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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 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...)

Selected article

Air Force One
Air Force One
An airport is a facility where aircraft can take off and land. At the very minimum, an airport consists of one runway (or helipad), but other common components are hangars and terminal buildings. Apart from these, an airport may have a variety of facilities and infrastructure, including fixed base operator services, air traffic control, passenger facilities such as restaurants and lounges, and emergency services. (Full article...)

Selected image

Swiss rescue helicopter in action.

Did you know

...that among the earliest accounts of the use of a man-lifting kite is in the story of Ishikawa Goemon's robbery from Nagoya Castle? ...that one of the first aircraft to cross the Atlantic was the Italian Savoia-Marchetti S.55 flying boat, which went on to serve in the Luftwaffe in WWII? ... that while flying accidents were commonplace at RAAF training establishments during World War II, No. 8 Service Flying Training School's first fatality was from drowning?

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
Read and edit Wikinews

Associated Wikimedia

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

Selected biography

Elizabeth Muriel Gregory "Elsie" MacGill (27 March 1905 – 4 November 1980), known as the Queen of the Hurricanes, was the world's first female aircraft designer. She worked as an aeronautical engineer during the Second World War and did much to make Canada a powerhouse of airplane construction during her years at Canada Car and Foundry (CC&F) in Fort William, Ontario. After her work at CC&F she ran a successful consulting business. Between 1967–1970 she was a commissioner on the Royal Commission on the Status of Women in Canada, published in 1970.

Selected Aircraft

Avro Arrow replica at CASM Arrow rollout in 2006
Avro Arrow replica at CASM Arrow rollout in 2006

The Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow was a delta-winged interceptor aircraft, designed and built by Avro Aircraft Limited (Canada) in Malton, Ontario, Canada, as the culmination of a design study that began in 1953. Considered to be both an advanced technical and aerodynamic achievement for the Canadian aviation industry, the CF-105 held the promise of Mach 2 speeds at altitudes exceeding 50,000 ft (15,000 m), and was intended to serve as the Royal Canadian Air Force's primary interceptor in the 1960s and beyond. Not long after the 1958 start of its flight test program, the development of the Arrow (including its Orenda Iroquois jet engines) was abruptly and controversially halted before the project review had taken place, sparking a long and bitter political debate. The controversy engendered by the cancellation and subsequent destruction of the aircraft in production, remains a topic for debate among historians, political observers and industry pundits. "This action effectively put Avro out of business and its highly skilled engineering and production personnel scattered... The incident was a traumatic one... and to this day, many mourn the loss of the Arrow."

  • Span: 50 ft 0 in (15.24 m)
  • Length: 77 ft 9 in (23.71 m)
  • Height: 20 ft 6 in (6.25 m)
  • Engines: 2×Pratt & Whitney J75-P-3
  • Cruising Speed: Mach 0.91 (607 mph, 977 km/h) at 36,000 ft (11,000 m)
  • First Flight: 25 March 1958
  • Number built: 5
More selected aircraft Read more...

Today in Aviation

February 15

  • 2011 – United Airlines temporarily grounds all 96 of its Boeing 757 aircraft to check on a recent software upgrade that had not been performed to spec.
  • 2011 – Death of Jean Boulet, French test pilot and helicopter record breaker.
  • 2009 – A Bell 205 Helicopter while flying in dense mist and light rain crashes into Polhuín Hill, Chanco, Cauquenes Province, Chile. The accident occurred when the Bell helicopter owned by Flight Services Helicópteros was ferrying local fire-fighters from a Eucalyptus plantation to a forest fire in the Quirihue Sector of the Eighth Region. The wreckage from the accident was scattered over a large area killing the pilot a former Chilean Airforce officer and 12 fire-fighters from the Celulosa Arauco y Constitucion (CELCO) company.[1]
  • 2007 – Air Mauritanie hijacking: A Boeing 737-700 on a flight from Nouakchott to Las Palmas in the Spanish Canary Islands was hijacked by Mohamed Abderraman, who was allegedly seeking political asylum in France.
  • 2006 – Origin Pacific Airways, New-Zealand airline, ceased operations.
  • 2005 – The first 777-200LR Worldliner, the world’s longest range commercial airplane is rolled out in Everett, Wash. It can carry 301 passengers up to 9,420 nautical miles.
  • 1996 – At the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in China, a Long March 3 rocket, carrying an Intelsat 708, crashes into a rural village after liftoff, killing many people.
  • 1991 – Iraqi shoulder-launched surface-to-air missiles shoot down two U. S. Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt II aircraft while they are attacking Iraqi Republican Guard forces, and a U. S. Navy A-6E Intruder crashes in Saudi Arabia due to battle damage. A U. S. Air Force F-15 Eagle on an anti-Scud ballistic missile mission destroys a hovering Iraqi helicopter with a laser-guided bomb; the helicopter is the last Iraqi aircraft destroyed in the air during the Gulf War.
  • 1986 – First flight of the Beechcraft Starship, a twin-turboprop six- to eight-passenger pressurized business aircraft.
  • 1971 – Breda Nardi Costruzioni Aeronautiche is established for licensed production of the Hughes Helicopter series.
  • 1970 – Death of Air Chief Marshal Hugh Caswall Tremenheere Dowding, first Baron Dowding GCB, GCVO, CMG, British officer in the Royal Air Force. He was the commander of RAF Fighter Command during the Battle of Britain.
  • 1970 – The RAF Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding, AOC-in-C Fighter Command during the Battle of Britain, died at the age of 87.
  • 1970 – Contaminated fuel causes dual engine failure shortly after takeoff from Las Américas International Airport near Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic in the Dominicana DC-9 air disaster; all 102 on board were killed.
  • 1964 – Birth of Leland Devon Melvin, American engineer and NASA astronaut.
  • 1964 – The North Vietnamese Air Force scores its first aerial victory against an American aircraft when a North Vietnamese T-28 Trojan armed trainer shoots down a C-123 Provider transport plane.
  • 1961 – Sabena Flight 548, a Boeing 707, crashes on approach in Brussels, Belgium, killing 73, including the entire United States figure skating team: a runaway stabilizer is thought to have been the cause of the first fatal accident involving a 707 in regular passenger service.
  • 1950 – A de Havilland DH 108 “Swallow” (a British tailless, swept wing with a single vertical stabilizer experimental aircraft), VW120, flown by RAE's OC, Squadron Leader J. Stewart R. Muller-Rowland, enters steep dive from 27,000 feet (8,200 m), breaking up around 10,000 feet (3,000 m) with fatal result. The main wreckage comes down at Little Brickhill, near Bletchley. The pilots body was found near Sandy Lane near Woburn Sands also near Bletchley. Accident investigation pointed to a faulty oxygen system that incapacitated the pilot.
  • 1947 – An Avianca Douglas DC-4 Crashed into Mount Tablazo obscured by fog, 30 km NW of Bogota, killing all 53 on board.
  • 1947 – Birth of Viktor Ivanovich Belenko, American aerospace engineer and lecturer of Soviet origin. Belenko was sentenced to death in the Soviet Union for state treason, having successfully defected to the West, flying his Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25 “Foxbat” jet fighter to Hakodate, Japan.
  • 1946 – First flight of the Douglas DC-6, an American piston-powered airliner and transport aircraft.
  • 1945 – In ten weeks of steady bombardment of Iwo Jima, the U. S. Army Air Forces‘ Seventh and Twentieth Air Forces have dropped nearly 6,800 tons (6,168,920 kg) of bombs on the island.
  • 1944 – Birth of Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Serebrov, Russian cosmonaut.
  • 1944 – Very heavy Allied air raids demolish the Benedictine monastery at Monte Cassino in Italy, but fail to dislodge its German defenders Off Anzio, a German guided bomb destroys a Liberty ship unloading ammunition and a tank landing craft alongside her.
  • 1943 – Convoy JW 53 departs Loch Ewe, Scotland, for the Kola Inlet in the Soviet Union. The British aircraft HMS Dasher escorts it, but must turn back after only two days due to damage incurred during bad weather. No aircraft carrier escorts an Arctic convoy again until February 1944.
  • 1940 – The Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA), British WWII civilian organization that ferried new, repaired and damaged military aircraft between UK factories, assembly plants, transatlantic delivery points, Maintenance Units (MU), scrap yards, and active service squadrons and airfields, is formed.
  • 1938 – First flight of the Bloch MB-170, French twin engine 3 seat reconnaissance bomber prototype.
  • 1936 – Italian aircraft based at nearby Mek’ele, Ethiopia, maintain at least 12 aircraft over the battlefied all day during the Battle of Amba Aradam against Ethiopian troops. It is a forerunner of the World War II “cab rank” technique of keeping airborne aircraft continually on call over a battlefield to bomb enemy positions when needed.
  • 1935 – Birth of Roger Bruce Chaffee, American aeronautical engineer, Lieutenant Commander in the U. S. Navy and NASA astronaut.
  • 1926 – The Ford Motor Co. becomes the first U. S. private air carrier to operate a contract airmail (CAM) route. Ford begins operations with CAM-6 between Detroit and Chicago and CAM-7 between Detroit and Cleveland.
  • 1923 – King George V granted the prefix “Royal” to the Canadian Air Force.
  • 1918 – Death of Kenneth Lloyd Gopsill, British WWI flying ace, Killed in action.
  • 1917 – Death of Hans von Keudell, German WWI flying ace, killed in his Albatros D.III by a British Nieuport.
  • 1917 – Death of Marcel Hauss, French WWI flying ace, killed in action.
  • 1910 – King Edward VII grants the title “Royal” to the Aero Club of the United Kingdom.
  • 1897 – Birth of Frederick Dudley Travers, British WWI flying ace and pioneering airliner pilot.
  • 1895 – Birth of Dennis Edward Francis Waight, British WWI fighter ace.
  • 1895 – Birth of George Everard Gibbons, British WWI fighter ace.
  • 1890 – Birth of Cosimo Rennella, Italian born Ecuadorian WWI flying ace, and pioneering aviator in South America pre and post WWI war.
  • 1890 – Birth of Marie Gaston Fulerand Leon Vitalis, French WWI flying ace.
  • 1890 – Birth of Matome Ugaki, admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy during WWII, most remembered for his role at the Battle of Leyte Gulf. He led the last Kamikaze mission.
  • 1858 – Birth of John Joseph Montgomery, American aviation pioneer who made the first manned, controlled, heavier-than-air flights of the US.

References

  1. ^ http://www.santiagotimes.cl/santiagotimes/index.php/2009021615626/news/political-news/helicopter-crash-kills-pilot-and-12-crewmembers-in-chile.html The Santiago Times - Helicopter crash kills pilot and 12 crew members in Chile
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