FEB28
1900 - Birth of Wolfram Kurt Erhard Hirth , German gliding pioneer and sailplane designer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfram_Hirth
1914 - Francesco Brach Papa climbs at a height of 3983m with his Farman.
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francesco_Brach_Papa
1921 - Birth of Pierre Clostermann, French WWII flying ace, author (the big show), engineer, politician and sporting fisherman. Over his flying career he was awarded the Grand-Croix of the French Légion d'Honneur, Croix de Guerre France, DFC and bar, Distinguished Service Cross (USA), Silver Star (USA), and the Air Medal (USA).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Clostermann - http://www.pierre-clostermann.com/index.html - http://cieldegloire.com/004_clostermann.php
1923 - 1st japanese aircraft to take-off from and land on an aircraft carrier is a Mitsubishi 1MF on the Hosho. it was flown by William Jordan.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitsubishi_1MF#Operational_history - http://www.j-aircraft.com/drawings/johan/1mf.htm
1926 - Death of Gustav Otto, German aircraft and aircraft-engine designer and manufacturer, inventor of the four-stroke internal combustion engine.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustav_Otto
1927 - 1st flight of The Curtiss F7C Seahawk, carrier-capable biplane fighter aircraft of the USMC.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtiss_F7C_Seahawk
1928 - 4 Supermarine Southampton flying boats of the Royal Air Force Far East Flight under the command of Group Captain H.M. Cave-Brown-Cave arrive in Singapore coming from Plymouth after a 27,000 mile cruise through Egypt, India, Australia, & Japan, proving that the RAF had the capability to reinforce the more remote parts of the British Empire.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Cave-Browne-Cave#Inter-war_years
1931 - Imperial Airways begins scheduled services between England and Africa using Armstrong Whitworth Argosys
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_Airways#The_Africa_Route
1934 - Laura Houghtaling Ingalls undertakes a solo flight round South America and back (a distance of 27,359 kilometres/17,000 miles) in a Lockheed Air Express from from North Beach Airport, Jackson Heights, New York.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Ingalls_(aviator)#Timeline
1937 - 1st flight of The Mitsubishi Ki-30, Japanese light bomber of WWII. It was a single-engine, mid-wing, cantilever monoplane of stressed-skin construction with a fixed tailwheel undercarriage and a long transparent cockpit canopy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitsubishi_Ki-30
1944 - 2nd prototype of the Heinkel He 277, four-engine, long range heavy bomber design, derivative of the He 177, makes its 1st flight
http://www.aviastar.org/air/germany/he-277.php
1946 - 1st flight of The Republic F-84 Thunderjet, American turbojet fighter-bomber aircraft
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_F-84_Thunderjet
1947 - Robert E. Thacker made history when he flew nonstop a North American P-82 Twin Mustang 'Betty Jo' from Hawaii to New York without refueling, a distance of 5,051 mi (8,129 km) in 14 hr 32 min (347.5 mph/559.2 km/h).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_F-82_Twin_Mustang#Design_and_development - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_E._Thacker
1949 - 1st flight of The Dassault M.D.450 Ouragan, 1st French-designed jet fighter-bomber.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dassault_Ouragan
1954 - The Lockheed XF-104 , American single-engine, high-performance, supersonic interceptor prototype made a planned hop of about five ft off the ground during a high-speed taxi
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_XF-104#Testing_and_evaluation
1955 - Air Vice Marshall J.R. Whitley flies an English Electric Canberra from Lincolnshire to Cyprus covering 2000 miles in 4 hour 13 minutes
1959 – Discoverer 1, an American spy satellite, 1st object to achieve a polar orbit, is launched.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discoverer_1
1959 - 1st flight of The Aérospatiale Alouette III, single-engine, light utility helicopter
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A%C3%A9rospatiale_Alouette_III
1961 - 1st flight of the The Cessna Skymaster Model 336, US twin-engine civil utility aircraft built in a push-pull configuration.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cessna_Skymaster
1964 - 1st flight of the Morane-Saulnier MS.760 Paris III, six-passenger prototype version of the french jet trainer and liaison aircraft MS.760 Paris.
http://www.aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=1867 - http://www.aviastar.org/air/france/morane_ms-760.php
1966 - Death of Elliot McKay See, Jr., American astronaut and Charles Arthur "Art" Bassett, II , American engineer and USAF officer, when their T-38 trainer jet crashed into McDonnell Aircraft Building in St. Louis, Missouri.The panel concluded that See was flying too low to the ground during his approach, probably as a result of the poor visibility.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Bassett - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elliot_See
1969 - Death of William Henry "Harry" Brown, Canadian WWI flying ace
http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/canada/brown7.php
1979 - 1st flight of the PAC Cresco, New Zealand turboprop-powered low-wing monoplane utility aircraft, derivative of the FU-24 PAC Fletcher aerial topdressing aircraft.
http://www.aviastar.org/air/newzealand/pac_cresco.php
1981 - 1st flight of The Valentin Taifun, german two-seat self-launching sailplane
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentin_Taifun
1990 - Launch of STS-36, NASA Space Shuttle Atlantis mission to carry a classified payload for the U.S. Department of Defense.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-36
1992 - Death of Boleslaw Orlinski, Polish aviator, military, sports, test pilot and WWII pilot.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boles%C5%82aw_Orli%C5%84ski
1995 - In Denver, Colorado, Stapleton Airport closes and is replaced by the new Denver International Airport, the largest in the United States.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denver_International_Airport#History
1998 - 1st flight of The Northrop Grumman (formerly Ryan Aeronautical) RQ-4 Global Hawk (known as Tier II+ during development), American unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) used by the US Airforce and Navy as a surveillance aircraft.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Hawk
1999 - Soyuz TM-28, Russian mission to Mir, is back back on earth.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_TM-28
2000 - Death of Wladyslaw Gnys, Polish WWII flying ace and probably the 1st Allied victor in aerial combat in WWII.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W%C5%82adys%C5%82aw_Gny%C5%9B
2005 - Steve Fossett takes off from Salina, Kansas, for a solo nonstop unrefueled fixed-wing aircraft flight around the world with his GlobalFlyer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Fossett
2008 – Boston-Maine Airways, operating as Pan Am Clipper Connection, ceased operations.