JUL15
1784 - French brothers Anne-Jean Robert and Nicolas-Louis Robert flew for 45 minutes from Saint-Cloud to Meudon with M. Collin-Hullin and Louis Philippe II, the Duke of Chartres in their elongated balloon. It was fitted with oars for propulsion and direction, but they proved useless.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_brothers#Attempted_dirigible:_the_elongated_balloon
1875 - Birth of Augustus Roy Knabenshue, American aeronautical engineer and aviator, 1st to make a dirigible flight over New York City in 1905.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._Roy_Knabenshue - http://www.earlyaviators.com/eknabens.htm - https://sites.google.com/site/richardarthurnorton/royknabenshuebibliography
1880 - Birth of Alessandro Guidoni, Italian Military aviation pioneer.
1884 - Birth of Paul Alexandre Laffont, Early french aviation pioneer, designer of one of the 1st flight simulator and Latham Chief pilot.
http://www.earlyaviators.com/elaffont.htm - http://aviation.maisons-champagne.com/dir.php?centre=simulateur&menu=01
1884 - Birth of António Jacinto Brito da Silva Paes, Portuguese raid pilot.
http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brito_Paes - http://www.alentejolitoral.pt/PortalRegional/ARegiao/PersonalidadesRegionais/Paginas/AntonioJacintodaSilvaBritoPais.aspx
1891 - Birth of Frederick Libby, 1st American ace of WWI, founder of Western Air Express
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Libby - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/usa/libby.php
1892 - Birth of Charles Ewart Eddy, South african WWI flying ace
1893 - Birth of Herbert Edward Oscar Ellis, British WWI flying ace
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Ellis - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/england/ellis1.php
1894 - Birth of Leonard Allen Payne, South African WWI flying ace.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_A._Payne - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/safrica/payne2.php
1895 - Birth of Cecil James "Chaps" Marchant, British WWI flying ace
1895 - Birth of Osborne John Orr, Canadian WWI flying ace
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osborne_Orr - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/canada/orr.php
1897 - Birth of Alois Rodlauer, Austro Hungarian WWI flying ace who also served in the Luftwaffe during WWII
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alois_Rodlauer - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/austrhun/rodlauer.php
1916 - William E. Boeing forms a new aircraft company, the Pacific Aero Products Company.
1916 - Birth of Harrison Allen 'Stormy' Storms, Jr., American aeronautical engineer best known for his role in managing the design and construction of the command module for the Apollo program.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrison_Storms - http://www.astronautix.com/astros/storms.htm
1918 - Death of Friedrich "Fritz" Friedrichs, German WWI fighter ace, his Fokker D.VII bursting into flames when the incendiary bullets he used for attacking balloons exploded. As he bailed out, his parachute caught and tore on the tailplane.
http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/germany/friedrichs.php - http://www.flieger-album.de/geschichte/portraits/portraitfriedrichfriedrichs.php
1919 - Aircraft Transport and Travel Limited, British airline, makes a proving flight across the English Channel in an Airco DH.9 between RAF Hendon and Paris - Le Bourget Airport, the flight took 2 hours and 30 minutes, and cost £21 per passenger.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aircraft_Transport_and_Travel
1919 – Royal Navy North Sea class airship N.S.11 burns over the North Sea off Norfolk, England, killing 12. It was thought that a lightning strike may have caused the explosion.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NS_class_blimp#Other_ships
1923 – Dobrolet, the Soviet state airline, opens its 1st scheduled domestic service, between Moscow and Nizhniy Novgorod.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeroflot#Early_history_of_Soviet_civil_aviation
1924 - 1st flight of the Blériot Bl-106, French Single engine high wing cabin monoplane transport prototype.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bl%C3%A9riot_106 - http://www.aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=1669
1925 - Dr. Alexander Hamilton Rice's expedition to the Amazon to explore the headwaters of the Amazon, the 1st exploration by airplane, returns safely.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Aviation/Historical_anniversaries/July_in_aviation/July_15
1927 - Death of Paul Wilhelm Bäumer, German WWI fighter ace, killed in a crash near Copenhagen while test flying a Rohrbach Rofix fighter.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_B%C3%A4umer - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/germany/baumer.php
1927 - 1st flight of The Bristol Bagshot, also known as the Type 95, heavily-armed British fighter prototype.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bristol_Bagshot
1930 - Death of Frank Benjamin Tyndall, American WWI pilot, test pilot, killed in a crash of a Curtiss P-1F Hawk, out of Langley Field, Virginia.
http://earlyaviators.com/etyndall.htm
1932 – The sole prototype low-wing monoplane Vickers Type 171 Jockey is lost during spinning trials at Martlesham Heath when it enters a flat spin, crashing at Woodbridge, Suffolk, pilot successfully bailing out at 5,000 feet.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vickers_Jockey#Development
1933 - Lithuanians Steponas Darius and Stasys Girenas take off from Floyd Bennett Field in New York for a non-stop flight to Kaunas, Lithuania in a Bellanca CH-300 Pacemaker named 'Lituanica'.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darius_and_Girenas#Flight
1933 - Wiley Post takes off from Floyd Bennett Field in his Lockheed Vega "Winnie Mae" for the 1st round the world solo flight.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiley_Post#First_solo_pilot - http://acepilots.com/post.html
1934 - Continental Airlines, major American airline, begins operations
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_Airlines
1938 - 1st flight of The production model Dornier Do 22/See, German three-seat, parasol wing monoplane, single-engined military floatplane.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dornier_Do_22
1938 - The Arado Ar 79, German aerobatic two-seat trainer and touring aircraft, set a speed record on 1,000 km (621.4 mi) at 229.04 km/h (142.32 mph).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arado_Ar_79
1939 - American Clara Adams lands back in New York, 1st woman to complete a round world flight (as passenger). Traveling on Pan American, Deutsche Lufthansa, KLM, and United Airlines, she circled the globe in 16 days and 19 hours, with stops in Horta, Lisbon, Marseille, Leipzig, Athens, Basra, Jodphur, Rangoon, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Manila, Guam, Wake Island, Midway Island, Honolulu, and San Francisco,
http://www.airships.net/clara-adams-aviation-pioneer
1941 - 1st pilot to claim 100 victories is German WWII fighter ace Werner Mölders
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werner_M%C3%B6lders#Eastern_Front - http://www.luftwaffe.cz/molders.html
1942 - Operations Colima and Pinpoint: 31 Supermarine Spitfires are flown to Malta from the aircraft carrier HMS Eagle.
1944 - Death of Joseph Sadi-Lecointe, french aviator who setted some altitude and speed records.
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Sadi-Lecointe
1946 - 1st flight of The Canadair North Star, four-engined propeller-driven airliner, Canadian development of the Douglas C-54 / DC-4 aircraft.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadair_North_Star
1947 - Northwest Airlines flies the 1st commercial passenger flight from the U.S. to Japan, using The Manila, a Douglas DC-4 aircraft, by way of Anchorage. From Tokyo, the flight continued to Seoul, Shanghai, and Manila.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northwest_Airlines#Beginnings
1949 - 1st flight of the Yakovlev Yak-50, early Soviet experimental turbojet interceptor aircraft.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakovlev_Yak-50_(1949)#Testing
1950 - Death of Heinz-Wolfgang Schnaufer, German Luftwaffe night fighter pilot and highest scoring (121) night fighter ace in the history of aerial warfare.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinz-Wolfgang_Schnaufer - http://www.luftwaffe.cz/schnaufer.html
1952 - A pair of USAF H-19 Chickasaws Begin the 1st transatlantic crossing by helicopter
1953 - Fuji Jukogyo Kabushiki Kaisha, successor to Nakajima Aircraft Company, is formed.
http://www.aviastar.org/manufacturers/0928.html
1954 - 1st flight of The Boeing 367-80 ("Dash 80" within Boeing), American prototype jet transport built to demonstrate the advantages of jet aircraft for passenger transport over piston-engine airliners
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_367-80
1955 - Death of George Lawrence "Zulu" Lloyd, South African WWI flying ace
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Lloyd_(aviator) - http://theaerodrome.com/aces/safrica/lloyd.php
1958 - Ghana Airways begins operations
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghana_Airways
1958 - 1st full transition from vertical flight to horizontal flight of The Vertol VZ-2 (or Model 76), US research aircraft built to investigate the tiltwing approach to vertical take-off and landing. The aircraft had a fuselage of tubular framework (originally uncovered) and accommodation for its pilot in a helicopter-like bubble canopy. The T-tail incorporated small ducted fans to act as thrusters for greater control at low speeds.
http://www.aviastar.org/helicopters_eng/bvertol_vz-2.php
1960 - 1st flight of the Emigh "Commuter Jr", US Single-seat open-cockpit helicopter for home-builders.
http://www.aviastar.org/helicopters_eng/emigh.php
1964 - 1st flight of The Aermacchi SF.250, Italian light prototyper aircraft marketed as an aerobatics plane and a military trainer, which will be produced as SF.260.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aermacchi_SF.260
1969 - The Tupolev Tu-144 'Charger' is the 1st commercial transport to exceed Mach 2.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupolev_Tu-144
1975 - Launch of Soyuz 19 and Apollo–Soyuz Test Project, last Apollo mission, and 1st joint U.S./Soviet space flight for docking an American Apollo spacecraft with a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft, last manned US space mission until the 1st Space Shuttle flight
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo%E2%80%93Soyuz_Test_Project
1996 – A Belgian Air Force C-130 Hercules carrying the Royal Netherlands Army marching band crashes on landing at Eindhoven Airport.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eindhoven_Airport - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herculesramp
1997 - 1st flight of The Beriev Be-103 Bekas, Russian 5 seat mid-wing monoplane amphibious seaplane
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beriev_Be-103
2004 - 1st flight of The Alenia Aermacchi M-346 Master, Italian military transonic trainer aircraft, based on the Yak-130, developed by Yakovlev and Aermacchi as a joint venture.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aermacchi_M-346
2008 - 1st flight of The ICON A5, American 2 seat high-wing amphibious light-sport pusher aircraft prototype with a carbon fiber airframe and retractable undercarriage, which wings can be folded aft for ground transport and storage.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICON_A5
2009 - Caspian Airlines Flight 7908 Tupolev Tu-154M crashed near the village of Jannatabad, outside the city of Qazvin in north-western Iran killing 168, 16 minutes after take-off from Tehran Imam Khomeini International Airport when the aircraft's tail suddenly caught on fire.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caspian_Airlines_Flight_7908
2009 - Launch of STS-127, NASA Space Shuttle mission Endeavour to the International Space Station (ISS).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-127
2010 - 1st manned flight of the Virgin Galactic VSS Enterprise, American commercial suborbital spacecraft constructed by Scaled Composites.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VSS_Enterprise
2011 - Launch of GSAT-12, Indian communication satellite.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GSAT-12
2012 - Death of Sadamu Komachi, Japanese WWII fighter ace who participated in the last Japanese combat mission.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sadamu_Komachi - http://www.cieldegloire.com/010_komachi_s.php