DEC09
1879 - Birth of Benjamin Delahauf Foulois, US Army general who learned to fly the 1st military planes purchased from the Wright Brothersn, 1st military aviator as an airship pilot. He achieved numerous other military aviation "firsts"
1889 - Birth of Andre René Celestin Herbelin, French WWI flying ace
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9_Herbelin - http://theaerodrome.com/aces/france/herbelin.php
1892 - Birth of Francis James Ralph, British WWI flying ace (as observer/Gunner).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_James_Ralph - http://theaerodrome.com/aces/england/ralph.php
1894 - Birth of Karl Pech, German WWI flying ace.
1894 - Birth of Sidney Henri Platel, British WWI flying ace (observer/gunner)
1896 - Birth of Edward Duncan Crundall, British WWI flying ace, WWII pilot, pre and post WWII commercial pilot and author.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Crundall - http://theaerodrome.com/aces/england/crundall.php
1898 - Birth of Walter Henry Scott, Scottish WWI flying ace (observer/gunner)
1901 - Birth of Jean Mermoz, French raid aviator.
1905 - Birth of Emilio Carranza Rodríguez, Mexican aviator and raid pilot nicknamed the "Lindbergh of Mexico".
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emilio_Carranza - http://www.earlyaviators.com/ecarranz.htm
1909 - 1st powered aeroplane flight over Australia is made by British racing driver and pilot Colin Defries with a Wright Model A.
1909 - 1st flight of the Walden III, 1st american monoplane, built by American Dr. Henry W. Walden. It is powered by a three-cylinder, 22-HP Anzani engine and takes off from Mineola, Long Island, N.Y.
1916 - Birth of James Brian "Willie" Tait, British WWII bomber pilot and postwar RAF high ranking officer, He conducted the 1st British air raid on Italy and , as commanding officer of the 617 Squadron, led the mission that sunk the Tirpitz.
1916 - Birth of Curtis Pitts, American aircraft designer, known for a series of popular aerobatic biplanes as the Pitts Special.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtis_Pitts
1918 - Birth of Alvin Swauger White, American test pilot, engineer, and USAF astronaut.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alvin_S._White
1925 - The 111th Observation Squadron, Texas National Guard, suffers its 1st casualties when Capt. Emil Wagner and Lt. Luke McLaughlin put a Curtiss JN-6H, 38105, into a steep dive whereupon the port wing collapses and the airframe plummets to the ground at Ellington Field, Texas. Both crew survive the impact but die later in a Houston hospital.
1930 - Death of Paul Frank Baer, American WWI flying ace who scored the 1st aerial victory ever for American military aviation, killed in the crash of his floatplane which struck on take off the mast of a junk on the Yangtze River. He was an Aeronautic inspector and Commercial pilot.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Frank_Baer - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/usa/baer.php
1931 - Death of Romeo Popescu, Romanian aviator, while attempting to break the 500km closed-circuit speed record with a I.A.R. CV-11, Romanian fighter prototype, IAR's 1st original aircraft.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IAR_CV_11
1933 - Jersey Airways, airline operating air services to and from the Channel Islands, is formed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jersey_Airways
1935 - 1st flight of The Curtiss SBC Helldiver, American two-place scout bomber, last military biplane procured by the US Navy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtiss_SBC_Helldiver
1936 - Death of Juan de la Cierva y Codorníu, 1st Count of De La Cierva, Spanish civil engineer, pilot and aeronautical engineer, who invented a single-rotor type of aircraft that came to be called autogyro. He died in the crash of a KLM Douglas DC-2-115E at Croydon just after take off.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_de_la_Cierva - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1936_KLM_Croydon_accident
1941 - Death of Arthur Stewart King Scarf, British WWII Bomber pilot, from injuries after he crash landed his Bristol Blenheim I severly damaged by japanese fighters over Singora airfield in Thailand.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Stewart_King_Scarf
1951 - 1st flight of The Fiat G.80, Italian military trainer and Italian's 1st true jet-powered aircraft
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_G.80
1956 – Trans-Canada Air Lines Flight 810 Canadair North Star, crashes near Hope, British Columbia, Canada, after encountering severe icing and turbulence over the mountains, killing all 62 people on board.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Canada_Air_Lines_Flight_810
1959 - A Kaman H43B 'Huskie' rescue helicopter sets a new helicopter altitude record of 9,097 metres (29,846 feet) flown by USAF pilots William J. Davis and Walter J. Hodgson.
http://rafmuseum-1.titaninternet.co.uk/milestones-of-flight/world/1959.cfm
1965 - A fireball is seen from Michigan to Pennsylvania; witnesses report something crashing in the woods near Pittsburgh
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kecksburg_UFO_incident
1968 - Death of Arthur Bradfield Fairclough, Canadian WWI flying ace.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Bradfield_Fairclough - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/canada/fairclough.php
1970 - Death of Artem Ivanovich Mikoyan, Soviet aircraft designer who, In partnership with Mikhail Iosifovich Gurevich, designed many of the famous MiG military aircrafts.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artem_Mikoyan
1971 - Indian Airlines Hawker Siddeley HS 748 in reduced visibility during daylight hours, flew into high terrain about 50 mi (80 km) from Madurai airport, killing 21 over 31.
http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19711209-0 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawker_Siddeley_HS_748#Accidents_and_incidents
1973 - 1st flight of the Lefebvre MP-204 'Busard', French single-seat racing aircraft prototype for homebuilding.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lefebvre_Busard - http://www.aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=9588
1982 - 1st flight of the Cessna 208 Caravan, American single turboprop engine, fixed-gear short-haul regional airliner and utility aircraft.
http://www.aviastar.org/air/usa/cessna_208.php
1982 - Aeronor Flight 304 Fairchild F-27 crashed near La Florida Airport, in the Chilean city of La Serena, killing all 46 after it suffered a malfunction in one of its motors on approach.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeronor_Flight_304
1988 - 1st flight of The Saab JAS 39 Gripen, swedish lightweight single-engine delta wing and canard configuration with relaxed stability design and fly-by-wire technology multirole jet fighter.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saab_JAS_39_Gripen
1992 - STS-53, Space Shuttle Discovery mission in support of the United States Department of Defense, is back on earth
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-53
1995 - Death of Douglas Corrigan, American aviator, nicknamed "Wrong Way" after a transcontinental flight from Long Beach, California, to New York. He flew from Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, New York, to Ireland, though his flight plan was filed to return to Long Beach. He never publicly admitted to having flown to Ireland intentionally.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Corrigan
2002 - 1st flight of The Diamond DA42 Twin Star, Austrian four seat, twin engine, propeller-driven molded largely of composite materials airplane
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamond_DA42
2006 - Launch of STS-16, Space shuttle Discovery mission to the ISS, with Arne Christer Fuglesang, 1st swedish in space.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-116
2008 - Death of Yury Nikolayevich Glazkov, Soviet Air Force officer and cosmonaut.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yury_Glazkov
2010 - The South African National Space Agency (SANSA), South Africa's government agency responsible for the promotion and development of aeronautics and aerospace space research, is founded.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_African_National_Space_Agency