MAY27
1877 - A major milestone in Japanese aviation history is accomplished with the 1st flight of a military balloon. It has a capacity of 14,000 cu.ft. and is inflated with coal gas.
http://www.bbml.org.uk/envelopes/g-erms/
1897 - Birth of Philip Fletcher Fullard, British WWI fighter ace.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_F._Fullard - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/england/fullard.php
1897 - Birth of Anthony George Allen Spence, Canadian WWI flying ace
http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/canada/spence.php
1898 - Birth of Herbert Brian Richardson, British WWI fighter ace,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Richardson_(aviator) - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/england/richardson1.php
1905 - Ferdinand Ferber makes his 1st aerial tests in Chalais-Meudon, France with his No.6 bis glider fitted with a 12-hp Peugeot motor.
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_Ferber
1905 - Birth of Carlo Romagnoli, Spanish War and WWII Italian flying ace.
http://surfcity.kund.dalnet.se/italy_romagnoli.htm
1909 - 1st flight of the Blériot XI, french experimental monoplane, the re-engined one which will cross the channel in July.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bl%C3%A9riot_XI#Design
1910 - Birth of Jan Gerthofer, Slovak WWII fighter ace who served on the Eastern front with the Axis Forces until The Slovak National Uprising (armed insurrection organized by the Slovak resistance movement during WWII), Airliner pilot post WWII.
http://en.valka.cz/viewtopic.php/title/Gerthofer-Jan/p/315139
1910 - 1st flight of The Caproni Ca.1, Italian experimental biplane, 1st aircraft to be designed and built by Gianni Caproni. But it is destroyed in the attempt.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caproni_Ca.1_(1910)
1910 - 1st flight of the Saulnier Monoplane n°2, French experimental monoplane.
http://www.aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=9865
1912 - Birth of Bruno Heusinger, German expert in guided missiles during WWII, Member of the German rocket team in the USA.
http://www.astronautix.com/astros/heuinger.htm
1913 - Irish aviator of the Royal Flying Corps Lieutenant Desmond Arthur is killed in the crash of his B.E.2 biplane when the right wing of the aircraft snapped off and it plunged to the ground. Following his crash in Scotland's 1st fatal aircraft accident his name is connected to a ghost believed to haunt the airfield at RAF Montrose in Montrose, Angus, Scotland. The case is considered one of the most famous ghost stories from WWI, and was investigated by the British government
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desmond_Arthur
1918 - Death of Robert Alexander "Bob" Little, Australian WWI fighter ace, Killed in his Sopwith Camel by a Gotha bomber on a night raid.
http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/australi/little1.php
1918 - Rudolf Friedrich Otto Windisch, German WWI flying ace, is shot down and disappeared. Presumed dead as prisoner of war.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_Windisch - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/germany/windisch.php
1918 - Death of Douglas John Bell, South african WWI flighter ace, killed in his Sopwith Camel while attacking a two-seater.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_John_Bell - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/safrica/bell2.php
1919 – The Last NC-4 aircraft of the U.S. Navy's transatlantic flight expedition arrives in Lisbon after completing the 1st transatlantic flight.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NC-4 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Henry_Towers#Transatlantic_crossing:_Flight_of_NC-4.2C_1919
1924 - Adrienne Bolland wins the women's record for looping from Laura Bromwell, performing the feat 212 times in 1 hour, 1 minute in her Caudron 127 in Paris.
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrienne_Bolland
1931 - Swiss professor Auguste Piccard and his assistant Kipfer take a stratosphere-balloon to 15,781 m, starting in Augsburg and landing on a glacier in Austria.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auguste_Piccard
1931 - A full-scale wind tunnel goes into operation at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) Laboratory at Langley Field, Virginia.
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/langley/news/factsheets/30X60.html
1933 - 1st flight of The de Havilland DH.85 Leopard Moth, British three-seat high-wing monoplane
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Havilland_Leopard_Moth
1936 - 1st flight of The Fairey Seafox, British single engine reconnaissance floatplane.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairey_Seafox
1939 - Hiromichi Shinohara, (the Richthofen of the Orient) highest-scoring fighter ace of the Imperial Japanese Army Air Service, downs 10 planes on his 1st combat sortie while flying a Nakajima Ki-27. (4 Soviet Polikarpov I-16, 5 Polikarpov I-15 and 1 Polikarpov R-Z reconnaissance)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiromichi_Shinohara
1940 - The Royal Air Force Training Command disbands, to be replaced by Flying Training Command and Technical Training Command. Royal Air Force Reserve Command is disbanded.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Training_Command - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Flying_Training_Command
1941 - The Bismarck, able to steam only in slow circles, is sunk by gunfire and torpedoes from Royal Navy surface forces at 11.01hrs.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_battle_of_the_battleship_Bismarck#Night_of_26.2F27_May
1941 - 1st flight of 1st production Hawker Typhoon R7576 , British single-seat fighter-bomber, flown by Michael Daunt.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawker_Typhoon
1942 - Convoy PQ 16, Arctic convoy sent from Great Britain by the Western Allies to aid the Soviet Union, is attacked by german aircrafts
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convoy_PQ_16#Action
1945 - 3rd and last prototype XP-55 (s/n 42-78847) Ascender (Curtiss-Wright CW-24), US prototype fighter aircraft, is lost during the closing day of the Seventh War Bond Air Show at Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtiss-Wright_XP-55_Ascender
1948 - Birth of Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Volkov, Russian cosmonaut of Ukrainian origin. The Soviet Union broke up in 1991. At the time Volkov was orbiting Earth on Mir with Sergei K. Krikalev, "the last citizens of the USSR". Having gone into orbit as Soviet citizens, they returned to Earth as Russian citizens.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Alexandrovich_Volkov_(cosmonaut)
1955 - 1st flight of the Sud Aviation SE 210 Caravelle, 1st short/medium-range jet airliner produced by the French Sud Aviation firm starting in 1955 (when it was still known as SNCASE). The Caravelle would go on to be one of the more successful European first generation jetliners, selling throughout Europe and even penetrating the United States market, with an order for 20 from United Airlines.The Caravelle established the aft-mounted-engine, clean-wing design that has since been used on a wide variety of subsequent aircraft.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sud_Aviation_Caravelle - http://www.aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=9058
1958 - 1st flight of The McDonnell Douglas XF4H-1, American tandem two-seat, twin-engined, all-weather, long-range supersonic jet interceptor fighter/fighter-bomber, prototype of the F-4 Phantom II.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-4_Phantom_II
1958 - 1st introduction in service with the Tactical Air Command's 335th Tactical Fighter Squadron of the Republic F-105 Thunderchief, supersonic fighter-bomber.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_F-105_Thunderchief
1961 - 1st crossing of the English Channel by a VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) aircraft is made by the Short SC.1, which is flown by Alexander Frederick Cecil Roberts from England to Paris for the Paris Air Show.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Aviation/Historical_anniversaries/May_in_aviation/May_27
1963 - 1st flight of The McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II, production version of the American tandem two-seat, twin-engined, all-weather, long-range supersonic jet interceptor fighter/fighter-bomber, which exceeded Mach 2 on that flight.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-4_Phantom_II#Production
1964 - Death of Walter Blume, German WWI fighter ace and aircraft designer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Blume - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/germany/blume.php
1967 – The U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy is launched by Jacqueline Kennedy and her daughter Caroline.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_John_F._Kennedy_(CV-67)
1970 - 1st flight of experimental Model 347 of Boeing CH-47 Chinook with a lengthened fuselage, four-blade rotors, detachable wings mounted on top of the fuselage .
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_CH-47_Chinook
1977 - An Aeroflot Ilyushin Il-62M crashed 1 km (0.62 mi) away from José Martí International Airport, Havana, Cuba after it hit power lines on its final approach to the airport in poor weather. It was disclosed the aircraft was attempting an emergency landing, having one of its engines on fire, Killing 68 over 70.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1977_Aeroflot_Ilyushin_62_crash
1979 - A Mauritanian Islamic republic de Havilland Canada DHC-5D Buffalo crashed during a sand storm on Approach to Dakar, Senegal, killing all 12 including Ahmed Ould Bouceif, prime minister of the Mauritanian government.
http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19790527-1
1994 - The Yakovlev Yak-58, russian small, multi-role utility transport and business prototype aircraft crashed during exhibition at the ILA berlin Air Show.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakovlev_Yak-58
1999 - Launch of STS-96, Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station (ISS) flown by Space Shuttle Discovery, Canadian Julie Payette flew aboard. She became the 1st Canadian to visit the International Space Station.1st shuttle flight to dock with the ISS.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-96 - http://canadianaviationhistory.pbworks.com/w/page/13801122/On-this-day-in-Canadian-Aviation-History-May
1999 - 1st flight of The Bombardier CRJ700, regional airliner based on the Bombardier CRJ200.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombardier_CRJ700_series
2000 - Death of Kazimierz Leski, nom de guerre Bradl, Polish engineer, co-designer of Polish submarines ORP Sep and ORP Orzel, a fighter pilot, and an officer of WWII Home Army's intelligence and counter-intelligence. He is credited, during WWII, with at least 25 journeys across German-held Europe, usually in the uniform of a Wehrmacht Major General.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kazimierz_Leski
2006 - Launch of Satmex 6, Mexican geostationary communications satellite , and Thaicom 5, Thai geostationary communications satellite.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satmex_6 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thaicom_5
2009 - Launch of Soyuz TMA-15, Russian manned spaceflight to the ISS. It marked the start of six-person crew operations on the ISS.