Portal:Aviation
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The Aviation Portal
Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. Aircraft include 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 was 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. A major leap followed with the construction of the Wright Flyer, 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 engine which enabled aviation to become a major form of transport throughout the world. In 2024, there were 9.5 billion passengers worldwide according to the ICAO. As of 2018, estimates suggest that 11% of the world's population traveled by air, with up to 4% taking international flights. (Full article...)
Selected article
The word 'helicopter' is adapted from the French hélicoptère, coined by Gustave de Ponton d'Amecourt in 1861, which originates from the Greek helix/helik- (ἕλικ-) = 'spiral' or 'turning' and pteron (πτερόν) = 'wing'.
Helicopters were developed and built during the first half-century of flight, with some reaching limited production, but it was not until 1942 that a helicopter designed by Igor Sikorsky reached full-scale production, with 131 aircraft built. Though most earlier designs used more than one main rotor, it was the single main rotor with antitorque tail rotor configuration of this design that would come to be recognized worldwide as the helicopter. (Full article...)
Selected image
Did you know
...that the hyper engine was a hypothetical aircraft engine design meant to deliver 1 horsepower from 1 cubic inch of displacement? ...that during World War II, Marine Fighting Squadron 215 established four new U.S. Marine Corps records in the South Pacific including having the most ace pilots? ... that the collection of the Prague Aviation Museum, Kbely includes 275 aircraft, of which approximately 110 are on public display?
General images -
A Boeing 777X. It is under testing and will be the largest twinjet, with the widest and longest fuselage to enter production. (from Wide-body aircraft)
"Governable parachute" design of 1852 (from History of aviation)
First failure of Langley's manned Aerodrome on the Potomac River, 7 October 1903 (from History of aviation)
The Biot-Massia glider, restored and on display in the Musee de l'Air (from History of aviation)
La France flying in 1885 (from History of aviation)
The Aeroplane of Victor Tatin, 1879. (from History of aviation)
Qantas De Havilland biplane, c. 1930 (from History of aviation)
Clément Ader Avion III (1897 photograph) (from History of aviation)
An Airbus A380 of Qantas. The A380 is the world's largest passenger airliner. (from Wide-body aircraft)
Nieuport IV, operated by most of the world's air forces before WW1 for reconnaissance and bombing, including during the Italian-Turkish war (from History of aviation)
Woodcut print of a kite from John Bate's 1635 book The Mysteryes of Nature and Art (from History of aviation)
Jean-Marie Le Bris and his flying machine, Albatros II, 1868 (from History of aviation)
An Airbus A321 of Vietravel Airlines parking next to a Vietnam Airlines Airbus A350-900 and a Cargolux Boeing 747-400 widebodies, highlighting their size differences. (from Wide-body aircraft)
Planophore model aeroplane by Alphonse Pénaud, 1871 (from History of aviation)
Experimental helicopter by Enrico Forlanini (1877), exposed at the Museo nazionale della scienza e della tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci of Milan, Italy (from History of aviation)
1843 artist's impression of John Stringfellow's plane Ariel flying over the Nile (from History of aviation)
Early Voisin biplane (from History of aviation)
The Wright Flyer: the first sustained flight with a powered, controlled aircraft (from History of aviation)
Maxim's flying machine (from History of aviation)
"Map of Air Routes and Landing Places in Great Britain, as temporarily arranged by the Air Ministry for civilian flying", published in 1919, showing Hounslow, near London, as the hub (from History of aviation)
Map of record breaking flights of the 1920s (from History of aviation)
Otto Lilienthal, 29 May 1895 (from History of aviation)
French reconnaissance balloon L'Intrépide of 1796, the oldest existing flying device, in the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum, Vienna (from History of aviation)
The Wright Military Flyer aboard a wagon in 1908 (from History of aviation)
Me 262, world first operational jet fighter (from History of aviation)
The 14-bis, or Oiseau de proie (from History of aviation)
Alberto Santos-Dumont flying the Demoiselle over Paris (from History of aviation)
Apollo 11 lifts off on its mission to land a man on the Moon (from History of aviation)
1928 issue of Popular Aviation (now Flying magazine), which became the largest aviation magazine with a circulation of 100,000. (from History of aviation)
Concorde, G-BOAB, in storage at London Heathrow Airport following the end of all Concorde flying. This aircraft flew for 22,296 hours between its first flight in 1976 and final flight in 2000 (from History of aviation)
D.H. Comet, the world's first jet airliner. As in this picture, it also saw RAF service (from History of aviation)
One of Leonardo's sketches (from History of aviation)
Often published as a photo of Santos-Dumont during the prize-winning flight, this is actually an earlier attempt using his "Number 5" (from History of aviation)
Flagg biplane from 1933 (from History of aviation)
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Aviation news
- 8 September 2026 –
- Indonesia reopens its airport in Jakarta and four others after previously being closed due to ashes from Anak Krakatoa. (Al Jazeera)
- 7 September 2026 –
- A private Piper PA-34-200T Seneca aircraft goes missing off Andros Island, the Bahamas, with four people on board. A search and rescue operation is ongoing. (NBC News)
- A PAC P-750 XSTOL aircraft operating a passenger flight for Niugini Aviation crashes near Simbai, Madang, Papua New Guinea, during approach. All four people on board are killed. (ASN)
- 6 September 2026 – 21 Air Flight 7598
- A Boeing 767-300 cargo plane operated by 21 Air, contracted by Amazon Air, overshoots the runway and strikes vehicles while landing at Miami International Airport in Florida, United States, killing five people and injuring five others. (BBC News) (The New York Times)
- 6 September 2026 –
- Jakarta's Soekarno–Hatta International Airport, Indonesia's busiest airport, suspends flight operations after volcanic ash from Anak Krakatoa reaches the airport. (AFP via ABS-CBN News)
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Selected biography
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Mitchell deployed to France in 1917 when the United States entered World War I. While there he was promoted to brigadier general and placed in command American combat air units in France. After the war Mitchell was appointed the deputy director of the Air Service became a passionate advocate of air power. In 1921 he set up a demonstration to show the capability of airpower against naval vessels. During the course of the demonstrations aircraft successfully sank a captured German destroyer, the light crusier Frankfurt, and the battleship Ostfriesland.
Mitchell regularly sparred with his superiors over the role of airpower in the military. In 1925 he was reverted to his permanent rank of colonel and was transferred to San Antonio, Texas. Later that year, after a series of aviation accidents he accused Army and Navy leadership of incompetence and "almost treasonable administration of the national defense." In response he was court-martialed for insubordination, found guilty, and sentenced to a five-year suspension from active duty. Mitchell resigned on 1 February 1926 in lieu of serving the sentence. He continued to advocate airpower as a civilian until his death in 1936. In 1942 President Franklin Roosevelt posthumously promoted Mitchell to major general in recognition of his contributions to air power.
Selected Aircraft
Aérospatiale-BAC Concorde supersonic transport (SST), along with the Tupolev Tu-144, was one of only two models of supersonic passenger airliners to have seen commercial service.
Concorde had a cruise speed of Mach 2.02 (around 2170 km/h or 1,350 mph) and a maximum cruise altitude of 60,000 feet (18 300 metres) with a delta wing configuration and a reheat-equipped evolution of the engines originally developed for the Avro Vulcan strategic bomber. The engines were built by Rolls-Royce. Concorde was the first civil airliner to be equipped with an analogue fly-by-wire flight control system. Commercial flights, operated by British Airways and Air France, began on January 21, 1976 and ended on October 24, 2003, with the last "retirement" flight on November 26 that year.
Construction of the first two prototypes began in February 1965. Concorde 001 was built by Aerospatiale at Toulouse and Concorde 002 by BAC at Filton, Bristol. Concorde 001 took off for the first test flight from Toulouse on March 2, 1969 and the first supersonic flight followed on October 1. As the flight programme of the first development aircraft progressed, 001 started off on a sales and demonstration tour beginning on September 4, 1971. Concorde 002 followed suit on June 2, 1972 with a sales tour of the Middle and Far East. Concorde 002 made the first visit to the United States in 1973, landing at the new Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport to commemorate its opening.
- Span: 84 ft 0 in (25.6 m).
- Length: 202 ft 4 in[2] (61.66 m)
- Height: 40 ft 0 in (12.2 m )
- Engines: 4× Rolls-Royce/SNECMA Olympus 593 Mk 610 afterburning turbojets 170 kN each.
- Cruising Speed: Mach 2.04 (1,350 mph, 2,170 km/h)
- First Flight: March 2, 1969
- Number built: 20 (including prototypes)
Today in Aviation
- 2010 – DHC-8-103B LN-WIF of Widerøes Flyveselskap was substantially damaged in a hard landing at Sandnessjøen Airport, Stokka when the undercarriage collapsed. The aircraft was operating a domestic scheduled passenger flight from Bodø Airport.[1]
- 2005 – Russian Air Force Sukhoi Su-27 Flanker of the 6th Air Force, 177th Fighter Regiment, during a flight between St. Petersburg and Kaliningrad, for unknown reasons veers off its course while travelling over neutral waters of the Baltic Sea, enters Lithuanian airspace and crashes in Jurbarkas region, Lithuania. No one is harmed during the incident, and pilot Maj. Velery Troyanov ejects safely.
- 1997 – (15-21) The World Air Games are held in Turkey. They include the 10th FAI World Rally Flying Championship.
- 1991 – First flight of the Boeing C-17 Globemaster III
- 1988 – C-GTRT (Tracker) first flew with Pratt and Whitney Canada.
- 1988 – Ethiopian Airlines Flight 604, a Boeing 737, crashes on takeoff after suffering multiple bird strikes; 35 of 98 passengers die, all 6 crew survive.
- 1987 – A Eurocopter Panther sets new time-to-altitude records for helicopters in its class
- 1982 – The Douglas Aircraft division of McDonnell Douglas delivers its 2,000th jet airliner, a DC-10 built for United Airlines.
- 1982 – A Greek Air Force F-84F exploded over Larissa, three people on the ground killed.
- 1978 – Willy Messerschmitt, German aircraft designer, dies. (b.1898).
- 1974 – Air Vietnam Flight 706, a Boeing 727, is hijacked and crashes in Phan Rang, Vietnam; all 75 on board die.
- 1974 – On third day of Naval Preliminary Evaluation (NPE-1) testing, first prototype Sikorsky YCH-53E Sea Stallion, BuNo 159121, is destroyed at the Sikorsky plant at Stratford, Connecticut when it rolls onto its side and burns after one of the main rotor blades detaches during a ground run. It had first flown on 1 March 1974. Second prototype is grounded while accident is investigated, flight testing resuming on 24 January 1975.
- 1972 – An SAS domestic flight from Gothenburg to Stockholm was hijacked and flown to Malmö-Bulltofta Airport.
- 1969 – First flight of the Cessna FanJet 500, the prototype which led to the Cessna Citation.
- 1968 – The Soviet Zond 5 spaceship is launched, becoming the first spacecraft to fly around the Moon and re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere.
- 1960 – Tasman Empire Airways retires its last flying boat from service.
- 1956 – Introduction: Tupolev Tu-104 with Aeroflot
- 1950 – Task Force 7, centred on five US Navy carriers and one of the Royal Navy, supports the USMC assault on Green Beach, paving the way for the Inchon Landing.
- 1949 – First Convair B-36 Peacemaker loss occurs when B-36B 44-92079, of the 9th Bomb Squadron, 7th Bomb Wing, crashes into Lake Worth during a night "maximum effort" mission takeoff from Carswell AFB, Texas, killing five of 13 crew. Cause attributed to two propellers going into reverse pitch. Wreckage removed from lake and scrapped.
- 1949 – No. 421 Squadron was reformed at Chathan, New Brunswick, equipped with DH 100 Vampire fighters.
- 1948 – Flying an F-86 A Sabre fighter, U. S. Air Force Major Richard L. Johnson sets a world speed record of 670.981 mph (1,079.6 km/hr).
- 1945 – A flypast of 300 aircraft takes place over London to celebrate Battle of Britain Day on the fifth anniversary of the decisive day of combat in the Battle of Britain. Although two-thirds of the fighter squadrons defending Britain in the battle operated Hawker Hurricanes, not a single Hurricane takes part in the flypast.
- 1945 – Hurricane destroys three wooden blimp hangars at NAS Richmond, Florida, southwest of Miami, with 140 mph winds. Roofs collapse, ruptured fuel tanks are ignited by shorted electrical lines, fire consumes twenty-five blimps (eleven deflated), 31 non-Navy U.S. government aircraft, 125 privately owned aircraft, and 212 Navy aircraft. Thirty-eight Navy personnel injured, civilian fire chief killed. Air operations are reduced to a minimum following this storm, and NAS Richmond is closed two months later.
- 1943 – First Avro 683 Lancaster X arrived in England after a transatlantic delivery flight.
- 1943 – A German guided bomb strikes another American Liberty ship off Salerno, and she becomes a total loss.
- 1942 – The Japanese submarine I-19 torpedoes and sinks the U. S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Wasp (CV-7) southeast of the Solomon Islands.
- 1942 – German Luftwaffe ace Hans-Joachim Marseille shoots down seven British Curtiss Kittyhawk fighters on a single mission over North Africa. Among them is his 150th aerial victory.
- 1942 – The United States Army Air Forces Air Transport Command establishes the 319th Women’s Flying Training Detachment (WFTD), a second organization of civilian women ferry pilots and rival of the Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS) established five days earlier. Neither the WAFS nor the WFTD acknowledges the existence of the other.
- 1942 – Vultee XA-31B-VU Vengeance, 42-35824, piloted by H. H. Sargent Jr., out of Rentschler Field, Connecticut, overturns in a tobacco field while making forced landing near Windsor Locks, Connecticut, after engine failure.[149] Initially built as a non-flying XA-31A engine-test airframe but later upgraded for operation.
- 1941 – Miroslaw Hermaszewski, First Polish Cosmonaut in Space, is born.
- 1940 – Germany makes its heaviest daylight raid on London
- 1940 – First flight of the Miles M.20 U-9
- 1939 – Introduction: Bristol Bolingbroke
- 1939 – The Khalkhin Gol Incident concludes in a Soviet victory over the Imperial Japanese Army. In the final August 20-September 15 Soviet offensive, the Soviet Air Force claims the destruction of another 290 Japanese aircraft, bringing the total Soviet claim since the beginning of the Incident on May 11 to 645 Japanese planes destroyed. The Soviets claim to have lost only 34 aircraft in the last two months of the conflict.
- 1938 – The United States Army Air Corps officially activates Hickam Field in the Territory of Hawaii.
- 1938 – Air Training Command of the RCAF was formed, with headquarters at Toronto, Ontario.
- 1935 – A Seversky SEV-3 sets a world speed record for piston-engined amphibious airplanes, reaching 230.413 mph (370.814 km/hr). The record still stands.
- 1924 – A Curtiss N-9 seaplane, equipped with radio control and without a human pilot aboard, was flown on a 40-minute flight at the Naval Proving Grounds, Dahlgren, Virginia. Although the aircraft sank from damage sustained while landing, this test demonstrated the practicability of radio control of aircraft.
- 1923 – Major Edward L. Napier, a native of Union Springs, Alabama, is killed in the crash of a Fokker D.VII, AS-5382, at McCook Field, Dayton, Ohio, He had been a Medical Corps Officer in the Great War and had transferred to the Army Air Corps. He was receiving training as a flight surgeon at the time of his death. The official report states that he was piloting the plane himself and there was a structural failure of a wing. In 1941, the U.S. Army Air Corps will open Napier Field at Dothan, Alabama, named in his honor.
- 1916 – French submarine Foucault is sunk by two Austrian flying boats, becoming the first submarine to be sunk by an aircraft.
- 1911 – Édouard Nieuport, one of the pre-eminent aeroplane designers and racing pilots of the era, and co-founder with his brother Charles de Niéport of the French aircraft manufacturer Nieuport, is killed in a flying accident.
- 1904 – Wilbur Wright in the airplane Flyer II made his first controlled half-circle while in flight.
- 1784 – Italian diplomat, Vincenzo Lunardi, makes the first ascent in a hydrogen balloon in Britain.
References
- ↑ "LN-WIF Accident description". Aviation Safety Network. Archived from the original on 18 September 2010. Retrieved 15 September 2010.
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