NOV03

1916 - Victor Carlstrom completes the 1st flight from Chicago to New York in a Curtiss R. biplane. Carrying airmail, the flight lasts 8 hours 28 minutes and en route, Carlstrom sets US records for non-stop distance (452 miles) and speed (134 mph) flying.

http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/research/history-of-aviation-timeline/interactive-aviation-timeline/world-aviation/1916.aspx

1917 - Birth of Manuel Zarauza Clavero, Spanish Republican fighter ace of the spanish civil war and WWII along with the Soviets.

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manuel_Zarauza_Clavero - http://adar.es/index/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=73

1921 - Bertrand 'Bert' Acosta won the Pulitzer Race at Omaha, Nebraska, with a world record speed of 176.7 mph flying a Curtiss-Navy racer.

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertrand_Blanchard_Acosta

1926 - 1st flight of The Boeing F2B, US navy biplane fighter aircraft.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_F2B

1926 - Captain Charles Lindbergh jumps from his disabled De Havilland DH4 during a night airmail flight, making this his 4th time he has had to use his parachute to save his life.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Lindbergh#Air_Mail_pioneer_and_advocate

1927 - Death of Hawthorne C. Gray, American early stratospheric explorer. He died in his third attempt to break the balloon record of 40,820 feet. While descending from 42,470 feet, he died from oxygen starvation. This tragedy showed a need to use pressure suits and oxygen systems above 40,000 feet.

http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/hcgray.htm

1930 - The Dornier Do X, German large and heavy flying boat, takes off from Friedrichshafen for a transatlantic test flight to New York which will las nearly 9 months.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dornier_Do_X#Operation

1930 - Birth of William Harvey "Bill" Dana, NASA test pilot and astronaut.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Dana_(pilot)

1936 - 1st operational flight of the Polikarpov I-15 fighter occurs in Spain, flown by Soviet pilots. They shot down two Junkers Ju 52/3ms together with two CR.32s, over Madrid, and forced to crash-land a third Ju 52 and a Heinkel two-seater.

http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/research/history-of-aviation-timeline/interactive-aviation-timeline/world-aviation/1936.aspx

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polikarpov_I-15#Operational_history

1943 - Death of Kazunori Miyabe, Japanese WWII flying ace, killed in action.

http://acesofww2.com/japan/

1943 - 1st flight of the Messerschmitt Me 209 V5, evolution of the record-setting single-engine racing aircraft (V1), prototype for a replacement of the Bf-109 and FW-190A

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messerschmitt_Me_209#Me_209_als_Weiterentwicklung_der_Bf_109

1944 - 1st Flight (as a glider) of the Bachem Ba 349 Natter, WWII German point-defence rocket powered interceptor, to be used in a very similar way to a manned surface-to-air missile.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bachem_Ba_349#Testing

1944 - 1st Japanese Fu-Go balloon bombs (hydrogen balloons with a load varying from a 12-kilogram (26 lb) incendiary to one 15 kg (33 lb) antipersonnel bomb and four 5 kg (11 lb) incendiary devices attached) are launched against the United States from the east coast of the main Japanese island of Honshu.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fu-Go

1945 - Pan American World Airways Boeing 314 flying boat prototype 'Honolulu Clipper' lost power in both starboard engines after 5 hours of flying, and successfully ditched 650 miles east of Oahu shortly before midnight. All 26 will be rescued.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honolulu_Clipper

1946 - Death of Boris Pavlovich Lisunov, Soviet aerospace engineer and aircraft designer, who directed the design of the Lisunov Li-2, license-built version of the Douglas DC-3.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris_Lisunov

1947 - 1st flight of the SNCAC NC-840 'Chardonneret', French 4-seat cabin high wing monoplane prototype, 1st post-war design for the Société Nationale de Constructions Aéronautiques du Centre (SNCAC).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SNCAC_Chardonneret - http://www.aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=9619

1950 - Air India Flight 245 Lockheed L-749A Constellation 'Malabar Princess' crashed into Mont Blanc, France killing all 48.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_India_Flight_245

1952 - 1st flight of The Saab 32 Lansen (Lance), Swedish two-seat, high transsonic attack aircraft.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saab_32_Lansen

1954 - Birth of Kevin Patrick "Chilli" Chilton, American engineer, USAF test pilot and NASA astronaut.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_P._Chilton

1957 - Launch of Sputnik 2, carrying the 1st animal to enter orbit : a dog named Laika wich died a few hours after launch.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sputnik_2 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laika

1973 - Launch of Mariner 10, NASA robotic space probe designed to fly by the planets Mercury and Venus. 1st space probe to reach Mercury.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariner_10

1986 - Death of Adolph Busemann, German aerospace engineer and influential early pioneer in aerodynamics, specialising in supersonic airflows who introduced the concept of swept wings.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Busemann

1988 - Death of Harold Brownlow Morgan "Micky" Martin, Australian WWII bomber pilot (who flew with the 'Dambusters' 617 Squadron) and RAF post-war High ranking officer.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Brownlow_Martin

1988 - Death of Ira H. Abbott, American aerospace engineer who supervised the X-15, supersonic transport, nuclear rocket and advanced reentry programs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ira_H._Abbott

1994 - Launch of STS-66, Space shuttle Atlantis mission to deploy The Atmospheric Laboratory for Applications and Sciences – 3 (ATLAS-03) and CRISTA-SPAS satellite.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-66

2011 - Shenzhou 8, Chinese unmanned spacecraft, performs the 1st chinese docking with the Tiangong 1 space module.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shenzhou_8