OCT24

1917 - Death of John Theobald Milne, British WWI flying ace, killed in action in his Bristol Fighter.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Theobald_Milne - http://theaerodrome.com/aces/england/milne.php

1919 - Birth of Frank Piasecki, American engineer and helicopter aviation pioneer. Piasecki pioneered tandem rotor helicopter designs and created the compound helicopter concept of vectored thrust using a ducted propeller.

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

1931 - Death of Gordon Frank Mason 'Mable' Apps, British WWI flying ace, who turned to Canada post war, joining the nascent Royal Canadian Air Force where He performed pioneering aerial photography survey work for the RCAF. He fatally crashed his Fairchild 71 while landing at Peterborough Airport.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Apps - http://theaerodrome.com/aces/england/apps.php

1932 - 1st flight of The Bloch MB.120 , French three-engine high wing monoplane colonial transport aircraft.

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloch_MB.120 - http://www.aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=4500

1932 - 1st flight of the Handley Page H.P.46, British two seat, single-engined biplane carrier-based torpedo bomber prototype.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handley_Page_H.P.46

1933 - 1st flight of the Latécoère 293, French high wing torpedo bomber floatplane prototype, reengined version of the 292.

http://aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=935

1939 - 2nd USS Los Angeles, American rigid airship, designated ZR-3 (originally Zeppelin LZ-126) is dismantled in its hangar.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Los_Angeles_(ZR-3)

1940 - CAI (Corpo Aereo Italiano) operations began at the close of the Battle of Britain, with an unsuccessful night raid by Fiat BR.20 bombers around Harwich.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corpo_Aereo_Italiano#Operations

1941 - Death of Ildebrando Malavolta, Italian WWII pilot, Killed in his Fiat C.R.42 around Dabat/Ambazzo.

http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ildebrando_Malavolta

1941 - German WWII Luftwaffe fighter ace Günther Lützow becomes the 2nd 'Experte' (after Werner Mölders) to achieve 100 victories.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%BCnther_L%C3%BCtzow#World_War_II - http://www.luftwaffe.cz/lutzow.html

1942 - 1st daylight attack on Italy is mounted by RAF Bomber Command aircraft based in the UK, when 88 Avro Lancasters of No.5 Group are despatched to attack Milan.

http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/research/history-of-aviation-timeline/interactive-aviation-timeline/british-military-aviation/1942.aspx

1944 - David McCampbell with his F6F Hellcat scores 9 victories, shooting down 5 A6M Zekes, 2 A6M3 Hamps & 2 Ki-43 Oscars, Only american becoming twice an "ace in a day", setting a U.S. single mission aerial combat record.

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

1944 - Death of Sumio Fukuda, Japanese WWII flying ace, killed in action.

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

1944 - Death of Yukiharu Ozeki, Japanese WWII fighter ace, Killed in action

http://www.acesofww2.com/japan/

1945 - American Overseas Airlines (AOA) launched international landplane flights with DC-4 Flagship 'New England' on the route New York City (USA) to London (England UK) via Boston (USA), Gander (Newfoundland) and Shannon (Ireland).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Overseas_Airlines#Postwar_operations

1946 – A camera on board the V-2 No. 13 rocket takes the 1st photograph of earth from outer space.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V-2_No._13

1947 - 1st flight of The Grumman HU-16 Albatross, american large twin-radial engine amphibious flying boat

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grumman_HU-16_Albatross

1947 - United Airlines Flight 608 Douglas DC-6 en route to Chicago from Los Angeles caught fire and then crashed while attempting an emergency landing at the Bryce Canyon, Utah airport.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Airlines_Flight_608

1953 - 1st flight of The Convair F-102 Delta Dagger, American interceptor jet aircraft.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convair_F-102_Delta_Dagger

1957 – The USAF starts the X-20 Dyna-Soar program. It was to develop a spaceplane that could be used for a variety of military missions, including reconnaissance, bombing, space rescue, satellite maintenance, and sabotage of enemy satellites. Cancelled just after spacecraft construction had begun.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-20_Dyna-Soar

1960 - An R-16 ballistic missile explodes on the launch pad at the Soviet Union's Baikonur Cosmodrome space facility, killing over 100.

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

1961 - Birth of Susan Kilrain (born Leigh Still), American engineer, USN test pilot and NASA astronaut.

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

1962 - Launch of Mars 2MV-4 No.1 (Sputnik 22), Soviet spacecraft intended to make a flyby of Mars, and transmit images of the planet back to Earth.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_2MV-4_No.1

1962 - Death of William Harry Bland, British WWI flying ace

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Harry_Bland - http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/england/bland.php

1962 - Aircraft carriers USS Enterprise, USS Independence, USS Essex, and USS Randolph take part in blockading Cuba during the missile crisis.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Enterprise_(CVN-65)#1962_Cuban_Missile_Crisis

1966 - Birth of Jing Haipeng, fighter pilot in the People's Liberation Army Air Force and CNSA astronaut.

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

1967 - Death of Leslie William Sutherland, Australian WWI flying ace (observer/Gunner) and author (Aces and Kings).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leslie_Sutherland - http://theaerodrome.com/aces/australi/sutherland.php

1976 - Death of Andrei E. Durnovtsev, Soviet Air Force pilot.

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

1977 - Darryl Greenamyer, flying a modified F-104 Starfighter "Red Baron" (N104RB), set a FAI Class C-1 Group III 3 km speed record of 988.26 mph.

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

1980 - Death of Leonid Georiyevich Ivanov, Soviet air force and test pilot, Killed in the crash of the MIG-27 he was testing.

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

1983 - Death of Andrew MacGregor, Scottish WWI flying ace and senior commander in the Royal Air Force during WWII.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_MacGregor - http://theaerodrome.com/aces/scotland/macgregor1.php

1990 - 1st flight of the Dassault Mirage 2000-5, French multirole, single-engine fourth-generation jet fighter, A 2-seat Mirage 2000B prototype extensively modified, privately funded update of the Mirage 2000C.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dassault_Mirage_2000#Mirage_2000-5 - http://aviafrance.com/aviafrance1.php?ID=9738

1991 - Death of Eugene Wesley "Gene" Roddenberry, American WWII Bomber pilot, television screenwriter, producer and futurist, best known for creating the American science fiction series Star Trek

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

1998 – Launch of Deep Space 1, NASA spacecraft dedicated to testing its payload of advanced, high risk technologies, comet/asteroid mission

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Space_1

2000 - STS-92, the 100th Space Shuttle mission, using Space Shuttle Discovery is back on earth

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-92

2000 - 1st flight of The Lockheed Martin X-35A, American experimental aircraft for the Joint Strike Fighter Program, developped later into the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_Martin_X-35

2003 - Last commercial flight of the Aérospatiale-BAC Concorde.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concorde#Retirement

2004 - Soyuz TMA-4, Soyuz mission to the International Space Station (ISS), is back on earth

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_TMA-4

2004 - After the pilots failed to execute an instrument approach procedure and that both failed to use all navigational aids to confirm the airplane's position during its approach, the Beechcraft Super King Air 200 owned by Hendrick Motorsports crashed into Bull Mountain, seven miles from Blue Ridge Airport, Martinsville, Virginia, killing all 10 including John Hendrick, president of Hendrick Motorsports; and former NASCAR Busch Series driver and owner Ricky Hendrick.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Hendrick_Motorsports_aircraft_crash

2006 - MESSENGER (an acronym of MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry and Ranging), robotic NASA spacecraft, encountered Venus at an altitude of 2,992 kilometers (1,859 mi).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MESSENGER#Encounter_with_Venus

2007 - Launch of Chang’e 1, unmanned Chinese lunar-orbiting spacecraft.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chang%27e_1

2010 - Death of Franciszek Jarecki, pilot in the Polish Air Force, famous for having escaped Soviet-controlled Poland in a MiG-15 jet.

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