JAN04
1872 - Birth of Edmund Rumpler, Austrian automobile and aircraft designer.
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Rumpler
1894 - Birth of Dietrich "Derk" Averes, German WWI fling ace.
http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/germany/averes.php
1895 - Birth of Leroy Randle "Roy" Grumman, American aeronautical engineer, test pilot, and industrialist. Co-founder of Grumman Aeronautical Engineering Co. later to become Grumman Aerospace Corporation, now part of Northrop Grumman.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leroy_Grumman
1896 - Birth of Gabriel Joseph Thomas, French WWI flying ace and early airliner pilot.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriel_Thomas_(aviator) - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/france/thomas2.php
1904 - Birth of Dino Arcangeli, Italian Raid aviator and WWII Pilot.
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dino_Arcangeli
1910 - Death of Ferdinand Marie Léon Delagrange, pioneer French aviator, in the crash of an overmotorized Bleriot XI near bordeaux.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A9on_Delagrange - http://www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargrave/delagrange.html
1910 - Last flight of Alberto Santos-Dumont on his 'Demoiselle' which ended in an accident.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Santos-Dumont#Later_years
1912 - Birth of Aioi Takahide, Japanese Sino-Japanese war and WWII flying ace.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takahide_Aioi
1917 - Edward Rochfort Grange of No. 8 (Naval) Squadron is credited with downing his 5th enemy aircraft (3 Albatros D.II on that day), becoming Canada’s 1st "ace."
http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/canada/grange.php
1927 - Death of Herbert Frank Stacey Drewittt, New Zealand WWI flying ace.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Drewitt - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/nzealand/drewitt.php
1931 - Amy johnson abandoned her de Havilland Gipsy Moth 'Jason III' in Poland due to engine problem during her attempt to reach Peking.
http://rafmuseum-1.titaninternet.co.uk/online-exhibitions/amy_johnson/flight_list.cfm
1931 - William G. Swan stayed aloft for 30 minutes over Atlantic City, New Jersey, U.S.A., in a glider powered with 10 small rockets.
http://www.astronautix.com/astros/swan.htm
1932 - French Paul Codos and Henri Robida take off in the Breguet Bre 330 n°1 Bis for an endurance flight from Paris to Hanoi.
http://www.aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=9719
1932 - The sole CAMS 55/3, French twin engine biplane reconnaissance flying boat, Prototype version with all-metal hull for the French Navy, is destroyed on take off.
http://www.aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=7961
1936 - 1st flight of The Vought SB2U Vindicator, American carrier-based dive bomber.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SB2U_Vindicator
1940 - 1st flight of The Fairey Fulmar, British carrier-born fighter aircraft
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairey_Fulmar
1943 - Death of Marina Mikhailovna Raskova, famous Russian navigator, when her Petlyakov Pe-2 crashed attempting to make a forced landing. She founded three female air regiments which would eventually fly over 30,000 sorties in WWII.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marina_Raskova
1943 - 1st flight of the Avro Anson MK V, British twin-engine, multi-role aircraft, Canadian version for navigator training.
1944 - Launch of Operation Carpetbagger, general term used for the aerial resupply of weapons and other matériel to resistance fighters in France, Italy and the Low Countries by the USAAF.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Carpetbagger
1945 - 1st flight of The Chase CG-14, known as the G-14 or Model MS.1, US prototype assault glider.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chase_YCG-14
1952 - 1st flight of The North American Aviation XA2J "Super Savage" American prototype twin engine carrier-based attack aircraft.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_XA2J_Super_Savage
1956 - A licence to operate a flying boat service between Southampton and Las Palmas, Canary Islands is granted to Aquila Airways of London.
1958 - Death of Sir Edwin Alliott Verdon Roe, pioneer English pilot and aircraft manufacturer, founder of the Avro company.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alliot_Vernon_Roe
1958 - Sputnik 1, 1st artificial satellite to be put into Earth's orbit, burned up upon re-entry.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sputnik_1
1959 - Luna 1 (E-1 series) is the 1st spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the moon.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_1
1963 - Launch of Luna E-6 No.2 (Sputnik 25), Soviet spacecraft which was intended to be the 1st spacecraft to perform a soft landing on the Moon but failed due to malfunction.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_E-6_No.2
1964 - Pope Paul VI lands in Amman, Jordan, in a special Alitalia DC-8; it is the 1st time that a pope has used an airplane for an official visit.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_pastoral_visits_of_Pope_Paul_VI_outside_Italy#1964
1967 - 1st flight of The Taylor Titch, British single seater low wing tourer and aerobatic homebuilt aircraft.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taylor_Titch
1970 - Birth of Christopher John "Chris" Cassidy, American NASA astronaut.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cassidy
1986 - Death of Wilbur Rounding Franks, Canadian scientist, notable as the inventor of the anti-gravity suit or G-suit.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilbur_R._Franks
1989 - 2 US F-14 Tomcats shot down two Libyan MiG-23 Flogger-Es that gave all appearances of attempting to engage them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_of_Sidra_incident_(1989)
1996 - 1st flight of the Boeing-Sikorsky RAH-66 Comanche, American advanced five-blade armed reconnaissance and attack helicopter prototype.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing-Sikorsky_RAH-66_Comanche
2001 - 1st flight of The HAL Tejas, Indian lightweight multirole jet fighter.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HAL_Tejas
2004 - Spirit, MER-A (Mars Exploration Rover – A), US robotic rover, successfully lands on Mars.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirit_rover
2008 - Transaven Let L-410 Turbolet lost both engines and ditched Off the Venezuelan coast near the Los Roques archipelago, all 14 were killed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Los_Roques_archipelago_Transaven_Let_L-410_crash
2010 - Death of Tadeusz Góra, Polish glider and WWII pilot.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tadeusz_G%C3%B3ra
2016 - Death of André Edouard Turcat, French test pilot, well known for his test of the Concorde.