April 2013

Published on April 29, 2013 Brig. Gen. Vladimir Kokkinaki and his copilot, Major Mikhail Kh. Gordienko, had set out from Moscow on April 28, 1939, in the Russian prototype Ilyushin TsKB-30 twin-engined bomber on an international mission.  Though the aircraft was a bomber by design, their flight was one of peace.  Nonetheless, it wouldn’t be [...]

Published on April 28, 2013 The Flight Data Recorder, most would say, traces its lineage to the first efforts of two Frenchmen, François Hussenot and Paul Beaudouin, who created their revolutionary “HB” device in 1939.  The HB used photographic processes, in which an eight meter long, 88 mm wide film recorded the progression of altitude, [...]

Published on April 27, 2013 Since 1911, the Pommery Cup prize had been standing, a twice yearly competition with a large prize of 7,500 francs given each six months until the last competition in the Fall of 1913.  Thus, two prizes were awarded each in 1911, 1912 and then 1913.  A total of 50,000 francs were [...]

Published on April 26, 2013 From the first minutes with the launch Operation Rügen, the bombs began to rain down indiscriminately on the small Basque town of Guernica.  No effort was made to avoid civilian areas — in fact, the deadly intent of the Luftwaffe’s Condor Legion was to utterly destroy the town itself and [...]

Published on April 25, 2013 Belgium’s top balloon-busting ace, Willy Coppens, would drop down from on high, his Hanriot HD-1 fighter plane swooping in toward his favorite target — a German artillery observation balloon, the type known as a “sausage” or “dragon”.  Time and again, his deadly fire would hit the German balloons, igniting their [...]

Published on April 24, 2013 At the end of the war, the US Army Air Forces made surplus a wide range of aircraft.  Among the most prominent were the Douglas C-47 Dakotas, military versions of the Douglas DC-3 airliner, a proven aircraft for commercial air passenger transport from before the war.  As thousands were retired [...]

Published on April 23, 2013 When Ensign Marion F. Jackson, Jr., USNR, and Aviation Machinist’s Mate 1c Willis D. Atchison, USN, took off that day from their temporary base at RNAS Hatston, a British airfield located near Kirkwall on Mainland Island in Scotland’s Orkneys, they expected a routine flight in their Vought SB2U-2 Vindicator.  Scouting [...]

Published on April 22, 2013 Damer Leslie Allen and Denys Corbett Wilson were two Irishmen who were among the first pilots in the early days of aviation.  In 1912, both were flying regularly at Hendon and knew each other well.  Both men flew Blériot XI monoplanes and had many shared experiences.  Thus, it was not [...]

This Week’s Hints to help you along: Just whose roundel insignia is that — French, British, something else? Are those Americans in uniform walking around the plane? Developed for very special, truly strategic, military mission. No bomb bay, no weapons and no cargo hold?  What was it for then? So do you know what this [...]

Published on April 21, 2013 The news reports carried word of a flight across the Arctic that had departed nearly a week earlier, on April 15 and 16, 1928.  Five days after departure, still the flyers were not yet safe.  As the day broke on April 21, 1928 — today in aviation history — the [...]

Published on April 20, 2013 It was ninety-nine years ago that the second Schneider Cup seaplane races were held off the shores of Monaco.  The year before, Marcel Prévost had won in a Deperdussin monoplane.  In 1914, England wasn’t considered much of a contender, as European aircraft manufacturers were viewed by most to be far [...]

Published on April 19, 2013 Maurice Chevillard was a French aviator who passed some time in 1913 in England.  Others were content in easing their uncertain machines around the aerodrome, seeking speed records or flying long distance flights.  Some sought to make a living by flying paid exhibitions or flying passengers in chartered airplanes.  Yet [...]

Published on April 18, 2013 Seventy one years ago today in aviation history, on April 18, 1942, sixteen B-25B Mitchell bombers, each with a five man crew, took off from the decks of the US Navy aircraft carrier Hornet and made their way over 600 miles to Japan where they bombed and strafed a series [...]

Published on April 17, 2013 IIt was 100 years ago this week that a detailed report was published regarding two episodes where hapless aviators had found themselves, by trick of ill-winds, suddenly upside down in midair.  In both cases, somehow, against all odds, despite in one of the cases having not even been belted in, [...]

Published on April 16, 2013 Harriet Quimby’s flight had been carefully planned.  The challenge was nothing less than matching the famous flight of Louis Blériot from 1909 by taking a plane across the English Channel.  If successful, she would become the first woman to make the crossing on her own, as the pilot.  She planned [...]

Published on April 15, 2013 By Thomas Van Hare “Deep Sea 129″, the code name for a US Navy reconnaissance flight, took off from the Naval Air Station at Atsugi, Japan, at 6:50 am local time on April 15, 1969. The mission was a routine reconnaissance flight, known as “Beggar Shadow”.  The plane was operated [...]

This Week’s Hints to help you along: Designed specifically for ground attack, yet a triplane! The personnel look quite lax — yet is it from the interwar period? A single pilot airplane — no copilot! — but had two gunners. Fitted with armor plates so it could survive while strafing trenches. So do you know [...]

Published on April 14, 2013 By Thomas Van Hare When he entered the Link Trainer room, he saw that there were ten of the machines neatly lined up to either side, a walkway separating the two rows.  Like all new USAF pilots, he was assigned to undergo intensive instrument training in the Link ANT-18, which [...]

Published on April 13, 2013 Against all odds, their plane had made it across the Atlantic Ocean from Europe to North America.  The flight was an aviation first that happened today in history, on April 13, 1928.  Until that moment, every successful transatlantic crossing had been heading west toward Europe, thus taking advantage of the [...]

Published on April 12, 2013 When Bill Lancaster took off from Reggane, Algeria, ahead of him was the empty expanse of the Sahara desert.  Having risked it all in an attempt to break the flying time record that linked London to Cape Town, South Africa, he was already running behind schedule.  He had the nearly [...]

Published on April 11, 2013 Today in aviation history, on the evening of April 11, 1955, precisely five hours into its flight to Jakarta, Indonesia, the chartered Air India Lockheed L-749 Constellation “Kashmir Princess” was suddenly rocked by an explosion.  An instant later, the pilots saw flames streaming from behind the number three engine on [...]

Published on April 10, 2013 The Arado Ar 234B-1 streaked overhead at high altitude, beyond the reach of Allied interceptors.  Its sleek lines and twin jet engines gave it speeds that were in excess of 700 km per hour.  On board, a pair of Rb 50/30 reconnaissance cameras captured a nine kilometer wide swath of [...]

Published on Mr. Slack Crosses the Channel. ACCOMPANIED by his little son, Mr. Robert Slack, on the 27th ult., flew across the channel from Dover to Calais on his Blériot monoplane.  With an unfavourable wind he took three-quarters of an hour for the trip.

Published on April 9, 2013 One hundred years ago in aviation history, on this date, British aviators were reading about the latest prize offerings from the Daily Mail, a newspaper in London that had been sponsoring the advancement of aviation since its first days.  Widely distributed, the newspaper had deep pockets and, in exchange for [...]

Published on April 8, 2013 Mario de Bernardi was the epitome of the Italian aviator, dashing, smiling, confident and — above all — daringly fast.  Born in the small town of Venosa, Italy, in 1893, he first joined the Italian military in 1911 at the age of 18 to serve in the cavalry.  Soon thereafter, [...]

This Week’s Hints to help you along: A fat, pudgy, shortened, cartoonish design from Germany. Certainly unique, in all respects — only one was built! It flew, though not well; it crashed too, though not badly. The extensively redesigned model flew a bit better. So do you know what this aircraft is?       [...]

Published on April 7, 2013 French and British Planes in Collision in a Fog — Six are Dead and One Dying. PARIS, April 7 — The Goliath airplane belonging to the French Compagnie des Grands Express Aériens, which left the Paris airdrome at Le Bourget for London at noon today, carrying three passengers, a pilot [...]

Published on April 6, 2013 Some time ago, while reviewing aviation postcards from the 1930s and 1940s, we came across a curious set of Japanese New Year’s holiday cards labelled “Kamikaze” that showed a Japanese pilot climbing into the cockpit of what looked a bit like a Mitsubishi B5M “Mabel” bomber.  In the foreground, two [...]

Published on April 5, 2013 The challenges of rebuilding an early era aircraft are extraordinary.  The few that remain in flying condition today are rarely flown at all.  Some builders have built “new” copies of the older planes based on the original plans.  Even then, there are challenges — for instance, where does one find [...]

Published on April 4, 2013 The First Air Fleet, the same Japanese Navy unit that had successfully attacked Pearl Harbor, secretly sailed from its base in Japan on another attack mission, this one code-named “Operation C”.  The goal of the operation was to head west into the Indian Ocean and destroy the British Eastern Fleet [...]

Published on April 3, 2013 The German battleship Tirpitz, sister ship of the late Bismarck that had been sunk during an Atlantic foray intended to target Allied shipping supplying Britain, had been serving in the fjords of Norway since early 1942.  Once there, its presence created a “Fleet in Being”, to use traditional Naval parlance, [...]

Published on April 2, 2013 The idea was simple — observers would be raised above the battlefield to watch for enemy movements and relay them to the generals below.  After careful consideration, the Government of France elected to set up a “compagnie d’aérostiers”, soldiers who would be trained in the flight of balloons, reconnaissance and [...]

Published on April 1, 2013 The Chinese Shenyang J-8D jet fighter closed rapidly, its flight path erratic as it approached the US Navy ELINT plane, a Lockheed EP-3E ARIES II flying a routine mission approximately 70 miles off the coast of China’s Hainan Island.  The Chinese pilot dodged under the American plane — it was [...]

This Week’s Hints to help you along: A truly record-setting airplane with seven records in its class. Unique in design, unique in construction, and unique overall. Often missed though it is displayed prominently even today. A modern design created and flown over 50 years ago! So do you know what this aircraft is?     [...]