AUG16
1828 - Charles Green ascended from the Eagle Tavern, City Road, on the back of his pony, and after being up for half an hour descended at Beckenham in Kent
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Green_(balloonist)
1889 - Birth of Frank Godfrey, British WWI flying ace
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Godfrey - http://theaerodrome.com/aces/england/godfrey2.php
1894 - Birth of Alfred Clayburn Atkey, Canadian WWI fighter ace
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Atkey - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/canada/atkey.php
1904 - Birth of Minoru Genda, well-known Japanese military aviator and politician. He is best known for planning the Pearl Harbor attack.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minoru_Genda
1914 - Birth of Pavel Stepanovich Kutakhov, Soviet WWII fighter ace, jet fighter pilot (until he reached 60) and high ranking officer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pavel_Stepanovich_Kutakhov
1917 - Death of Noel William Ward Webb, British WWI fighter ace, killed in action in his Sopwith Camel
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noel_Webb_(aviator) - http://theaerodrome.com/aces/england/webb.php
1918 - Death of Marcello Arlotta , Italian dirigible pilot, killed while commanding the dirigible A-1 which fall from 18000m at night while bombing Kotor, croatia.
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcello_Arlotta
1918 – Royal Navy Air Service airship R27 is destroyed in a hangar fire at RNAS Howden along with a makeshift SSZ class blimp and two SSZ class blimps, SSZ.38 and SSZ.54.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R23X_class_airship#Operational_history
1920 - Death of John William Pinder, British WWI fighter ace and aviation pioneer in South America, Disappearing while attempting the 1st flight between Brazil and Buenos Aires in a Macchi M.9 flying boat. A damaged propeller forced them down at Lagoa dos Esteves and after repairing it, they were attempting to restart the engine when Martins was hit by the propeller and fell into the water. John Pinder attempted to save Martins but both men drowned.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Pinder_(aviator) - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/england/pinder.php
1921 - Death of Oliver Manners Sutton, British WWI flying ace, killed in a flying accident.
http://theaerodrome.com/aces/england/sutton.php
1923 - 1st flight of the Dewoitine P-4, French Highwing twin seat glider prototype.
http://aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=4505
1924 - Death of George Searle Lomax Haywar, British WWI fighter ace (as a gunner/observer).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_S._L._Hayward - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/england/hayward.php
1927 - Beginning of the Dole Air Race, (Dole Derby), tragic air race to cross the Pacific Ocean from northern California to the Territory of Hawaii. Of the 15-18 entrant airplanes, 11 were certified to compete but 3 crashed before the race, resulting in 3 deaths. 8 eventually participated in the race, with 2 crashing on takeoff and 2 going missing during the race. A 3rd, forced to return for repairs, took off again to search for the missing and was itself never seen again. In all, before, during, and after the race, 10 lives were lost and 6 airplanes were total losses.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dole_Air_Race
1928 - Death of Carlo Del Prete, Italian raid aviator and WWI pilot, from wounds sustained after the crash of the Savoia-Marchetti S.62 he was testing.
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlo_Del_Prete
1929 - German Fritz Morzik, on the BFW M.23B plane, wins the 1st FAI International Tourist Plane Contest (Challenge 1929) conceived by the Aéro-Club de France.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Challenge_1929
1933 - Birth of Stuart Allen Roosa, USAF pilot and NASA astronaut, who was the command module pilot for the Apollo 14 mission.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuart_Roosa
1934 - 1st flight of The Vickers Type 253 (often known by the specification as the Vickers G.4/31), British single engined two seat biplane general purpose military machine.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vickers_Type_253
1936 - 1st Canadian-built, modern, all metal, low wing monoplane, the Northrop Delta (built by Canadian Vickers under license), is flown from the St Lawrence at Longueuil.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_Delta#Operational_history
1938 - Birth of Oleg Grigoryevich Kononenko, Russian test pilot and cosmonaut.
http://www.astronautix.com/astros/konnenko.htm
1939 - Birth of Valery Victorovich Ryumin, Soviet cosmonaut.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valery_Ryumin
1942 – 2 two-person crew of the U.S. naval blimp L-8 disappears without a trace on a routine anti-submarine patrol over the Pacific Ocean. The blimp drifts without her crew and crash-lands in Daly City, California
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L_class_blimp
1943 - 1st flight of the SNCASO SO-90 'Cassiopée', French twin engined mail and passenger transport aircraft. Despite the fact that no flights were authorized by the Nazi, Maurice Hurel, French aeronautical Engineer, simulating roll-tests, takes off the prototype from Cannes, France to Algeria.
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/SNCASO_SO.95_Corse - http://aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=9926
1944 - 1st operational use of the Messerschmitt Me-163 Komet, German rocket-powered fighter aircraft, only rocket-powered fighter aircraft ever to have been operational.
http://www.aviastar.org/air/germany/me-163.php?p=1
1945 - Death of Takijiro Onishi, admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy during WWII, who came to be known as the father of the kamikaze.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takijir%C5%8D_%C5%8Cnishi
1947 - 1st flight of The de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver, single-engined, high-wing, propeller-driven, STOL aircraft.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Havilland_Canada_DHC-2_Beaver
1948 - 1st flight of The Northrop F-89 Scorpion, early American jet-powered fighter designed from the outset as an all-weather interceptor, 1st USAF jet fighters with guided missiles, and notably the 1st combat aircraft armed with air-to-air nuclear weapons
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_F-89_Scorpion
1952 - 1st flight of The Bristol Type 175 Britannia, British medium-to-long-range airliner.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bristol_Britannia
1958 - Birth of Peter Jeffrey Kelsay Wisoff, American physicist and NASA astronaut.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Wisoff
1960 - Joe Kittinger jumps out of a helium balloon and sets a world record for highest parachute jump (102,200 ft or 31,150m) and longest parachute freefall (84,700 ft or 25,815 m) while testing high altitude parachute escape systems in Project Excelsior.
http://www.nationalaviation.org/2011/03/dyk-joe-kittinger/ - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Excelsior
1961 - 1st flight of The Bell UH-1 Iroquois Model 205, extended version of the military helicopter powered by a single, turboshaft engine, with a two-bladed main rotor and tail rotor
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_UH-1_Iroquois#Model_205
1962 - 2 Turkish Air Force F-84F Thunderstreaks shot down 2 Iraqi Il-28 Beagle bombers that crossed the Turkish border by mistake during a bombing operation against Iraqi Kurdish insurgents.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_F-84F_Thunderstreak#Operational_history
1963 - 1st flight of The NASA M2-F1, American lightweight, unpowered prototype aircraft, developed to flight test the wingless lifting body concept.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_M2-F1
1965 - United Airlines Flight 389 Boeing 727-22 crashed into Lake Michigan 20 miles (32 km) east of Fort Sheridan, near Lake Forest, while descending from 35,000 feet mean sea level (MSL). All 30 people on board perished, including Clarence "Clancy" Sayen, the former president of the Air Line Pilots Association.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Airlines_Flight_389
1969 - Darryl Greenamayer sets a new piston-engine airspeed record in a heavily modified F8F Bearcat named 'Conquest I' at a speed of 478 mph (769 km/h).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daryl_Greenamyer
1971 - Launch of Eole 1, CNES - NASA Joint venture for an experimental weather satellite.
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/EOLE_(satellite)
1972 - Burma Airways Douglas C-47B-20-DK crashed into the sea just after take off from Thandwe Airport, Burma, killing 28 over 31.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1972_Thandwe_crash
1972 – In an unsuccessful coup d'état attempt, four F-5 military jets from the Royal Moroccan Air Force fired upon the King's Boeing 727 while he was traveling back to Rabat from France,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hassan_II_of_Morocco
1980 - 1st flight of The Embraer EMB 312 Tucano, Brazilian two seat turboprop basic trainer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embraer_EMB_312_Tucano
1984 - 1st flight of The ATR 42, French-Italian twin-turboprop, short-haul regional airliner.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATR_42 - http://aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=4733
1986 - Sudan Airways Fokker F-27 Friendship 400M taking off from Malakal, is shot down by Sudan People's Liberation Army using a 9K32 “Strela-2” (SA-7 Grail),man-portable, shoulder-fired, low-altitude surface-to-air missile. All 60 on board were killed.
http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19860816-0&lang=en
1987 - Northwest Airlines flight 255 McDonnell-Douglas MD-82 crashes on take-off for a flight from Detroit to Phoenix. 154 are killed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northwest_Airlines_Flight_255
1991 - Indian Airlines Flight 257 Boeing 737-2A8 crashed on its descent into Imphal, India, killing all 69
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Airlines_Flight_257
1995 - Air France Concorde sets eastbound circumnavigation record flight New-York/New- york in 31 hours 27 minutes 49 seconds, including six refuelling stops.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concorde#Records
1996 - The crew of a Russian Ilyushin Il-76 that was forced to land at Kandahar by a Taliban Mig-21 one year before, overpowered their captors and re-possessed their aircraft, flying it to freedom.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1995_Airstan_incident
2002 - A Russian Mil Mi-26 helicopter is brought down in a minefield by Chechen separatists using a man-portable air-defense system, killing 127 over at least 140.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_Khankala_Mi-26_crash
2002 - Death of Louis Wellington 'Lou' Schalk, Jr, American aviator, USAF test pilot and chief test pilot for the Lockheed Corporation's Skunk Works.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Schalk
2005 - West Caribbean Airways Flight 708 McDonnell Douglas MD-82, a charter flight, crashes into the mountains of Venezuela with no survivors.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Caribbean_Airways_Flight_708
2005 - A spanish Air Force Eurocopter AS 532 Cougar of the International Security Assistance Force(ISAF) crashes in Afghanistan, killing all 17 on board.
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accidente_del_helic%C3%B3ptero_espa%C3%B1ol_en_Afganist%C3%A1n_de_2005
2006 - Death of Herschel "Herky" Green, USAAF WWII fighter ace .
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herschel_Green
2009 - The AVCEN Jetpod, Malysian very quiet STOL prototype aircraft, designed for military transport, executive transport, and short to medium-range air taxi, crashed on its 1st flight killing the founder of Avcen, Michael Robert Dacre, who was the sole occupant.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AVCEN_Jetpod
2009 - While practising for an airshow, 2 Su-27s of the Russian Knights collided in mid-air during a test flight 5 km from Zhukovsky Airfield, south-east of Moscow, killing the Knights' leader, Igor Valentinovitch Tkachenko.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Russia_Sukhoi_Su-27_mid-air_collision#Notable_accidents - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igor_Tkachenko
2010 - AIRES Flight 8250 Boeing 737-73V, domestic scheduled passenger flight, crashed on the Colombian island of San Andrés, in the Caribbean, with two fatalities.