APRIL23
1894 - Birth of Frederick Joseph Cunninghame, British WWI flying ace
http://theaerodrome.com/aces/england/cunninghame.php
1908 - Birth of Charles "Chuck" L. Sharp, JR., who led CNAC (China National Aviation Corporation ) through turbulent times in China, Burma and India. He was an outstanding and able administrator, a superior pilot and a leader of men. He was the director and supervisor of the first airlift over the "Hump,"
http://www.cnac.org/charlessharp01.htm
1911 - Yoshitoshi Tokugawa set a Japanese record with a Blériot, flying 48 miles in 1 hour 9 minutes 30 seconds.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoshitoshi_Tokugawa - http://www.earlyaviators.com/etokugaw.htm
1912 - Billy Stark returned to British Columbia with his pilot's licence and a new Curtis "Flyer." Stark took Daily Province sports editor Jim Hewitt up for a flight. Hewitt, who was British Columbia's first air passenger, related his impression of the flight to his readers. Later that same day, Olive Stark became the first woman airplane passenger in Canada. She sat beside her husband on the lower wing of his Curtis, bundled up against the cold, looking both proud and apprehensive
1915 - Patrick Nieson Lynch Bellinger, American pioneering US Naval aviator, climbed a Burgess-Dunne AH-10 to 10,000 feet in one hour, 19 minutes.
http://earlyaviators.com/ebelling.htm
1917 - Death of Paul von Osterroht, German WWI flying ace, killed in his Albatros D.III by a Sopwith pup near Cambrai.
http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_von_Osterroht - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/germany/osterroht.php
1918 - Lt Paul Baer shoots down his 5th aircraft, becoming the 1st ace of the American Expeditionary Force
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Baer - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/usa/baer.php
1918 - Death of Kenneth William Junor, Canadian WWI flying ace, killed in his SE5.a
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_William_Junor - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/canada/junor.php
1919 - The North Sea Aerial Navigation Company is formed as a domestic airline, using surplus military Blackburn RT1 Kangaroo Torpedo Bombers, flying between Hounslow and Leeds.
1924 - 1st flight of The Stout 2-AT "Pullman" (or "Air Pullman"), American single engine all-metal monoplane that was used for early airline travel and air mail transport in America.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stout_2-AT_Pullman
1931 - Death of Henry Michael Moody, British WWI flying ace
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Moody - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/england/moody2.php
1935 - 1st flight of the Duverne-Saran, French 3 seat low wing twin engine monoplane.
http://www.aviafrance.com/duverne-saran-aviation-france-10256.htm
1938 - 2 Heinkel He 116, German 4 engine long-range mail plane purchased by Manchurian Air Transport, take off from Berlin to Tokyo (a 54 hours 17 minutes flight of 15,251 km /9,477 mi)
http://www.aviastar.org/air/germany/he-116.php
1941 - RCAF No. 405 (Bomber) Squadron was formed at Driffield, Yorkshire. 1st RCAF bomber squadron formed overseas and the only RCAF Pathfinder Squadron.
http://www.rcaf.com/Squadrons/squadronDetail.php?No.-405-Squadron-64
1942 – Baedeker Blitz – German bombers hit Exeter, Bath and York in retaliation for the British raid on Lübeck.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baedeker_Blitz
1942 - Colonel Caleb V. Haynes, was assigned to command the Assam-Kunming branch of the India-China Ferry, dubbed the Assam-Burma-China Command
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hump
1943 - Death of Eugène Przysiecki, polish aviator, test pilot and WWII bomber pilot, killed in his Wellington Mk X while dropping mines over St Nazaire, France.
http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugeniusz_Przysiecki - http://rwd-dwl.net/pracownicy/przysiecki/index.htm
1945 - US Navy Consolidated PB4Y Liberators of Patrol Bombing Squadron 109 launch two Bat missiles against Japanese shipping in Balikpapan harbour in Borneo, 1st use of automatic homing missiles during WWII.
http://rafmuseum-1.titaninternet.co.uk/milestones-of-flight/world/1945_2.cfm
1945 - Death of Hidenori Matsunaga, Japanese WWII fighter ace, Killed in action.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_World_War_II_aces_from_Japan#M
1946 - 1st flight of The Bell L-39-2 used by the U.S. Navy to study swept wings in its 2nd configutation with fully swept wings for the X-2 program. The USN contracted with Bell for the modification of two P-63C-5 Kingcobras which would be fitted with a pair of wings swept back at 35 degrees, with a short inboard straight section.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bell_L-39-2_NAN2-61.jpg
1947 - 1st flight of the SNCAC NC.1070, French twin engine twin boom carrier born bomber prototype.
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/SNCAC_NC.1070 - http://www.aviafrance.com/s-n-c-a-c-nc-1070-aviation-france-1522.htm
http://www.aviastar.org/air/france/sncac_nc-1070.php
1956 - 1st Flight of the Douglas C-133 Cargomaster, American turboprop-powered strategic airlifter.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_C-133_Cargomaster
1959 - Air Charter Limited Avro Super Trader IV (a modified Avro Tudor IV fitted with an aft cargo door and flown unpressurized), carrying twelve men and top-secret equipment for Woomera rocket range, crashed in strong winds on Mount Süphan in eastern Turkey, killing all 12.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1959_Air_Charter_Turkey_crash
1962 - Launch of Ranger 4, spacecraft of the Ranger program designed to transmit pictures of the lunar surface to Earth stations during a period of 10 minutes of flight prior to crashing upon the Moon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranger_4
1965 - 1st delivery to an operational unit (63-8088) of a Lockheed C-141 Starlifter to the 44th Air Transport Squadron, 1501st Air Transport Wing, Travis Air Force Base, California
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_C-141_Starlifter
1967 - Launch of Soyuz 1 , manned spaceflight of the Soviet space program. Soyuz 1 was the 1st flight of the Soyuz spacecraft.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_1
1983 - Death of Duerson "Dewey" Knight, American WWI flying ace.
http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/usa/knight2.php
1986 - A British-constructed Airship Industries Skyship 500 airship begins scheduled passenger services, flying over London's landmarks.
1988 - The MIT Aeronautics and Astronautics Department's Daedalus, human-powered aircraft that, flew a distance of 71.5 mi (115.11 km) in 3 hours, 54 minutes, from Iraklion on the island of Crete to the island of Santorini. The flight holds official FAI world records for distance and duration for human-powered aircraft.(Pilot Olympic cyclist Kanellos Kanellopoulos of Greece.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIT_Daedalus
1996 - 1st flight of The Extra EA-400, german six-seat single-engined high wing monoplane utility aircraft.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extra_EA-400
2000 - Flight GF72 operated by Gulf Air, crashed minutes after executing a go-around upon attempting landing on Runway 12 at Bahrain International Airport for the second time.
http://aviationknowledge.wikidot.com/asi:gulf-air-flight-42
2001 - 1st flight of the Airbus A340-600, European long-range widebody four engine jet airliner.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airbus_A340 - http://www.aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=9467
2001 - Death of David Mathieson 'Dave' Walker, United States Navy officer and a NASA astronaut, which flew aboard four Space Shuttle missions in the 1980s and 1990s.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_M._Walker_(astronaut)
2005 - 1st flight of the Citation Mustang, "very light jet" (VLJ) class business jet.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cessna_Citation_Mustang
2006 - Death of RNZAF Wing Commander John "Johnny" Milne Checketts, WWII Flying ace.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnnie_Checketts - http://www.cieldegloire.com/002_checketts_j_m.php
2008 - A T-38 crashes at Columbus Air Force Base in Mississippi. Another crash the same year caused the Air Force to temporarily ground the aircraft.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_T-38_Talon
2010 - 1st flight of LSP-3, HAL Tejas, Indian Airforce, equipped with the Hybrid MMR radar.(lightweight multirole jet fighter)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HAL_Tejas
2010 - Tex Amanda Meachem (Born Brown), 92, went up flying again for the 1st time in decades in Fort Lauderdale. A former Women Air force Service Pilot from WWII, Tex (her given name) went up in an AT6 trainer aircraft like she flew in the 1940's.
http://wings1944.blogspot.com/search/label/WASP%20Tex%20Brown%20Meachem
2011 - 1st flight of the Mosquito 0.75, 3/4 scaled model of the famous WWII fighter bomber De Havilland Mosquito.