ted" Parsons, American former French Foreign Legionnaire, WWI flying ace, Rear Admiral of the US Navy, Hollywood aviation technical advisor, FBI Special Agent, and author.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_C._Parsons - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/usa/parsons.php
1970 - ALM Flight 980 Douglas DC-9-33CF made a forced water landing (ditching) in the Caribbean Sea 48 km (30 mi) off St. Croix, due to fuel exhaustion after several unsuccessful landing attempts in bad weather at Princess Juliana International Airport, St. Maarten, killing 23 over 63.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ALM_Flight_980
1970 - Death of Arturo Merino Benítez, Chilean aviator, founder of both the Chilean Air Force and LAN Chile, the national airline.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arturo_Merino_Ben%C3%ADtez
1975 - Death of Emil Meinecke, German WWI flying ace and Fokker test pilot post WWI.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emil_Meinecke - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/germany/meinecke.php - http://earlyaviators.com/emeineck.htm
1992 - Death of Juan Comas Borrás, Spanish Republican flying ace of the civil war.
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Comas_Borr%C3%A1s - http://surfcity.kund.dalnet.se/spain_comas.htm
1998 - The 100th and final B-1B was delivered .
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockwell_B-1_Lancer
2008 - CEM Air Beechcraft 1900C crashed 375 km west of Juba, Sudan, killing all 21, including Dominic Dim, southern Sudan's minister of defence.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominic_Dim_Deng - http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=20080502-0
2009 - Uli Dembinski , German aerobatic pilot, establish a record of 333 Loops with his Yak-55.
http://www.suedkurier.de/_/tools/adview.html?_CMTREE=560887&_CMELEM=2
2011 - Operation Neptune Spear. 2 modified Black Hawk helicopters ("stealth" versions) carrying Navy seals lands in at Abbottabad, Pakistan, and kill Terrorist Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Lade, founder of al-Qaeda, the terrorist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous othermass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets.