Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/July 3

July 3

• 2012 – Two UK Royal Air Force Panavia Tornado GR4s crashed in Moray Firth, Scotland.

• 2009 – 2009 Pakistan Army Mil Mi-17 crash: A Mil Mi-17 operated by the Pakistan Army crashes in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, killing all 43 people on board.

• 2009 – A Belgian Air Component Piper L-21B Super Cub crashes on take-off at Goetsenhoven Military Airfield, Flanders, Belgium killing the 2 crew. The aircraft which was used as a gilder-tug collided with a nearby hangar, crashing into a field and caught fire.

• 2009 – A Fuerza Aérea Argentina Dassault Aviation Mirage III from Grupo 6 de Caza based at Tandil Airport, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina crashed into open countryside near Benito Juárez and the pilot successfully ejected from the aircraft.

• 2008 – First flight of the Cirrus Vision SF50

• 2004 – Death of Andriyan Grigoryevich Nikolayev, Soviet pilot and cosmonaut.

• 2002 – Steve Fossett completes round-the-world balloon flight, landing after 14 days, 19hrs. He broke three balloon records along the way; fastest time around the world (13 days, 3 mins), longest distance flown solo (20,483.25 mi; 32,963.35 km), and longest time flown solo (355 hrs, 50 min).

• 2002 – Launch of The Comet Nucleus TOUR (CONTOUR), NASA Discovery-class space probe.

• 2001 Hainan Island incident – More than 3 months after its emergency landing at Lingshui airbase in China, the US Navy EP3E Aries III is air freighted back to America on a chartered Russian Antonov An-124-100. The Chinese Government insist that a civilian aircraft be used to remove the aircraft.

• 1998 – Launch of Nozomi (spacecraft), Japanese space probe designed to study the upper Martian atmosphere and its interaction with the solar wind and to develop technologies for use in future planetary missions.

• 1988 – Iran Air Flight 655, an Airbus A300, is shot down over Iranian waters by the missile cruiser USS Vincennes; all 290 people on board are killed.

• 1987 – 2 men, Per Lindstrand and Richard Branson, became First hot-air balloon travelers to cross Atlantic. Their balloon, at the time, is the largest ever flown at 2.3 million cubic feet of capacity.

• 1984 – Air Florida suspends all their flights after going bankrupt.

• 1982 – Death of William Ellsworth Kepner, US Army, US Army Air Corps, pioneer balloonist and airship pilot. WWII high-ranking officer, he flew some missions in Bombers and fighters.

• 1982 – First flight of The prototype General Dynamics F-16XL, derivative of the F-16 Fighting Falcon, with a cranked arrow delta wing, similar in appearance to the wing planform of the earlier Saab 35 Draken from Sweden, that is over twice the size of that of the standard F-16 wing.

• 1976 – Three Israeli Air Force C-130 Hercules carry commandos to Entebbe, Uganda to rescue the 258 passengers of an Air France Airbus hijacked six days earlier

• 1974 – Launch of Soyuz 14, Soviet manned spaceflight to the Salyut 3 space station

• 1973 – Death of Laurens Hammond, American engineer and inventor (most famously, the Hammond organ, the Hammond Clock, and the world's First polyphonic musical synthesizer, the Novachord). In WWII he helped design guided missile controls and was awarded patents for infrared and light sensing devices for bomb guidance, glide bomb controls, a camera shutter and a new type of gyroscope.

• 1971 – Toa Domestic Airlines Flight 533, a NAMC YS-11, hits Yokotsudake (Yokotsu Mountain) near Hakodate Airport, Hokkaidō, Japan, killing all 68 passengers and crew in the worst ever disaster involving the YS-11.

• 1970 – The 1970 Dan-Air de Havilland Comet crash takes place near Girona, Spain due to a navigation error, killing all 112 on board.

• 1970 – The Canadian Armed Forces decommission Canada’s last aircraft carrier, HMCS Bonaventure (CVL 22), at Halifax, Nova Scotia.

• 1968 – In the 1968 BKS Air Transport Heathrow crash, an Airspeed Ambassador freight aircraft experiences metal fatigue and crashes while landing, striking two unoccupied British European Airways airliners. Six of the freighter's crew of eight are killed, as are eight racehorses being transported. All Airspeed Ambassadors are grounded until a redesign strengthens the flaps. One of the BEA aircraft is repaired but is lost in the 1972 Staines air disaster.

• 1963 – The Peruvian Navy reestablishes a naval arm, Peruvian Naval Aviation.

• 1963 – New Zealand National Airways Corporation Flight 441, a Douglas DC-3 Skyliner flying from Whenuapai Airport, Auckland to Tauranga, crashes into the Kaimai Ranges; all 23 aboard die, making it the worst air disaster in mainland New Zealand to date.

• 1962 – No. 425 Squadron, the first RCAF Squadron to be equipped with McDonnell CF-101 Voodoo fighters, was moved to its permanent station at Bagotville, after re-equipping at Namao, AB.

• 1953 – First tethered flight by the Rolls-Royce Thrust Measuring Rig VTOL aircraft

• 1952 – First flight of the Yakovlev Yak-24 twin engine tandem helicopter

• 1951 – Female members of the Royal Canadian Air Force are the first military women to train with the post-war Canadian military when they enter the RCAF Manning Depot at St. Jean, Quebec.

• 1951 – United States Navy Lieutenant junior grade John K. Koelsch and his crewman, Aviation Mate Third Class George M. Neal, are shot down in an HO3 S helicopter by enemy ground fire while trying to rescue United States Marine Corps Captain James V. Wilkins, who had been shot down behind enemy lines and was badly burned. Koelsch and Neal rig a litter to carry Wilkins out of the area, but eventually are captured on July 12, and Koelsch dies on October 16, 1951, while in captivity. For his actions, Koelsch posthumously becomes the first helicopter pilot to receive the Medal of Honor.

• 1950 – F9 F Panther's of VF-51 flying from USS Valley Forge become the first US jet fighters to go into combat. A North Korean Yak-9 is shot down.

• 1950 – Supermarine Seafires of 800 Naval Air Squadron and Fairey Fireflys of 827 Naval Air Squadron from HMS Triumph fly the first non-US sortie over Korea.

• 1948 – First flight of The North American AJ Savage (later A-2 Savage), US twin engine carrier-based bomber aircraft.

• 1947 – The Philippine Air Force is formed.

• 1943 – Birth of Norman Earl Thagard, American scientist and NASA astronaut. First American to ride to space on board a Russian vehicle, and can be considered the First American cosmonaut.

• 1943 – (Overnight) 653 British bombers attack Cologne. During the raid, the Luftwaffe experiments for the first time with Wilde Sau (“Wild Boar”) night fighter tactics, in which single-engine day fighters use any illumination – From searchlights, flares, fires, etc., – Available over a city to visually identify and attack enemy bombers at night. Wilde Sau pilots and antiaircraft artillery both claim the same 12 bombers shot down over Cologne and officially each receive credited for six. The experiment’s success will lead to the formation of Jagdgeschwader 300, which will specialize in Wilde Sau operations.

• 1942 – First airborne test firing of a retrocrocket at Goldstone Lake, Calif., from a PBY-5 A piloted by Lt. Comdr. J. H. Hean (USN).

• 1941 – Luftwaffe ace Major Wilhelm Balthasar, (47 credited kills), Geschaderkommodore of Jagdgeschwader 2, and winner of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oakleaves, is killed in action on this date when his Messerschmitt Bf 109F-4 suffers failure of a wing and he crashes into Ferme Goset, Wittes, France, near Saint-Omer. The airframe is recovered in March 2004.

• 1941 – Royal Air Force Boeing Fortress I, AN528, of 90 Squadron, RAF Polebrook, is destroyed when a troublesome engine catches fire during a late-night ground run.

• 1941 – (overnight) – 90 British bombers attempting to attack the Krupp arms works and rail targets in Essen, Germany, scatter their bombs so widely that they bomb Bochum, Dortmund, Duisburg, Hagen, Wuppertal, and other cities as well as Essen. In Essen, they succeed only in inflicting minor housing damage, injuring two people.

• 1940 – British bombers make a daylight attack against German barges assembling at Rotterdam in anticipation of an invasion of the United Kingdom, their first attack against German efforts to build an invasion force. Such raids will peak in September and end in October after the threat of a German invasion abates.

• 1940 – During the British attack on the French fleet at Mers-el-Kébir, Algeria, Fairey Swordfish aircraft from the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal mine the harbor and unsuccessfully attack the French battlecruiser Strasbourg as she flees to Toulon. French Curtiss Hawk 75 fighters and Blackburn Skua fighters from Ark Royal engage in a dogfight, during which the French shoot down one Skua.

• 1937 – July 3-6 – Pan Am and Imperial Airways flying boats conduct joint survey flights over the Atlantic in preparation for the commencement of regular services.

• 1937 – First flight of the Dornier Do 24

• 1937 – Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan disappear over the Pacific Ocean on a flight from Lae, New Guinea, to Howland Island, and are never seen again.

• 1936 – First flight of the Short Empire S.23prototype RMA Canopus. The flying boat built by Shorts as the S.23 design, makes a brief 14-min. first flight piloted by John Lankester Parker.

• 1935 – Birth of Harrison Hagan "Jack" Schmitt, American geologist and NASA astronaut. Last of the Apollo astronauts to arrive and set foot on the Moon

• 1933 – First flight of Tupolev ANT-16 (also known as TB-4) experimental Russian heavy bomber aircraft.

• 1931 – First prototype Breguet 393 T (390 T), French 3 engine sesquiplane of all-metal construction airliner, loses a propeller during test flight, pilot losing his life when his parachute failed to open after he abandoned the aircraft.

• 1929 – Lt A. W. Gordon hooks a Vought VO-1 onto US Navy airship USS Los Angeles in successful parasite fighter experiments.

• 1921 – Zeppelin LZ120 'Bodensee' is transferred, renamed as Esperia, to Italy in the context of war reparations.

• 1920 – The first Royal Air Force Pageant is held, at Hendon

• 1920 – Birth of Herschel "Herky" Green, USAAF WWII flying ace.

• 1919 – Designed and built by the Engineering Division of the U. S. Bureau of Aircraft Production, the first of four XB-1As (originally designated USXB-1 A) makes its first flight at McCook Field, Dayton, Ohio.

• 1918 – Death of Jacques Gerard, French WWI flying ace, killed in action.

• 1918 – Death of Wilhelm "Willi" Reinhard, German WWI fighter ace, killed while test flying a Zeppelin-Lindau D. I, when a strut broke and the top wing collapsed

• 1917 – Death of Albert Dossenbach, German WWI fighter ace and balloon buster, Killed in action.

• 1916 – Death of Ugo Niutta, Italian WWI pilot.

• 1914 – Birth of Marmaduke Thomas St. John "Pat" Pattle, South African WWII fighter ace.

• 1897 – Birth of Aubrey Beauclerk Ellwood, British WWI flying ace and senior RAF commander.

• 1896 – Birth of Hans Müller (aviator), German WWI flying ace who also served the Luftwaffe in WWII.

• 1886 – Birth of Giovanni 'Gianni' Battista Caproni, Italian aeronautical engineer, civil engineer, electrical engineer, and aircraft designer who founded the Caproni aircraft-manufacturing company.