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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

A Ryanair Boeing 737 on the landing roll at Bristol Airport
A Ryanair Boeing 737 on the landing roll at Bristol Airport
Ryanair is an airline based in Ireland. It is Europe's largest low-cost carrier, operating 209 low-fare routes to 94 destinations across 17 European countries. Over the years it has evolved into the world's most profitable airline, running at remarkable margins by relentlessly driving costs down. Ryanair has been characterised by rapid and continuing expansion, enabled by the deregulation of the air industry in Europe in 1997. It operates a fleet of 74 Boeing 737s, and currently has firm orders for an additional 225 Boeing 737-800 airplanes by 2010, with options on a further 193. Ryanair is one of Europe's most controversial companies, praised and criticised in equal measure. Its supporters praise its commitment to exceptionally low fares, its radical management, its populism, and its willingness to challenge what Ryanair calls the 'establishment' within the airline industry. Critics, meanwhile, have attacked its labor union policies, and have charged that it practises deceptive advertising. (Full article...)

Selected image

Kittinger's record-breaking skydive from Excelsior III
Kittinger's record-breaking skydive from Excelsior III
Captain Joseph Kittinger steps from a balloon-supported gondola at the altitude of 102,800 feet (31.3 km), or almost 20 miles on August 16, 1960, as part of Project Excelsior, a series of high-altitude parachute jumps, testing a system that would allow a safe controlled descent after a high-altitude aircraft ejection. In freefall for 4.5 minutes at speeds up to 625 mph (1,005 km/h) and temperatures as low as −94°F (−70°C), he opened his parachute at 17,500 feet (5.3 km). The whole descent took 13 minutes and 45 seconds. This is the current world record for the highest parachute jump and was the longest freefall until Adrian Nicholas broke the record in 1998 with a wingsuit skydive lasting 4 minutes 55 seconds.

Did you know

...that George H. W. Bush flew a TBF Avenger while he was in the U.S. Navy? ...that passengers aboard JetBlue Airways Flight 292 were able to watch their own malfunctioning aircraft circle Los Angeles International Airport on the satellite television screens at each seat until the flight crew disabled the system in preparation for the aircraft's successful emergency landing? ...that the Pterodactyl Ascender (pictured) has been one of the most influential designs in ultralight aviation?

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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Selected biography

AIR VICE-MARSHAL GEORGE JONES
Air Marshal Sir George Jones KBE, CB, DFC (18 October 1896 – 24 August 1992) was a senior commander in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). He rose from being a private soldier in World War I to Air Marshal in 1948. He served as Chief of the Air Staff from 1942 to 1952, the longest continuous tenure of any RAAF chief. Jones was a surprise appointee to the Air Force’s top role, and his achievements in the position were coloured by a divisive relationship during World War II with his head of operations and nominal subordinate, Air Vice Marshal William Bostock.

Jones first saw action as an infantryman in the Gallipoli campaign of 1915, before transferring to the Australian Flying Corps the following year. Initially an air mechanic, he undertook flying training in 1917 and was posted to a fighter squadron in France, achieving seven victories to become an ace. After a short spell in civilian life following World War I, he joined the newly-formed RAAF in 1921, rising steadily through training and personnel commands prior to World War II.

He did not actively seek the position of Chief of the Air Staff before being appointed in 1942, and his conflict with Bostock—with whom he had been friends for 20 years—was partly the result of a divided command structure, which neither man had any direct role in shaping. After World War II Jones had overall responsibility for transforming what was then the world's fourth largest air force into a peacetime service that was also able to meet overseas commitments in Malaya and Korea. Following his retirement from the RAAF he continued to serve in the aircraft industry and later ran unsuccessfully for political office.

Selected Aircraft

[[File:|right|250px|The two YC-130 prototypes; the blunt nose was replaced with radar on later production models.]] The Lockheed C-130 Hercules is a four-engine turboprop cargo aircraft and the main tactical airlifter for many military forces worldwide. Over 40 models and variants of the Hercules serve with more than 50 nations. On December 2006 the C-130 was the third aircraft (after the English Electric Canberra in May 2001 and the B-52 Stratofortress in January 2005) to mark 50 years of continuous use with its original primary customer (in this case the United States Air Force).

Capable of short takeoffs and landings from unprepared runways, the C-130 was originally designed as a troop, medical evacuation and cargo transport aircraft. The versatile airframe has found uses in a variety of other roles, including as a gunship, and for airborne assault, search and rescue, scientific research support, weather reconnaissance, aerial refuelling and aerial firefighting. The Hercules family has the longest continuous production run of any military aircraft in history. During more than 50 years of service the family has participated in military, civilian and humanitarian aid operations.

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Today in Aviation

February 19

  • 2003 – 2003 Iran Ilyushin Il-76 crash; an Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Ilyushin Il-76MD, 15-2280, c/n 0063471155, formerly registered YI-AND, crashes into a mountain in poor weather near Shahdad, Iran. All 18 crew and 284 passengers on board were killed.
  • 2002 – First flight of the Embraer E-170, a Brazilian narrow-body, twin-engine, medium-range, jet airliner.
  • 2002 – NASA’s Mars Odyssey space probe begins to map the surface of Mars using its thermal emission imaging system.
  • 1991 – Iraqi antiaircraft artillery shoots down a U. S. Air Force OA-10 A Thunderbolt II airborne forward air control aircraft over Kuwait.
  • 1990 – First flight of the Scaled Composites ARES, an American demonstrator aircraft built by the company Scaled Composites. ARES is an acronym for Agile Responsive Effective Support.
  • 1989 – Flying Tiger Line Flight 66, a Boeing 747-247 F cargo aircraft, crashes near Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, killing the entire crew of four.
  • 1986 – Launch: Mir, a Soviet and later Russian space station.
  • 1985 – China Airlines Flight 006, a Boeing 747SP, suffers an engine flameout off the coast of California and dives 30,000 feet (9,100 m) before regaining control and landing safely in San Francisco.
  • 1985 – Iberia Airlines Flight 610, a Boeing 727, crashed into a television antenna installed on the summit of Monte Oiz while landing in Bilbao, Spain. All 141 passengers and 7 crew died in the crash.
  • 1978 – Egyptian forces raid Larnaca International Airport in an attempt to intervene in a hijacking, without authorization from the Republic of Cyprus authorities. The Cypriot National Guard and Police forces kill 15 Egyptian commandos and destroy the Egyptian C-130 transport plane in open combat.
  • 1977 – Death of George Montague Cox, British WWI flying ace.
  • 1972 – Lockheed C-130E Hercules 62-1813, c.n. 3775, of the 16th Tactical Airlift Training Squadron, mid-air collision with Cessna T-37 from Biggs AFB, Texas, 6 km NE of Little Rock, Arkansas – four killed on Hercules. Two Tweet pilots eject safely.
  • 1965 – U. S. Air Force B-57 Canberra bombers become the first American aircraft to provide direct support to South Vietnamese Army ground units in combat.
  • 1965 – First flight of the Cessna 188, an American light agricultural aircraft.
  • 1964 – French troops are airlifted to Gabon to put down a coup by the army.
  • 1959 – Last flight of Arrow 201 and the end of the Arrow Program which was ended the next day.
  • 1956 – Birth of George David Low, American aerospace executive and NASA astronaut.
  • 1955 – TWA Flight 260, a Martin 4-0-4, crashes into the Sandia Mountains near Albuquerque, New Mexico, killing all 16 on board.
  • 1952 – Rodolfo Neri Vela, Mexican astronaut, was born. Vela became the first Mexican to fly in space when he was a Payload Specialist aboard the STS-61-B Atlantis mission, from November 26 to December 3, 1985.
  • 1952 – A Fairey Firefly of 816 Squadron RAN goes missing, and is believed to have crashed into the sea near Moruya, New South Wales. Lieutenant Brian Wall and Sub Lieutenant Douglas Saunders are both lost.
  • 1948 – Birth of Byron Kurt Lichtenberg, Sc. D., American engineer, fighter pilot and Nasa Astronaut.
  • 1945 – U. S. Marine Corps forces invade Iwo Jima, beginning the Iwo Jima campaign
  • 1944 – (19–20) In support of a U. S. Army offensive at the Anzio beachhead, Allied tactical aircraft drop 972 tons (881,793 kg) of bombs, and Allied strategic bombers attack Grottaferrata, Albano Laziale, Genzano di Roma, and Velletri, Italy.
  • 1943 – Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Ernest J. King places the responsibility for the development of the helicopter in the United States Department of the Navy under the United States Coast Guard.
  • 1942 – “Pearl Harbor of Australia”, largest attack ever mounted by a foreign power against Australia. Nearly 250 Japanese warplanes attack the northern Australian city of Darwin killing 243 people.
  • 1936 – Death of William Lendrum “Billy” Mitchell, US Army general who is regarded as the father of the U. S. Air Force.
  • 1936 – Death of Malcolm Charles McGregor, New Zealand WWI flying ace, Aviation Pioneer and air racer, director of Union Airlines of New Zealand, Killed in a crash at the Wellington airport whilst trying to land during a gale.
  • 1934 – First flight of the Supermarine Type 224, a British prototype fighter, open-cockpit monoplane with bulky gull-wings and a large fixed, spatted undercarriage issued from Supermarine seaplane racers.
  • 1934 – The Douglas DC-1 makes record coast-to-coast flight, Los Angeles to Newark, N. J., 13 hours, 4 min.
  • 1932 – Birth of Joseph Peter Kerwin, M. D., American physician and former NASA astronaut.
  • 1930 – Ralph O’Neil starts the first mail service of America airline New York, Rio and Buenos Aires Line (NYRBA) between Buenos Aires and New York. He takes off for the inaugural flight with a Sikorsky S-38 From Buenos Aires to Miami.
  • 1919 – Death of Arthur Frederick Britton, British WWI flying ace.
  • 1918 – The Dornier Rs.III, German large four-engined monoplane flying boat set off for 7-hour non-stop delivery flight from Friedrichshafen to Norderney.
  • 1917 – First recorded casualty evacuation flight is carried out by the Royal Flying Corps (RFC), when a wounded trooper of the Imperial Camel Corps is flown from Bir-el-Hassana in the Sinai Desert to the airfield at Kilo 143 in an Royal Flying Corps aircraft. This would have been a three-day journey by the available surface transport, but the flight took 45 min.
  • 1916 – Death of Ernst Mach, Austrian physicist and philosopher, noted for his contributions to physics such as the Mach number and the study of shock waves.
  • 1912 – One of the most successful pre-World War I airship operations begins with the first flight of the Zeppelin LZ II, Victoria Louise, and its introduction into service with the German airship company DELAG.
  • 1906 – Birth of Louis Massotte, French aviator, Blériot chief pilot and record setter.
  • 1901 – Birth of John Nelson Boothman KCB KBE DFC AFC RAF, WWII Royal Air Force officer and Schneider trophy winner.
  • 1899 – Birth of Cecil Frederick King, British WWI fighter ace.
  • 1897 – Birth of John Geoffrey Sadler Candy, British WWI flying ace who also served during WWII.
  • 1891 – Birth of Auguste Joseph Marie Lahoulle, French WWI flying ace, WWII French Air force high-ranking officer.

References

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


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