OCT07
1803 - Francesco Zambeccari, Italian balloonist and aviation pioneer, lift off from Montagnola in an attempt to cross the Adriatic sea.
1870 - During the Siege of Paris (Franco-Prussian war), French statesman Leon Gambetta flees Paris in a hot air balloon, the "Armand-Barbès".
1884 - Birth of Harold C. Geiger, American pioneer in Army aviation and ballooning.
1890 - Birth of Hubert William Godfrey Jones (also known as Hubert Wilson Godfrey Jones Penderel), Welsh WWI flying ace, RAF display pilot, air racer and WWII officer. Between 1932 and 1933 he undertook a number of expeditions to explore Gilf Kebir. One of his expeditions with Count László Almásy loosely formed the basis for "The English Patient."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubert_Jones - http://theaerodrome.com/aces/wales/jones4.php
1891 - Birth of Cyril Nelson 'Kit' Lowe, British WWI flying ace, International Rugby player and supposedly the inspiration for W. E. Johns' character "Biggles".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyril_Lowe - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/england/lowe1.php
1895 - Birth of Roby Lewis Manuel, Australian WWI flying ace who served also in WWII
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roby_Lewis_Manuel - http://theaerodrome.com/aces/australi/manuel2.php
1897 - Birth of Julio Ruiz de Alda Miqueleiz, Spanish raid aviator and politician.
1903 - Samuel Pierpont Langley's full-size 'Aerodrome', piloted by Charles M. Manly, attempts a flight from the houseboat launcher moored in the Potomac River. The 'Aerodrome' fouls the launcher and crashes into the river.
1908 - Edith Berg, the wife of the Wright brothers' European business agent, became the 1st American woman passenger flying with Wilbur Wright.
1912 - 1st demonstration of a monoplane to the U.S. government is made by Bernetta Adams Miller with a Moisant-Blériot at College Park, Maryland.
1914 - Birth of Josef František, Czech WWII fighter ace who flew for the air forces of Czechoslovakia, Poland and the United Kingdom. 1st allied ace in the Battle of Britain.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josef_Frantisek - http://cieldegloire.com/002t_frantisek_j.php
1917 - Death of James Cromwell Bush, British WWI flying ace, killed in action in his Bristol Fighter along with his observer Lt. Chapman.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Bush_(RFC_officer) - http://theaerodrome.com/aces/england/bush.php
1919 - KLM, flag carrier of the Netherlands, is founded. It is the oldest airline still operating under its original name.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KLM
1920 - 1st flight of the SPAD S-20bis-6, French biplane racer aircraft prototype, issued from the original fighter version.
http://aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=4139
1932 - 1st flight of The Stipa-Caproni, also generally called the Caproni Stipa, experimental Italian aircraft featuring a featured a hollow, barrel-shaped fuselage with the engine and propeller completely enclosed by the fuselage—in essence, the whole fuselage was a single ducted fan and was an important step in the development of jet propulsion.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stipa-Caproni
1933 - Air France is formed from a merger of Air Orient, Air Union, Compagnie Générale Aéropostale, Compagnie Internationale de Navigation Aérienne (CIDNA), and Société Générale de Transport Aérien (SGTA).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_France
1933 - 1st flight of the Wibault 365, French 6-passenger low wing monoplane single engined airliner prototype, reengined version of the 360.
http://aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=9424
1934 - 1st flight of he Tupolev ANT-40 (also known by its service name Tupolev SB), Soviet high speed twin-engined three-seat monoplane bomber.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupolev_SB
1935 - United Airlines Boeing 247D struck the ground in a shallow descent just below a small knoll near Silver Crown, Wyoming, killing all 12. Probable cause was determined to be pilot error in failing to monitor altitude or location
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Airlines_Cheyenne_Crash
1938 - Death of Hermann Köhl, German Aviation pioneer and pilot of the 1st trans-atlantic flight in the East-West direction with the Junker W33 'Bremen'.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_K%C3%B6hl
1939 - Death of Hanada Tomio, Japanese russo-Japanese war fighter ace, killed in a mid-air collision on a training flight with his Nakjima Ki-27.
http://www.cieldegloire.com/010_hanada_t.php
1940 - A Tupolev ANT-44 (or MTB-2) , Soviet four-engine flying boat, achieved a FAI record for amphibians at maximum speed of 241.9 km/h (131 kn, 150 mph) over 1,000 km (540 nmi, 621 mi) with a 2,000 kg (4,409 lb) payload.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupolev_MTB-2
1943 - Death of Takeo Banno, Japanese WWII flying ace, Killed in action.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_World_War_II_aces_from_Japan#B
1944 - Death of Helmut Lent, German WWII night-fighter ace, due to injuries after the crash of his Junkers Ju-88 two days before, when his left engine failed on approach, strucking high-voltage cables.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helmut_Lent#Death - http://www.luftwaffe.cz/lent.html
1958 - Death of Adolphe Aloys Marie Hubert duBois d'Aische, Belgian WWI flying ace
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolphe_DuBois_d'Aische - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/belgium/duboisdaische.php
1959 - Luna 3, Soviet space probe, transmits the 1st ever photographs of the far side of the Moon.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_3#Mission
1961 - A Mikoyan-Gurevich Ye-166 (Fictitious designation of the Ye-152-1) set an absolute speed record over a 100km closed-circuit of 2601km/h.
http://www.aviastar.org/air/russia/mig_e-152p.php
1961 - A class speed record is set at 356.3 km/h by the Kamov Ka-22 "Vintokryl", Soviet experimental transport rotorcraft, fitted with spats over the wheels and a fairing behind the cockpit.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamov_Ka-22#Operational_history
1961 - Derby Aviation Douglas Dakota IV crashed at an altitude of 7500 ft (2200 m) on the mountain of Canigou, France killing all 34, probably due to navigational error.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1961_Derby_Aviation_crash
1963 - 1st flight of The Learjet 23, American six to eight seat (two crew and four to six passengers) twin-engined, high speed business jet
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learjet_23
1965 - Luna 7, (Lunik 7) Soviet unmanned space mission which intended to achieve a soft landing on the Moon, impacted the lunar surface in Oceanus Procellarum, due to premature retrofire and cutoff of the retrorockets.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_7
1969 - Birth of Karen LuJean Nyberg, American mechanical engineer and NASA astronaut
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_L._Nyberg
1976 - Death of Jean Marie Luc Gilbert Sardier, French WWI flying ace.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilbert_Sardier - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/france/sardier.php
1980 - Death of Carl Frederick Falkenberg, Canadian WWI fighter ace, and WWII RACF instructor
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Frederick_Falkenberg - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/canada/falkenberg.php
1985 - Space Shuttle Atlantis (NASA STS-51-J Mission) is back on earth completing it's 1st flight.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-51-J - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Atlantis
1989 - 1st flight of the Enstrom TH-28, American small, training light patrol helicopter, which will lead to the model 480.
http://www.aviastar.org/helicopters_eng/enstrom-480.php
1994 - Launch of Solidaridad II, Mexican communications satellite.
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solidaridad_II
1995 - 1st flight of the Mitsubishi F-2, American-Japanese multirole fighter aircraft for the Japan Air Self-Defense Force.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitsubishi_F-2
1995 - 1st flight of The Learjet 45 (LJ45), Canadian-American mid-sized business jet aircraft.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learjet_45
2000 - Death of Walter ´Graf Pinski` Krupinski, German WWII fighter ace, one of the 1st to fly the Me 262 jet fighter in combat, senior West German air force officer after the war.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Krupinski - http://www.luftwaffe.cz/krupinski.html
2001 - Beginning of the War in Afghanistan : Airstrikes are driven over the capital, Kabul (where electricity supplies were severed), at the airport, at Kandahar (home of the Taliban's Supreme Leader Mullah Omar), and in the city of Jalalabad.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_in_Afghanistan_(2001%E2%80%93present)
2002 - Launch of STS-112, space shuttle mission Atlantis to the International Space Station (ISS).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-112
2008 - Qantas Flight 72 Airbus A330-303 made an emergency landing at Learmonth airport near the town of Exmouth, Western Australia following an inflight accident featuring a pair of sudden uncommanded pitch-down manoeuvres that resulted in serious injuries to 115 occupants over 315.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qantas_Flight_72
2010 - Launch of Soyuz TMA-01M, Russian space flight to the ISS.