Portal:Aviation

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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...)

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Computer-generated image of Flight 1907 and N600XL about to collide. The Legacy's left winglet sliced off nearly half of the Boeing's left wing.

Gol Transportes Aéreos Flight 1907 was a Boeing 737-8EH, registration PR-GTD, on a scheduled passenger flight from Manaus, Brazil, to Rio de Janeiro. On 29 September 2006, just before 17:00 BRT, it collided in midair with an Embraer Legacy business jet over the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso. All 154 passengers and crew aboard the Boeing 737 died when the aircraft broke up in midair and crashed into an area of dense rainforest, while the Embraer Legacy, despite sustaining serious damage to its left wing and tail, landed safely with its seven occupants uninjured. The accident, which triggered a crisis in Brazilian civil aviation, was the deadliest in that country's aviation history at the time, surpassing VASP Flight 168, which crashed in 1982 with 137 fatalities near Fortaleza. It was also the deadliest aviation accident involving a Boeing 737 aircraft at that time. It was subsequently surpassed by Air India Express Flight 812, which crashed at Mangalore, India, on 22 May 2010 with 158 fatalities. The accident was investigated by both the Brazilian Air Force's Aeronautical Accidents Investigation and Prevention Center and the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), with a final report issued on 10 December 2008. CENIPA concluded that the accident was caused by errors committed both by air traffic controllers and by the American pilots, while the NTSB determined that all pilots acted properly and were placed on a collision course by a variety of "individual and institutional" air traffic control errors. (Full article...)

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Did you know

...that the Heinkel He 46, designed for the Luftwaffe in 1931, was still being used to fight the Soviets in 1943?

...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 Washington Senators outfielder Elmer Gedeon, who pulled a crew member from a burning wreck, died while piloting a B-26 bomber over France?

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The following are images from various aviation-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Flagg biplane from 1933 (from History of aviation)
Image 2The Wright Military Flyer aboard a wagon in 1908 (from History of aviation)
Image 3"Governable parachute" design of 1852 (from History of aviation)
Image 4Sailplane, a Rolladen-Schneider LS4 (from General aviation)
Image 5Planophore model aeroplane by Alphonse Pénaud, 1871 (from History of aviation)
Image 6Maxim's flying machine (from History of aviation)
Image 7"Map of Air Routes and Landing Places in Great Britain, as temporarily arranged by the Air Ministry for civilian flying", published in 1919, showing Hounslow, near London, as the hub (from History of aviation)
Image 8Cathay Pacific's first class cabin on board a Boeing 747-400 (from Wide-body aircraft)
Image 9The 14-bis, or Oiseau de proie (from History of aviation)
Image 10Alberto Santos-Dumont flying the Demoiselle over Paris (from History of aviation)
Image 111928 issue of Popular Aviation (now Flying magazine), which became the largest aviation magazine with a circulation of 100,000. (from History of aviation)
Image 12Concorde, G-BOAB, in storage at London Heathrow Airport following the end of all Concorde flying. This aircraft flew for 22,296 hours between its first flight in 1976 and final flight in 2000 (from History of aviation)
Image 13A Boeing 787 Dreamliner of United Airlines landing at Beijing Capital International Airport on 28 December 2018. (from Wide-body aircraft)
Image 14Daedalus working on Icarus' wings (from History of aviation)
Image 15The Biot-Massia glider, restored and on display in the Musee de l'Air (from History of aviation)
Image 16Félix du Temple's 1874 Monoplane (from History of aviation)
Image 17Cessna CitationJet/M2, part of the Citation family of business jets (from General aviation)
Image 18Experimental helicopter by Enrico Forlanini (1877), exposed at the Museo nazionale della scienza e della tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci of Milan, Italy (from History of aviation)
Image 19D.H. Comet, the world's first jet airliner. As in this picture, it also saw RAF service (from History of aviation)
Image 20The Aeroplane of Victor Tatin, 1879. (from History of aviation)
Image 21Leonardo da Vinci's ornithopter design (from History of aviation)
Image 22Qantas De Havilland biplane, c. 1930 (from History of aviation)
Image 23One of Leonardo's sketches (from History of aviation)
Image 24German Taube monoplane, illustration from 1917 (from History of aviation)
Image 25The business class cabin on an A350 (from Wide-body aircraft)
Image 26General aviation aircraft at Cheb Airfield in Czech Republic (from General aviation)
Image 27Santos-Dumont's "Number 6" rounding the Eiffel Tower in the process of winning the Deutsch de la Meurthe Prize, October 1901 (from History of aviation)
Image 28La France flying in 1885 (from History of aviation)
Image 29Me 262, world first operational jet fighter (from History of aviation)
Image 30French reconnaissance balloon L'Intrépide of 1796, the oldest existing flying device, in the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum, Vienna (from History of aviation)
Image 31First failure of Langley's manned Aerodrome on the Potomac River, 7 October 1903 (from History of aviation)
Image 32Early Voisin biplane (from History of aviation)
Image 33Apollo 11 lifts off on its mission to land a man on the Moon (from History of aviation)
Image 34Clément Ader Avion III (1897 photograph) (from History of aviation)
Image 35First female combat pilot, Sabiha Gökçen, reviews her Breguet 19 (from History of aviation)
Image 36Nieuport IV, operated by most of the world's air forces before WW1 for reconnaissance and bombing, including during the Italian-Turkish war (from History of aviation)
Image 37Woodcut print of a kite from John Bate's 1635 book The Mysteryes of Nature and Art (from History of aviation)
Image 38Map of record breaking flights of the 1920s (from History of aviation)
Image 39Robinson R22, a light piston-engine helicopter (from General aviation)
Image 40The Wright Flyer: the first sustained flight with a powered, controlled aircraft (from History of aviation)
Image 41Otto Lilienthal, 29 May 1895 (from History of aviation)
Image 42The economy class cabin of an Airbus A350 (from Wide-body aircraft)
Image 431843 artist's impression of John Stringfellow's plane Ariel flying over the Nile (from History of aviation)
Image 44Jean-Marie Le Bris and his flying machine, Albatros II, 1868 (from History of aviation)

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Selected biography

The Reverend John Flynn (25 November 1880 – 5 May 1951) was an Australian Presbyterian minister and aviator who founded the Royal Flying Doctor Service, the world's first air ambulance.

Throughout his ministerial training, Flynn had worked in various then-remote areas through Victoria and South Australia. As well as tending to matters spiritual, Flynn quickly established the need for medical care for residents of the vast Australian outback, and established a number of bush hospitals. By 1917, Flynn was already considering the possibility of new technology, such as radio and the aeroplane, to assist in providing a more useful acute medical service, and then received a letter from an Australian pilot serving in World War I, Clifford Peel, who had heard of Flynn's speculations and outlined the capabilities and costs of then-available planes. Flynn turned his considerable fund-raising talents to the task of establishing a flying medical service.

The first flight of the Aerial Medical Service was in 1928 from Cloncurry. In 1934 the Australian Aerial Medical Service was formed, and gradually established a network of bases nationwide. Flynn remained the public face of the organisation (through name changes to its present form) and helped raise the funds that kept the service operating.

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The Embraer ERJ-145 is a regional jet produced by Embraer, a Brazilian aerospace company. The ERJ 145 is the largest of a family of airliners, which also includes the ERJ 135, ERJ 140, and Legacy. All aircraft in the series are powered by two turbofan engines. It is one of the most popular regional jet families in the world with primary competition coming from the Canadair Regional Jet.

The first flight of the ERJ 145 was on August 11, 1995, with the first delivery in December 1996 to ExpressJet Airlines (then the regional division of Continental Airlines). ExpressJet is the largest operator of the ERJ 145, with 270 of the nearly 1000 ERJ 145s in service. The second largest operator is American Eagle, with 206 ERJ 145 aircraft. Chautauqua Airlines also operates 95 ERJ 145s through its alliances with American Connection, Delta Connection, US Airways Express and United Express. By some accounts, the ERJ 145 has a cost of ownership of about $2,500,000 per year.

Span: 20.04 m (65 ft 9 in)
Length: 29.9 m (98 ft 0 in)
Height: 6.76 m (22 ft 2 in)
Engines: 2× Rolls-Royce AE 3007A turbofans, 33.0 kN (7,420 lbf) thrust each
Cruising Speed: 834 km/h (518 mph, Mach 0.78)
First Flight: August 11, 1995
Number built: ≈1000

Today in Aviation

March 22

2013 – A Central African Republic government attack helicopter strikes a rebel column approaching Bangui, temporarily halting it.^[1]

2011 – A U.S. Air Force F-15E Eagle crashes in Libya due to a mechanical failure; its two-man crew survives with minor injuries. Libyan rebel forces rescue one of them; the other is picked up by a United States Marine Corps MV-22 Osprey from the amphibious assault ship USS Kearsarge (LHD-3), the first time an Osprey has been used to rescue a downed aviator.^[2]^[3]

2010 – Aviastar-TU Flight 1906, operated by Tupolev Tu-204 RA-64011 crashed on approach to Domodedovo International Airport, Moscow. The aircraft was written off, the first hull loss for Aviastar and the first of a Tu-204.

2009 – A Pilatus PC-12 flying into Bert Mooney Airport outside Butte, Montana from Oroville, California crashed 500 feet (150 m) short of the runway, around 15:27 local time (21:27 GMT), killing fourteen^[4] people.^[5]^[6]^[7]^[8]

2003 – During the 2003 invasion of Iraq, two Royal Navy Westland Sea King ASaC7 AEW helicopters, XV650, 'CU-182', and XV704, 'R-186', collide in mid-air five miles (8 km) from their aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal while one had been leaving on a mission as the other returned from the same operation. One American exchange pilot on board, a former E-2C Hawkeye pilot formerly from Carrier Airborne Early Warning Squadron One One Five, was killed.

2003 – Two Royal Navy ASaC.7 Sea Kings XV650 'CU-182' and XV704 'R-186' of 849 Squadron/A Flight collide over the Persian Gulf, killing six British crew members and one American.^[9]

1998 – Philippine Airlines Flight 137, an Airbus A320, overshoots the end of the runway while landing at Bacolod City in the Philippines, plowing through several houses. None of the passengers were harmed, but three people on the ground were killed and several more injured.

1996 – Launch: Space Shuttle Atlantis STS-76 at 3:13:04 am EST (UTC −5). Mission highlights: Shuttle-Mir docking.

1992 – USAir Flight 405, a Fokker F-28, crashes on takeoff from New York because of ice buildup. Twenty-seven of the 51 people on board are killed.

1991 – A 36th Tactical Fighter Wing F-15 C again downs an Iraqi Su-22 with a Sidewinder. Another Su-22 accompanying the first one crashes while maneuvering to evade the approaching F-15C.

1989 – An Antonov An-225 sets a total of 106 world and class records during a 3 h 30 min flight carrying a Buran orbiter. Its total weight at take-off was 508,200 kilograms (1,120,400 lb).

1984 – Pacific Western Airlines Flight 501, a Boeing 737, suffers an uncontained engine failure during takeoff from Calgary; all passengers and crew were safely evacuated, but the plane burns to the ground.

1982 – Launch: Space shuttle Columbia STS-3 at 16:00:00 UTC Mission highlights: Shuttle R&D flight, first and only landing at White Sands, New Mexico.

1982 – First flight of the Valmet PIK-23 Towmaster

1982 – In the Iran-Iraq War, Iran launches its Fath al-Mubin offensive. Until it winds down a week to ten days later, Iraqi and Iranian planes and helicopters support the ground forces involved, but are generally ineffective. Iraqi Air Force fighters fly up to 150 sorties a day.^[10]

1979 – First flight of the Lockheed CP-140 Aurora.

1975 – Hellenic Air Force LTV A-7H Corsair II, BuNo 159676, crashes near Souda, Greece, the first reported A-7H crash.

1965 – Avianca Flight 676, a Douglas C-47 (DC-3) crashes into Sugar Loaf Mountain shortly after departure from Bogota-Eldorado Airport in Colombia at an elevation of 7,200 feet (2,200 m). All 29 on the aircraft are killed due to the pilot continuing to fly by (VFR) Visual Flight Rules in unfavorable conditions.

1956 – Douglas AD-5N Skyraider crashes into Martinez Mountain in the Santa Rosa Mountains (California), killing all 3 Navy crew members from Squadron VC-35.

1955 – A United States Navy Douglas DC-6 hits a cliff in Honolulu, killing 66. It is the worst air disaster in the history of Hawaii.

1952 – A Douglas DC-6 (PH-TBJ) being operated by KLM Royal Dutch Airlines crashes into a forest while navigating its approach to Frankfurt International Aircraft in Germany. There are 3 survivors among the 47 on board.

1952 – A Maritime Central Airways Douglas C-47 disappears two hours after departing St. John’s Airport in Newfoundland, Canada with four people on board. The wreckage is found almost a year and a half later on August 27, 1953.

1950 – ATwo North American F-86A Sabre fighter jets attached to the 81st Fighter Group at Kirtland AFB, New Mexico, crash in Emmons, West Virginia, just outside of Charleston. They had landed in Charleston the previous day due to low fuel on a cross-country flight. After fuel was delivered from Wright-Patterson AFB, Dayton, Ohio, the pilots, Lt. Col. A. F. Reinhardt, 43, and Capt. George Evans, 28, took off this date in morning marginal weather with low clouds and rain. A few minutes later, both aircraft nose-dived into the side yard of local landowner. Both pilots KWF.

1950 – AFuerza Aérea Argentina Avro Lincoln B.Mk. II, B-019, c/n 1495, lost in storm over Tierra del Fuego, eleven killed. Wreckage finally found on a glacier on the Chilean side of Tierra del Fuego in 1983.

1945 – USS Enterprise (CV-6) is damaged by a flight deck fire caused by American antiaircraft fire, and Task Force 58 retires from Japanese waters. During its strikes on Kyushu and the Inland Sea it has claimed 528 Japanese aircraft destroyed; Japan admits to 163 aircraft lost in air-to-air combat and additional Japanese planes destroyed on the ground.

1942 – The Second Battle of Sirte takes place between Royal Navy and Italian forces in the Mediterranean. The Italians fail to prevent a convoy of four Allied cargo ships from arriving at Malta, and an attack by Italian Savoia-Marchetti SM.79 torpedo bombers is ineffective.

1938 – The Nationalist Aragon Offensive resumes. Bombing and strafing German, Italian, and Spanish Nationalist aircraft play a large role in terrorizing and routing Republican ground forces for the remainder of the offensive.

1937 – Late in life Mary Russell, Duchess of Bedford, became interested in aviation that she claimed gave her some relief from her constant tinnitus, although she eventually became totally deaf. On 2 August 1929, she departed on a record-breaking flight of 10,000 miles (16,000 km) from Lympne Airport to Karachi (then in India) and return to Croydon Airport in eight days. She was accompanied in her single-engined Fokker F.VII (G-EBTS, named “Spider”) by her personal pilot C. D. Barnard and mechanic Robert Little. On 8 April 1930 she made her first solo flight, in her DH.60G Moth (G-AAAO). On 10 April 1930 she embarked on a record-breaking flight from Lympne Airport to Cape Town, in the “Spider”, flying 9,000 miles (14,000 km) in 100 flying hours over 10 days, accompanied by C. D. Barnard. The duchess died in 1937, aged 71, after leaving Woburn Abbey in a DH.60GIII Moth Major (G-ACUR), that crashed into the North Sea off Great Yarmouth; her body was never recovered. 1937 – Spanish Nationalist leader Francisco Franco orders his National Aviation (Aviación Nacional) force to begin a bombing campaign against the Basques in northern Spain.

1935 – Prototype Grumman XF3F-1, BuNo 9727 (1st), c/n 257, company model G.11, disintegrates when pulled sharply out of a terminal velocity dive, the tenth and final such test in six flights, killing pilot Jimmy Collins. G-forces in this dive estimated at 12-13, wrenching wings off, engine torn from mount. 9727 serial applied to three Grumman prototypes, two of which crashed.

1934 – A Pan American Grace Airlines Ford 5 (NC407 H) crashes in Lima, Peru, killing 3 of 15 on the aircraft.

1927 – Western Canada Airways pilots Bernt Balchen, J. R. Ross and F. J. Stevenson flew the largest airlift of freight (17,894 lbs) from Cache Lake to Churchill, Manitoba.

1926 – On its seventh test flight during tests at Taura Beach, Yokosuka, Japan, the Kaibo Gikai KB experimental flying boat is seen in a glide with both engines stopped, which steepens until it strikes the water in a near-vertical attitude, killing all four crew. Cause attributed to a malfunction of the flight control system.

1925 – A Zakavia Junkers F-13 (R-RECA) crashes in Tiflies, Georgia, killing all 5 aboard.

1919 – The first regular international commercial route opens between Paris and Brussels, flown by an F.60 Goliath from Farman airlines.

References

^ Reuters, "Central African Republic Halts Rebel Column: Source," March 22, 2013, 8:15 p.m. EDT.
^ Crilly, Rob; Kirkup, James; Winnett, Rob (22 March 2011). "Libya: US Fighter Jet Crash Lands in Field Near Benghazi". The Daily Telegraph. UK. Retrieved 10 April 2011.
^ "Libya Crisis: US Warplane Crew Rescued after Crash". BBC News. 22 March 2011. Retrieved 10 April 2011.
^ "Probe launched into Montana crash". BBC. 2009-03-23. Retrieved 2009-03-23.
^ "'Children die' in US plane crash". BBC News. 2009-03-22. Retrieved 2009-03-22.
^ "FAA: 17 killed in Montana plane crash". CNN. 2009-03-22. Retrieved 2009-03-22.
^ Welch, William M.; Levin, Alan (2009-03-22). "Montana plane crash kills 17". USA Today. Retrieved 2009-03-22.
^ "FAA: Children among 17 dead in Montana plane crash". Yahoo! News. 2009-03-22. Retrieved 2009-03-22.
^ "CNN.com – 7 killed as UK helicopters collide". CNN.com. 2008-03-22. Retrieved 2009-01-30.
^ Cordesman, Anthony H., and Abraham R. Wagner, The Lessons of Modern War, Volume II: The Iran-Iraq War, Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1990, ISBN 0-8133-1330-9, p. 131.

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[1] Reuters, "Central African Republic Halts Rebel Column: Source," March 22, 2013, 8:15 p.m. EDT.

[2] Crilly, Rob; Kirkup, James; Winnett, Rob (22 March 2011). "Libya: US Fighter Jet Crash Lands in Field Near Benghazi". The Daily Telegraph. UK. Retrieved 10 April 2011.

[3] "Libya Crisis: US Warplane Crew Rescued after Crash". BBC News. 22 March 2011. Retrieved 10 April 2011.

[4] "Probe launched into Montana crash". BBC. 2009-03-23. Retrieved 2009-03-23.

[5] "'Children die' in US plane crash". BBC News. 2009-03-22. Retrieved 2009-03-22.

[6] "FAA: 17 killed in Montana plane crash". CNN. 2009-03-22. Retrieved 2009-03-22.

[7] Welch, William M.; Levin, Alan (2009-03-22). "Montana plane crash kills 17". USA Today. Retrieved 2009-03-22.

[8] "FAA: Children among 17 dead in Montana plane crash". Yahoo! News. 2009-03-22. Retrieved 2009-03-22.

[9] "CNN.com – 7 killed as UK helicopters collide". CNN.com. 2008-03-22. Retrieved 2009-01-30.

[10] Cordesman, Anthony H., and Abraham R. Wagner, The Lessons of Modern War, Volume II: The Iran-Iraq War, Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1990, ISBN 0-8133-1330-9, p. 131.

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