January 2013

Published on January 30, 2013 It was January 1911 and in Cuba there was much talk of aviation.  News reached the island with frequency about the great flights underway at Palm Beach by Glenn Curtiss and his pilots.  Yet only one airplane had ever flown in Cuba and that had been a brief attempt that [...]

Published on January 31, 2013 On January 31, 1928 — today in aviation history — the US Postmaster, Mr. Harry S. New, issued a Federal Government order to all US Mail contractors to climb to higher altitudes before flying over the small town of Garrettsville, Ohio.  His reasoning was simple — based on a complaint [...]

Published on January 29, 2013 Raúl Pateras Pescara de Castelluccio was an Argentinian engineer living in France with an interest in helicopter design.  By January 1924, he had nearly five years of development work into his helicopter projects.  At Issy-les-Moulineaux, he rolled out his latest design, which included a revolutionary device that he called the [...]

Published on January 28, 2013 Today in aviation history, January 29, 1985, marks a dark moment in America’s long and storied space exploration programs.  At 11:38 EST, the Space Shuttle Challenger lifted off the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center, Florida, and rocketed toward orbit.  Just 73 seconds later, the spacecraft’s main fuel tank exploded, [...]

This Week’s Hints to help you along: Features a radical reduction in the number of struts for racing. Created for competition and aerobatics, especially for looping. Seemingly underpowered, but light and small enough for speed. A very stubby lower wing; later it would be replaced, adding span. A composite of sorts — meaning, the parts [...]

Published on January 27, 2013 One hundred years ago this week, the Royal Aero Club’s newsletter “Flight” carried a fascinating report on the essential accessories that every pilot should own.  These included moving maps, intercom systems, scarves, flight suits and maintenance coveralls.  If that list sounds somewhat familiar, it is probably because we wrote it [...]

Published on January 26, 2013 József Kiss de Ittebe et Elemer was born on January 26, 1896 (today in aviation history).  Kiss was a Hungarian and the son of a gardener working at the Pozsony Military Academy in what is now called Bratislava.  When war broke out between Serbia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Kiss left high [...]

Published on January 25, 2013 On this day in aviation history, on January 25, 1930, a new airline company was founded.  It was an artful creation of an investment group that rolled up 82 individual, smaller airlines under a single banner, each acquired one by one by purchase and agreement.  While these smaller companies were [...]

Published on January 24, 2013 During the Cold War, the Soviet Union launched a series of reconnaissance satellites into Earth orbit.  Among them were a small number of powerful active radar satellites that were used for ocean surveillance, tracking ships and submarines.  Active radar satellites demand high power and in the 1970s, solar panels were [...]

Published on January 23, 2013 The light, twin-engined bomber was called the Douglas Model 7B.  It was sleek, narrow in profile, highly maneuverable and a joy to fly.  Still, the US Army remained strangely uninterested in the design.  Further, under the Neutrality Act of 1935, foreign sales of US warplanes were restricted, though a so-called [...]

Published on January 22, 2013 For decades, conspiracy theories have abounded about secret Nazi UFO bases in Antarctica, about secret U-Boat missions, and about Hitler surviving the war and holing up in an ice cave.  In recent times, these themes have even been picked up by Hollywood to the extent of putting the Nazis into [...]

Published on January 21, 2013 By Thomas Van Hare Three weeks into 1944 and the Allied bomber onslaught had steadily grown in strength.  RAF Bomber Command came by night and the USAAF 8th and 9th Air Forces came by day.  Six months earlier, the bombing of Hamburg during Operation Gomorrah had unleashed what was later [...]

This Week’s Hints to help you along: A two-seat hot rod with a 125 hp engine. Delayed by war and only a handful built. Developed further into agricultural applications. A rancher’s best friend. So do you know what this aircraft is?       Post a REPLY below with your best guess! Click here to [...]

Published on January 20, 2013 Two years ago on this day in aviation history, on January 20, 2011, the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) launched a classified, Top Secret project into orbit atop a Delta IV rocket called the NRO L-49 (its payload known as USA-224).  While the exact purposes of the mission remain closely guarded [...]

Published on January 19, 2013 On the 19th of January 1784, at Lyon, France, the largest Montgolfier balloon ever constructed was readied for flight.  Called “Le Flesselle”, it was 120 feet high and had a capacity of 700,000 cubic feet, making it not only huge for its day but one of the largest hot air [...]

Published on January 18, 2013 One hundred years ago today, two members of the Royal Aero Club published a report about a trip they had made to the Americas, bringing along two crated aeroplanes.  After successful exhibition flights in New York, they packed up and proceeded to Mexico City.  Once there, they took off into [...]

Published on January 17, 2013 It was past midnight when the combined strength of a coalition of 34 nations launched an unrelenting air attack against Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.  The singular goal of of the war was the liberation of Kuwait, which Saddam Hussein’s forces had attacked and occupied on August 2, 1990.  In the first [...]

Published on January 16, 2013 “Young Marcel Desoutter, he is, by the way, only nineteen years of age, and withal one of the very soundest of the monoplane and biplane pilots we have in this country — had some rather unusual experiences on Saturday last at Hendon.  Going up for one of his exhibition flights, [...]

Published on January 15, 2013 Bill was a Harvard graduate and a well to do oil man.  He knew nothing of airplanes except for what he read in the newspapers with stories of men like Charles Lindbergh who flew the Atlantic to Paris.  As the 1920s drew to a close, however, reflecting the increasingly unstable [...]

Published on January 14, 2013 Born in the Danish town of Bakkebolle, as a young man Jacob Christian Hansen-Ellehammer apprenticed as a watchmaker.  Coming of age, he taught himself a range of skills, including mechanical and electrical engineering before he launched into a new career as an inventor.  His fist successful design was a motorcycle [...]

This Week’s Hints to help you along: The tail shape (and tail flash) tell a lot. Whose markings are those on the side of the fuselage? Twin-engined but so aerodynamically ungainly it was slow. Is that a bomber or are those passenger windows?  Or both? So do you know what this aircraft is?     [...]

Published on January 13, 2013 One hundred and one years ago today in aviation history, on January 13, 1912, a Frenchman named Jules Védrines set out from Pau in a new aircraft, a Deperdussin that had been purpose-built for speed.  His flight broke records for the 150 kilometer distance, yet another achievement for the famous [...]

Published on January 12, 2013 Today marks the anniversary of the 1944 death of one of America’s greatest aces, Lance C. “Wildcat” Wade.  This East Texan scored 23 kills against the Axis forces (Italian and German aircraft) during a four year span of combat during World War II.  “Wildcat” Wade was a consummate Texan and, [...]

Published on January 11, 2013 By Thomas Van Hare “Col. Howard, with his group, at once engaged the enemy and himself destroyed a German ME. 110.  As a result of this attack Col. Howard lost contact with his group, and at once returned to the level of the bomber formation.  He then saw that the [...]

Published on January 10, 2013 At this time, 100 years ago, the French were continuing to press forward in pursuit of aviation firsts and new achievements in the air.  They were unique in Europe at the time, with government interest in military aviation at a high, while private investors and interests lined up with support [...]

Published on January 9, 2013 Today in aviation history marks the birthday of Richard Halliburton, adventurer, aviator, author, grand lecturer and world traveler.  Born in 1900, Halliburton was a graduate of Princeton.  As many who attended the finer institutions of education in the day, Halliburton set out on a “Grand Tour”, yet where others would [...]

Published on January 8, 2013 “September 3rd dawned dark and overcast, with a slight breeze ruffling the waters of the Estuary.  Hornchurch aerodrome, twelve miles east of London, wore its usual morning pallor of yellow fog, lending an added air of grimness to the dimly silhouetted Spitfires around the boundary.  From time to time a [...]

Published on January 7, 2013 Today in aviation history, on January 7, 1929, a very special airplane landed in Los Angeles at Metropolitan Airport (now Van Nuys Airport) after a record-setting 150 hour, 40 minute flight.  The crew consisted of Major Carl A. Spatz (later he changed his name to Spaatz), Capt. Ira C. Eaker, [...]

This Week’s Hints to help you along: No relationship to the Boulton Paul Defiant. Incredible firepower through the nose! A V-12 engine gave it extraordinary power and speed. Designed by the Axis for the Allies and then captured by the Axis. Isn’t that Japanese camouflage patterning? So do you know what this aircraft is?   [...]

Published on January 6, 2013 By Thomas Van Hare The massacre at My Lai during the Vietnam War was a horrific event.  US troops of the Army’s Americal Division, acting under orders (or their interpretation of orders, at least), entered a small village and murdered at least 347 unarmed, innocent civilians (some counts put the [...]

Published on January 5, 2013 Since the summer of 1914, when the Great War broke out in Europe, aviation advanced quickly.  As the war progressed into 1915, the new Fokker Eindecker gave the Germans the upper hand in the skies.  The German pilots were downing dozens of French and British reconnaissance aeroplanes and early bombers.  [...]

Published on January 4, 2013 On January 4, 1989 — today in aviation history — based on an intelligence advisory, two Grumman F-14A Tomcats of VF-32 “The Swordsmen” launched from the deck of the aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy (CVG-67) over the waters of the central Mediterranean.  At the time, US Navy exercises were [...]

Published on January 3, 2013 On January 3, 1943, exactly 70 years ago today in aviation history, the USAAF launched a bombing raid on the staging yard for U-Boat torpedoes located at the docks of St. Nazaire, France.  Among the planes lost that day was the B-17F Flying Fortress “Snap! Crackle! Pop!” (lettered, “PU-O”), so [...]

Published on January 2, 2013 “On Friday, the 2nd inst., some New Year’s records were put up by Gustav Hamel, who looped the loop with Miss Trehawke Davies on his 80 h.p. Morane-Saulnier monoplane.  This not only constitutes the first time that a pilot has looped the loop with a passenger in this country, but [...]

Published on January 1, 2012 On January 1, 1914 — 98 years ago today in aviation history — the world’s first airline made its maiden passenger flight.  Using a Benoist Type XIV flying boat, what was originally a single plane operation and quickly becoming a two plane show.  Its first flight carried the city’s former [...]