DEC06
1805 - Death of Nicolas-Jacques Conté, French painter, balloonist, army officer, and inventor of the modern pencil.
1885 - Birth of Czeslaw Michal Zbieranski, Polish engineer, pioneer of Polish aviation.
1890 - Birth of Hans Bethge, German WWI fighter ace
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Bethge_(aviator) - http://theaerodrome.com/aces/germany/bethge.php
1891 - Birth of Gotthard Sachsenberg, German WWI fighter ace, Baltic war pilot, Aero Lloyd Airline founder and designer of hydrofoils.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gotthard_Sachsenberg - http://theaerodrome.com/aces/germany/sachsenberg.php
1891 - Birth of Peter Carpenter, Welsh WWI fighter ace.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Carpenter - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/wales/carpenter.php
1893 - Birth of Henri Roget, French aviator during WWI and raid pilot.
1896 - Birth of Kenneth Lee Porter, American WWI flying ace, Engineer who worked for Boeing during WWII and was a member of the US fighting pilots Association.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Porter_(aviator) - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/usa/porter.php
1898 - Birth of Ettore Cattaneo, Italian dentist and aviation pioneer in the domains of gliding, aviation and rocket, nicknamed the flying dentist.
1898 - Birth of Robert Kenneth Whitney, Canadian WWI flying ace
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Kenneth_Whitney - http://theaerodrome.com/aces/canada/whitney.php
1907 - 1st flight of The Cygnet (or Aerodrome #5), extremely unorthodox early Canadian aircraft,with a wall-like "wing" made up of 3,393 tetrahedral cells.
1908 - 1st flight of the AEA Aerodrome No.4 Silver Dart, American/canadian early aircraft.
1909 - Death of Antonio Fernández Santillana, Spanish early aviator and aircraft designer, Killed in the crash oh his Fernandez No.3 'Aeral' biplane
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Fern%C3%A1ndez_Santillana - http://earlyaviators.com/efernande.htm
1916 - Birth of Yekaterina Vasylievna Budanova, Soviet WWII female fighter ace.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yekaterina_Budanova - http://cieldegloire.com/015_budanova_y_v.php
1917 - Death of Russell Winnicott, British WWI flying ace, killed in a mid-air collision in his S.E.5a.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell_Winnicott - http://theaerodrome.com/aces/england/winnicott.php
1920 - Birth of Dominic Salvatore "Don" Gentile, USAF WWII fighter ace and test pilot.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominic_Salvatore_Gentile - http://www.cieldegloire.com/014_gentile_d_s.php
1921 - Birth of George Frederick "Buzz" "Screwball" Beurling, most successful Canadian WWII fighter pilot.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Beurling - http://cieldegloire.com/003_beurling_g_f.php - http://www.elknet.pl/acestory/beurling/beurling.htm
1924 - 1st flight of The Handley Page Handcross, British single-engined biplane day bomber prototype.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handley_Page_HP.28_Handcross
1928 - North American Aviation, major US aerospace manufacturer, responsible for a number of historic aircraft, is founded.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_Aviation
1934 - 1st flight of The Hawker P.V.4 , British biplane prototype general-purpose military aircraft.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawker_P.V.4
1936 - Death of Ludwig Hautzmayer, Austro-Hungarian WWI flying ace
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Hautzmayer - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/austrhun/hautzmayer.php
1936 - 1st flight of The Armstrong Whitworth A.W.29, British mid-wing cantilever monoplane single engined bomber prototype aircraft.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armstrong_Whitworth_A.W.29
1937 - 1st flight of the Amiot 340, 3 seat high wing twin engine monoplane medium bomber prototype.
http://www.aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=5690&ID_CONSTRUCTEUR=92
1939 - 1st flight of the Morane-Saulnier MS-435, 2 seat trainer version prototype developped from the MS-406 fighter.
http://www.aviafrance.com/morane-saulnier-ms-435-aviation-france-864.htm
1942 - Operation Oyster: a mixed force of light bombers from No.2 Group, RAF Bomber Command, led by Wing Commander J.E. Pelly-Fry, carries out an attack on the Philips radio and valve works in Eindhoven in the Netherlands
1944 - 1st flight of the Heinkel He 162 'Volksjäger' or 'Salamander', German single-engine, jet-powered fighter aircraft.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinkel_He_162
1952 - Cubana de Aviación Douglas DC-4 stalled during the initial climb from Kindley Air Force Base in Bermuda, lost height and crashed tail first into the sea, killing 37 over 41.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1952_Bermuda_air_crash
1955 - 1st flight of the Bensen B-8M, American single-seat autogyro, refinement of the Bensen B-7.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bensen_B-8
1957 - Death of Robert Albert Charles Esnault-Pelterie, pioneering French aircraft designer and spaceflight theorist.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Esnault-Pelterie
1957 - 1st flight of the 2nd and last prototype of The Saunders-Roe SR.53, British prototype interceptor aircraft of mixed jet and rocket propulsion
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saunders-Roe_SR.53#Operational_history
1957 - 1st flight of The Lockheed Model 188 Electra , American 4 engined turboprop airliner, 1st large turboprop airliner produced in the USA.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_L-188_Electra
1957 - Vanguard TV3, 1st attempt of the USA to launch a satellite into orbit around the Earth, Exploded on launch.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanguard_TV3
1959 - Capt. Walter J. Hodgson flew a Kaman H-43B 'Huskie' helicopter at Bloomfield, Connecticut, to a 29,846-foot altitude record for Class E1D helicopters.
http://www.aero-web.org/history/events/1959.htm
1959 - The 2nd McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II (XF4H-1) performed a zoom climb to a world record of 98,557 ft (30,040 m) during operation Top Flight.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_Douglas_F-4_Phantom_II#World_records
1960 - The NAeL Minas Gerais (pennant number A 11), Colossus-class aircraft carrier, previously HMS Vengeance, is commissioned and is the 1st Brazilian aircraft carrier.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazilian_aircraft_carrier_Minas_Gerais
1963 - 1st flight of The Piper PA-32 Cherokee Six, American six or seven seat, fixed landing gear, light aircraft, development of the PA-28 Cherokee.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piper_PA-32
1963 - Robert W. Smith in a Lockheed NF-104A, American mixed power, high-performance, supersonic aerospace trainer, achieves an altitude of 120,800 ft (36,800 m).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_NF-104A#First_NF-104A
1965 - Luna 8, also known as Lunik 8, Soviet lunar space probe crashes on the moon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_8
1966 - 1st flight of The Shenyang BA-5, People's Republic of China radio-controlled target drone
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shenyang_BA-5
1973 - 1st flight of the production version of the Concorde
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concorde_(avion)#Les_essais
1984 - PBA Flight 1039 Embraer 110 Bandeirante crashed upon takeoff at Jacksonville, killing all 13 after a maintenance error, as the elevator cables had been cross-linked, causing the elevators to operate in reverse.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PBA_Flight_1039
1988 - STS-27, Space shuttle Atlantis mission is back on earth
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-27
1990 - An Italian Air force Aermacchi MB-326 crashes over a School after the pilot ejected.
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strage_dell%27Istituto_Salvemini
1990 - Death of Victor Emmanuel Groom, British WWI flying ace, WWII and post WWII high ranking officer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Groom - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/england/groom.php
1991 - 1st flight of The Dornier 328, german turboprop-powered commuter airliner, Initially produced by Dornier Luftfahrt GmbH and later by Fairchild Aircraft.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dornier_328
1993 - 1st flight of The Bombardier 415 Superscooper (formerly Canadair CL-415 SuperScooper), Canadian amphibious aircraft purpose-built as a water bomber.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombardier_415
1997 – A Russian Antonov An-124 cargo plane operated by the Russian Air Force, crashed in a residential area after take-off in Irkutsk, Russia. All 23 people on-board and 44 people on the ground were killed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonov_An-124#Notable_accidents
1999 - Death of Rhulin Albert Thomas, American aviator, 1st deaf pilot to successfully fly solo across the US, without crashing along the way.
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=58880963
2005 - Iranian Air Force C-130E Hercules crashed into a 10-floor apartment building in a residential area of Tehran after an unsuccessfully attempt to make an emergency landing at the city's Mehrabad International Airport due to engine problems killing all 94 on board, and 34 on ground.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_Iranian_Air_Force_C-130_crash