Portal:Aviation

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A Boeing 747

Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. Aircraft includes fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as lighter-than-air craft such as hot air balloons and airships.

Aviation began in the 18th century with the development of the hot air balloon, an apparatus capable of atmospheric displacement through buoyancy. Some of the most significant advancements in aviation technology came with the controlled gliding flying of Otto Lilienthal in 1896; then a large step in significance came with the construction of the first powered airplane by the Wright brothers in the early 1900s. Since that time, aviation has been technologically revolutionized by the introduction of the jet which permitted a major form of transport throughout the world. (Full article...)

Selected article

Computer-generated image of Flight 1907 and N600XL about to collide. The Legacy's left winglet sliced off nearly half of the Boeing's left wing.
Computer-generated image of Flight 1907 and N600XL about to collide. The Legacy's left winglet sliced off nearly half of the Boeing's left wing.
Gol Transportes Aéreos Flight 1907 was a Boeing 737-8EH, registration PR-GTD, on a scheduled passenger flight from Manaus, Brazil, to Rio de Janeiro. On 29 September 2006, just before 17:00 BRT, it collided in midair with an Embraer Legacy business jet over the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso. All 154 passengers and crew aboard the Boeing 737 died when the aircraft broke up in midair and crashed into an area of dense rainforest, while the Embraer Legacy, despite sustaining serious damage to its left wing and tail, landed safely with its seven occupants uninjured. The accident, which triggered a crisis in Brazilian civil aviation, was the deadliest in that country's aviation history at the time, surpassing VASP Flight 168, which crashed in 1982 with 137 fatalities near Fortaleza. It was also the deadliest aviation accident involving a Boeing 737 aircraft at that time. It was subsequently surpassed by Air India Express Flight 812, which crashed at Mangalore, India, on 22 May 2010 with 158 fatalities. The accident was investigated by both the Brazilian Air Force's Aeronautical Accidents Investigation and Prevention Center and the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), with a final report issued on 10 December 2008. CENIPA concluded that the accident was caused by errors committed both by air traffic controllers and by the American pilots, while the NTSB determined that all pilots acted properly and were placed on a collision course by a variety of "individual and institutional" air traffic control errors. (Full article...)

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Let L-410 Turbolet
Photo: Łukasz Golowanow
The Let L-410 Turbolet is a twin-engined short-range transport aircraft, manufactured by the Czech aircraft manufacturer LET, mostly used for passenger transport. The L-410 first flew in 1969, and with more than 1100 produced, is the most popular 19-seat plane in history.
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Did you know

...that a Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcar was used in the 2004 film Flight of the Phoenix? ...that the Cessna 165 aircraft was instrumental in the recovery of the Cessna Aircraft Company in the years following the Great Depression? ...that during Operation Deep Freeze II in 1956, US Navy Rear Admiral George J. Dufek commanded the first aircraft to land at the South Pole, the C-47 Skytrain “Que Sera Sera”?

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The following are images from various aviation-related articles on Wikipedia.

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Wikinews Aviation portal
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Selected biography

Charles Lindbergh
Charles Augustus Lindbergh, Jr. (February 4, 1902 – August 26, 1974), known as "Lucky Lindy" and "The Lone Eagle", was a pioneering United States aviator famous for piloting the first solo non-stop flight across the Atlantic Ocean in 1927, flying from Roosevelt Airfield (Nassau County, Long Island), New York to Paris on May 20-May 21, 1927 in his single-engine aircraft The Spirit of St. Louis.

He grew up in Little Falls, Minnesota. Early on he showed an interest in machinery, especially aircraft. After training as a pilot with the Army Air Service Lindbergh took a job as lead pilot of an airmail route in a DeHavilland DH-4 biplane. He was renowned for delivering the mail under any circumstances.

Lindbergh is recognized in aviation for demonstrating and charting polar air-routes, high altitude flying techniques, and increasing aircraft flying range by decreasing fuel consumption. These innovations are the basis of modern intercontinental air travel.

Selected Aircraft

The VZ-9 Avrocar (full military designation VZ-9-AV) was a Canadian VTOL aircraft developed by Avro Aircraft Ltd. as part of a secret U.S. military project carried out in the early years of the Cold War.[1] The Avrocar intended to exploit the Coandă effect to provide lift and thrust from a single "turborotor" blowing exhaust out the rim of the disk-shaped aircraft to provide anticipated VTOL-like performance. In the air, it would have resembled a flying saucer. Two prototypes were built as "proof-of-concept" test vehicles for a more advanced USAF fighter and also for a U.S. Army tactical combat aircraft requirement.[2] In flight testing, the Avrocar proved to have unresolved thrust and stability problems that limited it to a degraded, low-performance flight envelope; subsequently, the project was cancelled in 1961.

  • Diameter:18 ft (5.486 m)
  • Height: 3 ft 6 in (1.1 m)
  • Engines: 3 x Turbomeca Marboré Continental J69-T-9
  • Max Speed: 300 mph (482 km/h)
  • First Flight: 12 November 1959
  • Number built: 2
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Today in Aviation

May 21

  • 2011 – NATO conducts 147 air sorties over Libya, targeting two command-and-control facilities in and near Tripoli, an ammunition storage facility near Tripoli, a naval asset near Sirte, two air defense radars near Al Khums, and a tank and a military truck near Zintan. Since NATO took command of air strikes in Libya on 31 March 31, its aircraft have conducted 2,975 strike and 4.757 other sorties.[3]
  • 2010 – A U.S. Navy Lockheed P-3 Orion accidentally released a sonobuoy shortly after departure from NAS Jacksonville, Florida, which fell 500 feet (150 m) and crashed through the roof of a home in Mandarin, Florida, coming to rest in a bedroom next to a bed. Resident Marwan Saman said his daughter had just gotten out of that bed about a half hour earlier. The Navy sent an explosives demolition team to retrieve the 3-foot (0.91 m)-long, 40-pound cylinder. No injuries were reported, and the Navy was making arrangements to pay for the damage. A malfunctioning launch tube was theorized for the drop.
  • 2009 – An Air Force test pilot student is killed when his Northrop T-38A Talon jet trainer crashes N of Edwards Air Force Base, California, ~ nine miles N of the base, near California City.
  • 2008 – A Serbian Air Force single-seat SOKO J-22 Orao ground attack aircraft flown by Major Tomas Janik crashed near the village of Baranda. The aircraft that crashed was wearing serial 25114 and was operational with the 241 Fighter-Bomber Aviation Squadron, of 98th Air Base Lađevci. The flight went well until 1130 hours local time when pilot Major Janik experienced problems with his plane and was forced to eject. The aircraft went down in the vicinity of the village Baranda and was completely destroyed.
  • 2007 – A CH-47D Chinook 87-00102 from B Company, 4–123rd Aviation Regiment crashes in Iraq due to failure of both engines. Five crewmen injured. Helicopter was blown in-place.[4]
  • 1995 – (21-22) Historic Boeing B-29-95-BW Superfortress, 45-21768, "Kee Bird", of the 46th/72d Reconnaissance Squadrons, abandoned in 1947 and recently restored to flying condition after a number of highly calamitous setbacks, is severely damaged by fire while attempting to take off from a frozen lakebed in Greenland. Its remains are abandoned to sink into the melting ice.
  • 1982 – British ground troops begin landing at San Carlos on East Falkland Island, and the Argentinian Air Force begins a seven-day-long bombing campaign again British ships in Falkland Sound and San Carlos Water; it will be the Royal Navy’s largest combat engagement since the end of World War II in August 1945. On the first day, the Argentinians sink the British frigate Ardent but lose 16 aircraft.
  • 1981 – Ecuadorian Air Force de Havilland Canada DHC-6 crashed into high ground in bad weather with the loss of all 18 on board.
  • 1977 – Concorde makes a special trip from New York to Paris to mark the 50th anniversary of Charles Lindbergh’s historic flight on the same route in the Spirit of St. Louis; the airliner takes just 3 hours, 44 min, compared with Lindbergh’s time of 33 hours, 29 min.
  • 1965 – The last flight of an RCAF Harvard was made.
  • 1964 – Pathet Lao antiaircraft artillery damages a U. S. Navy RF-8 Crusader photographic reconnaissance aircraft over Laos. The RF-8 A, flown by Lieutenant Charles F. Klusmann, burns for 20 min in the air but lands safely aboard the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk (CVA-63).
  • 1957 – First Sud-Aviation (Sud-Ouest) SO.9050 Trident II -001, rocket-powered short-range interceptor, is destroyed during a test-flight out of Centre d'Essais en Vol (Flight Test Center) when its highly volatile fuels, Furaline and nitric acid, accidentally mix and explode, killing test pilot Charles Goujon. Project is discontinued following this accident.
  • 1949 – A Sikorsky S-52 sets a new helicopter altitude record of 21,200 ft (6,468 m).
  • 1946 – Royal Dutch Airlines, KLM, inaugurates a scheduled service to New York. It is the first European airline to open post-war flights to New York.
  • 1945 – Entered Service: Avro Lincoln with the Royal Air Force’s Bomber Development Unit
  • 1945 – Entered Service: Grumman F8 F Bearcat with U. S. Navy Fighter Squadron 19 (VF-19)
  • 1941 – German airborne forces belatedly capture Maleme airfield on Crete, allowing an airlift of 5,000 German mountain troops to begin.
  • 1941 – The British aircraft carrier HMS Argus flies off 43 Royal Air Force Hawker Hurricanes to Malta from a point south of Sardinia.
  • 1940 – The British aircraft carriers HMS Glorious and HMS Furious fly off Royal Air Force aircraft for service ashore at Bardufoss, Norway, with Glorious delivering the Hurricanes of No. 46 Squadron and Furious the Gladiators of No. 263 Squadron.
  • 1927 – Charles A. Lindbergh landed his Spirit of St. Louis near Paris, completing the first solo airplane flight across the Atlantic Ocean.
  • 1923 – A Curtiss bomber and two Curtiss scout aircraft of the Argentine Navy make a flight of just under 500 miles (805 km) along the coast of Argentina from Puerto Militar to Buenos Aires. It is a significant step forward in the development of Argentine aviation.
  • 1918 – President Woodrow Wilson creates a Bureau of Aircraft Production responsible for aeronautical equipment.
  • 1878 – Glenn Hammond Curtiss was born in Hammondsport, New York. He became the pioneer of the first years of powered flight and rival of the Wright brothers.

References

  1. ^ Yenne 2003), pp. 281–283.
  2. ^ Milberry 1979, p. 137.
  3. ^ Brunnstrom, David (22 May 2011). "Factbox: Latest Military Activity in Libya for 22 May 2011". Reuters. Retrieved 6 June 2011.
  4. ^ "Boeing's CH-47D Chinook 87-00102". Retrieved 2009-06-02.
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