MARCH13
1770 - Birth of Abraham Hopman, Dutch aeronaut pioneer, 1st Dutchman to fly in Netherlands with a homemade balloon
http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Hopman
1873 - Birth of Ferdinand Marie Léon Delagrange, French aviation pioneer and record breaker.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A9on_Delagrange
1879 - Birth of Alfredo Kindelán y Duany, Spanish aviator, general and politician.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfredo_Kindel%C3%A1n
1886 - Birth of Albert William Stevens, American balloonist and aerial photographer who took the 1st photograph of the Earth in a way that the horizon's curvature is visible, and the 1st photograph of the Moon's shadow projected onto the Earth during a solar eclipse
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_William_Stevens
1895 - Birth of Joseph Eskel Hallonquist, Canadian WWI flying ace
http://canadiangreatwarproject.com/searches/soldierDetail.asp?ID=98242 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_E._Hallonquist - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/canada/hallonquist.php
1896 - Birth of Field Eugene Kindley, American WWI fighter ace.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Field_Eugene_Kindley - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/usa/kindley.php
http://www.century-of-flight.net/Aviation%20history/airplane%20at%20war/upload3/Field%20Kindley.htm
1908 - Birth of George Putnam Moody, Early american Air force pioneer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moody_Air_Force_Base
1910 - The 1st airplane flight in Switzerland is made by German Capt. Paul Englehardt who takes off in a Wright Flyer from a frozen lake in St. Moritz.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Aviation/Historical_anniversaries/March_in_aviation/March_13
1914 - Birth of Lieutenant Commander Edward Henry “Butch” O’Hare, naval aviator of the United States Navy , 1st U.S. Navy's flying ace and Medal of Honor recipient in WWII.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_O%27Hare - http://www.acepilots.com/usn_ohare.html
1915 - American Arthur Roy 'Art' Smith became the 1st pilot to "loop the loop" at night, and was also the 1st to perform sky-writing with smoke emitted from jets on wingtips.
http://earlyaviators.com/esmitha1.htm
1917 – The United States Army’s 6th Aero Squadron is organized in the Territory of Hawaii, operating three N-9 seaplanes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/6th_Night_Fighter_Squadron
1918 - Death of Otto Splitgerber, German WWI flying ace, Killed in action in his Albatros D III.
http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/germany/splitgerber.php
1918 - Death of Konrad Mettlich, German WWI flying ace, Killed in his Albatros DV over Remaucourt, France.
http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/germany/mettlich.php
1922 - Portuguese pilots Cpt Gago Coutinho and Cpt Sacadura Cabral leave Lisbon in a flying a Fairey IIIC to attempt the 1st crossing of the South Atlantic by air.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_aerial_crossing_of_the_South_Atlantic
1922 - Birth of Richard Joseph Audet, Canadian WWII Fighter ace.
http://cieldegloire.com/003_audet_r_j.php
1923 - 1st flght of The Blériot-SPAD S.81, French fighter aircraft, single-bay biplane of conventional configuration with I-shaped interplane struts and lacking Herbémont's usual swept upper wing. It featured a wooden fuselage of monocoque construction and metal wings skinned in fabric.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bl%C3%A9riot-SPAD_S.81 - http://www.aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=128
1926 - Alan Cobham completes the Imperial Airways’ route survey flight from UK to Cape Town and back in the Armstrong Siddeley Jaguar-powered DH50J.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_Airways#Route_Proving
1928 - Death of Ronald Frank Strickland Mauduit, British WWI flying ace
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Mauduit - http://theaerodrome.com/aces/england/mauduit.php
1928 - Death of Walter George Raymond Hinchliffe, British WWI flying ace, pioneering military and civilian aviator, disappearing when he attempted a treacherous flight across the Atlantic Ocean with Actress Elsie Mackay in a single engined Stinson Detroiter 'Endeavour'
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_G._R._Hinchliffe - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/england/hinchliffe.php
1928 - 1st Canadian woman to obtain a pilot's license, Miss Eileen M. Vollick, passes her flight test in Hamilton, Ontario on Curtiss JN-4 aircraft.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eileen_Vollick
1944 - Death of Tiberiu Vinca, Romanian WWII flying ace, Killed in his Me-109 G by friendly fire from a Heinkel He-111 formation.
http://www.worldwar2.ro/arr/p007.htm - http://cieldegloire.com/012_vinca_t.php
1951 - Qantas Consolidated Catalina 'Frigate Bird II' (VH-ASA) begins a survey flight from Sydney to Chile via Ester Island and makes the airline's 1st flight across the South Pacific.
1951 - Birth of Linda Finch, businesswoman, aviatrix and aviation historian who faithfully recreated the ill-fated last flight of Amelia Earhart.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linda_Finch
1953 - Death of Sq/Ldr Graham Hulse, British WWII and Korean war fighter pilot, Killed in his F-86 Sabre by a Mig-15.
http://sabre-pilots.org/classics/v171hulse.htm
1954 - BOAC Lockheed L-749A Constellation landed short of the Singapore-Kallang Airport runway, striking a sea wall with the undercarriage. Impact caused a leak in the no. 3 integral fuel tank and undercarriage collapsed as the aircraft touched down again on the runway, right wing broke off as the aircraft slid down the runway and rolled to the right and came to rest inverted. 33 killed over 40.
http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19540313-2&lang=en
1961 - 1st conventional flight of the Hawker Siddeley Kestrel FGA.1, experimental and development aircraft that led to the Hawker Siddeley Harrier, the first V/STOL jet fighter-bomber.
http://www.aviastar.org/air/england/hawker_kestrel.php
1967 - South African Airways Flight 406 Vickers Viscount 818 crashed into the sea on approach to East London, South Africa. All 25 passengers and crew on board were killed. The pilot of the plane suffered a heart attack while on approach and the co-pilot was unable to regain control of the aircraft.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_African_Airways_Flight_406
1969 - Apollo 9, 3rd manned mission in the American Apollo space program, and 1st flight of the Command/Service Module (CSM) with the Lunar Module (LM), returns on earth
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_9
1970 - Birth of Aleksandr Mikhailovich Samokutyayev, Russian cosmonaut.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleksandr_Samokutyayev
1970 - 1st flight of the Aero Spacelines Mini Guppy Turbine (2nd version of the Mini Guppy), large, wide-bodied US cargo aircraft used for aerial transport of outsized cargo components.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aero_Spacelines_Mini_Guppy - http://www.aviastar.org/air/usa/aero_mgt.php
1974 - Death of Henri Péquet, french pioneer aviator, WWI pilot and test pilot.
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_P%C3%A9quet
1974 - 1st flight of the Bell Model 214A 'Big Lifter', medium-lift helicopter derived from Bell Helicopter's ubiquitous UH-1 Huey series.
http://www.aviastar.org/helicopters_eng/bell_214b.php
1974 - Sierra Pacific Airlines Flight 806 Convair CV-440 strays off course and collides with terrain in Bishop, California, killing all 36.
http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19740313-0
1977 - Death of Gerhard Bassenge, German WWI flying ace and WWII high ranking officer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerhard_Bassenge - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/germany/bassenge.php
1977 - 1st flight of The Sikorsky S-76 Spirit, American multi-purpose medium-size commercial helicopter, powered by two turboshafts which combine to drive the main and tail rotors, each with four blades. The S-76 landing gear is retractable.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sikorsky_S-76
1982 - Birth of Victoria Louise "Vicki" Van Meter,American aviatrix. She was known for setting several youngest-pilot distance-flying records
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vicki_Van_Meter - http://vickivanmeter.com/
1986 - Launch of Soyuz T-15, manned mission to both space stations Mir and Salyut 7
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_T-15
1986 - The Giotto satellite, produced by British Aerospace (BAe), passes within 605 kilometres (375 miles) of the nucleus of Halley's Comet.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giotto_(spacecraft)
1987 - Death of Edward Peck "Ted" Curtis, American WWI flying ace, WWII officer and considered as one the architect of the of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Peck_Curtis - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/usa/curtis1.php
1989 - Launch of STS-29, NASA Space Shuttle Endeavour mission to the ISS and to insert a Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) into Earth's orbit.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-29
1998 - Death of Hans Joachim Pabst von Ohain, German-American engineer, one of the inventors of jet propulsion.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_von_Ohain
1994 - 1st launch of a Taurus Rocket, 4 stage, solid fuel launch vehicle, carrying TAOS (Technology for Autonomous Operational Survivability) to test technology for autonomous operation of spacecraft
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taurus_(rocket) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TAOS
1999 - Death of Philip M. Prophett, American engineer. Convair chief test pilot
http://www.astronautix.com/astros/prophett.htm
2004 - Death of Vladimir Konstantinovich Karrask, Russian Chief Designer of KB Salyut.
http://www.astronautix.com/astros/karrask.htm
2009 - MexicanaLink, regional airline MexicanaLink,subsidiary of Mexicana, begins operations.