OCT13

1919 - 1st company executive aircraft enters service. S. Instone & Company (shipping line) operate the de Havilland DH4A from Hounslow to Cardiff and Hounslow to Paris.

http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/research/history-of-aviation-timeline/interactive-aviation-timeline/british-civil-aviation/1919.aspx

1920 - 1st flight of The Naval Aircraft Factory TF (Tandem Fighter), American twin-engine flying-boat escort fighter

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naval_Aircraft_Factory_TF

1922 - 1st flight of the Dobi-II, Lithuanian high wing single engine reconnaissance aircraft prototype.

http://www.aviastar.org/air/lithuania/dobkevicius_d-1.php - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dobi-II

1922 - 1st flight of The de Havilland DH.27 Derby, British large single-engined biplane prototype designed to a heavy day bomber.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Havilland_DH.27_Derby

1923 - Death of Alexis Maneyrol, French aviation pioneer, killed when his Peyret monoplane broke up in the air at Lympne Air Races, Kent.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lympne_light_aircraft_trials#1923

1930 - 1st flight of the Junkers Ju 52/1m, German transport aircraft, prototype of the production serie Ju 52/3m also known as Tante Ju—"Auntie Ju" and Eisen Annie—"Iron Annie", single-engined freight-carrying all-metal commercial transport version.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junkers_Ju_52

1930 - The D'AT3, Italian early helicopter, wins an international prize for reaching a height of 18m.

http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corradino_D%27Ascanio#Il_D.27AT3

1931 - Canadian pilot Godfrey Dean performs the 1st loop in an autogyro, at Willow Field, near Philadelphia.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/exploration/main/this_month_october_prt.htm

1943 – The Italian royal government declares war on Germany. Its air force will be constituted as the Italian Co-Belligerent Air Force and fight on the Allied side for the remainder of World War II, while Italian aircraft which fight for Benito Mussolini’s Italian Social Republic on the Axis side will be constituted as the Aeronautica Nazionale Repubblicana (National Republican Air Force).

http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/49545052

1944 - 1st flight of the Mitsubishi A7M2 Reppu, evolution of the A7M1 with a more powerful engine, japanese carrier-based fighter prototype.

http://www.aviastar.org/air/japan/mitsubishi_a7m.php - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitsubishi_A7M

1946 - 1st flight of the Boisavia B-50 'Muscadet', French High wing monoplane light aircraft prototype.

http://www.aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=1956

1949 - 1st flight of The Tupolev Tu-14 'Bosun', Soviet twin-turbojet light bomber derived from the Tupolev Tu-73, used as a torpedo bomber.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupolev_Tu-14

1950 - 1st flight of The Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation, american four engine airliner.

http://www.aviastar.org/air/usa/lok_constellation.php

1952 - Birth of Bryan L. Allen, American self-taught hang glider pilot and bicyclist, known for flying the human-powered Gossamers in many records.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bryan_Allen_(cyclist)

1952 - Birth of Michael Richard Uram "Rich" Clifford, U.S. Army officer, test pilot and NASA astronaut

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_R._Clifford

1959 - Launch of Explorer 7, NASA unmanned spacecraft designed to measure solar x-ray and Lyman-alpha flux, trapped energetic particles, and heavy primary cosmic rays.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Explorer_7

1960 - Raymond Davy flew the Leduc RL-21 (French Single seat record aircraft prototype) at a world speed record of 316 Km/h for close circuit cours of 100 km for planes under under 1000kg and under 500 Kg.

http://aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=9884 - http://forum.pegase.tv/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=3690&start=30

http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1961/1961%20-%200075.html

1960 - 3 black mices (Sally, Amy and Moe) are launched with an an Atlas D 71D 1,000 km up. The mices were retrieved from the nosecone near Ascension Island in good conditions after a 8000 Km trip in space.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animals_in_space#1960s

1962 - Birth of Michael Timothy "Bueno" Good, USAF pilot and NASA Astronaut.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_T._Good

1963 - Death of Alan Arnold Griffith , English engineer, who, among many other contributions, is best known for his work on stress and fracture in metals that is now known as metal fatigue, as well as being one of the 1st to develop a strong theoretical basis for the jet engine.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Arnold_Griffith

1964 - Birth of Niè Haishèng, Chinese military pilot and CNSA astronaut.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ni%C3%A8_H%C7%8Eish%C3%A8ng

1964 – Voskhod 1, 1st spacecraft with a multi-person crew and the 1st flight without space suits, is back on earth

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voskhod_1

1969 - Launch of Soyuz 8, Soviet joint mission with Soyuz 6 and Soyuz 7 that saw 3 Soyuz spacecraft in orbit together at the same time, carrying seven cosmonauts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_8

1972 - Weapons Systems Officer Jeffrey S. Feinstein of a F-4D Phantom flown by Curtis D. Westphal shoot down a MiG-21 over Vietnam, becoming the 3rd and last ace of the USAF in the Vietnam War.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_Feinstein

1972 - Aeroflot Flight 217 Ilyushin 62 Crashed in a lake near Sheremetyevo, USSR, about 1 km short of the runway during the third attempt to land at night in poor weather conditions. The airport ILS navigation system was inoperative at the time of the accident

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilyushin_Il-62#Hull_Losses - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeroflot_Flight_217

1972 - Death of William Gosnell Tomlinson, Us navy pilot and record setter.

http://militarytimes.com/citations-medals-awards/recipient.php?recipientid=21150

1972 - Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 Fairchild FH-227D crashes in the Andes. Survivors resort to eating dead passengers before their rescue two months later.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uruguayan_Air_Force_Flight_571

1973 - Aeroflot Flight 964 Tupolev Tu-104 crashed during its approach to Moscow, killing all 122 passengers and crew on board. During the approach at night and with bad visibility the power supply of the compass and the artificial horizon failed. The crew lost spatial orientation, entered a spin to the left and crashed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeroflot_Flight_964

1976 - Lloyd Aero Boliviano Boeing 707-131F crashed on takeoff in Santa Cruz, Bolivia killing 91 (of whom 88 were killed on the ground when the aircraft crashed into a practice football game).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_accidents_and_incidents_involving_the_Boeing_707#1970s - http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19761013-0

1977 – Four Palestinians hijack Lufthansa Flight 181 Boeing 737-200 to Somalia and demand release of 11 members of the Red Army Faction.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lufthansa_Flight_181

1983 - Lloyd Aéreo Boliviano - LAB Boeing 707-131F crashed in Santa Cruz, Bolivia killing 91 (of whom 88 were killed on the ground when the aircraft crashed into a practice football game)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_707#Accidents_and_incidents

1984 - Space shuttle Challenger mission STS-41-G is back on earth.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-41-G

1992 – An Antonov An-124 operated by Antonov Airlines registered SSSR-82002, crashes near Kiev, Ukraine, during flight testing killing 8.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonov_An-124#Notable_accidents

1992 - Death of Gerald Ernest Gibbs, RAF, WWI fighter ace, senior commander in the Royal Air Force in the first half of the 20th century and the last RAF commander-in-chief of the Indian Air Force

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Gibbs_(RAF_officer) - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/england/gibbs2.php

1994 - Launch of Ekspress, 1st of a serie of Russian geostationary communications satellites.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ekspress

1996 - 1st flight of The Bombardier Global Express, Canadian ultra long range corporate and VIP high speed jet aircraft

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombardier_Global_Express

1997 - Death of Karlis Irbitis, Latvian aeroplane designer.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C4%81rlis_Irb%C4%ABtis

2001 - 1st flight of the Nicollier HN-435 RL, French single seat single engine light sports aircraft.

http://aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=10228

2005 - Launch of Galaxy 15, American telecommunications satellite and Syracuse III, French military communications satellite with an Ariane 5 GS rocket.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galaxy_15 - http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syracuse_III

2010 - Ajay Kukreja, captain of a Qatar Airways plane died of a heart attack while flying the aircraft from the Philippines to the Qatari capital, Doha. The assistant pilot took control of the plane and the flight was then diverted to Kuala Lumpur where it landed

http://www.qatarliving.com/node/1382276

2011 - Airlines PNG Flight 1600 de Havilland Canada Dash 8 crashed in near the mouth of the Gogol River, Papua New Guinea, 20 km south of its destination, killing 28 over 32

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airlines_PNG_Flight_1600