FEB04
1851 - Birth of Carl Berg, German entrepreneur and airship builder.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Berg_(airship_builder)
1875 - Birth of Ludwig Prandtl, German scientist, pioneer in the development of rigorous systematic mathematical analyses which he used for underlying the science of aerodynamics, which have come to form the basis of the applied science of aeronautical engineering.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Prandtl
1896 - Birth of Paul Joseph "Ginty" McGinness, Australian WWI flying ace who also served the RAAF during WWII, co-founder of Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services (QANTAS).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_McGinness - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/australi/mcginness.php
1897 - Birth of Carl Frederick Falkenberg Canadian WWI fighter ace, and WWII RACF instructor
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Frederick_Falkenberg - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/canada/falkenberg.php
1898 - Birth of Robert Wallace Farquhar, British WWI flying ace.
http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/england/farquhar.php
1899 - Birth of Viktor Fedorovich Bolkhovitinov, Soviet engineer, Aircraft designer and team-leader of the developers of the Bereznyak-Isayev BI-1 aircraft.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Bolkhovitinov
1902 - Birth of Charles Augustus Lindbergh, (nicknamed "Slim", "Lucky Lindy" and "The Lone Eagle") American aviator, author, inventor, explorer, and social activist.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Lindbergh
1902 - 1st balloon flight in Antarctica when Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton ascend to 244 metres in a tethered hydrogen balloon to take the 1st Antarctic aerial photographs.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discovery_Expedition#Outward_journey
1904 - Birth of Benjamin Odell Howard, American aviator, aeronautical engineer, test pilot, air racer and aircraft designer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Howard_(aviator)
1907 - Birth of Geoffrey Arthur Virley Tyson, British Aerobatic and test pilot.
http://thetartanterror.blogspot.com/2006/02/geoffrey-arthur-tyson-obe-1907.html
1912 - Death of Franz Reichelt, also known as Frantz Reichelt or François Reichelt, Austrian-born French tailor, inventor and parachuting pioneer, now sometimes referred to as the Flying Tailor, killed after jumping from the Eiffel Tower while testing a wearable parachute of his own design.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Reichelt
1915 - 1st flight of the Schutte-Lanz SL5, German Airship .
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Sch%C3%BCtte-Lanz_airships#SL5
1915 - 1st Canadian air casualty in WWI: Lt. William F.N. Sharpe was killed in a training accident in England.
1919 - 1st flight of The Bristol Badger, British two-seat fighter-reconnaissance aircraft, crashing due to an air lock in the fuel feed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bristol_Badger
1920 - Pierre van Ryneveld and Quintin Brand set out in a Vickers Vimy from Cairo to cross Africa by air from North to South
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quintin_Brand#Inter-war_years
1929 - Berliner-Joyce Aircraft, American aircraft manufacturer, is founded by Henry Berliner and famous aviator Temple Nach Joyce.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berliner-Joyce
1929 - Frank Hawks and Oscar Grubb takes off their Lockheed Air Express from Burbank, California to New york for a new flight record.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Hawks
1935 - 1st flight of The Mitsubishi A5M 'Claude' (Ka-14), Japanese carrier-based fighter aircraft. World's 1st monoplane shipboard fighter and direct ancestor of the famous Mitsubishi A6M 'Zero'.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitsubishi_A5M
1943 - 1st flight of The Bristol Type 163 Buckingham , British WWII medium bomber.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bristol_Buckingham
1943 - 1st flight of the Morane-Saulnier Mörkö, Finnish modified French fighter MS.406.
http://www.aviastar.org/air/finland/morane_morko.php
1943 - British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) begins operations between Leuchars in Scotland and Stockholm in Sweden with de Havilland Mosquito aircraft, for high speed deliveries of high-value low-weight freight, and passengers.
1945 - Death of Sumi Kamito, Japanese WWII fighter ace, killed in action.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_World_War_II_aces_from_Japan#K
1945 - US President Franklin D. Roosevelt touches down at Yalta, the Crimean resort, in his presidential airplane 'Sacred Cow' Douglas C-54 Skymaster for a crucial summit with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. The leaders are meeting to discuss terms for German surrender and the shape of post-war Europe.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yalta_Conference - http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=566
1946 - 1st flight of The Republic XF-12 Rainbow, American four-engine, all-metal prototype reconnaissance aircraft.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_XF-12_Rainbow
1948 - The United States Air Force (USAF) Military Air Transport Service (MATS) is established.
1948 - 1st flight of The Douglas Skyrocket (D-558-2 or D-558-II) American rocket and jet-powered supersonic research aircraft.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Skyrocket
1954 - 2nd Bristol Britannia prototype (British medium-to-long-range airliner) crashed at Severn Beach, Gloucestershire.. During the test flight, beginning with a loss of oil pressure, the No. 3 engine was shut down and restarted with a fire breaking out that could not be contained, consequently, No. 4 was shut down as a precaution. On approach to Filton Airport, there was concern that the uncontrolled fire would lead to a failure of the main spar, the pilot electing to make an emergency landing on the mudflats of the Severn Estuary.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bristol_Britannia#Accidents_and_incidents
1958 - 1st nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the CVAN-65 USS Enterprise is laid down at the Newport News shipyard.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Enterprise_(CVN-65)
1961 - Launch of Tyazhely Sputnik, also known as Venera 1VA No.1, and in the West as Sputnik 7, Soviet spacecraft, which was intended to be the 1st spacecraft to explore Venus.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyazhely_Sputnik
1966 – All Nippon Airways Flight 60 Boeing 727-81 plunges into Tokyo Bay, killing 133.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Nippon_Airways_Flight_60
1966 - Death of Giorgio Michetti, Italian WWI flying ace.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giorgio_Michetti - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/italy/michetti.php
1967 - Death of Ignaz "Igo" Etrich, Austrian flight pioneer, pilot and fixed-wing aircraft developer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igo_Etrich
1968 - American Max Conrad, with a Piper PA-23 Aztec, sets a distance record over closed course of 6,357.48 km (3,950.35 mi) between Chicago and Milwaukee.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Conrad#FAI_certified_world_records
1969 - The North American Aviation XB-70 Valkyrie, prototype version of the proposed B-70 nuclear-armed deep-penetration bomber is retired.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_XB-70_Valkyrie
1970 - Aerolíneas Argentinas Flight 707 Hawker Siddeley HS 748 'Ciudad de Bahía Blanca' flew into a cumulonimbus cloud. The pilots lost control of the aircraft after it encountered severe turbulence, and crashed into the ground near the city of Loma Alta, Chaco, Argentina, Killing all 37.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerol%C3%ADneas_Argentinas_Flight_707
1977 - Kenya Airways, flag carrier of Kenya, begins operations.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenya_Airways
1985 - Death of Gerhard Zucker, German businessman and rocket engineer, Mail rocket pioneer
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerhard_Zucker
1992 - Death of Paver Vladimirovich Tsybin, Russian research aircraft designer.
http://www.astronautix.com/astros/tsybin.htm
1994 - 1st use of The H-II (H2), Japanese rocket satellite launch system, 1st two-stage liquid-fuelled rocket Japan made using only technologies developed domestically.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H-II
1997 – En route to Lebanon, two Israeli Sikorsky CH-53 troop-transport helicopters collide in mid-air over northern Galilee, Israel killing 73.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1997_Israeli_helicopter_disaster
1997 - 1st flight of the Groen Hawk H2X prototype, two-seat autogyro.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groen_Hawk_4 - http://www.aviastar.org/helicopters_eng/groen_hawk.php
2002 - Launch of Mission Demonstration Satellite 1 "Tsubasa" (MDS-1), Japanese Navigation technology satellite test mission.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MDS-1
2011 - 1st flight of The Northrop Grumman X-47B, American demonstration Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle (UCAV).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_Grumman_X-47B
2012 – Australian filmmaker Andrew Wight is at the controls of his private Robinson R44 helicopter with American filmmaker Mike deGruy as a passenger for a flight to scout filming locations when the helicopter crashes on takeoff and burns at Jaspers Brush near Berry in New South Wales, Australia. Both men are killed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Wight - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_deGruy
2016 - Death of Edgar Dean Mitchell,American pilot, engineer, and astronaut.