Portal:Aviation

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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

PanAm Airbus A310-222
PanAm Airbus A310-222
Pan American World Airways, most commonly known as "Pan Am", was the principal international airline of the United States from the 1930s until its collapse in 1991. Originally founded as a seaplane service out of Key West, Florida, the airline became a major company; it was credited with many innovations that shaped the international airline industry, including the widespread use of jet aircraft, jumbo jets, and computerized reservation systems. Identified by its blue globe logo and the use of "Clipper" in aircraft names and call signs, the airline was a cultural icon of the 20th century, and the unofficial flag carrier of the United States. Pan Am went through two incarnations after 1991. The second Pan Am operated from 1996 to 1998 with a focus on low-cost, long-distance flights between the U.S. and the Caribbean. The current incarnation, based in Portsmouth, New Hampshire and known as the Pan Am "Clipper Connection", is operated by Boston-Maine Airways. The airline currently flies to destinations in the northeastern United States, Florida, Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico. (Full article...)

Selected image

A Bell 212 with a helicopter bucket
A Bell 212 with a helicopter bucket
A Bell 212 Twin Huey carrying a helicopter bucket, a specialized bucket suspended on a cable to deliver water for helitack operations, which is aerial firefighting using helicopters. Helitack crews are used to attack a wildfire and gain early control of it, especially when inaccessibility would make it difficult or impossible for ground crews to respond in the same amount of time.

Did you know

...that after the Red Baron, French ace René Fonck had the most confirmed World War I aerial victories? ...that Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney was only twenty-eight years old when he helped found Pan American World Airways? ... the Safety Promotion Center, established by Japan Airlines after the worst single aircraft accident in history, has passengers' farewell letters and wreckage on display to educate employees about safety?

More Did you know facts

General images - load new batch

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

In the news

Wikinews Aviation portal
Read and edit Wikinews

Related portals

Associated Wikimedia

The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:

Selected biography

Elbert Leander "Burt" Rutan (born June 17, 1943 in Estacada, Oregon) is an American aerospace engineer noted for his originality in designing light, strong, unusual-looking, energy-efficient aircraft. He is most famous for his design of the record-breaking Voyager, which was the first plane to fly around the world without stopping or refueling, and the suborbital rocket plane SpaceShipOne, which won the Ansari X-Prize in 2004.

Selected Aircraft

A spitfire in flight
A spitfire in flight

The Supermarine Spitfire was a single-seat fighter used by the RAF and many Allied countries in World War II.

Produced by Supermarine, the Spitfire was designed by R.J. Mitchell, who continued to refine it until his death from cancer in 1937. The elliptical wing had a thin cross-section, allowing a faster top speed than the Hurricane and other contemporary designs; it also resulted in a distinctive appearance. Much loved by its pilots, the Spitfire saw service during the whole of World War II, in all theatres of war, and in many different variants.

More than 20,300 examples of all variants were built, including two-seat trainers, with some Spitfires remaining in service well into the 1950s. It was the only fighter aircraft to be in continual production before, during and after the war.

The aircraft was dubbed Spitfire by Sir Robert MacLean, director of Vickers (the parent company of Supermarine) at the time, and on hearing this, Mitchell is reported to have said, "...sort of bloody silly name they would give it." The word dates from Elizabethan times and refers to a particularly fiery, ferocious type of person, usually a woman. The name had previously been used unofficially for Mitchell's earlier F.7/30 Type 224 design.

The prototype (K5054) first flew on March 5, 1936, from Eastleigh Aerodrome (later Southampton Airport). Testing continued until May 26, 1936, when Mutt Summers (Chief Test Pilot for Vickers (Aviation) Ltd.) flew K5054 to Martlesham and handed the aircraft over to Squadron Leader Anderson of the Aeroplane & Armament Experimental Establishment (A&AEE).

  • Length: 29 ft 11 in (9.12 m)
  • Wingspan: 36 ft 10 in (11.23 m)
  • Height: 12 ft 8 in (3.86 m)
  • Number Built: 20,351 (excluding Seafires)
  • Maximum speed: 330 knots (378 mph, 605 km/h)
  • Maiden flight: March 5, 1936
  • Powerplant: 1× Rolls-Royce Merlin 45 supercharged V12 engine, 1470 hp at 9250 ft (1096 kW at 2820 m)

Today in Aviation

July 15

  • 2009 – Launch: Space Shuttle Endeavour STS-127 at 22:03 UTC. Mission highlights: ISS assembly flight 2J/A: JEM Exposed Facility (EF) & JEM ELM ES.
  • 2009 – A Republic of China Air Force Northrop F-5F (5410) from the 7th Tactical Fighter Group based at Ching Chuan Kang Air Base crashes on a routine training flight of the coast of Penghu, Taiwan killing the 2 crew.
  • 1996 – The Herculesramp (Dutch for ‘Hercules disaster’) is an aviation accident that occurred at Eindhoven Airport. The disaster involving a Belgian C-130 Hercules aircraft took the lives of 34 passengers.
  • 1996 – At approximately 1803 hrs., a Belgian Lockheed C-130H Hercules, CH-06, c/n 4473, at Eindhoven Air Base in the Netherlands after bird strikes stopped three engines. A total of 34 people lost their lives as a result of the accident, and seven people were seriously injured.
  • 1983 – Orly Airport attack was the 15 July 1983 bombing of a Turkish Airlines check-in counter at Orly Airport in Paris, France, by the Armenian militant organization ASALA as part of its campaign for the recognition of and reparations for the Armenian Genocide. The explosion killed eight people and injured 55.
  • 1975 – The first international manned space flight occurs between the Soviet Soyuz 19 and an Apollo spacecraft.
  • 1968 – The first direct airline service between the Soviet Union and the U. S. is inaugurated, ten years after negotiations began.
  • 1964 – A Soviet Tupolev Tu-16R "Badger" crashes in the Sea of Japan. In April 1995, during working group sessions, the U.S. side passed over the deck logs of the USS Bennington from 1 July 1964 to 31 July 1964, the deck log of the USS Cunningham from 14 July 1964 to 16 July 1964 and the deck log of the USS Eversole from 14 July 1964 to 16 July 1964. These deck logs all pertain to the crash of the "Badger".
  • 1963 – Two North American F-100 Super Sabres of the 492d Tactical Fighter Squadron, 48th Tactical Fighter Wing, based at RAF Lakenheath, Suffolk, suffer mid-air collision during routine gunnery exercise on the Holbeach Range, both aircraft coming down in the sea five miles off King's Lynn. Pilot 1st Lt. L. C. Marshall parachuted from North American F-100D-45-NH, 55-2792, c/n 224-59, rescued from his dinghy by helicopter, but 1st Lt. D. F. Ware rode 55-2786 to his death.
  • 1958 – First full transition from vertical flight to horizontal flight of The Vertol VZ-2 (or Model 76), US research aircraft built to investigate the tiltwing approach to vertical take-off and landing. The aircraft had a fuselage of tubular framework (originally uncovered) and accommodation for its pilot in a helicopter-like bubble canopy. The T-tail incorporated small ducted fans to act as thrusters for greater control at low speeds.
  • 1954 – The Boeing 707 prototype, the model 367-80, made its maiden flight from Renton Field, south of Seattle on 20 Dec 1957.[2][better source needed]
  • 1953 – First of two Convair XP5Y-1s (and only one to fly), BuNo 121455, is lost on 42nd flight during high-speed testing by pilot Don Germeraad over the Pacific near San Diego, California. While operating at 115 percent of design limits under Navy contract, the elevator torque tube breaks, aircraft commences cycle of rollercoaster climbs and dives which continues for 25 minutes until control obviously being lost, all eleven on board go over the side and are rescued. Flying boat crashes into the ocean and sinks ~six miles off Point Loma, wreckage never recovered. A chase plane awaiting a Convair F2Y Sea Dart filmed the final minutes of the hair-raising flight, but it was classified secret and has probably never been released. Airframe had over 102 hours of flight time. When first flown on 18 April 1950, it was the first turboprop-powered flying boat to fly.
  • 1945 – In a second day of air strikes on northern Honshu and Hokkaido, Task Force 38 aircraft completely disrupt the Aomori-Hakodate train ferry system and sink numerous colliers, reducing the Japanese coal-carrying capacity by 50 percent.
  • 1945 – The 2nd TAF was reformed as the British Air Force of Occupation, Germany.
  • 1942 – The first supply flight from India to China over the ‘Hump’ is flown.
  • 1942 – During Operation Bolero, the ferrying of combat aircraft from the U.S. to England by air, a flight of two Boeing B-17E-BO Flying Fortress bombers, 41-9101, c/n 2573, "Big Stoop", and 41-9105, c/n 2577, "Do-Do", of the 97th Bomb Group and six P-38F Lightnings of the 94th Fighter Squadron, 1st Fighter Group, on the 845-mile (1,360 km) leg between Bluie West 8 airfield and Reykjavík, Iceland, run out of fuel after being held up by bad weather, and all force-land on the Greenland icecap. All safely belly in except for the first P-38 which attempts a wheels-down landing, flipping over as nosewheel catches a crevasse, but pilot Lt. Brad McManus unhurt. All crews rescued on 19 July, but aircraft are abandoned in place. One P-38F-1-LO, 41-7630, c/n 222-5757, now known as "Glacier Girl", recovered in 1992 from under 200 feet (61 m) of accumulated snow and ice and rebuilt to flying status, registered N17630. One Boeing B-17 ("Big Stoop") also found, but it is too badly crushed for recovery. Although the USAAF had expected to lose 10 percent of the 920 planes that made the North Atlantic transit during Bolero, losses were only 5.2 percent, the majority being involved in this single incident.
  • 1942 – The Republic of China Air Force’s American Volunteer Group – The “Flying Tigers” – Is transferred to the United States Army Air Forces, in which it becomes the 23rd Fighter Group. In its six months of Chinese service, the unit has shot down 286 Japanese aircraft in exchange for 12 of its own lost in air-to-air combat.
  • 1941 – Luftwaffe ace Werner Mölders shoots down two Soviet aircraft, raising his victory total to 101. He becomes the first pilot to claim 100 victories.
  • 1939 – Clara Adams (NYC) is first woman to complete round world flight.
  • 1938 – First flight of The production model Dornier Do 22/See, German three-seat, parasol wing monoplane, single-engined military floatplane.
  • 1938 – A German Arado Ar 79 training and touring aircraft sets an international solo speed record over a 1,000-km (621.4-statute mile) course for an aircraft of its class, averaging 229.04 km/hr (142.32 mph).
  • 1933 – Wiley Post began First solo flight around world in a Lockheed Vega, Winnie Mae.
  • 1929 – First airport hotel opens-Oakland Ca.
  • 1927 – First flight of The Bristol Bagshot, also known as the Type 95, heavily-armed British fighter prototype.
  • 1927 – Death of Paul Wilhelm Bäumer, German WWI fighter ace, killed in a crash near Copenhagen while test flying a Rohrbach Rofix fighter.
  • 1925 – Dr. A. Hamilton Rice’s expedition to the Amazon to explore the headwaters of the Amazon, the first exploration by airplane, returns safely.
  • 1923 – Dobrolet, the Soviet state airline, opens its first scheduled domestic service, between Moscow and Nizhniy Novgorod.
  • 1919 – Royal Navy North Sea class airship N.S.11 burns over the North Sea off Norfolk, England, killing twelve. In the early hours of 15 July on what was officially supposed to be a mine-hunting patrol, she was seen to fly beneath a long "greasy black cloud" off Cley next the Sea on the Norfolk coast and a massive explosion was heard shortly after. A vivid glare lasted for a few minutes as the burning airship descended, and finally plunged into the sea after a second explosion. There were no survivors, and the findings of the official Court of Enquiry were inconclusive, but amongst other possibilities it was thought that a lightning strike may have caused the explosion.
  • 1916 – William Boeing founds the Pacific Aero Products Company. In 1917 it will be renamed Boeing Airplane Company.
  • 1784 – First steerable balloon (also known as a dirigible, modern term “airship”). The Robert brothers (Les Frères Robert) flew for 45 min from Saint-Cloud to Meudon with M. Collin-Hullin and Louis Philippe II, the Duke of Chartres in their elongated balloon. The steerable craft designed by professor Jacques Charles followed Jean Baptiste Meusnier‘s proposals (1783–85) for a dirigible balloon, with a rudder, but the use of oars as a means of propulsion was not successful.

References

  1. ^ Tupolev Tu-144
  2. ^ Boeing 707
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