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The Aviation Portal

A Boeing 747 in 1978 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 aircraft 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. Clément Ader built the "Ader Éole" in France and made an uncontrolled, powered hop in 1890. This is the first powered aircraft, although it did not achieve controlled flight. 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

The feathered propellers of an RAF Hercules C.4
The feathered propellers of an RAF Hercules C.4
A propeller is essentially a type of fan which transmits power by converting rotational motion into thrust for propulsion of an aircraft through the air, by rotating two or more twisted blades about a central shaft, in a manner analogous to rotating a screw through a solid. The blades of a propeller act as rotating wings (the blades of a propeller are in fact wings or airfoils), and produce force through application of both Bernoulli's principle and Newton's third law, generating a difference in pressure between the forward and rear surfaces of the airfoil-shaped blades and by accelerating a mass of air rearward. (Full article...)

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Wernher von Braun and Saturn V rocket
Wernher von Braun and Saturn V rocket
A portrait of Wernher von Braun standing in front of the cluster of F-1 rocket engines on the base of the first stage of a Saturn V launch vehicle. Von Braun had a lifelong aspiration to fly to the moon. A pioneer of rocket development, in the Second World War von Braun led the German development of the V-2 rocket at Peenemünde. Along with his team of engineers, he surrendered to the American forces in the closing stages of the war, then helped to establish the military rocket program in the United States. In 1958 he transferred to the newly established NASA program, developing the Saturn V rocket that successfully delivered a man to the moon in 1969.

Did you know

...that the Brimstone missile, an anti-tank guided missile, is carried by three Royal Air Force aeroplane types? ...that No. 112 Squadron RAF was the first unit from any air force to use the "Shark Mouth" logo on P-40 fighter planes? ... that before he flew the Spirit of St. Louis on his historic transatlantic flight, Charles Lindbergh's first choice of aircraft was the Ryan M-2?

More Did you know facts

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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

Amy Johnson (1 July 1903 – 5 January 1941) C.B.E. was a pioneering British aviatrix.

Born in Kingston upon Hull, Johnson graduated from University of Sheffield with a Bachelor of Arts in economics. She was introduced to flying as a hobby, gaining a pilot's A Licence No. 1979 on 6 July 1929 at the London Aeroplane Club. In that same year, she became the first British woman to gain a ground engineer's C License.

Johnson achieved worldwide recognition when, in 1930, she became the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia. She left Croydon on 5 May of that year and landed in Darwin, Australia on 24 May after flying 11,000 miles. Her aircraft for this flight, a De Havilland Gipsy Moth (registration G-AAAH) named Jason, can still be seen in the Science Museum in London. She received the Harmon Trophy as well as a CBE in homage to this achievement, and was also honoured with the No. 1 civil pilot's licence under Australia's 1921 Air Navigation Regulations.

In July 1931, Johnson and her co-pilot Jack Humphreys became the first pilots to fly from London to Moscow in one day, completing the 1,760-mile journey in approximately 21 hours. From there, they continued across Siberia and on to Tokyo, setting a record time for flying from England to Japan. The flight was completed in a De Havilland Puss Moth.

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

January 19

  • 2013 – The Syrian Air Force strikes a mosque and a school building sheltering Syrian refugees in Salqin, Syria, killing and wounding dozens.[3]
  • 2013 – Two American unmanned aerial vehicle strikes during the evening kill a total of eight people in Yemen' Ma'rib province, including at least two members of al-Qaeda.[4]
  • 2006 – Launch of New Horizons, NASA robotic spacecraft mission to the dwarf planet Pluto. It is expected to be the first spacecraft to fly by and study Pluto and its moons, Charon, Nix, and Hydra. NASA may also attempt flybys of one or more other Kuiper belt objects.
  • 2006 – A Slovak Air Force Antonov An-24 carrying peace-keepers from Kosovo crashes near Telkibánya, Hungary. Of the 43 people on board, only one survived.
  • 1995 – Bristow Flight 56C, a Eurocopter Super Puma, is struck by lightning and is forced to make an emergency landing in the North Sea; all 18 on board survive.
  • 1995 – Rockwell-MBB X-31, BuNo 164584, first of two testbed airframes, crashes on 67th flight, north of Edwards AFB, California. German Federal Ministry of Defense test pilot Karl-Heinz Lang, assigned to the X-31 International Test Organization (ITO), ejects safely at 18,000 feet. He is taken to hospital for examination, a fire department spokesman said.[314][315] Footage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWcBcxvZfMc
  • 1993 – STS-54, space shuttle Endeavour is back on earth.
  • 1991 – The second Rockwell X-31 enhanced fighter makes its first flight.
  • 1991 – Two Coalition aircraft are shot down, both by Iraqi ground fire. The Iraqi Air Force loses five aircraft in air-to-air combat, all shot down by U. S. Air Force F-15 C Eagle fighters employing AIM-7 Sparrow air-to-air missiles.
  • 1991 – Death of Paul F. Bikle, American Engineer, Record setting glider pilot and Director of the NASA Dryden Flight Research Facility.
  • 1989 – American Airlines purchases the Central and South American routes owned by struggling Eastern Air Lines.
  • 1983 – Death of Ham, also known as Ham the Chimp and Ham the Astrochimp, first chimpanzee launched into outer space in the American space program.
  • 1975 – Death of Antonio Reali, Italian WWI fighter ace.
  • 1972 – Flying a United States Navy F-4 J Phantom II fighter of Fighter Squadron 96 (VF-96) off of USS Constellation (CVA-64), Lieutenants Randy “Duke” Cunningham (pilot) and William “Irish” Driscoll (radar intercept officer) shoot down a North Vietnamese MiG fighter. It is the first air-to-air victory by an American aircraft over Vietnam since March 1970.
  • 1968 – Death of Gaetano Arturo Crocco, Italian scientist and aeronautics pioneer, founder of the Italian Rocket Society.
  • 1965 – Suborbital flight of Gemini 2, US unmanned mission intended as a test flight for the Gemini spacecraft's heat shield.
  • 1961 – Boeing B-52B-35-BO Stratofortress, 53-0390, c/n 16869, of the 95th Bomb Wing, Biggs AFB, Texas, crashes in Utah after failure of tail section in turbulence-induced accident.
  • 1960 – First flight of the Convair CV-580 Super Convair.
  • 1960 – Scandinavian Airlines System Flight 871, a Sud Aviation Caravelle, crashes while on approach to Esenboğa International Airport, killing all 42 on board; an undetermined descent was to blame for the first fatal crash of the Sud Caravelle.
  • 1950 – First flight of the Avro Canada CF-100 Canuck (affectionately known as the "Clunk") RCAF 18101 in Malton by Canadian test pilot Bill Waterton.
  • 1949 – First flight of Martin XSSM-A-1 Matador test vehicle, from White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, ends in crash.
  • 1949 – First flight of the Fouga CM.100, French high-wing cantilever monoplane of conventional configuration with fixed tricycle undercarriage airliner prototype, issued from the Glider assault CM.10 by adding two SNECMA 12 S piston engines.
  • 1948 – First Vampires were taken on strength by RCAF.
  • 1946 – First Flight of the Bell X-1. Originally designated XS-1, joint NACA-U. S. Army/USAF supersonic research project, first of the so-called X-planes.
  • 1944 – Allied heavy and medium bombers strike Viterbo, Rieti, and Perugia, Italy. The Allied air forces claim that their air campaign has cut all communications between northern Italy and the Rome area, although this does not turn out to be true.
  • 1941 – German aircraft again attack the Malta dockyard, causing underwater damage to HMS Illustrious.
  • 1939 – Yugoslav Rogožarski IK-3 prototype, piloted by Capt. Milan Pokorni, fails to recover from terminal velocity dive out of Zemun airfield, destroying airframe. Subsequent investigation exonerates the design and production order for twelve placed.
  • 1937 – Flying a redesigned H-1 Racer featuring extended wings, Howard Hughes set a new transcontinental airspeed record by flying non-stop from Los Angeles to New York City in 7 hours, 28 min and 25 seconds (beating his own previous record of 9 hours, 27 min). His average speed over the flight was 322 miles per hour (518 km/h).
  • 1926 – Death of Leopoldo Eleuteri, Italian WWI flying ace.
  • 1923 – The De Bothezat helicopter lifted 2 persons to a height of 1.2 metres (3 ft 11 in).
  • 1919 – Jules Védrines claims an FF25,000 prize by landing an aircraft (a Caudron G-3) on the roof of a department store in Paris. Védrines is injured and his aircraft is damaged beyond repair in the hard landing in a space only 28 metres (92 ft) x 12 metres (39 ft).
  • 1918 – Birth of Tadeusz Góra, Polish glider pilot and WWII pilot.
  • 1915 – Birth of Ennio "Banana" Tarantola, Spanish War and WWII Italian fighter ace.
  • 1910 – Lieutenant Paul Ward Beck drops sandbag "bombs" over Los Angeles from an aeroplane piloted by Louis Paulhan.
  • 1908 – The world’s first official aerodrome, Port-Aviation, is opened outside of Paris, France.
  • 1899 – Birth of George Ebben Randall, British WWI Flying ace.
  • 1898 – Birth of Basil Henry Moody, South African WWI Flying ace.
  • 1898 – Birth of Carl-August von Schoenebeck, German WWI flying ace, Raid pilot, Arado test pilot and WWII high-ranking officer.
  • 1895 – Birth of Air Marshal Sir Arthur "Mary" Coningham KCB, KBE, DSO, MC, DFC, AFC, RAF, Royal Flying Corps flying ace during WWI, Conningham was later a senior Royal Air Force commander during WWII, as Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief 2nd Tactical Air Force and subsequently the Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Flying Training Command.
  • 1895 – Birth of Ivan Alexandrovich Orlov, Russian WWI flying ace, Self Glider and Aircraft designer.
  • 1893 – Birth of Maurice Joseph Emile Robert, French WWI flying ace.
  • 1888 – Birth of Millard Fillmore Harmon Jr. American WWI pilot and Lieutenant General in the USAAF during the Pacific campaign in WWII.
  • 1883 – Birth of James McKinley Hargreaves, Scottish WWI flying ace, One of the first Aces in history.
  • 1784 – One of the largest hot-air balloon ever made, called 'Le Flesselle' by the Montgolfier brothers, makes an ascent at Lyon, France. The balloon's capacity is 700,000 cubic feet and it goes up to 3,000 feet.

References

  1. ^ Yenne 2003), pp. 281–283.
  2. ^ Milberry 1979, p. 137.
  3. ^ Mrouse, Bassem, "Syrian FM calls on rebels to disarm and negotiate," Associated Press, January 19, 2013.
  4. ^ Al-Haj, Ahmed, "Yemen Drone Strikes: Suspected U.S. Attack Kills At Least 8," The Huffington Post, January 19, 2013, 6:25 p.m. EST.
  5. ^ "Accident: PSA Airlines CRJ2 at Charleston on January 19th 2010, overran runway on takeoff". The Aviation Herald. Retrieved 20 January 2010.
  6. ^ "Accident: BinAir SW4 at Stuttgart on January 19th 2010, right main gear collapsed on landing". The Aviation Herald. Retrieved 20 January 2010.
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