OCT14
1887 - Birth of John Arthur Macready, American test pilot and aviator. He was the only three-time recipient of the Mackay Trophy, receiving the trophy three consecutive years.
1889 - Birth of Archie Nathaniel Jenks, Canadian WWI flying ace (as observer/gunner).
1895 - Birth of Mariano Barberán y Tros de Ilarduya Spanish military aviator who took part in the historic flight of the Cuatro Vientos from Seville, Spain to Camagüey, Cuba
1897 - Clément Ader claims a 100 m (328 ft) flight in his steam-powered uncontrolled Avion III also referred to as Aquilon or the Éole III.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avion_III - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cl%C3%A9ment_Ader#Development_of_aircraft
1904 - Birth of Karlis Irbitis, Latvian aeroplane designer.
1905 - Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) is founded in Paris
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F%C3%A9d%C3%A9ration_A%C3%A9ronautique_Internationale
1910 - 1st flight of a heavier-than-air craft in Norway is done wit a Blériot XI by Baron Carl Calle Cederström , Flying 23 minutes and reaching a height of 300 metres (983.9 feet).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bl%C3%A9riot_XI#Famous_Bl.C3.A9riot_Monoplane_pilots
1910 – English aviator Claude Grahame-White lands his Farman III Aircraft biplane on Executive Avenue near the White House in Washington, D.C..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Grahame-White#Achievements_in_Aviation
1918 - Baron Willy Coppens, highest scoring Belgian ace, is heavily wounded in his Hanriot HD.1, ending his combat career. He had scored 37 victories, 34 of which were observation balloons.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willy_Coppens - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/belgium/coppens.php
1918 - Death of John Edmund Greene, Canadian WWI fighter ace, killed in action in his Sopwith Camel.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Edmund_Greene - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/canada/greene.php
1918 - Death of Claude Melnot Wilson, Canadian WWI flying ace, killed in action in his S.E.5a by a Fokker D.VII.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Melnot_Wilson - http://theaerodrome.com/aces/canada/wilson2.php
1918 - Australian WWI fighter ace Francis Ryan "Frank" Smith shoot down 4 Fokker D.VII with his S.E.5a on that day, his last victories of the war.
1922 - Russell Lowell Maughan flying a Curtiss R-6 racer won the Pulitzer race at Selfridge Field with an average speed of 205.8 mph (331.2 km/h).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell_Maughan - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtiss_R-6
1922 - Donald F. Stace wins the Mitchell Trophy Air Race at Selfridge Field flying a Boeing-built Thomas Morse MB-3A at 147.8 miles per hour over a 200-mile course.
http://www.mtclib.org/local%20history/mitchell%20trophy.pdf - http://www.boeing.com/history/chronology/chron02.html
1927 - Dieudonne Costes and Joseph le Brix takes off with a Breguet 19GR 'Nungesser-Coli' from Saint-Louis, Senegal to Port Natal in Brazil, as a part of their round-the-world 57,000 km trip (1st non-stop aerial crossing of the South Atlantic)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dieudonne_Costes
1928 - A Blackburn Iris II reaches Karachi, carrying Sir Philip Sassoon, the Under-Secretary of State for Air and Air Commodore Sir Arthur Longmore on a tour of RAF Stations of the Mediterranean and Middle East, coming from England.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackburn_Iris#Operational_history
1929 - 1st flight of the R101, British rigid airship.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_airship_R.101
1930 - Death of Eberhard Mohnicke, German WWI flying ace.
http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/germany/mohnicke.php
1930 - 1st flight of the Kellett K1-X, American autogiro prototype.
http://www.aviastar.org/helicopters_eng/kellett_k-1x.php
1931 - 1st flight of The Hawker Nimrod, British carrier-based single engine, single seat biplane fighter aircraft.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawker_Nimrod
1938 - 1st flight of the Saro A.33, British four-engined flying-boat prototype with a parasol monospar wing built by Saunders-Roe Limited.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saro_A.33
1938 - 1st flight of The Curtiss P-40 Warhawk, American single-engine, single-seat, all-metal fighter and ground attack aircraft, modification of the previous Curtiss P-36 Hawk.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P-40_Warhawk
1940 – Balham subway station disaster, in London, England, occurs during the Nazi Luftwaffe air raids on Great Britain. Over 65 people are killed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balham_tube_station#World_War_II
1943 – The American Eighth Air Force loses 60 B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bombers in aerial combat during the second mass-daylight air raid on the Schweinfurt ball-bearing factories in western Nazi Germany.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Raid_on_Schweinfurt
1947 - Captain Charles "Chuck" Yeager becomes the 1st person to fly faster than sound. Yeager "breaks the sound barrier" in his Bell X-1 airplane, 'Glamorous Glennis', named after his wife. He was able to reach 670-mph or Mach 1.015 at an altitude of 45,000 ft (13,700 m) at Muroc Dry Lake, California.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_barrier#Sound_barrier_officially_broken
1948 - 1st Successful release and hook up to a converted EB-29B Superfortress mother ship of the McDonnell XF-85 Goblin by test pilot Edwin Schoch.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_XF-85_Goblin#Operational_history
1949 - 1st flight of the Chase Aircraft C-123 Provider, American military transport aircraft, later produced by Fairchild.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairchild_C-123_Provider
1952 - Longest flight over water by single a engined jet fighter is completed when 75 Republic F84s flying 2,575 miles from Midway Island to Japan with air refuelling.
1953 - 2nd Bell X-5, American swing-wing testbed jet aircraft, gets into irrecoverable spin condition at Edwards AFB, California during aggravated stall test, crashes in desert, killing test pilot Maj. Raymond Popson on his 1st flight in the type.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_X-5#Design_and_development - http://thetartanterror.blogspot.fr/2011/04/raymond-apopson-19xx-1953.html
1953 - 1st flight of The North American X-10 (model RTV-A-5), American unmanned technology demonstrator for advanced missile technologies, ramjet-propelled surface-to-surface guided missile.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_X-10
1960 - Launch of Mars 1M No.2 (Marsnik 2, Korabl 5, Mars 1960B), Soviet unmanned spacecraft to explore Mars.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_1M
1962 - US Air Force Lockheed U-2 reconnaissance flight over Cuba by Major Richard S. Heyser reveals the presence of launchpads for Medium Range Ballistic Missiles, triggering the Cuban Missile Crisis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Missile_Crisis
1964 - 1st flight of The CH-53 Sea Stallion (most common name for the Sikorsky S-65), US heavy-lift transport helicopter developped for the USMC.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CH-53_Sea_Stallion
1965 - 1st flight of The Cessna 421 Golden Eagle, pressurized development of the earlier Cessna 411, American light, twin-engine personal transport aircraft.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cessna_421
1965 - North American Aviation XB-70 Valkyrie flown by Alvin Swauger White and Joseph F. Cotton reached Mach 3.02 at 70,000 ft (21,300 m) for the 1st time.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_XB-70_Valkyrie#Flight_test_program
1965 - Joe Henry Engle flies the X-15 at 3,554 mph (5,720 km/h) and 50.4 miles (81.1 km) altitude.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-15#Highest_flights
1968 – 1st live telecast from a manned spacecraft, the Apollo 7, launched by NASA.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_7#Mission_highlights - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_TV_camera
1974 - Death of John Sharpe Griffith, American WWI flying ace who, postwar, flew for the White Army forces in Russia against communists, and returned to service in the USAAF during WWII.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Griffith_(aviator) - http://theaerodrome.com/aces/usa/griffith2.php
1976 - Launch of Soyuz 23, Soviet manned space flight to the Salyut 5 space station.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_23
1978 - Death of Vladimir Mikhailovich Myasishchev, Soviet aircraft designer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Mikhailovich_Myasishchev
1978 - Birth of Kathleen Hallisey (Kate) Rubins, American scientist mission specialist astronaut.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathleen_Rubins
1980 - Death of Francesco Pricolo, Italian aviator, Aeronautic Engineer and Chief of staff of the Italian Regia Aeronautica during the WWII
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francesco_Pricolo
1997 - On the 50th anniversary of his historic flight past Mach 1, Charles Elwood "Chuck" Yeager flew a new Glamorous Glennis III, an F-15D Eagle, past Mach 1, with Lt. Col. Troy Fontaine as co-pilot. The chase plane for the flight was an F-16 Fighting Falcon piloted by Bob Hoover, a famous air-show pilot, and his wingman for the 1st supersonic flight. This was Yeager's last official flight with the Air Force. At the end of his speech to the crowd he concluded, "All that I am... I owe to the Air Force."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Yeager#Post-retirement_career
2004 - Launch of Soyuz TMA-5, Soyuz mission to the International Space Station (ISS)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_TMA-5
2004 - Pinnacle Airlines Flight 3701 Bombardier CRJ-200 crashed near Jefferson City, Missouri, after engines flamed out during an overnight ferry flight, when the 2 pilots decided to test the limits of the CRJ. Both were killed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinnacle_Airlines_Flight_3701
2004 - MK Airlines Flight 1602 Boeing 747-200F crashed on take-off at rom Halifax Stanfield International Airport, Nova Scotia, Canada, killing the crew of 7. An investigation into the crash revealed that the flight crew had used the incorrect speeds and thrust setting during the take-off attempt, with incorrect take-off data being calculated when preparing the flight.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MK_Airlines_Flight_1602
2005 - Air Jamaica Express cease operations.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Jamaica_Express
2006 - Death of Nancy A. Lynn, American entrepreneur, public speaker, actor, and pilot, most well known for her role as an aerobatic pilot and flight instructor, killed in the crash of her Extra Flugzeugbau GMBH 300 in the Culpeper Airfest at the Culpeper Regional Airport (CJR), Culpeper, Virginia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_Lynn#Culpeper_Airfest_crash
2011 - Moremi Air Cessna 208B Grand Caravan crashed shortly after take-off from Xakanaka Airstrip, Botswana, killing 8 over 12.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moremi_Air_Cessna_208_crash
2012 - 1st human to break the sound barrier parachuting to Earth from an helium balloon is Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner in a free fall time of 4 minutes 20 seconds, thus settings records for : Maximum altitude of 39.045 kilometres (24.261 mi), highest manned balloon flight - Maximum speed of 1,342.032 kilometres per hour (833.900 mph), which corresponds to Mach 1.24, Highest free fall speed - Total free fall distance of 36,529 metres (119,846 ft), highest altitude jump.