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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

Ben Gurion International Airport is the largest and busiest international airport in Israel, with about 10.2 million passengers passing through it in 2007. It was known as Wilhelma Airport when it was first founded by the British Mandate of Palestine. It was known as Lod Airport from 1948 until 1973, when the name was changed to honor Israel's first prime minister, David Ben Gurion.

The airport is located near the city of Lod, 15 km (9 mi) southeast of Tel Aviv. It is operated by the Israel Airports Authority, a government-owned corporation that manages all public airports and border crossings in Israel. Ben Gurion Airport is on Highway 1, the main Jerusalem-Tel Aviv Highway, accessible by car or public bus.

Ben Gurion Airport is the hub of El Al, Israir Airlines, Arkia Israel Airlines, and Sun d'Or International Airlines. During the 1980s and 1990s, it was a focus city of the now-defunct Tower Air. Today, Terminal 3 is used for international flights, and Terminal 1 is used for domestic flights. The airport has three runways and is used by commercial, private, and military aircraft.

Ben Gurion Airport is considered to be among the five best airports in the Middle East due to its passenger experience and its high level of security. Security forces such as Israel Police officers, IDF and Israel Border Police soldiers are complemented by airport security guards who operate both in uniform and undercover. The airport has been the target of several terrorist attacks, but no attempt to hijack a plane departing from Ben Gurion airport has succeeded. (Full article...)

Selected image

Convair B-36 with experimental tracked landing gear, to reduce ground pressure for soft-field use.

Did you know

...that during the Winter War, a Swedish fundraising drive paid for the purchase of a Fokker F.VIII airliner for the Finnish Air Force?

...that the Spartan Cruiser (pictured) was originally designed as mail plane and even flew a test flight to Karachi as such, but was then transformed into a passenger airplane in 1932?

... that the loss of nine military crew members and passengers when Buffalo 461 was shot down over Syria in 1974, remains the largest single-incident loss of life in Canadian peacekeeping history?

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

Benjamin Delahauf Foulois (1879-1967) was an early aviation pioneer who rose to become a chief of the U.S. Army Air Corps. The son of a French immigrant, he was born and raised in Connecticut. He enlisted in the Army at age 18 to serve in the Spanish–American War. After just a few month he was separated because of disease he had picked up in Puerto Rico. He re-enlisted in 1899 and was sent to the Philippines where he received a commission as a Second Lieutenant. Foulois believed that the new airplane would replace the cavalry for reconnaissance and in 1908 transferred into the Signal Corps.

Foulois conducted the acceptance test for the Army's first aircraft, a Wright Model A, in 1909. He participated in the Mexican Expedition from 1916–17 and was part of the American Expeditionary Force in France during World War I where he was responsible for the logistics and maintenance of the U.S. air fleet. During World War I he and Billy Mitchell began a long and hostile relationship over the direction of military aviation and the best method to get there. After the war he served as a military attaché to Germany where he gathered a great deal of intelligence on German aviation. He later went on to command the 1st Aero Squadron and ultimately commanded the Air Corps.

He retired in 1935 as part of the fallout from the Air Mail scandal. Foulois continued to advocate for a strong air service in retirement. In 1959, at the invitation of the Chief of Staff of the Air Force, Foulois began touring Air Force bases advocating national security. He died of a heart attack on 25 April 1967 and is buried in his home town of Washington, Connecticut.

Selected Aircraft

The Pregnant Guppy was a large, wide-bodied cargo aircraft built in the USA and used for ferrying outsized cargo items, most notably NASA's components of the Apollo moon program. The Pregnant Guppy was the first of the Guppy line of aircraft produced by Aero Spacelines, Inc. The design also inspired similar designs such as the jet-powered Airbus Beluga, and the Boeing 747 LCF designed to deliver Boeing 787 parts.

  • Span:141 feet, 3 inches.
  • Length: 127 feet.
  • Height: 31 feet, 3 inches.
  • Engines: 4 3500hp P&W R-4360.
  • Cruising Speed: 250 mph
  • First Flight:September 19, 1962
  • Number built: 1
More selected aircraft Read more...

Today in Aviation

July 31

  • 2012 – Due to confusion among air traffic controllers at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington, Virginia, two USAirways commuter jets take off into the path of a third USAirways commuter jet flying in the opposite direction and cleared to land on the same runway. Realizing their error, controllers order the inbound aircraft to take evasive action 12 seconds before it would have collided with the leading outbound jet. There are no injuries among the 192 people on the three aircraft.[2]
  • 2009 – An Indian Air Force HAL HPT-32 Deepak, a propeller-driven primary military trainer, crashes in the Medak district of the Andhra Pradesh state killing the 2 crew.
  • 2007 – An AH-64 Apache goes down after coming under fire in eastern Baghdad. The two crew members were safely extracted.[3][4]
  • 1997 – FedEx Express Flight 14, a McDonnell Douglas MD-11, crashes upon landing at Newark Liberty International Airport; the two crewmembers and three passengers escape uninjured.
  • 1992 – Launch: Space Shuttle Atlantis STS-46 at 9:56:48 am EDT. Mission highlights: EURECA (European Retrievable Carrier) and the joint NASA/Italian Space Agency Tethered Satellite System (TSS).
  • 1992 – A US Navy Grumman E-2C Hawkeye of VAW-126 on a training flight crashes in the Atlantic Ocean ~75 miles N of Puerto Rico while returning to the USS John F. Kennedy, killing all five crew. The Navy reported on 1 August that the aircraft radioed that it was in trouble before coming down ~4 miles from the carrier, the second plane loss of that air wing in less than a fortnight. The aviators killed Friday were identified as Lt. Cmdr. Alan M. McLachlen, 33, of Virginia Beach, Virginia; Lt. Michael F. Horowitz, 27, of Atlanta, Georgia; Lt. Tristram E. Farmer, 26, of Trevett, Maine; Lt. j.g. Thomas D. Plautz, 28, of Norfolk, Virginia; and Lt. j.g. Richard Siter Jr., 24, of Latham, New York.
  • 1991 – Senate votes to allow women to fly combat aircraft.
  • 1984 – Venz commandos terminate hijacking of an aircraft, 2 killed.
  • 1981 – Panamanian Air Force FAP-205 crash: The leader of Panama, Omar Torrijos, is killed in the crash of a DeHavilland Twin Otter at Amador near Panama City, Panama.
  • 1981 – A Belgian Air Force Dassault Mirage VBR hits a radio mast at Dudelange, Luxembourg.
  • 1979 – Dan-Air Flight 0034, a Hawker Siddeley HS 748 failed to become airborne at Sumburgh Airport, Scotland. Of the 47 on board, 15 passengers and two crew die.
  • 1974 – A USN Grumman E-2 Hawkeye based at NAS Norfolk, Virginia, crashed on take-off from CGAS Elizabeth City, North Carolina during a touch-and-go, striking a maintenance facility, triggering a fire in a fibreglass and upholstery shop. Instructor pilot, three civilians killed, student pilot, and 12–18 others injured.
  • 1973 – Delta Air Lines Flight 723, a Douglas DC-9, descends prematurely and crashes on final approach to Boston Logan International Airport, killing all 89 on board; probable cause is unstabilized final approach by the flight crew.
  • 1972 – After 41 years in operation, Northeast Airlines completes its final day of service before being merged into Delta Air Lines the following day.
  • 1972 – Delta Air Lines Flight 841 was an aircraft hijacking that took place beginning on Monday, on a flight originally from Detroit to Miami. Members of the Black Liberation Army took over the airplane in flight using weapons smuggled on board, including a bible cut out to hold a handgun. The DC-8 held 7 crew and 94 passengers, none of whom were killed during the hijacking. Five hijackers who had boarded with three children took over the plane. The plane flew to Miami where the 86 hostage-held passengers (i. e. 94 minus 8) were released in exchange for $1 million in ransom. The plane was then flown on to Boston where it refueled before flying to Algeria. Algerian authorities seized the plane and ransom which they returned to the U. S. but the hijackers were released after a few days.
  • 1964 – A. H. Parker sets a new sailplane distance record of 1,000 km (621 miles) in a Sisu-1 A
  • 1964 – Ranger 7 sends back the first ever close-up photographs of the moon, with images 1,000 times clearer than anything ever seen from earth-bound telescopes.
  • 1964 – A/M CR Dunlap retired as Chief of the Air Staff and became Deputy Commander of NORAD.
  • 1964 – Country music star Jim Reeves and his manager die in the crash of a Beechcraft Debonair Reeves is piloting near Brentwood, Tennessee.
  • 1957 – The Distant Early Warning Line, a system of radar stations designed to detect Soviet bombers approaching North America, went into operation.
  • 1956 – In a high-speed flight, prototype Folland Gnat, G-39-2, suffers tailplane flutter which breaks away. Folland test pilot bails out and descends safely, becoming first person to use the Folland/Saab ejection seat in action.
  • 1948 – President Harry Truman helped dedicate New York International Airport (later John F. Kennedy International Airport) at Idlewild Field.
  • 1945 – Since beginning the strategic bombing campaign against Japan in June 1944, B-29 s of the U. S. Army’s Twentieth Air Force have destroyed 90 Japanese cities, leaving only four major cities – Kyoto, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Sapporo – undamaged. During July 1945, the B-29 s have carried an average bombload of 7.4 tons (6,713 kg) per plane – An increase of 4.8 tons (4,355 kg) since November 1944 – dropped more than 75 percent of their bombs by radar, and suffered a loss rate of only 0.4 percent of aircraft raiding Japan (down from 5.7 percvent in January 1945).
  • 1944 – Noted aviation pioneer and author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry vanishes without a trace while flying a Free French Forces Lockheed F-5B-1-LO, 42-68223, c/n 2734, of II/33 Squadron, out of Borgo-Porreta, Bastia, Corsica, a reconnaissance variant of the P-38 Lightning, over the Mediterranean; his fate remains a mystery until 2004 when the wreckage of his plane is discovered. While the cause of the crash is unknown, analysis of the wreckage and enemy wartime records suggests that the crash was an accident unrelated to enemy action. A former Luftwaffe pilot has published a volume in which he claims to have shot down a French-marked Lightning, but his claim is largely discounted.
  • 1943 – German aircraft attack U. S. Navy warships bombarding coastal artillery batteries near San Stéfano di Camastra, Sicily, but score no hits.
  • 1943 – The U. S. Army Forces’ Eleventh Air Force has carried out even more combat sorties against Japanese forces on Kiska in the Aleutian Islands in July than it had in June.
  • 1943 – The first prototype Focke-Wulf Ta 154 V1, TE+FE, powered by Jumo 211R engines, first flown 1 July 1943, tested at Rechlin, is written off in a landing accident this date when the undercarriage collapsed. This was a recurrent problem that accounted for the loss of several of the type.
  • 1942 – The vast, 800 km (500 mi) searchlight belt Germany has developed to guide night fighters to British bombers along their routes into and out of Germany is ordered disbanded so that the searchlights may be reallocated to the point defense of individual German cities. The searchlight belt is replaced by an even deeper belt of ground radars, allowing far more radar-controlled interception of enemy aircraft by German night fighters.
  • 1941 – A chartered Philippine Airlines Douglas DC-4 ferries 40 American servicemen to Oakland, California, from Nielson Airport in Makati City, Manila, in the Philippine Islands with stops at Guam, Wake Island, Johnston Atoll, and Honolulu in the Territory of Hawaii. The flight makes Philippine Airlines, Asia’s first airline, the first Asian airline to cross the Pacific Ocean. Philippine Airlines will begin a scheduled transpacific service in December 1941.
  • 1936 – (July 31-August 8) France becomes the first country to supply aircraft to the Republican faction in Spain, delivering 70 planes, including Bloch MB.200 s, Potez 54 s, and Dewoitine D.371 s.
  • 1936 – The Jersey Airways Saro A.19 Cloud amphibian airliner Cloud of Iona (tail number G-ABXW) disappears during a stormy evening on a flight from Guernsey to Jersey in the Channel Islands with the loss of all eight people on board. An investigation determines that the plane had lost engine power, landed on the sea, and been swamped by waves.
  • 1930 – First dirigible takeoff and landing on an oceangoing vessel.
  • 1918 – An aircraft takes off from platform installed on a towed lighter for the first time, when Royal Air Force Lieutenant Stewart Culley takes off in a Sopwith Camel from a lighter towed behind a British warship.
  • 1918 – A Royal Air Force bombing raid over Germany by 12 Airco DH.9 s suffers the loss of 10 aircraft shot down.
  • 1913 – Alys McKey Bryant becomes the first woman pilot to fly in Canada, over Vancouver, in a Curtiss-type pusher biplane.
  • 1912 – An attempt by the U.S. Navy to catapult launch the Navy's first seaplane, a Curtiss A-3 (AH-3) pusher, at the Washington Navy Yard, Washington, D.C., fails when a crosswind catches the plane halfway along the catapult and tosses it into the Anacostia River. Pilot uninjured. A different source lists the location of the launch attempt as Annapolis, Maryland, the aircraft as the Curtiss A-1 (AH-1), and the pilot as Lt. Theodore G. Ellyson, noting that the catapult was powered by compressed air, was fabricated by the Naval Gun Factory at the Washington Navy Yard from a design by Capt. Washington I. Chambers, and that the aircraft, not being secured to the catapult, reared up at mid-stroke where it was caught by the crosswind. This account, from an official U.S. Navy history, may be the more credible of the two versions. An accompanying photo (No. 650864) dated July 1912 showing the A-1 on the catapult at Annapolis supports the latter description. The first successful launch was accomplished on 12 November 1912 at the Washington Navy Yard by Ellyson in the A-3, according to this source, possibly accounting for the confusion.
  • 1901 – German meteorologists Berson and Süring climb to 10,800 m in a free balloon.
  • 1894 – Hiram Maxim launches an enormous biplane test rig (wingspan 32 m, 105 ft) propelled by two steam engines. It makes a short captive hop after running down a length of railway track. After that he stopped his experiments, which had already cost him around thirty thousands pounds.
  • 1879 – Richard Cowen and Charles Page flew the Canadian, the first balloon to be built in Canada.

References

  1. ^ "Firing Offenses: Ways You Don't Expect Your Military Career to End," The Washington Post Express, August 2, 2012, p. 2.
  2. ^ Ashley Halsey III (August 1, 2012). "Two planes taking off from National put on collision course with plane trying to land". Washingtonpost.com. Retrieved December 2, 2012.
  3. ^ Kim Gamel (2007-08-10). "U.S. helicopter forced down in Iraq". Associated Press. Retrieved 2007-08-10.
  4. ^ "Second Predator crashes in Iraq in two days". Air Force Print News. 2007-07-31. Retrieved 2009-02-04.
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