OCT20

1913 - 1st landing at high altitude : Italian Carlo Maria Piazza flying at a height of 3200m around the Mont Cenis, lands on a short plateau at about 2000 meters above sea level.

http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlo_Maria_Piazza#Il_primo_atterraggio_in_alta_montagna

1916 - Birth of Martin Summerfield, American scientist, Early American rocket pioneer, co-founder of Aerojet, inventor of regenerative cooling for liquid rocket engines.

http://www.astronautix.com/astros/sumfield.htm - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Summerfield

1917 - 5 Zeppelins are lost: Zeppelin LZ85 (L45) is forced down behind Allied lines and destroyed by the crew; LZ93 (L44) is shot down by anti-aircraft fire over St Clement in France; LZ96 (L49) is forced down in France and captured; LZ89 (L50) goes missing over the Mediterranean; LZ101 (L55) is wrecked during a forced landing in Germany.

http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/research/history-of-aviation-timeline/interactive-aviation-timeline/world-aviation/1917.aspx -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Zeppelins#Zeppelins_constructed_during_World_War_I

1918 - Death of Léon Morane, French early aviator and aircraft designer.

http://www.appl-lachaise.net/appl/article.php3?id_article=1123

1918 - Death of Frank Granger Quigley, Canadian WWI fighter ace.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Granger_Quigley - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/canada/quigley.php

1920 - Paul Marcel Teste, French Navy officer aviator, performed the 1st aeronaval landing of the French Navy aboard the Béarn.

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Teste

1920 - French Joseph Sadi Lecointe set a world speed record flying at 187.99-mph with his Nieuport-Delage 29.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_airspeed_record - http://aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=699

1922 - Harold Ross Harris is the 1st pilot to bail out of a stricken aircraft using a free-fall parachute, flying a Loening monoplane with a modified aileron when the aileron began oscillating badly, pulling the control stick from his hands

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_R._Harris

1923 - 1st flight of The Tupolev ANT-1, AdreiTupolev's 1st aircraft, experimental monoplane single engined.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupolev_ANT-1

1923 - 1st flight of The Boeing NB (or Model 21), American primary training aircraft, two-bay, equal-span biplane of conventional configuration with interchangeable wheeled and float undercarriage.

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

1925 - 1st flight of the Armstrong Whitworth Siskin IIIA, British biplane single-seat fighter aircraft, main production variant.

http://www.aviastar.org/air/england/arm_siskin3a.php

1932 - Armstrong Whitworth AW.15 Atalanta, British four-engine airliner prototype, is damaged in a test flight due to fuel starvation. Imperial Airways was embarrassed by the accident and renamed the 3rd production machine (G-ABTI, Arethusa) as Atalanta, hoping nobody would notice the swap.

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

1934 - Death of Hans Böhning, German WWI fighter ace and glider competitor, Killed in a glider accident.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_B%C3%B6hning - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/germany/bohning.php

1934 - Beginning of the MacRobertson Trophy Air Race, part of the Melbourne Centenary celebrations, from RAF Mildenhall in East Anglia to Flemington Racecourse, Melbourne, approximately 11,300 miles (18,200 km). Charles Scott and Tom Black flying de Havilland DH.88 Comet 'Grosvenor House'.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacRobertson_Air_Race - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Havilland_DH.88_Comet

1934 - Charles Kingsford Smith and P. G. Taylor takes off in a Lockheed Altair 8D 'Lady southern cross' for the 1st crossing of the Pacific Ocean from Australia to the United States

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

1938 - 1st flight of the Gérard RG-45 'Club 45', French twin seat high wing monoplane light tourer prototype.

http://aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=10195

1941 - Death of J. Skalski, WWII Polish pilot serving with the RAF, Killed in the crash of a captured Bf 109 F–2 during evaluation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolf_Pingel#Career

1943 - The Sinfra, French cargo ship confiscated by the Germans and transporting 2,460 prisoner, is sunk by USAAF B-25s and RAF Beaufighters at Suda Bay, Crete.

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

1943 - 1st flight of The Junkers Ju 390, German 6 engine heavy transport, maritime patrol aircraft, and long-range bomber prototype, long-range derivative of the Ju 290 submitted for the abortive Amerika Bomber project.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junkers_Ju_390

1944 - 1st flight of the Mikoyan-Gurevich I-224, soviet high-altitude fighter prototype.

http://www.aviastar.org/air/russia/mig_i-224.php

1944 - Death of Milo Garrett Burcham, American aviator, stunt pilot, airshow pilot, and lockheed test pilot, killed in the flame-out on take-off of the engine of third production prototype YP-80.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milo_Burcham - http://thetartanterror.blogspot.fr/2006/11/milo-burcham-1903-1944.html

1946 - 1st flight of the Fokker F.25 Promotor, dutch Civil utility prototype aircraft, single-engined, twin-boomed, four-passenger monoplane with a pusher engine mounted at the rear of a central nacelle

http://www.aviastar.org/air/holland/fokker_f-25.php

1946 - 1st flight of The Martin P4M Mercator, American maritime reconnaissance aircraft.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_P4M_Mercator

1948 - KLM Lockheed L-049-46-25 Constellation 'Nijmegen' crashed into high ground on approach in poor weather near Glasgow Prestwick Airport, Scotland, killing all 40, including KLM's chief pilot, Koene Dirk Parmentier, one of the winners of the MacRobertson Air Race, widely regarded as one of the great flyers of the era.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1948_KLM_Constellation_air_disaster - http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koene_Dirk_Parmentier

1948 - 1st flight of The McDonnell XF-88 Voodoo, American long-range, twin-engine jet fighter aircraft with swept wings prototype which will be developped into the F-101.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_XF-88_Voodoo

1952 - 1st 'Official' Flight of The Douglas X-3 Stiletto, American experimental jet aircraft with a slender fuselage and a long tapered nose, to investigate the design features of an aircraft suitable for sustained supersonic speeds, which included the 1st use of titanium in major airframe components

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_X-3_Stiletto

1953 - Death of Werner Baumbach , German WWII bomber pilot, commander of the secret bomber wing Kampfgeschwader 200 (KG 200).

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

1953 - Death of Walter P. Jones, American Test pilot, killed in the crash of a Northrop YF-89D Scorpion near Edwards AFB on return from a test mission.

http://www.astronautix.com/astros/jonalter.htm - http://www.check-six.com/Crash_Sites/YF-89D_crash_site.htm

1953 - 1st non-stop, scheduled passenger flight across the United States is made by a TWA Lockheed Constellation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Aviation/Historical_anniversaries/October_in_aviation/October_20

1954 - 1st flight of The Bell 201 (military designation XH-13F), modified Model 47G, American experimental helicopter. The Bell 201/XH-13F was Bell's 1st helicopter to use a turbine engine.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_201

1956 - A.W. Bedford and F. Murphy fly a Hunter jet trainer from Surrey to Rome, covering the 891 miles in 1 hour 34 minutes 28 seconds and return in 1 hour 40 minutes 35 seconds. They beat Group Captain John Cunningham's point-to-point records set in 1950 for London to Rome and Rome to London.

http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/research/history-of-aviation-timeline/interactive-aviation-timeline/british-civil-aviation/1956.aspx

1956 - Death of Lawrence Dale "Larry" Bell, American industrialist and founder of Bell Aircraft Corporation.

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

1956 - 1st flight of The Bell UH-1 Iroquois(XH-40), American military helicopter powered by a single, turboshaft engine, with a two-bladed main rotor and tail rotor, 1st turbine-powered helicopter to enter production for the United States military

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_UH-1_Iroquois

1959 - 1st flight of the Dassault 'Mirage' IIIB, French Two-seat tandem trainer aircraft issued from the initial jet fighter, fitted with one piece canopy. Lacks radar, cannon armament and provision for booster rocket.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dassault_Mirage_III#Variants - http://aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=2923

1963 - Birth of Julie Payette, Canadian engineer and a Canadian Space Agency (CSA) astronaut.

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

1969 - Finnair introduces an inertial navigation system on its aircraft, becoming the 1st airline to dispense with the need for a navigator aboard.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Aviation/Historical_anniversaries/October_in_aviation/October_20

1970 - Launch of Zond 8, unmanned version of Soviet Soyuz 7K-L1 manned moon-flyby spacecraft to test onboard systems and units.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zond_8

1972 - Death of Gerhard "Kuken" Hubrich, German WWI flying ace who also scored during WWII.

http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/germany/hubrich.php

1974 - Death of Gori Castellani, Italian raid aviator.

http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gori_Castellani

1975 - 1st flight of the Wassmer WA-80 'Piranha', French two-seat low-wing cabin monoplane trainer.

http://aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=962 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wassmer_WA-80

1977 - A Convair CV-300 of L & J Company chartered by the rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd ran out of fuel and crashed near the end of its flight near Gillsburg, Mississippi. It Stalled due to fuel exhaustion, destroyed on impact during emergency landing attempt, Killing 6 over 26 including Lead singer Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist/vocalist Steve Gaines, backing vocalist Cassie Gaines (Steve's older sister), assistant road manager Dean Kilpatrick, pilot Walter McCreary and co-pilot William Gray.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1977_Convair_CV-300_crash

1978 - Death of Willard Wesley 'Millie' Millikan, USAF WWII and Korean war fighter pilot.

http://www.af.mil/information/bios/bio.asp?bioID=12026 - http://cieldegloire.com/014_millikan_w_w.php

1980 - 1st dog fights of the Iran-Iraq War. An Iraqi Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 is shot down by Iranian F-4 Phantoms.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Aviation/Historical_anniversaries/October_in_aviation/October_20

1983 - 1st flight of The Soko J-22B Orao 2 (Eagle), Romanian/Yugoslavian twin-engined, subsonic, close support, ground-attack and tactical reconnaissance aircraft, evolution of the Orao 1.

http://www.aviastar.org/air/inter/inter_orao.php

1987 - USAF A-7D Corsair II piloted by Major Bruce L. Teagarden sustained an in-flight engine failure. Due to poor weather on an attempt for an emergency landing, the plane crashed into the Ramada Inn, Indianapolis, after pilot ejected. 9 people were killed in the hotel.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1987_Ramada_Inn_Corsair_crash

1988 - Death of Sheila Scott,(Sheila Christine Hopkins), English record breaker aviatrix.

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

1992 - 1st flight of The Yakovlev Yak-112, Russian/Soviet civil utility aircraft.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakovlev_Yak-112

1995 - Launch of STS-73, Space Shuttle Columbia mission, 2nd mission for the United States Microgravity Laboratory.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-73

1996 - Death of Alfred William "Bill" Bedford, British WWII fighter pilot, Instructor and Hawker Siddeley test pilot, he pioneered the development of V/STOL aircraft.

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

2005 - Death of Chalmers Hubert 'Slick' Goodlin, American WWII pilot with the RCAF who volunteered in the Israeli Air Force during the Arab-Israeli war, Airliner pilot during humanitarian missions he also was test pilot for Bell and nearly broke the sound barrier.

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