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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

Flight 11 flightpath
Flight 11 flightpath
American Airlines Flight 11 was a scheduled U.S. domestic passenger flight from Logan International Airport in Boston, Massachusetts, to Los Angeles International Airport. It was hijacked by five men and deliberately crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City as part of the September 11, 2001, attacks. Fifteen minutes into the flight, the hijackers injured at least three people, forcefully breached the cockpit, and overpowered the pilot and first officer. Mohamed Atta, who was a known member of al-Qaeda, and trained as a pilot, took over the controls. Air traffic controllers noticed the flight was in distress when the crew stopped responding to them. They realized the flight had been hijacked when Atta mistakenly transmitted announcements to air traffic control. On board, two flight attendants contacted American Airlines, and provided information about the hijackers and injuries to passengers and crew.

The aircraft crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center at 08:46 local time; the impact killed all 92 people aboard, including the hijackers. Many people in the streets witnessed the collision, and Jules Naudet captured the impact on video. News agencies began to report on the incident soon after and speculated that the crash had been an accident. The impact and subsequent fire caused the North Tower to collapse, which resulted in thousands of additional casualties. During the recovery effort at the World Trade Center site, workers recovered and identified dozens of remains from Flight 11 victims, but many other body fragments could not be identified. (Full article...)

Selected image

Credit: U.S. Navy photo by Chief Petty Officer Joe Kane
Crew members refuel an A V-22 Osprey before a night mission in central Iraq, Feb. 2, 2008.

Did you know

...that the mysterious objects known as Black Triangles may actually be hybrid airships? ...that the Alexander Aircraft Company, which produced Eaglerock biplanes in Colorado, was the largest aircraft manufacturer in the world for a brief period between 1928 and 1929? ...that a Cambridge University society has launched high altitude balloons that have taken a picture of the earth's curvature from a height of 32 km?

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

Billy Mitchell (1879–1936) was an early aviation pioneer who rose to become a chief of the U.S. Army Air Service. Mitchell was born in Nice, France and raised on his family estate near Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He attended George Washington University before enlisting in the Army at age 18 during the Spanish–American War. Due to his family connection he quickly received a commission Signal Corps where he had the opportunity to witness a flight demonstration by the Wright brothers in 1908. In 1916 he took private flight lessons and was transferred to the Aeronautical Division.

Mitchell deployed to France in 1917 when the United States entered World War I. While there he was promoted to brigadier general and placed in command American combat air units in France. After the war Mitchell was appointed the deputy director of the Air Service became a passionate advocate of air power. In 1921 he set up a demonstration to show the capability of airpower against naval vessels. During the course of the demonstrations aircraft successfully sank a captured German destroyer, the light crusier Frankfurt, and the battleship Ostfriesland.

Mitchell regularly sparred with his superiors over the role of airpower in the military. In 1925 he was reverted to his permanent rank of colonel and was transferred to San Antonio, Texas. Later that year, after a series of aviation accidents he accused Army and Navy leadership of incompetence and "almost treasonable administration of the national defense." In response he was court-martialed for insubordination, found guilty, and sentenced to a five-year suspension from active duty. Mitchell resigned on 1 February 1926 in lieu of serving the sentence. He continued to advocate airpower as a civilian until his death in 1936. In 1942 President Franklin Roosevelt posthumously promoted Mitchell to major general in recognition of his contributions to air power.

Selected Aircraft

Douglas Dakota DC-3 (G-ANAF) of the Air Atlantique Historic Flight.
Douglas Dakota DC-3 (G-ANAF) of the Air Atlantique Historic Flight.

The Douglas DC-3 is a fixed-wing, propeller-driven aircraft which revolutionized air transport in the 1930s and 1940s, and is generally regarded as one of the most significant transport aircraft ever made.

The DC-3 was engineered by a team led by chief engineer Arthur E. Raymond and first flew on December 17, 1935 (the 32nd. anniversary of the Wright Brothers flight at Kitty Hawk). The plane was the result of a marathon phone call from American Airlines CEO C.R. Smith demanding improvements in the design of the DC-2. The amenities of the DC-3 (including sleeping berths on early models and an in-flight kitchen) popularized air travel in the United States. With just one refuelling stop, transcontinental flights across America became possible. Before the DC-3, such a trip would entail short hops in commuter aircraft during the day coupled with train travel overnight.

During World War II, many civilian DC-3s were drafted for the war effort and thousands of military versions of the DC-3 were built under the designations C-47, C-53, R4D, and Dakota. The armed forces of many countries used the DC-3 and its military variants for the transport of troops, cargo and wounded. Over 10,000 aircraft were produced (some as licensed copies in Japan as Showa L2D, and in the USSR as the Lisunov Li-2).

  • Span: 95 ft (28.96 m)
  • Length: 64 ft 5 in (19.65 m)
  • Height: 16 ft 11 in (5.16 m)
  • Engines: 2× Pratt & Whitney Twin Wasp S1C3G 14-cylinder radial engines, 1,200 hp (895 kW) or Wright Cyclone
  • Cruising Speed: 170 mph (274 km/h)
  • First Flight:December 17, 1935
  • Number built: 13,140 (including license built types)

Today in Aviation

July 5

  • 2009 – SU-TYB, an Antonov An-28 operated by El Dinder Aviation, is damaged beyond repair when the nosewheel collapses on landing at Saraf Omra Airfield, Sudan.
  • 2009 – ZK-LGR, Britten-Norman Trislander operated by Great Barrier Airlines suffers an in-flight propeller disintegration, and débris penetrates the passenger cabin. An emergency landing is made at Great Barrier Aerodrome, New Zealand. No injuries are reported among the 11 people on board. The aircraft is substantially damaged.
  • 2007 – Two people have been killed and seven others injured following a plane crash in Indreabhán in Connemara, Galway.
  • 2007 – Unofficial reports indicate that at least nine people died as a result of a plane crash next to the airport of Culiacán in Mexico.
  • 2006 – North Korean missile test, 2006: North Korea tests four short-range missiles, one medium-range missile, and a long-range Taepodong-2. The long-range Taepodong-2 reportedly fails in mid-air over the Sea of Japan.
  • 1982 – An Italian Army Agusta-Bell 205 crashed in the Val Ridanna, pilot killed.
  • 1979 – French aviation pioneer and aircraft manufacturer Emile Dewoitine died at the age of 87.
  • 1970 – Air Canada Flight 621, a Douglas DC-8, explodes following a failed landing at Toronto Pearson International Airport, with 109 fatalities.
  • 1969 – First flight of the Shenyang J-8, high-speed, high-altitude Chinese-built single-seat interceptor fighter aircraft.
  • 1955 – Sole prototype Supermarine Type 529, VX136, crashes while flying out of Boscombe Down, this date. Aircraft entered a spin at 10,000 ft which deteriorated into a flat spin from which the pilot, Lt. Cdr. Rickell, could not recover. Late ejection due to problems with jettisoning the canopy and operating the ejector seat - the seat did not have time to separate, nor did the parachute have time to fully deploy - Pilot killed on impact with the ground. The aircraft was completely destroyed.
  • 1945 – First prototype Mikoyan-Gurevich I-250, completed 26 February 1945, suffers failure of port tailplane at low altitude, killing test pilot Alexandr Deyev, when his parachute fails to open in time. Post-crash analysis revealed that he had exceeded the airframe's G limit while maneuvering.
  • 1945 – American Airlines acquires American Export Airlines and forms American Overseas Airlines.
  • 1945 – (5-11) Aircraft from the British aircraft carriers HMS Ameer and HMS Emperor strike Japanese airfields and shipping at Car Nicobar.
  • 1944 – The first U. S. rocket-powered military aircraft, the MX-324, flies at Harper Dry Lake, California. The pilot, Harry Crosby, makes the voyage.
  • 1943 – Death of Leonardo Ferrulli, Italian WWII fighter pilot bailing out too low from his damaged Macchi M. C. 205.
  • 1943 – Death of Franco Lucchini, Spanish War and WWII fighter Ace, shot down by heavy defensive fire of a B-17 formation over Catania.
  • 1942 – An American reconnaissance plane discovers that the Japanese are building an airfield on Guadalcanal.
  • 1940 – The first American paratrooper unit is formed at Fort Benning, Georgia.
  • 1940 – Shore-based Swordfish of the Fleet Air Arm’s No. 813 Squadron make a torpedo strike against Italian ships at Tobruk, sinking a transport and a destroyer, blowing the bow off another destroyer, and damaging an ocean liner.
  • 1939 – First scheduled airmail flight by autogiro from Philadelphia's 30th Street Post Office roof to Camden, New Jersey's Central Airport is made by John M. Miller with a Kellett KD-1 B.
  • 1938 – 400 aircraft support a Spanish Nationalist offensive in Valencia.
  • 1929 – Curtiss-Wright Corporation is formed, result of a merger of 12 companies associated with Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company of Buffalo, New York, and Wright Aeronautical of Dayton, Ohio. The new corporation constructs light aircraft at the Curtiss plant in Buffalo, New York; heavy aircraft and flying boats at its Keystone Aircraft Corporation subsidiary in Bristol, Pennsylvania; civil aircraft at its Curtiss-Robertson subsidiary in St. Louis, Missouri; and Curtiss and Wright aircraft engines at the Wright factory in Paterson, New Jersey.
  • 1928 – Arturo Ferrarin and Carlo Del Prete, Land their Savoia-Marchetti S.64 near Natal, Brazil, coming from Montecelio, Italy after a 49 h 19 m and 7 188 km flight.
  • 1927 – Lady Bailey establishes a new light airplane altitude record of 17,283 feet, in a de Havilland D. H. 60 Moth, at the company’s airfield in Edgeware, Middlesex.
  • 1920 – Dundalk Flying Field, opened in Baltimore, Maryland in 1920, is almost immediately renamed Logan Field when, on this date, Army Lt. Patrick H. Logan is fatally injured after his Nieuport 28, F6506, nicknamed the "Red Devil", of the 104th Observation Squadron, crashes at the airport's inaugural air show following a stall/spin. In response to the tragedy, the airfield is renamed in his honor, with the announcement of the new name being made at the closing ceremonies of the airshow during which he died.
  • 1920 – Camp Borden Ontario was taken over by the CAF from Department of Militia and Defence, to serve as a training centre.
  • 1919 – The first parachute jump by a Canadian from an airplane flying in Canada occurred at Crystal Beach, Ontario on this date.
  • 1919 – A Handley Page V/1500, on an attempt a non-stop Transatlantic flight from Newfoundland to New-York is forced to land in Parrsboro, Nova Scotia for repairs.
  • 1917 – First flight of The Fokker Dr.I Dreidecker, famous WWI German triplane fighter aircraft.
  • 1913 – A seaplane carrier participates in the Royal Navy’s annual maneuvers for the first time, as HMS Hermes embarks two seaplanes, the Short Folder S.64 biplane and a Caudron G.3 amphibian. The Short aircraft is the first with folding wings to be used aboard a ship. The maneuvers, which conclude on October 6, demonstrate both the feasibility of extended operations by aircraft at sea and the value of folding wings.
  • 1912 – Royal Flying Corps (RFC) Captain Eustace Loraine and his observer Staff Sergeant R H V Wilson were flying a Nieuport Monoplane out of Larkhill, Wiltshire, England on a routine morning practice sortie. They were executing a tight turn when the aircraft fell towards the ground and crashed. Wilson was killed outright and although Loraine was speedily transported to Bulford Hospital in a horse-drawn ambulance, he succumbed to his wounds only a few minutes after arriving at the Hospital. Loraine and Wilson were the first Flying Corps personnel to die in an aircraft crash while on duty. Later in the day an order was issued which stated "Flying will continue this evening as usual", thus beginning a British aviation tradition.
  • 1912 – Captain Charles Chandler and Lieutenants Thomas Milling and Henry Arnold are presented with certificates qualifying them as the U. S.’s first “Military Aviators. ”
  • 1910 – Bert Pither is reputed to have flown the first metal-framed aircraft at Riverton, New Zealand.
  • 1874 – Belgian Vincent de Groof is killed in an accident as he tries to do a flight using flapping wings.
  • 1802 – French André-Jacques Garnerin made a balloon ascent with Edward Hawke Locker from Lord's Cricket Ground, traveling the 17 miles from there to Chingford in just over 15 min and carrying a letter of introduction signed by the Prince Regent.

References

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