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The Aviation Portal

A Boeing 747 in 1978 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

BAE Systems' offices in Farnborough, UK
BAE Systems' offices in Farnborough, UK
BAE Systems is a British defence and aerospace company headquartered in London, UK, which has worldwide interests, particularly in North America through its subsidiary BAE Systems Inc. BAE is the world's seventh-largest defence contractor and the largest in Europe. BAE was formed on 30 November 1999 by the £7.7 billion merger of two British companies: Marconi Electronic Systems, the defence electronics and naval shipbuilding subsidiary of the General Electric Company plc (GEC) and aircraft, munitions and naval systems manufacturer British Aerospace (BAe). It has increasingly disengaged from its businesses in continental Europe in favour of investing in the United States. Since its formation it has sold its shares of Airbus, EADS Astrium, AMS and Atlas Elektronik. BAE Systems is involved in several major defence projects, including the F-35 Lightning II, the Eurofighter Typhoon and the Royal Navy Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers. The company has been the subject of criticism, both general opposition to the arms trade and also specific allegations of unethical and corrupt practices, including the Al-Yamama contracts with Saudi Arabia that have earned BAE and its predecessor £43 billion in twenty years. (Full article...)

Selected image

Kittinger's record-breaking skydive from Excelsior III
Kittinger's record-breaking skydive from Excelsior III
Captain Joseph Kittinger steps from a balloon-supported gondola at the altitude of 102,800 feet (31.3 km), or almost 20 miles on August 16, 1960, as part of Project Excelsior, a series of high-altitude parachute jumps, testing a system that would allow a safe controlled descent after a high-altitude aircraft ejection. In freefall for 4.5 minutes at speeds up to 625 mph (1,005 km/h) and temperatures as low as −94°F (−70°C), he opened his parachute at 17,500 feet (5.3 km). The whole descent took 13 minutes and 45 seconds. This is the current world record for the highest parachute jump and was the longest freefall until Adrian Nicholas broke the record in 1998 with a wingsuit skydive lasting 4 minutes 55 seconds.

Did you know

...that four planes were simultaneously hijacked in the 1970 Dawson's Field hijackings?

...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 François Denhaut built the world's first flying boat, or seaplane with a hull?

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

Charles Yeager
Charles Elwood "Chuck" Yeager (born February 13, 1923) is a retired Brigadier-General in the United States Air Force and a noted test pilot. In 1947, he became the first pilot (at age 24) to travel faster than sound in level flight and ascent.

His career began in World War II as a private in the U.S. Army Air Forces. After serving as an aircraft mechanic, in September 1942 he entered enlisted pilot training and upon graduation was promoted to the rank of Flight Officer (WW 2 U.S. Army Air Forces rank equivalent to Warrant Officer) and became a P-51 Mustang fighter pilot. After the war he became a test pilot of many kinds of aircraft and rocket planes. Yeager was the first man to break the sound barrier on October 14, 1947, flying the experimental Bell X-1 at Mach 1 at an altitude of 45,000 ft (13,700 m). Although Scott Crossfield was the first man to fly faster than Mach 2 in 1953, Yeager shortly thereafter exceeded Mach 2.4.[1] He later commanded fighter squadrons and wings in Germany and in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War, and in recognition of the outstanding performance ratings of those units he then was promoted to Brigadier-General. Yeager's flying career spans more than sixty years and has taken him to every corner of the globe, even into the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War.

Selected Aircraft

The Airbus A340 is a long-range four-engined widebody commercial passenger airplane manufactured by Airbus. The latest variants (-600 & A340E) competed with Boeing's 777 series of aircraft on long-haul and ultra long-haul routes, but it has since been succeeded by the Airbus A350.

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 second 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
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Today in Aviation

October 23

  • 2009 – Slovakian airline Seagle Air ceases operations.
  • 2009 – An Indian Air Force Mikoyan MiG-27 Flogger D/J flying from the Hasimara Air Force Base, Eastern Air Command crashes near New Jalpaiguri, West Bengal, India. The aircraft on a routine training exercise suffers a technical fault and an on-board engine fire shortly after take-off. After a successful ejection the pilot parachutes into a nearby tea estate and the aircraft crashes into a nearby river bank injuring two children.
  • 2007 – Space Shuttle Discovery STS-120 launches at 15:38:19 UTC. Mission highlights (ISS assembly flight 10A): US Harmony module, crew rotation.
  • 2003 – Concorde makes its final commercial flight from London Heathrow to New York JFK as Speedbird Concorde 1. It was to return the next day as Speedbird Concorde 2 to land in sequence with two other Concordes on Heathrow's runway 27 right.
  • 2003 – AH-64D Apache 00-5219 (ex AH-64A 86-8972) from 1–101st Aviation Regiment crashes in Iraq while approaching to land at Kirkuk. The APU clutch failed and started a fire in flight. Aircraft landed safely but fuselage was almost completely burnt through.[2]
  • 1987 – The last F-104 Starfighter is phased out of West German Luftwaffe service.
  • 1977 – (Oct. 26-31) A Pan American World Airways Boeing 747SP circumnavigates the world over the two poles.
  • 1972 – In Vietnam, Operation Linebacker concludes.
  • 1967 – American aircraft attack Phúc Yên airfield, North Vietnam’s largest airfield, for the first time.
  • 1967 – First flight of the Canadair CL-215
  • 1996 – Fuerza Aérea Argentina Boeing 707-372C, LV-LGP, c/n 20077/728, on approach to Ezeiza-Ministro Pistarini Airport, Buenos Aires, Argentina, makes high approach without proper attention to pre-landing procedures, develops nose-down attitude at 900–1,000 metres, does not have time to correct, strikes ground hard about 750 metres short of runway 11, breaks up, and burns. Two of eight on board are killed.
  • 1964 – U.S. Navy aircraft begin providing cover for Laotian government forces.
  • 1962 – The Air Defence Command alerted due to the Cuban missile crisis.
  • 1962 – In Operation Blue Moon, six U. S. Navy RF-8 Crusader photographic reconnaissance aircraft flying from Key West, Florida, conduct the first American low-level flights over Cuba, flying at 644 km/hr (400 mph) only a few hundred feet off the ground.
  • 1962 – A USAF Boeing C-135B-BN Stratolifter, 62-4136, c/n 18476/C42, of the Military Air Transport Service, delivering a load of ammunition from McGuire AFB, New Jersey, to Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba, as part of the military response to the Cuban Missile Crisis, stalls and crashes short of the runway, killing all seven crew. This was the first cargo C-135 hull loss.
  • 1957 – The British European Airways Vickers Viscount 802 G-AOJA crashes while landing in rain and low clouds at Nutts Corner Airport in Belfast, Northern Ireland, killing all seven people on board.
  • 1952 – First flight of the Hughes XH-17
  • 1951 – Ten U.S. Air Force Boeing B-29 Superfortresses attack an airfield in North Korea; three are shot down, four make emergency landings in South Korea, and three badly damaged aircraft return to Okinawa. It is one of the most deadly aerial combat engagements of the war and is referred to as Black Tuesday.
  • 1945 – The last of 10,174 military DC-3/C-47 transport aircraft built by Douglas is handed over to the U.S. Army Air Forces.
  • 1944 – First flight of the Nakajima G8N
  • 1943 – First flight of the Vickers Windsor
  • 1943 – 45 Fifth Air Force B-24 Liberators raid Rabaul, escorted by 47 P-38 Lightnings.
  • 1942 – American Airlines Flight 28, a Douglas DC-3, crashes near Palm Springs, California, after being struck by a U.S. Army Air Corps Lockheed B-34 bomber; all 12 aboard the airliner die, while the bomber lands safely with minor damage.
  • 1939 – First flight of the Mitsubishi G4M
  • 1934 – Francesco Agello sets a new airspeed record in the Macchi MC.72, of 709 km/h (440 mph).
  • 1929 – The first North American transcontinental air service begins between New York City and Los Angeles, California.
  • 1923 – First flight of the Handley Page Hyderabad
  • 1911 – First use of aircraft in war as an Italian pilot takes off from Libya to observe Turkish army lines during the Turco-Italian War.
  • 1906 – Alberto Santos-Dumont wins the Archdeacon prize as he flies his 14-bis aircraft at Bagatelle, France a distance of 60 m (197 ft).

References

  1. ^ Yeager, Chuck and Janos, Leo. Yeager: An Autobiography. p. 252 (paperback). New York: Bantam Books, 1986. ISBN 0-553-25674-2.
  2. ^ "2000 USAF Serial Numbers". Retrieved 17 February 2010.
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