MAY31
1811 - Albrecht Ludwig Berblinger, the "tailor of Ulm" (Germany) crashes in his Apparatus into the Danube. It was presumably a workable hang glider.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albrecht_Berblinger
1850 - Birth of Charles-Alphonse Pénaud, French pioneer of aviation, inventor of the rubber powered model airplane.
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alphonse_P%C3%A9naud
1862 - Information obtained from Thadeus S. C. Lowe's balloon observation saves Union forces from defeat at the Battle of Seven Pines, Virginia during the U. S. Civil War. Union General George McClellan is warned by Lowe of Confederate General Albert Johnston's approaching troops.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Seven_Pines#Battle
1882 - Birth of John Robertson Duigan , Australian pioneer aviator who built and flew the 1st Australian-made aircraft.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Robertson_Duigan
1884 - Birth of Maurice Roch Gond, French WWI flying ace
http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/france/gond.php
1888 - Birth of Medley Kingdon Parlee, Canadian WWI flying ace
http://sl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medley_Kingdon_Parlee - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/canada/parlee.php
1889 - Birth of Charles Gordon Bell, early british aviator and WWI flying ace.
http://earlyaviators.com/ebellgor.htm - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/england/bell1.php
1896 - Birth of Thomas Grey Culling, New Zealand WWI flying ace.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Culling - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/nzealand/culling.php
1896 - Birth of Fritz Höhn, German WWI fighter ace
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fritz_H%C3%B6hn - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/germany/hohn.php
1896 - Birth of Louis Fernand Coudouret, French WWI flying ace
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Coudouret - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/france/coudouret.php
1897 - Birth of Giuseppe Marini, Italian Aviator.
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giuseppe_Marini
1908 - The 1st British-held international balloon race at Hurlingame is won by the balloon 'Valkyrie' with a crew which included 2 ladies.
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/19512044 - http://adnp.azlibrary.gov/cdm/compoundobject/collection/sn84024827/id/3216/rec/9
1911 - Andre Beaumont (real name Jean Louis Conneau) beats Roland Garros in the Paris to Rome air race, completing the 1,465 km (910 mile) course in 28 hours, 5 minutes with a Blériot XI.
http://ecole.nav.traditions.free.fr/officiers_conneau.htm - http://www.hydroretro.net/etudegh/beaumont.pdf
1915 - 1st Zeppelin raid on London, is made by LZ 38. 7 people killed, 14 wounded.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Aviation/Historical_anniversaries/May_in_aviation/May_31
1916 - 1st time in history that a carrier-based aeroplane was used for reconnaissance in naval combat : A Short Type 184 from the Royal Navy seaplane carrier Engadine achieves the only British aerial reconnaissance flight of the Battle of Jutland, reporting the sighting of three cruisers and ten destroyers of the German High Seas Fleet before a broken fuel pipe forces it to end the mission.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Jutland#Battlecruiser_action - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_Type_184#Operational_history
1917 - Austrian pilot Linienschiffleutnant G.Banfield, at the controls of a Pfalz AII fighter, forces down an Italian seaplane, achieving the 1st Austro-Hungarian victory against enemy night bombers
1918 - Death of Viktor von Pressentin von Rautter, German WWI fighter ace, killed in action in his Fokker DR.I
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_von_Pressentin_von_Rautter - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/germany/pressentin.php
1918 - 1st American aviator flying in an American unit to achieve the status of ace is Douglas Campbell, scoring his 5th victory over a Rumpler C with his Nieuport 28.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Campbell_(aviator)#Service_career
1919 - 1st wedding held in an aircraft. Flying 2000 ft above Houston Texas in a converted Handley Page bomber, Marjorie Dumont and Lt. R.W. Meade were married by an Army chaplain.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Aviation/Historical_anniversaries/May_in_aviation/May_31
1920 - Herbert John Louis 'Bert' Hinkler made a non-stop flight from Croydon to Turin in 9 hours 30 minutes in his Avro 534 Baby - a flight of 655 mi (1,050 km) and celebrated at the time as "the most meritorious flight on record"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avro_Baby#Operational_history
1928 - 1st airplane flight across the Pacific starts. British Capt. Charles Kingsford-Smith and crew takes off in the Fokker F-VIIB/3m 'Southern Cross'. They will fly from Oakland Field, California to Brisbane, Australia, 7,389 miles (11,890km), in 83 hours, 38 minutes. On the way, it becomes the 1st airplane to land in Fiji.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Kingsford_Smith - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Cross_(aircraft)#Trans-Pacific_flight
1928 - Arturo Ferrarin and Carlo del Prete takes off with their Savoia-Marchetti S.64 for record attempts (Speed, Endurance and distance)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savoia-Marchetti_S.64
1935 - 1st flight of the Fairchild Model 45, American five-seat cabin monoplane aircraft.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairchild_Model_45
1938 - Italian Aviazione Legionaria bombed the town of Granollers, killing between 100 and 224 civilians.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Granollers
1942 - Operation Millennium : with 1047 aircrafts, 868 aircrafts bombed Cologne during that 1st 1000 bomber raid while others where bombing the German night-fighter airfields and secondary targets.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Cologne_in_World_War_II
1945 - Middle East Airlines, national flag-carrier airline of Lebanon, is formed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_East_Airlines
1946 - London's Heathrow airport is officially opened, although facilities are still limited, with only one runway and most of the passenger handling facilities in tents.
1955 - French aviatrix Jacqueline Auriol sets a new speed record of 1 151 km/h with a Dassault Mystère IV.
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacqueline_Auriol
1960 - 1st flight of the Fiat G-91T, tandem two-seat trainer evolution from the G.91R, Italian jet fighter.
http://www.aviastar.org/gallery/g91.html
1962 - A USAF superpressure unmanned research balloon is launch from the Bermudas for testing scientifics equipments at the edge of space (68000ft). The fligth will last 19 days.
1967 - A USAF KC-135 Stratotanker makes an emergency refuelling of six US Navy jets.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Aviation/Historical_anniversaries/May_in_aviation/May_31
1968 - Death of Mario Castoldi, Italian aircraft engineer and designer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario_Castoldi
1973 - Indian Airlines Flight 440 Boeing 737 2-A8 'Saranga' crashed while on approach to Palam Airport, India, killing 48 of the 65 passengers and crew on board.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Airlines_Flight_440
1974 - Death of Cyril Marconi "Billy" Crowe, British WWI flying ace and WWII pilot
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyril_Crowe - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/england/crowe1.php
1975 - The European Space Agency (ESA), intergovernmental organisation dedicated to the exploration of space, is formed.
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agence_spatiale_europ%C3%A9enne
1977 - The Vietnam People's Air Force (Không quân Nhân dân Vi?t Nam) is separated from the Vietnamese Air Defense Force (Quân ch?ng Phòng không)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_People's_Air_Force#1975-present_.28reunified_Vietnam.29
1978 - 1st flight of The RFB Fantrainer, German 2-seat ducted-fan flight training aircraft.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RFB_Fantrainer
1982 - Death of Czeslaw Michal Zbieranski, Polish engineer, pioneer of Polish aviation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czes%C5%82aw_Zbiera%C5%84ski
1990 - Launch of Kristall, 4th module and 3rd major addition to the Mir space station.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kristall
1991 - 1st flight of The Pilatus PC-12, Swiss single-engine turboprop passenger and cargo aircraft.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilatus_PC-12
1995 - 1st flight of The Schweizer RU-38 Twin Condor, US two or three-seat, fixed gear, low wing, twin boom covert reconnaissance aircraft. It is intended to fulfill both the low altitude, quiet, over water/hostile terrain reconnaissance role and also the high altitude standoff surveillance role
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schweizer_RU-38_Twin_Condor
2000 - 1st flight of the AgustaWestland CH-149 Cormorant, Canadian Forces designation for the AgustaWestland AW101 (formerly EH101), medium lift helicopter used for air-sea rescue in Canada. Developed as a joint venture between Westland Aircraft in the UK and Agusta in Italy (now merged as AgustaWestland),
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CH-149_Cormorant
2002 - 1st flight of The Toyota TAA-1 (also referred to in the press as the TA-1), Japanese prototype general aviation aircraft substantially built and test flown by Burt Rutan's Scaled Composites under contract with Toyota.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_TAA-1
2008 - Launch of STS-124, Discovery Space Shuttle mission to the ISS.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-124
2008 - Champion Air, American airline operating general charter services to sports teams, vacation wholesalers and government agencies, ceases operations.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Champion_Air
2012 - Dragon C2+, also known as SpaceX COTS Demo Flight 2 (COTS 2), 2nd test-flight for SpaceX's uncrewed Dragon cargo spacecraft, is back on earth.