NOV13

1911 - Birth of Karl Baur, German aviator, Chief test pilot for Messerschmitt and engineer.

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Baur_(Pilot)

1914 - Birth of Georgy Nikolayevich Babakin, Soviet engineer working in the space program, Chief Designer at the Lavochkin Design Bureau.

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

1915 – Flying a BE.2c, Royal Naval Air Service Flight Commander J. R. W. Smyth-Pigott makes a daring night bombing attack on a bridge of the Berlin-Constantinople railway over the Maritsa River at Kuleli Burgas in the Ottoman Empire from an altitude of 300 feet (91 meters).

http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=AS19151129.2.31.12

1916 – Sole prototype of the Zeppelin-Lindau (Dornier) V1, German single-seat, all-metal fighter with pod-type fuselage pusher biplane performs a loop immediately after take-off, crashing, killing pilot Haller von Hallerstein.

http://flyingmachines.ru/Site2/Crafts/Craft25834.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_accidents_and_incidents_involving_military_aircraft_before_1925#1916

1916 - One flight of No.14 Squadron, together with a Company of the Bedfordshire Regiment to act as aerodrome guard, are sent to the Red Sea port of Rabigh to assist Arab forces under the control of the Sherif of Mecca and Colonel T.E. Lawrence ('Lawrence of Arabia').

http://rafmuseum-1.titaninternet.co.uk/milestones-of-flight/british_military/1916_3.cfm

1917 - Death of George Leonard Trapp, Canadian WWI flying ace, Killed in action in his Sopwith Camel.

http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/canada/trapp.php

1918 - Death of D'Urban Victor Armstrong, South african WWI flying ace, killed in a flying accident while flying aerobatics in his Sopwith Camel.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D'Urban_Armstrong - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/safrica/armstrong1.php

1919 - 2nd built Alliance P.2 Seabird, British single-engined long-range biplane, Flown by two Australian airmen, Lieutenant Roger Douglas (pilot) and Lieutenant J.S.L. Ross (Navigator), left Hounslow Heath Aerodrome but a few minutes into the flight the Seabird crashed near Surbiton killing both of them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alliance_P.2_Seabird

1921 - Launch of the Hosho, world's 1st commissioned ship that was designed and built as an aircraft carrier, and the 1st aircraft carrier of the Imperial Japanese Navy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_aircraft_carrier_H%C5%8Dsh%C5%8D

1926 - The Schneider Trophy race flown at Hampton Roads, USA is won by Mario De Bernardi in a Macchi M.39 at 396.698 km/h (246.5 mph).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macchi_M.39#Operational_history - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schneider_Trophy - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario_de_Bernardi_(pilot)#Schneider_Trophy_races_and_world_speed_records

1931 - Birth of John A. Manke, NASA test pilot who flew 42 lifting body rocketplane missions.

http://www.astronautix.com/astros/manke.htm

1935 - Jean Gardner Batten, New Zealand aviatrix flying a Percival Gull VI, lands at Port Natal, Brazil, flying to Thiès, Senegal, 1st woman to fly solo across the South Atlantic, breaking the speed record for this crossing, by a full day. She establishes a new record between England and South America, setting a time of 2 days 13 hours 15 minutes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percival_Gull#Racing_and_record-breaking

1936 - Death of Kraft Eberhardt, German flying ace of the Spanish War, killed in action in his Heinkel He-51.

http://surfcity.kund.dalnet.se/germany_eberhardt.htm - http://www.luftwaffe.cz/spanishcw.html

1938 - Death of Lansing Colton "Denny" Holden, Jr., American WWI flying ace, Rif War pilot in Morocco for the french air force, Hollywood movie pilot and Air National Guard officer, killed in a crash while attempting a landing in dodgy weather near Sparta, Tennessee.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lansing_Holden - http://theaerodrome.com/aces/usa/holden.php

1939 - 1st WWII German bombs fall on British soil. The bombs are dropped on the Shetland Islands, with no casualties, except an uninhabited house.

http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/research/history-of-aviation-timeline/interactive-aviation-timeline/british-military-aviation/1939.aspx

1942 – A U.S. Navy Vought OS2U Kingfisher floatplane rescues U.S. WW I ace Eddie Rickenbacker and two other survivors of a ditched B-17D Flying Fortress from a life raft. They had been adrift in the Pacific for 22 days.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Rickenbacker#Adrift_at_sea

1942 - Lts. Harold Comstock and Roger Dyar set a new speed record for airplanes when they power-dived their P-47C fighters at 725 mph from 35,000 feet over an east coast air base. In fact, while testing a new type of radio antenna and rather than risking a spin they started to dive straight down but the speed caused the flight controls to lock up was referred to as “compressibility”.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_E._Comstock#The_Dive

1943 - 1st flight of the Messerschmitt Me 209-II, Prototype evolution of the famous Me 109 german fighter.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messerschmitt_Me_209-II

1947 - 1st flight of the Armstrong Whitworth A.W.52, British all-metal turbojet-powered flying wing aircraft.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armstrong_Whitworth_A.W.52

1950 - Curtiss Reid Flying Services Douglas C-54B-1-DC crashed on the Tête de l'Obiou mountain after it strayed 50 miles off course, 48 km (30 mi) south of Grenoble killing all 52

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1950_T%C3%AAte_de_l%27Obiou_C-54_crash

1951 - A USAF Fairchild C-82A-FA Packet of the 11th Troop Carrier Squadron, 60th Troop Carrier Group, en route from Rhein-Main Air Base, Germany to Bordeaux–Mérignac Airport, France, goes off-course due to wind drift, compounded with having received weather briefings for 8,000 feet (2,400 m), but flew at 6,000 feet (1,800 m), hits the side of Mt. Dore in poor weather at ~1300 hrs., 20 miles (32 km) SW of Clermont-Ferrand, France. Six crew and 30 passengers are killed.

http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19511113-0&lang=en

1957 - 1st flight of the Mc Donnel Model 120, private venture for a small crane helicopter, developped from the XV-1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_XV-1#Operational_history - http://www.aviastar.org/helicopters_eng/mcdonnel_120.php

1966 - All Nippon Airways Flight 533 NAMC YS-11-111 crashed into the Seto Inland Sea, killing all 50, on a go-around after a missed approach at Matsuyama Airport.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Nippon_Airways_Flight_533

1968 - 1st flight (powered) of the Northrop HL-10, American heavyweight lifting body, using rockets engine, from a B-52.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_HL-10#Unrealized_space_flight

1971 - 1st spacecraft to orbit another planet is NASA Mariner 9 reaching Mars.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariner_9

1975 - 1st flight of The prototype Fuji FA-300 , later Fuji/Rockwell Commander 700, joint Japanese-American, twin engine light transport aircraft.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuji/Rockwell_Commander_700

1981 - Ben Abruzzo and crew make the 1st crossing of the Pacific Ocean by balloon, in the Double Eagle V, in 84 hours and 31 minutes, travelling 5,768 miles (9,283 km) from Nagashima, Japan to Mendocino National Forest in California.

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

1985 - Death of Alexander Ivanovich Pokryshkin, Soviet WWII fighter ace and Marshal of the Soviet Air Force.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Pokryshkin - http://cieldegloire.fr/015_pokryshkin_a_i.php

1992 - 1st flight of the Progressive Aerodyne SeaRey, American amphibious flying boat for home building.

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

1993 - China Northern Airlines Flight 6901 McDonnell Douglas MD-82 crashed on approach to Ürümqi Airport after the crew failed to disconnect the autopilot

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Northern_Airlines_Flight_6901

1999 - Death of John Paul Stapp, career USAF officer, flight surgeon and pioneer in studying the effects of acceleration and deceleration forces on humans using rocket sleds, known as "the fastest man on earth"

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

2008 - British Gulf International Airlines Antonov AN-12B crashes after takeoff from Al Asad Air Base, killing all 7 crew members.

http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=20081113-0

2009 - NASA reported that multiple lines of evidence show water was present in both the high-angle vapor plume and the ejecta curtain created by the LCROSS (Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite) Centaur impact on the moon.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LCROSS#Presence_of_water