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The Aviation Portal

A Boeing 747 operated by Pan Am

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

Air Force One
Air Force One
Air Force One (the ATC callsign of any U.S. Air Force aircraft carrying the President) has, since 1990, consisted of two specifically-configured, highly customized Boeing 747-200B series aircraft, known as the VC-25. The planes' three floors (4,000 square feet – 372 m²) include multiple modifications including the president's executive suite which includes a private dressing room, workout room, lavatory, shower, and private office. (Full article...)

Selected image

Schlieren photography (from the German word for "streaks") allows the visualization of density changes, and therefore shock waves, in fluid flow. Schlieren techniques have been used for decades in laboratory wind tunnels to visualize supersonic flow about model aircraft, but not full scale aircraft until recently. Dr. Leonard Weinstein of NASA Langley Research Center developed the first Schlieren camera, which he calls SAF (Schlieren for Aircraft in Flight), that can photograph the shock waves of a full sized aircraft in flight. He successfully took a picture which clearly shows the shock waves about a T-38 Talon aircraft on December 13, 1993 at Wallops Island, MD. The camera was then brought to the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center because of the high number of supersonic flights there.

Did you know

...that the Vickers machine gun was the standard weapon on all British and French military aircraft after 1916? ...that the Tenerife disaster remained the deadliest aircraft incident in history until the September 11, 2001 attacks and neither plane was in flight when the accident occurred. ... that 820 Naval Air Squadron was involved in attacks on the German battleships Bismarck and Tirpitz during the Second World War?

More Did you know facts

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

In the news

Wikinews Aviation portal
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Associated Wikimedia

The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:

Selected biography

Sophie Blanchard
Sophie Blanchard (25 March 1778 – 6 July 1819) was a French aeronaut and the wife of ballooning pioneer Jean-Pierre Blanchard. Blanchard was the first woman to work as a professional balloonist, and after her husband's death she continued ballooning, making more than 60 ascents. Known throughout Europe for her ballooning exploits, Blanchard entertained Napoleon Bonaparte, who promoted her to the role of "Aeronaut of the Official Festivals", replacing André-Jacques Garnerin. On the restoration of the monarchy in 1814 she performed for Louis XVIII, who named her "Official Aeronaut of the Restoration".

Ballooning was a risky business for the pioneers. Blanchard lost consciousness on a few occasions, endured freezing temperatures and almost drowned when her balloon crashed in a marsh. In 1819, she became the first woman to be killed in an aviation accident when, during an exhibition in the Tivoli Gardens in Paris, she launched fireworks that ignited the gas in her balloon. Her craft crashed on the roof of a house and she fell to her death. She is commonly referred to as Madame Blanchard and is also known by many combinations of her maiden and married names, including Madeleine-Sophie Blanchard, Marie Madeleine-Sophie Blanchard, Marie Sophie Armant and Madeleine-Sophie Armant Blanchard.

Selected Aircraft

The Avro Lancaster was a British four-engine Second World War bomber aircraft made initially by Avro for the British Royal Air Force (RAF). It first saw active service in 1942, and together with the Handley-Page Halifax it was one of the main heavy bombers of the RAF, the RCAF and squadrons from other Commonwealth and European countries serving within RAF Bomber Command. The "Lanc" or "Lankie," as it became affectionately known, became the most famous and most successful of the Second World War night bombers, "delivering 608,612 tons of bombs in 156,000 sorties." Although the Lancaster was primarily a night bomber, it excelled in many other roles including daylight precision bombing, and gained worldwide renown as the "Dam Buster" used in the 1943 Operation Chastise raids on Germany's Ruhr Valley dams.

  • Span: 102 ft (31.09 m)
  • Length: 69 ft 5 in (21.18 m)
  • Height: 19 ft 7 in (5.97 m)
  • Engines: 4× Rolls-Royce Merlin XX V12 engines, 1,280 hp (954 kW) each
  • Maximum Speed: 240 knots (280 mph, 450 km/h) at 15,000 ft (5,600 m)
  • First Flight: 8 January 1941
  • Number built: 7,377
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Today in Aviation

September 6

  • 2012 – A Russian Air Force Mikoyan MiG-29 crashed into a hill near Chilta in the Siberian Military District killing the pilot, all MiG-29 flying was suspended.
  • 2011 – Aerocon Flight 238 was a passenger flight which crashed in Trinidad, Bolivia. Eight of the nine people onboard died. The aircraft involved, a Swearingen SA.227BC Metroliner III, was operating Aerocon’s scheduled domestic service from El Trompillo Airport, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, to Teniente Jorge Henrich Arauz Airport, Trinidad. It crashed on approach, 29 km from Trinidad.
  • 2009 – A Canadair Silver Star Mk.3 (G-TBRD) crashed shortly after take-off at Duxford Aerodrome, Duxford, Cambridgeshire, UK. The facility is part of the Imperial War Museum Duxford and the privately owned T-33 Shooting Star in Royal Canadian Air Force livery (RCAF - 261) suffered a stall after rotation, clipping trees and crashing 1-mile (1.6 km) from the runway. The aircraft caught fire and was destroyed in the accident, the 2 crew escaped with minor injuries.
  • 2006 – Frontier Airlines operated a new airline named Lynx Aviation (United States).
  • 2005 – A small aircraft near Goma DRC, killing the pilot and injuring passengers.
  • 1983 – The Soviet Union admits to shooting down Korean Air Flight KAL-007, stating that the pilots did not know it was a civilian aircraft when it violated Soviet airspace.
  • 1981 – A United States Air Force Northrop T-38A-75-NO Talon, 68-8182, '1', of the Thunderbirds display team crashed on take-off at Cleveland, Ohio, United States following a bird strike. The team leader, Lt. Col. David L. Smith, was killed and the teams displays for the rest of the year are cancelled.
  • 1971 – Paninternational Flight 112, a BAC One-Eleven, suffers dual engine failure just after takeoff and crashes onto the A7 near Hamburg Airport, killing 22 of 121 on board.
  • 1970 – The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine orchestrates the Dawson's Field hijackings of El Al Flight 219 (Boeing 707), Pan Am Flight 93 (Boeing 747), Swissair Flight 100 (Douglas DC-8), TWA Flight 741 (Boeing 707), and (on September 9) BOAC Flight 775 (Vickers VC10); the unprecedented scale of the incident draws international outrage and plays a major role in instigating the eventual widespread implementation of air passenger screening, heretofore done only haphazardly and inconsistently; Flight 93 is the first loss of the Boeing 747.
  • 1960 – A North American GAM-77 Hound Dog missile launched from a Boeing B-52 Stratofortress over the Eglin Air Force Base, Florida test range at approximately 2 p.m. this date goes astray, coming down on a farm near Samson, Alabama.
  • 1952 – Prototype de Havilland DH 110, WG236, flown by John Derry and flight observer Anthony Richards disintegrates at the Farnborough Air Show during pull out from high speed dive, killing both crew, debris, including engines, falls among crowd killing 29 spectators. Another source cites 28 dead. It was eventually established that disintegration had followed structural failure of the wing (possibly weakened earlier), almost certainly resulting from violent tail flutter.
  • 1945 – Captured German Focke-Achgelis Fa 223 V14, makes the first helicopter crossing of the English Channel when it was moved from Cherbourg to RAF Beaulieu
  • 1944 – Bell P-39 Airacobra #42-18290 crashes southwest of Victorville Army Airfield, Victorville, California. Pilot 2nd Lt. Pat L. Montgomery is killed instantly.
  • 1944 – First prototype (and only one completed) McDonnell XP-67 Moonbat, 42-11677, suffers fire in starboard engine during functional test flight at 10,000 feet (3,000 m). Pilot E.E. Elliot manages to bring stricken airframe into Lambert Field, St. Louis, Missouri, flames gut the fuselage, engine nacelle and wheelwell before fire fighters halt blaze. As the jet-engined project that will become the FD-1 Phantom is already on the horizon, the project is cancelled.
  • 1943 – P/O DF McRae and crew, flying a Vickers Wellington of No. 179 (RAF) Squadron, attacked and badly crippled the German submarine U-760. The submarine was forced to Vega Harbour, Spain, where it was interned.
  • 1943 – (Overnight) 180 Axis aircraft attack an Allied convoy anchored in the harbor at Bizerte, Tunisia, but a smoke screen prevents them from scoring any hits.
  • 1940 – The first production Douglas scout bomber (SBD) is delivered to the U. S. Navy. The aircraft is given the name “Dauntless. ”
  • 1936 – Italian aircraft arriving in Majorca establish a Nationalist bombing capability against Republican Spain.
  • 1929 – Flying the Wright XF3 W-1 Apache equipped with floats, United States Navy Lieutenant Apollo Soucek sets a world altitude record for seaplanes, climbing to 38,500 feet (11,735 m).
  • 1916 – The Roland (Luftfahrzeug Gesellschaft mbH, or LFG) Adlershof, Berlin, Germany, aircraft plant burns, destroying seven complete aircraft, including the prototype LFG Roland C.III (and only one built), as well as ten fuselages. Assembly jigs and fixtures, models and some drawings are salvaged and production resumes a week later in commandeered Automobile Exhibition Hall.
  • 1914 – The first air-sea battle in history occurs when Imperial Japanese Navy Farman seaplanes make an unsuccessful attempt to bomb German and Austro-Hungarian ships in Kiaochow Bay during the Siege of Tsingtao.
  • 1912 – Capt. Patrick Hamilton and Lt. Wyness-Stuart of the Royal Flying Corps are killed when their Deperdussin monoplane breaks up in flight, crashing at Graveley, near Welwyn. The 60 hp (45 kW) Anzani-powered aircraft had been taken on strength by the army in January 1912.
  • 1910 – Blanche Stuart Scott makes the first solo airplane flight by a woman in the United States subsequently recognized by the Early Birds of Aviation.
  • 1893 – Claire Chennault, American pilot famous for commanding the “Flying Tigers” during World War II, was born.

References

Edit today's anniversaries – September Archive – All anniversaries...


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