OCT06
1865 - Birth of Joseph Marie Pierre Lebaudy, French industrial, early dirigible pioneer along with his brother Marie Paul Jules Lebaudy.
1888 - Birth of Roland Garros, early French raid aviator and WWI fighter pilot.
1889 - Birth of Harry Palmerston Williams, American businessman, noted aviation owner of the Wedell-Williams Air Service Corporation that dominated air racing in the United States during the so-called Golden Age of Aviation.
1892 - Birth of Jean Henry Maurice Arpheuil, French WWI flying ace
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Arpheuil - http://theaerodrome.com/aces/france/arpheuil.php
1893 - Birth of St. Clair Streett, known as "Bill", American aviation pioneer, USAF major general and writer who first organized and led the Strategic Air Command (SAC).
1895 - Birth of Selden Herbert "Tubby" Long, British WWI flying ace, noted for the audacity of his trench strafing missions–an early form of close air support.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selden_Long - http://theaerodrome.com/aces/england/long.php
1898 - Birth of Arthur Gordon Jones-Williams, Welsh WWI flying ace and record setter.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_G._Jones-Williams - http://theaerodrome.com/aces/wales/jones-williams.php
1912 - At Yokosuka Naval Air Technical Arsenal, Japan, Lieutenant Yozo Kaneko makes the Imperial Japanese Navy's 1st flight, piloting a Farman seaplane for 15 minutes and reaching an altitude of 30 meters (100 feet).
1912 - John Henry Towers achieved an American endurance record by rigging extra gasoline tanks to a Curtiss A-2 seaplane, allowing him to remain aloft for 6 hours, ten minutes, 35 seconds.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Henry_Towers#Pioneer_naval_aviator
1918 - Death of Erwin Russell Bleckley and Harold Ernest Goettler, Us Army Air Service pilots while performing an heroic supply dropping mission at Binarville, France in their De Havilland DH4 brought down by enemy rifle and machinegun fire from the ground.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erwin_R._Bleckley - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Ernest_Goettler
1918 - Death of Harold Goodman "Shoey" Shoemaker, American WWI flying ace, killed in a mid-air collision with another Sopwith Camel.
1922 - Lieutenants John Macready and O.G. Kelly lands in San Diego California their Fokker T-2 monoplane setting a new world flight endurance record of 35 hours 18.5 minutes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_A._Macready#Mackay_Trophy - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fokker_T-2
1923 - Czech Airlines (CSA), national airline of the Czech Republic, is formed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czech_Airlines
1923 - Curtiss R2Cs win 1st and 2nd place in the Pulitzer air race, piloted by Lt jg Al Williams and Lt Harold Brow, the winning aircraft setting a new airspeed record of 243.6 mph (392 km/h).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtiss_R2C
1930 - Laura Ingalls lands her D.H. Gipsy Moth bi-plane at Grand Central Air Terminal, Glendale, California. 1st woman transcontinental airplane flight from Roosevelt Field, New York in 30 hrs and 25min.
1932 - German engineer and rocket enthusiast, Johannes Winkler launches his HW-2 rocket from Pillau on the Baltic. Unfortunately, the rocket exploded within seconds of ignition because of a faulty fuel valve.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Winkler
1934 - 1st flight of The Northrop A-17, American two seat, single engine, monoplane, attack bomber , development of the Northrop Gamma 2F mailplane.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_A-17
1938 - The Maia-Mercury composite (Short Mayo Composite S.20 Mercury seaplane + S.21 Maia flying boat) takes off from Dundee in Scotland to Alexander Bay (in South Africa), launching the Mercury for a new seaplane record flight.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_Mayo_Composite#Operations
1939 - Death of Giulio Gavotti, Italian engineer and pilot, who fought in the Italo-Turkish War, 1st man to make an aerial bombardment, as well the 1st to perform a night mission.
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giulio_Gavotti
1939 - 1st flight of The Hawker Tornado, British single-seat fighter prototype, pre-configuration of the Typhoon.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawker_Tornado
1939 - 1st flight of The Curtiss SO3C Seamew, American Observation single engine 2 seat monoplane floatplane, with easily interchangeable float/wheel landing gear.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtiss_SO3C_Seamew
1943 - Death of Isamu Hosono, Japanese WWII fighter ace, crashing his damaged KI-27 for not being taken prisoner.
http://cieldegloire.com/010_hosono_i.php
1943 - Death of Bunkichi Nakajima, Japanese WWII fighter ace, killed in action in his Zero by F6Fs while escorting Mistubishi G3M Rikkos to Wake island.
1943 - Death of Josef "Seppl" Veltjens, German WWI fighter ace, International arms dealer, as well as a personal emissary from Hermann Göring to Benito Mussolini. Killed in the crash of a Junkers 52 in Italy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josef_Veltjens - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/germany/veltjens.php
1944 - Death of Saburo Nakamura, Japanese WWII fighter ace, killed in action in his Nakajima Ki-43 while intercepting a B-25 formation.
http://www.cieldegloire.com/010_nakamura_s.php
1945 - 1st flight of the SCAN 20, French Single engined high-wing cantilever monoplane flying-boat with strut-mounted floats under each wing.
http://aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=809 - http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.C.A.N._20
1946 - 1st non-stop flight from Hawaii to Egypt over the North Pole is made in a Boeing B29 aircraft of the USAAF, covering a distance of 17,498 kilometres (10,873 miles)
1948 - An engine of a USAF Boeing B-29-100-BW Superfortress bomber caught fire shortly after take off from Robins AFB and crashed in Waycross, Georgia, Killing 9 over 13. The Federal government asserted the state secrets privilege Because the flight was a secret test of the "sunseeker" (a heat-seeking device later used in the AIM-9 Sidewinder missile).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1948_Waycross_B-29_crash
1954 - 1st flight of The Fairey Delta 2 or FD2 (internal designation Type V within Fairey) , British supersonic research aircraft for investigation into flight and control at transonic and supersonic speeds.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairey_Delta_2
1955 - 1st flight of the Convair 440 Metropolitan, American twin engine airliner, lengthened version of the 340.
http://www.aviastar.org/air/usa/convair_metro.php
1955 - United Airlines Flight 409 Douglas DC-4 crashed into Medicine Bow Peak, near Centennial, Wyoming, killing all 66 people on board.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Airlines_Flight_409
1956 - 1st flight of The Breguet Br.1050 Alizé, French carrier-based anti-submarine warfare aircraft, based on the Breguet Br.960 Vultur prototype.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breguet_Aliz%C3%A9 - http://aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=1323
1959 - Spantax (Spanish Air Taxi Líneas Aéreas S.A.), spanish airline is formed in Gran Canaria Airport, Canary Island.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spantax
1971 - Death of William Eric Bottrill, British-Canadian WWI flying ace.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Bottrill - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/canada/bottrill.php
1972 - 1st flight of the 1st Indian-assembled Aérospatiale SA 315B Lama, French single-engined helicopter, later licence built by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) in India as the Cheetah.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A%C3%A9rospatiale_SA_315B_Lama#Operational_history
1973 - Egypt and Syria launch air strikes on Israel, starting the Yom Kippur War
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yom_Kippur_War
1976 – Cubana Flight 455 Douglas DC-8 crashes into the Atlantic Ocean shortly after taking off from Bridgetown, Barbados after two bombs, placed on board by terrorists with connections to the CIA, exploded. All 73 people on board are killed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cubana_Flight_455
1977 - 1st flight of The Mikoyan MiG-29 "Fulcrum", Soviet 4th-generation jet fighter aircraft.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MiG-29
1978 - Birth of Liu Yang, Chinese pilot and 1st chinese woman in space
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liu_Yang_(astronaut) - http://zh-yue.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%8A%89%E6%B4%8B
1981 - NLM CityHopper Flight 431 Fokker F28 Fellowship 4000 encounters a tornado, loses a wing, breaks up and crashes near Moerdijk, Netherlands.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NLM_CityHopper_Flight_431
1983 - 1st flight of The Bell OH-58 Kiowa, American single-engine, single-rotor, military helicopter used for observation, utility, and direct fire support. Evolution of the 206A JetRanger.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_OH-58_Kiowa
1984 - 1st flight of The FMA IA 63 Pampa, Argentinian advanced trainer aircraft with combat capability, developped from the Dassault/Dornier Alpha Jet.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FMA_IA_63_Pampa
1989 - Death of Reinhard Seiler, German fighter ace of Spanish war and WWII.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinhard_Seiler
1990 - Launch of STS-41, Space Shuttle Discovery mission, with a primary objective to launch Ulysses (originally named Odysseus), robotic space probe that was designed to study the Sun as a joint venture of NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-41 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulysses_(spacecraft)
1992 - Launch of FREJA, Swedish Magnetospheric research satellite.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freja_(satellite)
1993 - Death of Lawrence Richard Walters, nicknamed "Lawnchair Larry" or the "Lawn Chair Pilot". Well known for Flying a lawn chair with weather balloons.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Walters
1997 - STS-86, NASA Space Shuttle Atlantis mission to the Mir space station is back on earth
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-86
1999 - 1st (official) flight of the Kazan Ansat, Russian light, multipurpose helicopter.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kazan_Ansat
2005 - FedEx / Morningstar Air Express Cessna 208B Super Cargomaster carrying cargo for FedEx, including six vials of research viruses, crashes in downtown Winnipeg. The female pilot, the only occupant, is killed but there are no injuries on the ground.
http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=20051006-0
2008 - Death of Richard Stephen "Steve" Heyser, USAF Lockheed U-2 pilot whose photographs revealed Soviet medium-range ballistic missiles in Cuba, precipitating the Cuban missile crisis in 1962.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_S._Heyser
2010 - Tajik National Guard Mil Mi-8 crashed in the Rasht Valley close to Ezgand and Tavildara, Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Province, Tajikistan. Caught in power lines, it crashed while attempting to land, killing all 28.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tajik_National_Guard_helicopter_crash