Air History today

[Thunderboy]

I wll try post some air related history that happened on the same day when I see it. This is for today 1942, from istoryChannel.com

FIRST ALLIED JET FLIES:
May 15, 1941

On May 15, 1941, the jet-propelled Gloster-Whittle E 28/39 aircraft flies
successfully over Cranwell, England, in the first test of an Allied aircraft
using jet propulsion. The aircraft's turbojet engine, which produced a powerful
thrust of hot air, was devised by Frank Whittle, an English aviation engineer
and pilot generally regarded as the father of the jet engine.Whittle, born in
Coventry in 1907, was the son of a mechanic. At the age of 16, he joined the
Royal Air Force (RAF) as an aircraft apprentice at Cranwell and in 1926 passed a
medical exam to become a pilot and joined the RAF College. He won a reputation
as a daredevil flier and in 1928 wrote a senior thesis entitled Future
Developments in Aircraft Design, which discussed the possibilities of rocket
propulsion.From the first Wright brothers flight in 1903 to the first jet flight
in 1939, most airplanes were propeller driven. In 1910, the French inventor
Henri Coanda built a jet-propelled bi-plane, but it crashed on its maiden flight
and never flew again. Coanda's aircraft attracted little notice, and engineers
stuck with propeller technology; even though they realized early on that
propellers would never overcome certain inherent limitations, especially in
regard to speed.After graduating from the RAF college, he was posted to a
fighter squadron, and in his spare time he worked out the essentials of the
modern turbojet engine. A flying instructor, impressed with his propulsion
ideas, introduced him to the Air Ministry and a private turbine engineering
firm, but both ridiculed Whittle's ideas as impractical. In 1930, he patented
his jet engine concept and in 1936 formed the company Power Jets Ltd. to build
and test his invention. In 1937, he tested his first jet engine on the ground.
He still received only limited funding and support, and on August 27, 1939, the
German Heinkel He 178, designed by Hans Joachim Pabst von Ohain, made the first
jet flight in history. The German prototype jet was developed independently of
Whittle's efforts.One week after the flight of the He 178, World War II broke
out in Europe, and Whittle's project got a further lease of life. The Air
Ministry commissioned a new jet engine from Power Jets and asked the Gloster
Aircraft Company to build an experimental aircraft to accommodate it, specified
as E 28/39. On May 15, 1941, the jet-propelled Gloster-Whittle E 28/39 flew,
beating out a jet prototype being developed by the same British turbine company
that earlier balked at his ideas. In its initial tests, Whittle's
aircraft--flown by the test pilot Gerry Sayer--achieved a top speed of 370 mph
at 25,000 feet, faster than the Spitfire or any other conventional
propeller-driven machine.As the Gloster Aircraft Company worked on an
operational turbojet aircraft for combat, Whittle aided the Americans in their
successful development of a jet prototype. With Whittle's blessing, the British
government took over Power Jets Ltd. in 1944. By this time, Britain's Gloster
Meteor jet aircraft were in service with the RAF, going up against Germany's
jet-powered Messerschmitt Me 262s in the skies over Europe.Whittle retired from
the RAF in 1948 with the rank of air commodore. That year, he was awarded
ý100,000 by the Royal Commission on Awards to Inventors and was knighted. His
book Jet: The Story of a Pioneer was published in 1953. In 1977, he became a
research professor at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. He
died in Columbia, Maryland, in 1996

[afskies scribe]

I wll try post some air related history that happened on the same day when I see it.

:D

[ZULU1]

I spend a lot of time in Mud Island as well as mainland Europe, I have a massive amount of material on UK (mainly aviation museums) and other topics but this year is 70 years of the Spitfire...maybe another section would be of interest to our readers. I make a habit of when I am not working over weekends to visit something. Just been studying Bletchley Park...Interesting stuff, origins of modern computers. Mr Moderator lets have our own "History" Channel ???

eish ZULU1

see what our viewers think ??

[The Agent]

Some more history

I made it through yesterday and if I make it through today that will also be part of history,I just hope in the books it shows that I made alot of money.

[Thunderboy]

Today 1943 The Memphis Belle flies its 25th bombing mission


On this day in 1943, the Memphis Belle, one of a group of American bombers based in Britain, becomes the first B-17 to complete 25 missions over Europe.

The Memphis Belle performed its 25th and last mission, in a bombing raid against Lorient, a German submarine base. But before returning back home to the United States, film footage was shot of Belle's crew receiving combat medals. This was but one part of a longer documentary on a day in the life of an American bomber, which included dramatic footage of a bomber being shot out of the sky, with most of its crew parachuting out, one by one. Another film sequence showed a bomber returning to base with its tail fin missing. What looked like damage inflicted by the enemy was, in fact, the result of a collision with another American bomber.

The Memphis Belle documentary would not be released for another 11 months, as more footage was compiled to demonstrate the risks these pilots ran as they bombed "the enemy again and again and again-until he has had enough." The film's producer, Lieutenant Colonel William Wyler, was known for such non-military fare as The Letter, Wuthering Heights, and Jezebel.

A fictional film about the B-17, called Memphis Belle, was released in 1990, starring John Lithgow, Matthew Modine, and Eric Stoltz.

[Thunderboy]

Here she is

[Joninmoz]

Missed this by 1 day, but the raid by 617 sqn, RAF on the Moehne, Eder, Sorpe and Schwelme dams took place during the night of 16-17 May 1943.

Only the Moenhe and the Eder were destroyed during the raid. What is interesting is that the crews had to deliver the specially designed mines at exactly 60 feet above the water, at a speed of exactly 220 mph at a pre-determined distance from the dam walls. Imagine doing this at night while being shot at?

Eight aircraft were shot down during the attack and the mission leader, wing commander Guy Gibson was awarded the VC for bravery. He continuously flew over the Moehne dam after dropping his bomb in order to draw off the German FLAK so that the other aircraft could make their bombing runs.

Jonimoz

[Thunderboy]

Missed this one from Saturday

May 20

1965 Plane crashes at Cairo airport

A Pakistan Airways Boeing 707 arriving from Pakistan crashes upon landing at the airport in Cairo, Egypt, killing 124 people on this day in 1965. The accident came just as pilots were complaining about poor conditions at the Cairo airport.

In 1965, the International Pilots Association began to have its members refuse night landings at the Cairo airport due to its inadequate lighting and poor runway conditions. In addition, some of the airport’s landing strips were sloped, which was not in accordance with standard practices, and pilots also believed that the airport staff was not prepared for an emergency.

The pressure from pilots forced the airport authorities to begin to upgrade their facilities; the Pakistan Airways crash came just as these improvements began to get underway. The plane was making a night landing and took an approach that was too steep, slamming into the ground short of the runway.

The year 1965 was a terrible one for air disasters: in addition to this crash, there were eight other crashes and accidents that killed more than 30 people each. Three of these accidents involved the Boeing 727 jet, the successor to the 707.

[Thunderboy]

And the picture

[Thunderboy]

May 24

1982 - The last service by a British Airways Boeing 707, from Cairo, Egypt to London, is performed.

1976 - Three hijackers and seven hostages die as Filipino troops storm a hijacked Philippines Airlines Douglas DC-9.

1918 - Josef Kiss, Austro-Hungarian 5th highest scoring ace, is shot down in combat. He had scored 19 victories.

[Thunderboy]

1979 25 May Worst air crash in U.S. history


On Friday afternoon, Memorial Day weekend, American Airlines Flight 191, a Los Angeles-bound DC-10, takes off at 3:03 p.m. from Chicago-O'Hare International airport with 271 aboard. As Flight 191 raised its nose during the initial stage of the takeoff, an engine under the left wing broke off with its pylon assembly and fell to the runway. The aircraft climbed to about 350 feet above the ground and then began to spin to the left, continuing its leftward roll until the wings were past the vertical position, with the nose pitched down below the horizon. Moments later, the aircraft crashed into an open field about a half-mile from its takeoff point, killing all 271 people aboard and two others in a nearby trailer park. It was the worst domestic air crash in U.S. history

[Thunderboy]

Oop have not put much here in a while been a bit busy but here is one for today

July 5

1970 Pilot error causes crash in Toronto

An Air Canada DC-8 crashes while landing in Toronto, killing 108 people on this day in 1970. The crash was caused by poor landing procedures and inadvertent pilot error. The terrible accident came less than two days after another jet crash had killed more than 100 people in Spain.

The roots of this accident can be found in the working relationship of pilot Peter Hamilton and his co-pilot Donald Rowland. Though they were colleagues who often flew together, they frequently disagreed over the procedure for deploying the wing spoilers at landing. The spoilers are the parts of the wings that assist in braking when they are put in the right position.

Hamilton preferred to “arm the spoilers” or get them ready for deployment, early in the landing process, when the plane was 2,000 feet high, although this was against company policy. Rowland eventually agreed to arm the spoilers before landing, but only when the plane was just above the ground.

On this day, Rowland accidentally deployed the spoilers--rather than merely arming them--as the plane was approaching Toronto’s airport. The premature deployment immediately caused the right wing to plunge to the ground. One engine on the right side fell off and the loss of weight sent the plane back into the air. Hamilton tried to regain control and attempt another landing; as he did, another engine, and then the whole right wing, detached from the plane.

The DC-8 broke into pieces in mid-air near the airport. All 108 people onboard were killed

[Thunderboy]

ARMSTRONG WALKS ON MOON:
July 20, 1969

At 10:56 p.m. EDT, American astronaut Neil Armstrong, 240,000 miles from Earth,
speaks these words to more than a billion people listening at home: "That's one
small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." Stepping off the lunar landing
module Eagle, Armstrong became the first human to walk on the surface of the
moon.The American effort to send astronauts to the moon has its origins in a
famous appeal President John F. Kennedy made to a special joint session of
Congress on May 25, 1961: "I believe this nation should commit itself to
achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and
returning him safely to Earth." At the time, the United States was still
trailing the Soviet Union in space developments, and Cold War-era America
welcomed Kennedy's bold proposal.In 1966, after five years of work by an
international team of scientists and engineers, the National Aeronautics and
Space Administration (NASA) conducted the first unmanned Apollo mission, testing
the structural integrity of the proposed launch vehicle and spacecraft
combination. Then, on January 27, 1967, tragedy struck at Kennedy Space Center
in Cape Canaveral, Florida, when a fire broke out during a manned launch-pad
test of the Apollo spacecraft and Saturn rocket. Three astronauts were killed in
the fire.Despite the setback, NASA and its thousands of employees forged ahead,
and in October 1968, Apollo 7, the first manned Apollo mission, orbited Earth
and successfully tested many of the sophisticated systems needed to conduct a
moon journey and landing. In December of the same year, Apollo 8 took three
astronauts to the dark side of the moon and back, and in March 1969 Apollo 9
tested the lunar module for the first time while in Earth orbit. Then in May,
the three astronauts of Apollo 10 took the first complete Apollo spacecraft
around the moon in a dry run for the scheduled July landing mission.At 9:32 a.m.
on July 16, with the world watching, Apollo 11 took off from Kennedy Space
Center with astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin Jr., and Michael Collins
aboard. Armstrong, a 38-year-old civilian research pilot, was the commander of
the mission. After traveling 240,000 miles in 76 hours, Apollo 11 entered into a
lunar orbit on July 19. The next day, at 1:46 p.m., the lunar module Eagle,
manned by Armstrong and Aldrin, separated from the command module, where Collins
remained. Two hours later, the Eagle began its descent to the lunar surface, and
at 4:18 p.m. the craft touched down on the southwestern edge of the Sea of
Tranquility. Armstrong immediately radioed to Mission Control in Houston, Texas,
a famous message: "The Eagle has landed."At 10:39 p.m., five hours ahead of the
original schedule, Armstrong opened the hatch of the lunar module. As he made
his way down the lunar module's ladder, a television camera attached to the
craft recorded his progress and beamed the signal back to Earth, where hundreds
of millions watched in great anticipation. At 10:56 p.m., Armstrong spoke his
famous quote, which he later contended was slightly garbled by his microphone
and meant to be "that's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind."
He then planted his left foot on the gray, powdery surface, took a cautious step
forward, and humanity had walked on the moon."Buzz" Aldrin joined him on the
moon's surface at 11:11 p.m., and together they took photographs of the terrain,
planted a U.S. flag, ran a few simple scientific tests, and spoke with President
Richard M. Nixon via Houston. By 1:11 a.m. on July 21, both astronauts were back
in the lunar module and the hatch was closed. The two men slept that night on
the surface of the moon, and at 1:54 p.m. the Eagle began its ascent back to the
command module. Among the items left on the surface of the moon was a plaque
that read: "Here men from the planet Earth first set foot on the moon--July 1969
A.D--We came in peace for all mankind."At 5:35 p.m., Armstrong and Aldrin
successfully docked and rejoined Collins, and at 12:56 a.m. on July 22 Apollo 11
began its journey home, safely splashing down in the Pacific Ocean at 12:51 p.m.
on July 24.There would be five more successful lunar landing missions, and one
unplanned lunar swing-by, Apollo 13. The last men to walk on the moon,
astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt of the Apollo 17 mission, left the
lunar surface on December 14, 1972. The Apollo program was a costly and labor
intensive endeavor, involving an estimated 400,000 engineers, technicians, and
scientists, and costing $24 billion (close to $100 billion in today's dollars).
The expense was justified by Kennedy's 1961 mandate to beat the Soviets to the
moon, and after the feat was accomplished ongoing missions lost their viability