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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

Aircraft spotter on the roof of a building in London. St. Paul's Cathedral is in the background.
Aircraft spotter on the roof of a building in London. St. Paul's Cathedral is in the background.
The Battle of Britain (German: Luftschlacht um England) is the name given to the sustained strategic effort by the German Luftwaffe during the summer and autumn of 1940 to gain air superiority over the Royal Air Force (RAF), especially Fighter Command. The name derives from a speech made on 18 June 1940 in the House of Commons by Prime Minister Winston Churchill, "The Battle of France is over. I expect the Battle of Britain is about to begin..."

Had it been successful, the planned amphibious and airborne landings in Britain of Operation Sea Lion would have followed. The Battle of Britain was the first major campaign to be fought entirely by air forces. It was the largest and most sustained bombing campaign attempted up until that date. The failure of Nazi Germany to destroy Britain's air defence or to break British morale is considered its first major defeat.

British historians date the battle from 10 July to 31 October 1940, which represented the most intense period of daylight bombing. German historians usually place the beginning of the battle in mid-August 1940 and end it in May 1941, on the withdrawal of the bomber units in preparation for the attack on the USSR. (Full article...)

Selected image

The inverted Jenny (or Jenny Invert) is a United States postage stamp of 1918 in which the image of the Curtiss JN-4 airplane in the center of the design was accidentally printed upside-down; it is probably the most famous error in American philately. Only 100 of the inverts were ever found, making this error one of the most prized in all philately; an inverted Jenny was sold at a Robert A. Siegel auction in June 2005 for US$525,000.

Did you know

...in 1931 Amelia Earhart flew a Pitcairn PCA-2 autogyro to a then world altitude record of 18,415 feet (5613 m)? ...that Indra Lal Roy of the Royal Air Force became India's first flying ace after he achieved 10 victories in thirteen days during World War I? ... that the collection of the Prague Aviation Museum, Kbely includes 275 aircraft, of which approximately 110 are on public display?

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

Associated Wikimedia

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

Selected biography

Frank Whittle speaking to employees of the Flight Propulsion Research Laboratory (now known as the NASA Glenn Research Center), USA, in 1946
Air Commodore Sir Frank Whittle (1 June 1907 – 9 August 1996) was a Royal Air Force officer and was one of the inventors of jet propulsion. By the end of the war, Whittle's efforts resulted in engines that would lead the world in performance through the end of the decade.

Born in Earlsdon, Coventry, England on June 1, 1907, Whittle left Leamington College in 1923 to join the Royal Air Force (RAF). Through his early days as an Aircraft apprentice he maintained his interest in the Model Aircraft Society where he built replicas, the quality of which attracted the eye of his commanding officer, who was so impressed that he recommended Whittle for the Officer Training College at Cranwell in Lincolnshire in 1926, a rarity for a "commoner" in what was still a very class-based military structure. A requirement of the course was that each student had to produce a thesis for graduation. Whittle decided to write his thesis on future developments in aircraft design, in which he described what is today referred to as a motorjet.

Whittle and Hans von Ohain met after the war and initially Whittle was angry with him as he felt Ohain had stolen his ideas. Ohain eventually convinced him that his work was independent and after that point the two became good friends.

Selected Aircraft

An A400M flying
An A400M flying

The Airbus A400M Atlas is a four-engine turboprop aircraft, designed by Airbus Military (now Airbus Defence and Space) to meet the demand of European nations for military airlift. Since its formal launch, the aircraft has also been ordered by Malaysia, Kazakhstan and Indonesia.

The A400M is assembled at the Seville plant of Airbus Military. The first test flight occurred in December 2009.

  • Span: 42.4 m (139 ft 1 in)
  • Length: 45.1 m (148 ft)
  • Height: 14.7 m (48 ft 3 in)
  • Engines: 4 EPI TP400-D6 (8,250 kW power)
  • Cruising Speed: 780 km/h (480 mph, 420 knots)
  • First Flight: 11 December 2009
  • Number built: 119 as of 31 August 2023
More selected aircraft Read more...

Today in Aviation

November 14

  • 2009 – English Electric Lightning T5 ZU-BEX crashed during an airshow at AFB Overberg, Bredasdorp, South Africa after a hydraulic failure, killing the pilot.
  • 2008 – Launch: Space Shuttle Endeavour STS-126 at 19:55 EST. Mission highlights: ISS assembly flight ULF2: MPLM Leonardo, crew rotation.
  • 2006 – EasyJet announces an order for 52 Airbus A319.
  • 1987 – Air Transat began airline operations.
  • 1982 – A Mitsubishi T-2B, 19-5174, of the Blue Impulse (or 11 Squadron) air demonstration team of the Japanese Air Self-Defense Force fails to pull out of a descending bomb-burst manoeuvere following a formation loop, crashes into civilian house, Takaoka Town, Hamamatsu City, Shizuoka Prefecture, N of Hamamatsu Air Base, during base's 30th anniversary air show, killing pilot Capt. Takashima Kiyoshi. Thirteen civilians injured, 28 civilian houses and about 290 cars damaged. Footage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3-m8tIf97A&feature=related
  • 1981 – Landing: Space shuttle Columbia STS-2 at 21:23:11 UTC. Mission highlights: First reuse of a manned orbital space vehicle; first test of Canadarm robot arm; Truncated due to fuel cell problem.
  • 1974 – Entered Service: F-15 Eagle with the United States Air Force 555th Tactical Fighter Training Squadron at Luke Air Force Base
  • 1970 – Southern Airways Flight 932, a chartered Douglas DC-9, crashes on approach at Tri-State Airport in Huntington, West Virginia, killing all 75 on board, including 37 players of the Marshall University football team and all but one of the coaching staff.
  • 1969 – NASA launches Apollo 12, the second manned mission to the surface of the Moon.
  • 1967 – Two McDonnell F-101B Voodoos of the 60th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, out of Otis AFB, Massachusetts, collide over Maine during a cross-country formation flight. Aircraft 57-376 is destroyed crashing on Mount Abraham after the two-man crew ejects with minor injuries. The uninjured crew of moderately damaged aircraft 57-378 makes an emergency landing at Dow AFB, Maine.
  • 1967 – A USMC Bell UH-1E Iroquois, BuNo. 153757, of VMO-3, callsign Scarface 1-0, departs Phú Bài, South Vietnam, at 1040 hrs. with three crew, pilot Capt. Milton George Kelsey, co-pilot 1st Lt. Thomas Anthony Carter, and crew chief Cpl. Ronald Joseph Phelps. At 1145 they pick up Major General Bruno Arthur Hochmuth, CG 3rd MARDIV, his aide Maj. Robert Andrew Crabtree and Liaison Maj. Nguyễn Ngọc Chương to visit ARVN Brig. Gen. Ngô Quang Trưởng in Huế, departing the hospital pad at Huế Citadel at 1145. En route to Đông Hà, the helicopter is chased by an HMM-364 UH-34 Choctaw piloted by Capt. J. A. Chancey. At 1150, the UH-1 is flying NW over Highway 1 at ~1500 feet. At YD672266, Capt. Chancey sees the aircraft’s nose yaw to the right twice and at the same instant the aft/engine section explodes in an orange fireball. The fuselage separates from the rotor and the aircraft falls in pieces. The fuselage lands inverted in a flooded rice paddy; the tail cone a short distance away. All on board are apparently killed on impact. Hochmuth was the only Marine Corps officer of General rank to die in Vietnam. Although many theories were postulated for the crash, from enemy gunfire, to ARVN gunfire, to U.S. "friendly fire", to sabotage, the most likely reason was the failure of the tail rotor gearbox and the official findings on the incident, submitted by Brig.Gen. Robert Keller in November, 1967, states “there is no evidence to indicate this mishap was caused either by hostile action or inadvertent friendly fire.”
  • 1965 – (14-18) The Battle of Ia Drang in South Vietnam is the culmination of the Ia Drang Valley campaign. The U. S. Army’s helicopter assault concept has made its combat debut as the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) undergoes its baptism of fire, losing only four helicopters to North Vietnamese fire during the campaign.
  • 1962 – Yukon aircraft from 437 Squadron began carrying dependants, as well as troops, to and from Canadian military forces in Europe.
  • 1961 – The 1961 Cincinnati Zantop DC-4 crash: A Zantop Air Transport DC-4 was on its final approach down to Greater Cincinnati Airport runway 18, when it clipped some trees, lost altitude and crashed into a wooded area near the airport.. This aircraft was the first of at least three aircraft on their final approach that failed to reach the safety of runway 18 at the Greater Cincinnati Airport, becoming victims of the area’s hilly terrain with steep changes in elevation from the Ohio River.
  • 1944 – (13–14) Task Force 38 carrier aircraft raid Luzon, sinking the Japanese light cruiser Kiso, four destroyers, and seven merchant ships and destroying 84 Japanese aircraft in exchange for the loss of 25 U. S. planes.
  • 1944 – RAF Air Chief Marshal Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory, his wife Dora, and eight aircrew are killed when Avro 685 York Mk. C.I, MW126, strikes ridge at the 6,300-foot (1,900 m) level in the French Alps between Belledonne and Seven Lakes Mountains, 30 miles (48 km) S of Grenoble, France, in a blizzard. Wreckage found by a villager in June 1945. Leigh-Mallory, originator of the "Big Wing" concept during the Battle of Britain, and younger brother of Everest mountaineer George Mallory, was en route to his new posting in Ceylon where he was to take over command of Allied air operations in South East Asia Command.
  • 1942 – During the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, U. S. Navy aircraft from the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CV-6) and U. S. Marine Corps aircraft from Henderson Field fatally damage the crippled Japanese battleship Hiei in Ironbottom Sound north of Guadalcanal in a series of air strikes during the day. Hiei sinks that evening.
  • 1941 – The aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal sinks due to torpedo damage from U 81 sustained on November 13.
  • 1940 – 14-15 – 437 Luftwaffe aircraft make a massed air raid on Coventry. 380 civilians are killed and some 800 wounded.
  • 1938 – A KLM DC-3 (registered PH-ARY) crashed on approach to Schiphol, Amsterdam in low visibility, killing 6 of the 19 on board.
  • 1935 – Prototype Noorduyn Norseman was tested at Pointe aux Trembles, Quebec by WJ McDonough. This was the first all-Canadian designed bush aircraft.
  • 1933 – Fred Haise, American astronaut, was born. Haise was the Lunar Module Pilot on the aborted Apollo 13 lunar mission 1970. He later flew five flights as the Commander of the space shuttle Enterprise, 1977, for the Approach and Landing Test Program at Edwards Air Force Base, and was selected to command the original STS-2 mission to rescue the Skylab space station 1979, but was cancelled due to the long delays in the Shuttle’s development as well as the break-up of the Skylab in mid-1979.
  • 1932 – 14-18 – Amy Johnson breaks the UK-Cape Town speed record, shaving 11 hours off Mollison's record in March. She flies a de Havilland Puss Moth.
  • 1930 – Edward White (Lt.Col, USAF), American astronaut, was born (d. 1967). On June 3, 1965, he became the first American to conduct a spacewalk. White was killed during the Apollo 1 training accident and posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor and the Purple Heart Medal.

References

  1. ^ Brulliard, Karin, and Joel Greenberg, "Israeli Aircraft Pound Gaza," The Washington Post, November 15, 2012, Page A1.
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