MAY14
1884 - Birth of Claude (Claudius) Honoré Desiré Dornier, German airplane builder and founder of Dornier GmbH.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claudius_Dornier
1888 - Birth of Hans Martin Pippart, German pioneer aircraft manufacturer and early pilot, WWI fighter ace.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Martin_Pippart - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/germany/pippart.php
1893 - Birth of Joachim von Busse, German WWI flying ace who also served in WWII.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joachim_von_Busse - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/germany/busse.php
1893 - Birth of Gustave Douchy, French WWI flying ace who served in WWII.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustave_Douchy - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/france/douchy.php
1893 - Birth of Ernest William Norton, Welsh WWI flying ace and RAF senior officer post WWI.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Norton_(aviator) - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/wales/norton.php
1893 - Birth of George Edward Henry "McIrish" McElroy, Irish WWI fighter ace
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_McElroy - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/ireland/mcelroy.php
1893 - Birth of Harold Spencer Kerby, Canadian WWI flying ace who commanded British Air Forces in East Africa during WWII.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Spencer_Kerby - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/canada/kerby.php
1894 - Birth of Gilbert Stuart Martin Insall, British WWI pilot
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilbert_Stuart_Martin_Insall
1897 - Birth of Hans Imelmann, German WWI flying ace
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Immelmann - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/germany/imelmann.php
1897 - Birth of Robert Ludvigovich Bartini, Italian aircraft designer and scientist .Active mostly in Soviet Union, he was named, because of his noble descent, Barone Rosso (Red Baron).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Ludvigovich_Bartini
1897 - Birth of John Owen Donaldson, American WWI flying ace, Air racer and stunt pilot, president of Newark Air Service .
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Donaldson_(aviator) - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/usa/donaldson.php
1902 - Birth of Friedrich Schmiedl, Austrian Rocket pionneer.
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Schmiedl
1908 - 1st passenger flies in an airplane. Wilbur Wright takes Charles W. Furnas of Dayton, Ohio on a 28 3/5 seconds flight that covers 600 meters at Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Furnas
1909 - Samuel Cody makes the 1st aeroplane flight in the UK longer than 1 mile (1.6 km) in British Army Aeroplane No. 1.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Franklin_Cody#Cody_aeroplanes
1912 - Birth of Giorgio Graffer, Italian Alpinist and WWII pilot.
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giorgio_Graffer
1914 - South african Norman Spratt set a British altitude record of 18,900 ft. while flying a Royal Aircraft Factory R.E.5 reconnaissance aircraft.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Spratt - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Aircraft_Factory_R.E.5
1917 - Flight Sub-Lt Robert Leckie and crew of Curtiss H-12 flying boat shot down Zeppelin L-22.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Zeppelins
1923 - Air Union Farman F.60 Goliath crashed at Monsures, Somme, France, following the structural failure of a wing in flight. All six people on board were killed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_1923_Air_Union_Farman_Goliath_crash
1926 - Thomas P. Jeter, in a Curtiss F6C-3 'hawk' biplane fighter, wins the Cutiss Marine Trophy race at 130.94 mph.
http://www.airrace.com/ConciseHist.htm
1931 - Death of Denys George Finch Hatton, british aristocratic big-game hunter, lover of Baroness Karen Blixen (also known by her pen name as Isak Dinesen), a Danish noblewoman who wrote about him in her autobiographical book Out of Africa and who had a love affair with Beryl Markham (which inspired her to take up flying and become known as a pioneer flyer herself). His took off from Voi airport with his Gypsy Moth, circled the airport twice, then plunged to the ground and burst into flames.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denys_Finch_Hatton#Death
1933 - The sole Kellner-Béchereau 28VD, French racing monoplane, is destroyed in a crash during the Coupe Deutsch de la Meurthe qualifications
http://www.aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=891
1936 - 1st Flight of The Miles M.11 Whitney Straight,two-seater light aircraft with a dual-control, 'side-by-side' cockpit configuration.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miles_Whitney_Straight
1938 - 1st prototype Focke-Wulf Fw 187 Falke ("falcon"), german twin-engine, high-performance fighter, is destroyed after a high-speed pass over the Bremen facilities, when the pilot, Paul Bauer, pulled up too sharply at the end of the pass, stalling the aircraft and spinning into the ground, killing its pilot.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focke-Wulf_Fw_187#Prototypes
1939 - 1st flight of The Short Stirling, 1st four-engined British heavy bomber of WWII.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_Stirling
1940 – 1st flight of The Yermolayev Yer-2,long-range Soviet medium bomber.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yermolayev_Yer-2
1940 - German invasion of the Netherlands, The Luftwaffe bombs Rotterdam, the Dutch government decided to capitulate rather than risk the destruction of another city.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotterdam_Blitz
1940 - The entire available bomber force of the Royal Air Force's Advanced Air Striking Force in France attack troops and bridges near Sedan in an attempt to halt a German breakthrough. 39 of 71 aircraft of an attacking force are shot down by flak and fighters. In the evening, a further attack by 28 Bristol Blenheims of No.2 Group fails, with the loss of six more aircraft.
1940 - 1st flight of the Arsenal VG-36, French light fighter aircraft prototype developped from the VG-33.
http://www.aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=4975 - http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arsenal_VG_33#Arsenal_VG_36
1941 - During testing, the XP-50 prototype (39-2517) is lost, falling victim to a turbo-supercharger explosion that destroyed the aircraft. The test pilot Bob Hall bailed out while the XP-50 plunged into Smithtown Bay in Long Island Sound
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grumman_XP-50
1942 - WWII German Fighter ace Adolf Dickfeld scores 9 on that single day.
http://www.cieldegloire.com/001_dickfeld_a.php
1943 - Death of Hubert William Godfrey Jones (also known as Hubert Wilson Godfrey Jones Penderel), Welsh WWI flying ace, RAF display pilot, air racer and WWII officer, killed in a crash at Orford Ness during a secret trial flight in Hurricane HV 895. Between 1932 and 1933 he undertook a number of expeditions to explore Gilf Kebir. One of his expeditions with Count László Almásy loosely formed the basis for "The English Patient."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubert_Jones - http://theaerodrome.com/aces/wales/jones4.php
1945 – A kamikaze (Lt. J.G. Shunsuke Tomiyasu) crashes his Zero on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CV-6), knocking her out of action for the rest of WWII.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Enterprise_(CV-6)#The_Battle_of_Leyte_Gulf
1952 - Birth of Donald Ray McMonagle, USAF test pilot & Manager of Launch Integration at the Kennedy Space Center.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_R._McMonagle
1957 - 1st free flight of the SNECMA C.400 (prototype 2) Atar Volant with Auguste Morel.
http://www.aviastar.org/air/france/snecma_atar.php
1957 - 1st flight of the Breguet Br 902, french 2 seat glider trainer.
http://www.j2mcl-planeurs.net/dbj2mcl/planeurs-machines/planeur-fiche_0int.php?code=303
http://www.aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=8006
1957 - 1st flight of 1st production F-105B Thunderchief, American supersonic fighter-bomber.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_F-105_Thunderchief
1957 - Birth of William George "Borneo" Gregory,former NASA astronaut.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_G._Gregory
1964 - Birth of James McNeal "Vegas" Kelly , NASA Astronaut
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_M._Kelly
1968 - Death of Alan Jerrard, British WWI flying ace, who served in North Russia during the Russian civil war, before retiring in 1933
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Jerrard - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/england/jerrard.php
1968 - Death of Husband Edward Kimmel, four-star admiral in the US Navy. He served as Commander-in-chief, U.S. Pacific Fleet at the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Because of the attack, he was removed from office and was reduced to his permanent two-star rank of rear admiral
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Husband_E._Kimmel
1969 - Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm (MBB), German aerospace company, is formed as the result of several mergers.
http://www.aviastar.org/manufacturers/1453.html
1970 - 1st Aerospatiale-built SA 341 pre-production helicopter, in slightly modified form, establishing 3 new speed records for helicopters of its class.
http://www.aviastar.org/helicopters_eng/gazelle.php
1973 – Skylab, the United States' 1st space station, is launched.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skylab
1975 - Launch of Venera 10, USSR unmanned space mission to Venus.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venera_10
1977 - Dan-Air/IAS Cargo Boeing 707-321C crashed during approach to Lusaka Airport, Zambia, after the entire right horizontal stabilizer and elevator assembly detach from the aircraft, due to metal fatigue, killing all 6 on board.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1977_Dan-Air_Boeing_707_crash
1978 - Death of William 'Bill' Powell Lear, American inventor and businessman, best known for founding the Lear Jet Corporation, a manufacturer of business jets.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Lear
1979 - Progress 6 (Soviet unmanned cargo spacecraft) docks with Salyut 6.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salyut_6
1981 - Launch of Soyuz 40, Soviet manned spaceflight, last time the Soyuz 7K-T spacecraft was used and last Soyuz spacecraft to dock with Salyut 6.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_40
1997 - Star Alliance is Founded. The world's 1st and largest airline alliance, headquartered in Frankfurt am Main, Germany (near Frankfurt Airport) the five founders were the world's leading airlines Air Canada, Lufthansa, Scandinavian Airlines, Thai Airways International and United Airlines.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Alliance
2005 – The former USS America, a decommissioned supercarrier of the US Navy, is deliberately sunk in the Atlantic Ocean after four weeks of live-fire exercises. She is the largest ship ever to be disposed of as a target in a military exercise
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_America_(CV-66)
2005 - An AS350 B3 helicopter piloted by Eurocopter test pilot Didier Delsalle touched down on the top of Mt. Everest, at 8,850 metres (29,035 feet) . This record has been confirmed by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurocopter_AS350
2010 - Death of Stelio Frati, Italian mechanical engineer and aeroplane designer. He graduated from the University of Milan as a Mechanical Engineer in 1943, and after teaching aircraft design became a freelance aircraft designer, being responsible for many well known aircraft designs. Best known designs are the Falco F8L and the SIAI Marchetti SF.260 .
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stelio_Frati
2010 - Launch of STS-132, Atlantis Shuttle, International Space Station construction (Mini-Research Module 1 and the cargo pallet, Integrated Cargo Carrier-Vertical Light Deployable (ICC-VLD)).The mission included three spacewalks.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-132
2012 - Agni Air Flight CHT Dornier Do 228-200 crashed as one of the wings impacted a hill after a failed go-around, near Jomsom Airport in Jomsom, Nepal, killing 15 over 21.