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Aviation, or air transport, refers to the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. Aircraft includes fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, parachutes, as well as lighter-than-air craft such as 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; then a largest 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 with the introduction of the jet which permitted a major form of transport throughout the world.

One of the many innovations of World War I, aircraft were first used for reconnaissance purposes and later as fighters and bombers. Consequently, this was the first war which involved a struggle for control of the air, which turned it into another battlefield, alongside the battlefields of land and sea.

Credit: Bain News Service

Aviator Hélène Dutrieu seated in her airplane.

Template:/box-header ...that the Soviet spotter aircraft Sukhoi Su-12, though approved, was never produced due to lack of manufacturing capacity in the USSR?

...that the Blohm und Voss Bv 144 was an attempt by Nazi Germany to develop an advanced commercial airliner for post-war service?

... that the collection of the Prague Aviation Museum, Kbely includes 275 aircraft, of which approximately 110 are on public display? Template:/box-footer

File:Lufthansa A340-600 D-AIHF.jpg

The Airbus A340 is a long-range four-engined widebody commercial passenger airplane manufactured by Airbus. The latest variants (-600 & A340E) now compete with Boeing's 777 series of aircraft on long-haul and ultra long-haul routes.

The A340-600 flies 380 passengers in a three-class cabin layout (419 in 2 class) over 7,500 nautical miles (13,900 km). It provides similar passenger capacity to a 747 but with twice the cargo volume, and at lower trip and seat costs.

The A340-600 is more than 10 m longer than a basic -300, making it the longest airliner in the world, more than four meters longer than a Boeing 747-400.

• Span: 63.45 m (208 ft 2 in)
• Length: 75.30 m n(246 ft 11 in)
• Height: 17.30 m (56 ft 9 in)
• Engines: four 56,000 lbf (249 kN) thrust Rolls-Royce Trent 556 turbofans
• Cruising Speed: Mach 0.83 (885 km/h, 550 mph)
• First Flight: October 25, 1991

Infrastructure		Transport		US Air Force		Royal Air Force

Elizabeth Muriel Gregory "Elsie" MacGill (27 March 1905 – 4 November 1980), known as the Queen of the Hurricanes, was the world's first female aircraft designer. She worked as an aeronautical engineer during the Second World War and did much to make Canada a powerhouse of airplane construction during her years at Canada Car and Foundry (CC&F) in Fort William, Ontario. After her work at CC&F she ran a successful consulting business. Between 1967–1970 she was a commissioner on the Royal Commission on the Status of Women in Canada, published in 1970.

Wikinews Aviation portal

Template:/box-header October 19

• 2004 – Corporate Airlines Flight 5966' a British Aerospace Jetstream, crashes near Kirksville, Missouri in the United States; 13 of the 15 people on board die.

• 1992 – A Panavia Tornado crashes in the evening on the Nellis AFB, Nevada range, 100 miles NE of Las Vegas, during Red Flag combat exercises, killing two crew from the Italian Air Force.

• 1988 – Indian Airlines Flight 113, a Boeing 737, hits an electric mast 5 miles (8 kilometers) out on approach in poor visibility in Ahmedabad, India. All six crew members and 124 of 129 passengers are killed.

• 1986 – República de Moçambique Tupolev Tu-134A-3, C9-CAA, c/n 63457, with crew of nine and 35 passengers, crashes on approach at 2121 hrs. to Maputo International Airport (MPM/FQMA), Mozambique after flight from Mbala Airport (MMQ), Zambia, killing eight crew and 26 passengers, including Mozambique President Samora Machel who had attended a meeting of African leaders in Zambia. While approaching Maputo, an inadvertent selection of the MATSAPA VOR frequency caused the crew to execute a premature 37-degrees turn. Although the pilot queried the turn, no effort was made to verify it by using the available navigational aids. The aircraft descended below the 3000 feet limit in spite of not having visual contact with Maputo. The crew erroneously assumed a power failure at Maputo. A 32-second GPWS warning was ignored and the aircraft collided with the ground at 2187 feet, bounced and crashed into an uphill slope. The aircraft broke up, slid across the South African/Swaziland border and caught fire.

• 1978 – A USAF Boeing B-52D-75-BO Stratofortress, 56-0594, of the 22d Bomb Wing, crashes at 0730 hrs. in light fog in a plowed field ~2.5 miles SE of March AFB, near the rural community of Sunnymead, California, shortly after take-off. Five crew killed, but one is able to escape the burning wreckage and was reported in stable condition at the base hospital. Traffic was disrupted on nearby Interstate 15E.

• 1977 – Concorde made its first landing in New York City and for New Yorkers, it was love at 1st sight!

• 1972 – A USAF Convair F-106B-55-CO Delta Dart, 57-2538, c/n 8-27-32, of the Air Defense Weapons Center, Tyndall AFB, Florida, is lost in a crash, pilot KWF. This second accident in three days will be the last fatal Tyndall accident until the loss of a Lockheed T-33A on 30 May 1975.

• 1971 – Grumman Grumman E-2B Hawkeye and LTV A-7B Corsair II, both from the USS Midway, CVA-41, collide over the Sea of Japan, with E-2 crashing near the stern of the carrier, all five crew lost. A-7 pilot ejected safely, picked up by helicopter from MCAS Iwakuni in good condition.

• 1970 – Hindustan Aeronautics completes its first licence-built MiG-21

• 1968 – USAF test pilot Major William “Pete” Knight wins the Harmon international aviator’s trophy for “exceptional individual piloting performance”.

• 1965 – The U. S. Army’s month-long Ia Drang Valley campaign begins in South Vietnam. It will be the first combat action of the U. S. Army’s first Cavalry Division (Airmobile) and the first major combat between American and North Vietnamese forces.

• 1965 – Second (of five) Ling-Temco-Vought XC-142As, 62-5922, suffers second accident when the number one main propeller pitch actuator suffers a hydraulic fluid blow-by problem just prior to touchdown at the Vought facility at NAS Dallas, Texas. A ground loop results with substantial damage to the landing gear and wing. In 1966 the damaged wing is replaced with an undamaged unit from XC-142A No. 3, 62-5923, out-of-service since its own landing accident on 3 January 1966. 62-5922 returns to flight status on 23 July 1966.

• 1965 – (19-25) U. S. Army attack helicopters and U. S. Air Force cargo aircraft play a major role in lefting the Siege of Plei Me in South Vietnam.

• 1964 – First flight of the Agusta A.101

• 1958 – A People’s Republic of China-owned Tupolev Tu-104 crashes at Kanash during a regular flight between Beijing and Moscow, killing all 65 passengers and crew members. Among those killed are 16 Chinese government officials, one Briton, four East Germans and the son of the Cambodian ambassador to China.

• 1954 – First flying prototype Grumman XF9F-9 Tiger, BuNo 138604, suffers flame-out, the pilot, Lt. Cdr. W. H. Livingston, was able to put it down on the edge of a wood near the Grumman company runway at Bethpage, Long Island, New York, escaping with minor injuries. Airframe written-off. Production models will be redesignated F11F.

• 1948 – Royal Navy Grumman Avenger III, KE443, 'FD 068', of 703 Squadron, shorebased at Ford, Sussex, noses over on landing aboard HMS Illustrious. Airframe is not repaired and ends up on fire dump at Gosport, Hampshire, surviving until at least mid-1950.

• 1945 – No. 168 (HT) Squadron flew Canadian Red Cross medical supplies from Rockcliffe Airport to Poland. One Boeing Fortress crashed at Munster, Germany, during the operation, killing the five crew members.

• 1944 – In a meeting at Mabalacat on Luzon, the newly arrived commander of the Imperial Japanese Navy’s First Air Fleet, Vice Admiral Takijiro Ohnishi, commanding Japanese naval air forces in the Philippine Islands, observes that ordinary air tactics have become ineffective against the U. S. Navy and suggests the formation of a special attack unit to crash Zero fighters carrying 250-kg (551-lb) bombs bodily onto American warships. It is the beginning of the formation of kamikaze suicide units.

• 1944 – In the second and final day of Operation Millet, the British aircraft carriers HMS Indomitable and HMS Victorious again launch heavy strikes against Nancowry harbor and the airfields on Car Nicobar. In a dogfight with Japanese Nakajima Ki-43 (Allied reporting name “Oscar”) fighters, the British shoot down seven Ki-43 s in exchange for a Hellcat and two Corsairs.

• 1943 – The RCAF’s worst accident killed 24 servicemen travelling on leave from Newfoundland to Montreal. The aircraft was a Liberator from No. 10 B. R. Squadron.

• 1933 – Fokker Y1O-27, 31-601, '22', of the 32d Bombardment Squadron, Rockwell Field, California, during ferry flight from Rockwell to Brooks Field, Texas, pilot Capt. Albert F. Hegenberger, on leg between Tucson, Arizona and Midland, Texas, loses Prestone coolant out of starboard engine, engine temperature rises so he shuts it down. Forced down five miles short of Midland Airport, pilot does not get the landing gear completely locked down, collapses on touch down. Aircraft repaired.

• 1932 – First flight of the Mitsubishi 3MT5

• 1931 – Sole Lockheed-Detroit YP-24, 32-320, crashes during tests at Wright Field, Ohio. During evaluation flight, landing gear extension system fails with gear only partly deployed when in-cockpit crank handle breaks off. Through a series of violent maneuvers, test pilot Lt. Harrison Crocker managed to get the gear retracted and was planning to attempt a belly-landing, but upon orders from the ground, sent aloft written on the sides of Boeing P-12D And Douglas O-25C aircraft, he bails out. Four Y1P-24 pre-production models cancelled due to Detroit Aircraft's shaky financial situation. Two will be built as Consolidated Y1P-25s after Detroit's chief designer Robert Wood joins that firm. Second Y1P-25 completed with a supercharger as Y1A-11.

• 1917 – Love Field in Dallas, Texas is opened.

• 1917 – Imperial German Navy Zeppelin LZ50 L 16, damaged beyond repair in a forced landing near Brunsbüttel.

• 1911 – Eugene Ely dies in an aircrash.

• 1911 – Aviation pioneer Bob Fowler flies from San Franscisco to Jacksonville, Florida. The west to east coast-to-coast journey has taken almost four months to complete (Arrival Date Feb 12, 1912).

• 1908 – First flight of the Antoinette IV

• 1901 – Alberto Santos-Dumont flies his dirigible Number 6 around the Eiffel Tower to collect a FF100,000 prize.

References

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