AUG11

1886 - Birth of Redford Henry "Red" Mulock, 1st Canadian WWI flying ace and the 1st, in the RNAS, High ranking RCAF post WWI before joining Canadian Airways.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redford_Henry_Mulock - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/canada/mulock.php

1890 - Birth of Vsevolod Mikhaylovich Abramovich, Russian pioneering aviator and aircraft designer.

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

1896 - Birth of Alexander Goodlet Clark, Australian WWI figter ace.

http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/australi/clark1.php

1896 - Birth of Frank Harold Taylor, Canadian WWI flying ace

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Harold_Taylor - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/canada/taylor3.php

1906 - Mrs. Mary P. Miller becomes the 1st woman passenger in an airship. The 40-hp craft is owned and operated by her husband, Major C.J.S. Miller.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9403EEDB1231E733A25751C1A96E9C946797D6CF

1909 - 1st flight of the Germe, Early french pusher biplane single seat prototype with an Anzani motor set on the lower wing leading edge which drove a single 4-bladed pusher propeller of 3-meter diameter forming 2 2-bladed propellers set back to back, through 2 shafts and a diagonally-mounted belt and Ailerons fitted to all 4 wings.

http://flyingmachines.ru/Site2/Crafts/Craft29290.htm - http://www.aviafrance.com/germe-biplan-aviation-france-9918.htm

1909 - 1st flight of The Canadian Aerodrome Baddeck No. 1, early canadian aircraft, 1st aircraft designed and built in Canada.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Aerodrome_Baddeck_No._1_and_No._2

1917 - Death of Arthur Norbury Solly, British WWI flying ace, killed in a crash with his observer (/Lt J Cawley) flying a B.F.2b.

http://theaerodrome.com/aces/england/solly.php

1917 - Death of Francis Dominic Casey, Irish WWI flying ace, killed in a flying accident during a test flight.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Dominic_Casey - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/ireland/casey.php

1918 - Flight Sub Lieutenant Stuart Culley takes off his Sopwith 2F1 Camel naval variant from from a lighter towed by the destroyer HMS Redoubt and shoots down Zeppelin LZ-100 (L 53), last Zeppelin destroyed during WWI.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Zeppelins#Zeppelins_constructed_during_World_War_I - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sopwith_Camel#Variants

1918 - Death of Hans Martin Pippart, German pioneer aircraft manufacturer and early pilot, WWI fighter ace, hit by anti-aircraft fire he had to abandon his airplane at an altitude of 150 feet but his parachute failed to open.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Martin_Pippart - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/germany/pippart.php

1918 - 18 Brandenburg W29 floatplane fighters attack 6 British patrol craft near Borkum, sinking 3 and damaging 3 more. The remaining 3 boats escape to Holland, where they are interned.

http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/research/history-of-aviation-timeline/interactive-aviation-timeline/world-aviation/1918.aspx

1918 - Death of Gordon Budd Irving, Canadian WWI flying ace, killed in action in his Sopwith Dolphin.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Budd_Irving - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/canada/irving.php

1919 - A Farman F.60 Goliath, french early twin engine biplane airliner, initially designed as a bomber, flew 8 passengers and a ton of supplies on a raid from Paris to Casablanca and Dakar, flying more than 4,500 km.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F.60_Goliath

1919 - Preparing for a long-distance flight, 8,000-mile (12,875 km) from England to South Africa, the Felixstowe Fury (5-engined triplane flying-boat prototype ) crashed on take-off, killing one of the 7-person crew. It was the last aircraft to be designed by John Cyril Porte.

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

1921 - Italian Giovanni de Briganti wins the Schneider trophy at Venice, Italy, flying a Macchi M.7bis (Italian single-seat fighter biplane flying boat) at 189.66 km/h (117.85 mph).

http://www.hydroretro.net/coupeen/1921.htm

1921 - Harold Ross Harris flies the 1st airmail aircraft designed to pick up airmail sacks from the ground.

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

1923 - Birth of Commander Peter 'Hoagy' Carmichael, British fighter pilot with the Royal Navy during and after WWII.

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

1926 - Death of Eugene Hoy Barksdale, American noted aviator and 1st Lieutenant in the Air Corps for the United States Army. While testing a Douglas O-2 observation airplane for spin characteristics. He did not recover from a flat spin while parachuting out of the plane, and his parachute was caught in the wing's brace wires, causing Barksdale to fall to his death

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_Hoy_Barksdale - http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/ehbarksdale.htm

1931 - 1st flight of the Makhonine Mak-10, French twin seat research aircraft which was built to investigate the possibility of reducing the surface area of a wing in flight (a telescopic wing) and thereby considerably increase the aircraft's maximum flying speed

http://aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=4806 - https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/rec.aviation.military/d6lvaRfC45o

1933 - 1st flight of the Kalinin K-7, Soviet 6 engine heavy experimental aircraft of unusual configuration with twin booms and large underwing pods housing fixed landing gear and machine gun turrets. In the passenger version, seats were arranged inside the 2.3 meter (7 ft 7 in) thick wings.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalinin_K-7

1937 - 1st flight of The Boulton Paul Defiant (P.82), British interceptor aircraft that served with the Royal Air Force (RAF) early in WWII. Designed as a "turret fighter", without any forward-firing guns.

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

1938 - 1st heavier-than-air craft non-stop flight. After a flight of 24 hours and 56 minutes from berlin via Hamburg, Glasgow, Newfoundland, and Halifax, Lufthansa FW-200 'Condor' lands in New york

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focke-Wulf_Fw_200#Operational_history

1938 - Death of Corrado Baccarini, Italian Fighter pilot, killed in his Fiat C.R.32 during the Spanish war.

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

1941 – Two Wellingtons of No. 115 Sqn carried out the 1st operational trial of Bomber Commands new navigational device Gee. The trials were a complete success, and the equipment ordered into full production.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gee_(navigation)#Near-compromise

1942 - Aircraft carrier HMS Eagle, during operation Pedestal to carry supplies to Malta, is sunk by german submarine U-73.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Eagle_(1918)#Battle_of_Malta - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_submarine_U-73_(1940)

1942 - Death of Kenneth Gordon Seth-Smith, British test pilot for Hawker Aircraft Company, killed in the crash of a Hawker Typhoon Mk IB after the tailplane of his Typhoon detached in flight.

http://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=74426

1945 - The 1st Nakajima Kikka prototype, Japan's 1st jet-powered aircraft, is damaged on its 2nd flight after the pilot mistakenly believed that the rocket assisted take off (RATO) units had not fired and thus shut off the main engines to abort takeoff. As a result the aircraft did not take off at all and was damaged when it ran off the end of the runway.

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

1949 - 1st flight of The Morane-Saulnier MS.730 Alcyon, French two or three-seat basic training monoplane, prototype version.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morane-Saulnier_Alcyon - http://aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=9938

1950 - 1st flight of The Fairchild XC-120 Packplane, American experimental transport aircraft developed from the company's C-119 Flying Boxcar, and was unique in the unconventional use of removable cargo pods that were attached below the fuselage, instead of possessing an internal cargo compartment.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairchild_XC-120_Packplane

1954 - 1st flight of The Folland Midge, British small, swept-wing subsonic light fighter aircraft originally developed as a concept demonstrator for the successful Folland Gnat.

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

1955 - Death of Francis Kennedy 'Frank' McClean, English civil engineer and pioneer aviator, One of the founding members of the Royal Aero Club and one of the founders of naval aviation and amateur flying.

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

1955 - 1st flight of The Bell XV-3 (Bell 200), US tiltrotor aircraft developed for a joint research program between the USAF and the United States Army, to explore convertiplane technologies.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_XV-3

1956 - 1st flight of The Cessna Model 620, American 4 engines pressurized 8 to 10 seat business airplane prototype.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cessna_620

1960 - 1st time that any object is recovered successfully from orbit: the return capsule of the Discoverer 13 mission launched the previous day is successfully recovered.

http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraftDisplay.do?id=1960-008A - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corona_(satellite)#Discoverer

1960 - 1st flight of the Found FBA-2, Canadian four/five-seat cabin high-wing monoplane.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Found_FBA-2

1961 - Birth of Frederick Wilford "Rick" Sturckow, USMC pilot and NASA astronaut.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_W._Sturckow

1962 - Launch of Vostok 3, spaceflight of the Soviet space program intended to determine the ability of the human body to function in conditions of weightlessness and test the endurance of the Vostok 3KA spacecraft over longer flights

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vostok_3

1967 - F-105 Thunderchiefs of the 355th Tactical Fighter Wing USAF cut the Long Bien Bridge (Paul Doumer bridge Before North Vietnam's independence, historic cantilever bridge across the Red River that connects two parts of the city of Hanoi, Vietnam.), using 100 tons of bombs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-105_Thunderchief#Vietnam_War - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Doumer_bridge

1972 - 1st flight of the Northrop F-5E, Evolution of the American light supersonic fighter aircraft.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_F-5

1979 - 2 Aeroflot Tupolev Tu-134s collided in mid-air in cloudy conditions near Dniprodzerzhynsk, Ukrainian SSR, after a controller error, killing all 178.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1979_Dniprodzerzhynsk_mid-air_collision

1982 – A bomb explodes on Pan Am Flight 830, A Boeing 747-121 named "Clipper Ocean Rover", en route from Tokyo to Honolulu, killing one teenager and injuring 15 passengers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan_Am_Flight_830

1986 - A modified Westland Lynx sets a new helicopter world speed record of 249 mph (401 km/h)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westland_Lynx#Origins

1991 - STS-43, space shuttle Atlantis mission, is back on earth.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-43

1995 - 1st fligth of The Embraer ERJ 145, Brazilian regional jet 50 seats airliner.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embraer_ERJ_145_family#Operations

1998 - 1st flight of The Boeing X-40A Space Maneuver Vehicle, American test platform for the X-37 Future-X Reusable Launch Vehicle project.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_X-40

1999 - Death of Robert 'RT' Jones, American engineer, credited by NASA as inventor of the swept-back and oblique wing concepts.

http://www.astronautix.com/astros/jonobert.htm

2001 - 1st flight of the Hawker 4000, (originally known as the Hawker Horizon), American super-midsize business jet

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawker_4000

2003 - The Spirit of Butts Farm (also known as TAM 5) , model aircraft, lands at Mannin Beach near Clifden, Ireland after a 38.5 hours transatlantic flight duration and a straight line distance of 3,030 km using an autopilot.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Spirit_of_Butts_Farm - http://tam.plannet21.com/

2005 - Launch of Ipstar I (or Thaicom 4), Thailandese broadband satellite was designed for high-speed, 2-way broadband communication over an IP platform.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thaicom_4

2008 - Death of John Sumter Bull, U.S. Navy test pilot, aeronautical engineer, and NASA astronaut.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_S._Bull

2009 - Airlines PNG Flight 4684 de Havilland Twin Otter travelling in bad weather, impacted terrain on the eastern slope of the Kokoda Gap about 11 km south-east of Kokoda (Papua New Guinea), killing all 13.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airlines_PNG_Flight_4684

2011 - 2nd test flight of the Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2 (HTV-2), part of the DARPA Falcon Project, American unmanned reusable, rapid-strike Hypersonic Weapon System (HWS). Contact was lost and the prototype splashed into the Ocean.

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

2012 - The airline Wind Jet ceases operations after Alitalia's attempt to purchase it fails, leaving hundred of passengers stranded in Italy.

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