Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/May 1

May 1

• 2013 – A Boeing X-51A WaveRider unmanned scramjet demonstration aircraft detaches from a Boeing B-52H Stratofortress and reaches Mach 4.8 (3,200 mph; 5,100 km/h) powered by a booster rocket. It then separates cleanly from the booster, ignites its own engine, accelerates to Mach 5.1 (3,400 mph; 5,400 km/h), and flies for 240 seconds – setting the record for the longest air-breathing hypersonic flight in history – before running out of fuel and plunging into the Pacific Ocean off Point Mugu, California, after transmitting 370 seconds of telemetry. The flight – the fourth and last planned X-51A test flight and the first successful one – completes the X-51 program.

• 2011 – (Overnight) In Operation Neptune Spear, two modified United States Army UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne) carry United States Navy SEALs of the United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group from Jalalabad, Afghanistan, to Abbottabad, Pakistan, where they attack the compound of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, and kill him and four others in the compound. One Blackhawk crashes during the assault, but there are no serious injuries to any Americans, and the remaining Blackhawk and a CH-47 Chinook helicopter fly the SEALs and bin Laden's body back to Afghanistan.

• 2010 – Death of Paul Rudolf 'Rudy' Opitz, German Glider pilot, Luftwaffe Chief test pilot for the Me-110 and the Me-163.

• 2009 – Fijian airline Air Fiji ceased operations.

• 2007 – A Dassault Mirage III of the Fuerza Aérea Argentina (Argentine Air Force) crashes at 1110 hrs. at Morón Air Base after making a low pass during a "baptism of fire" day celebration, observing the opening of combat in the 1982 Falklands/Malvinas War. The pilot, Lt. Marcos Peretti, apparently encountered a fogbank after making the pass. He did not eject after steering the aircraft away from populated areas and was killed. Defence Minister Nilda Garré who presided over the main celebration ordered all Mirage aircraft grounded until a full investigation into the accident is completed "The causes of the accident are under investigation", said minister Garré adding that "Mirages are grounded until we determine how the accident happened; the pilot was in contact until a minute before the accident".

• 2006 – Death of Bruce A. Peterson, American engineer and NASA test pilot. He flew a wide variety of airplanes including the F5D-1, F-100, F-104, F-111 A, B-52, NT-33 A Variable Stability Trainer, the wingless lifting bodies and numerous general aviation aircraft as well as several types of helicopters and sailplanes.

• 2006 – Song (airline) turned down all operations to Delta Air Lines.

• 2003 – US President George W. Bush rode in the co-pilot seat of a Viking that landed on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72), where he delivered his "Mission Accomplished" speech announcing the end of major combat in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. That Navy flight is the only one to use the callsign "Navy One".

• 1993 – Death of Valentina Stepanovna Grizodubova, one of the first female pilots in the Soviet Union and WWII pilot.

• 1993 – The Royal Hong Kong Auxiliary Air Force (RHKAAF) is disbanded for the transfer of sovereignty from the United Kingdom to the People's Republic of China.

• 1989 – A Tyndall Air Force Base McDonnell-Douglas F-15 Eagle crashed in the Gulf of Mexico about 65 miles southeast of Tyndall, killing the student pilot who was identified as 2nd Lt. Sean P. Murphy, 23, of Warsaw, Indiana. At the time of the crash the pilot was engaged in a mock dogfight with his instructor who was flying a second F-15. The pilot was assigned to Tyndall's 95th Tactical Fighter Training Squadron.

• 1986 – Entered Service: Dassault Mirage IVP with Armée de l’Air.

• 1983 – 1983 Israeli Air Force F-15 crash: During air-to-air combat training over the Negev Desert, an Israeli Air Force McDonnell-Douglas F-15D Baz, 957, "Markia Schakim" (Hebrew: מרקיע שחקים, "Sky Blazer"), of 106 Squadron, collides with an Douglas A-4 Ayit at between 13 and 14 thousand feet altitude, causing the attack jet to explode (the pilot reportedly successfully ejected), and tearing off the starboard wing of the fighter ~2 feet outboard of the engine nacelle. Pilot Zivi Nedivi goes to afterburner to try to stop spinning aircraft, and unaware of the condition of the jet due to fuel leaks obscuring the extent of the damage, makes a blistering 250-260 knot landing at nearest air base at Ramon, tearing off the arrestor hook and coming to a stop just 20 feet from the runway threshold. Pilot later comments that had he known the true state of the aircraft, he and his weapons operator would have ejected. F-15 is reportedly repaired and returned to service in ~two months.

• 1982 – American Airlines launches AAdvantage, the first frequent flyer program in history. United Airlines launches its own program, Mileage Plus, only a week later.

• 1982 – Royal Air Force Avro Vulcan bomber based on Ascension Island attacks the airfield at Port Stanley on East Falkland Island. It is the first strike of Operation Black Buck, a series of five very-long-range missions to strike Argentinian positions in the Falkland (Malvinas) Islands. Each mission requires a 16-hour round trip of almost 8,000 nautical miles (9,200 statute miles; 15,000 km); they are the longest bombing missions in world history up to that time, and are not exceeded in distance and duration until the 1991 Gulf War.

• 1982 – BAE Sea Harriers attack Falklands targets for the first time and shoot down two Argentine Mirage III fighters. They are the first air-to-air kills of the Falklands War.

• 1980 – Spectacular crash of USMC AV-8A Harrier at MCAS Cherry Point, North Carolina. During a vertical takeoff the aircraft rolled, dropped to the runway, bounced into a ditch, burst into flames, flipped, slid through a hangar and into a parking lot, where it damaged more than twenty vehicles.

• 1975 – Death of Francis Stanley Symondson, British WWI flying ace, air racer, instructor and stunt pilot.

• 1970 – B-52 Stratofortress strikes and helicopter assaults against North Vietnamese forces are part of the first day of the American and South Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia. The last U. S. Army helicopter will not leave Cambodia until June 29.

• 1965 – A Lockheed YF-12 sets a new international airspeed record of 2,070 mpg (3,331 km/h).

• 1963 – Jacqueline Cochran takes off from Edwards Air Force Base, California, to set a 100-km (62-mile) closed-circuit world speed record for women of 1,203.7mph in a Lockheed F-104 Starfighter.

• 1960 – 1960 U-2 incident: A CIA Lockheed U-2A, 56-6693, Article 360, flown by Francis Gary Powers is shot down by a SA-2 (Guideline) missile near Degtyarsk in the Soviet Union during an overflight codenamed Operation GRAND SLAM, the twenty-fourth and most ambitious deep-penetration flight of the U-2 program. Powers parachutes down and is captured. Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev announces on 7 May to the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union, and thus the world, that a "spyplane" has been shot down but intentionally makes no reference to the pilot. Powers is later produced in a 'show trial'. On 10 February 1962, twenty-one months after his capture, Powers is exchanged along with American student Frederic Pryor in a spy swap for Soviet KGB Colonel Vilyam Fisher (aka Rudolf Abel) at the Glienicke Bridge in Berlin, Germany.

• 1959 – North Vietnam organizes No. 919 Transport Regiment as the first unit of the Vietnam People’s Air Force.

• 1957 – In the 1957 Blackbushe Viking accident, an Eagle Aviation Vickers VC.1 Viking crashes after engine failure at Blackbushe Airport; of the 35 on board, only a passenger survives.

• 1954 – The Myasishchev M-4, the first Soviet bomber designed to reach the United States and return to the Soviet Union, is displayed to the public for the first time. In reality, it lacks the range to reach the United States and return.

• 1953 – Death of Clemante Ravetto, Italian aviation Pioneer.

• 1952 – Trans World Airlines (TWA), British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) and Air France launch the world’s first scheduled tourist-class flights on their transatlantic routes from New York, London and Paris.

• 1952 – The IATA agrees on new "tourist class" fares, which are adopted by Pan Am on its NewYork-London "Rainbow service"

• 1951 – US Navy A-1 Skyraiders and F4U Corsairs from USS Princeton attack the Hwachon Dam, flooding the Pukhan River

• 1950 – Third and final de Havilland DH 108, TG283, crashes near Hartley Wintney, Hants, during stall tests, kills replacement RAE OC, Squadron Leader George E. C. "Jumbo" Genders. Aircraft entered uncontrollable spin, pilot bails out, parachute fails.

• 1949 – The Air Arm, Hong Kong Defence Force is established with Royal Air Force (RAF) assistance.

• 1947 – Harold Brownlow Morgan "Micky" Martin and Edward Barnes Sismore land their De Havilland Mosquito, setting a new London-Cape Town speed record, covering a distance of 6,717 miles in 21 hours 31 min at an average speed of 279mph.

• 1947 – United Airlines begins daily scheduled service between San Francisco and Honolulu.

• 1945 – The U. S. Navy’s mixed-propulsion Ryan FR Fireball becomes the first aircraft incorporating jet propulsion to qualify for use aboard aircraft carriers.

• 1945 – Hamburg radio of Germany announces to the world the death of Adolf Hitler.

• 1943 – No. 432 (Bomber) Squadron was formed in England.

• 1943 – (1-7 ) The U. S. Army Air Forces‘ Eleventh Air Force drops 200,000 pounds (90,719 kg) of bombs on Japanese forces on Attu in the Aleutian Islands in support of the upcoming American invasion of the island.

• 1942 – No. 130 (Fighter) Squadron was formed at Bagotville, Quebec.

• 1942 – First flight of The Miles M.35 Libellula, British tandem wing fighter-sized aircraft prototype.

• 1942 – Squadron No. 588 of the Soviet Air Force, an all-woman night-bombing unit equipped with Polikarpov Po-2 biplanes, is formed in the USSR.

• 1940 – German aircraft attack the British aircraft carrier HMS Glorious off Norway. Her embarked Gloster Sea Gladiators defend her.

• 1940 – First flight of The Douglas SBD Dauntless, American WWII naval dive bomber also operated by the United States Army as the A-24 Banshee.

• 1936 – RAF Training command is formed.

• 1934 – Fank Akers made a hooded landing in an OJ-2 at College Park, Maryland, in the first demonstration of the blind landing system intended for carrier use and under development by the Washington Institute of Technology.

• 1930 – Entered Service: Curtiss F8C Helldiver, the first United States Navy dive bomber designed as such, with Fighter Squadron 1 (VF-1 B) aboard USS Saratoga (CV-3)

• 1927 – Imperial Airways introduces its luxury "Silver Wing" service between London and Paris.

• 1925 – Birth of Malcolm Scott Carpenter, American engineer, test pilot, astronaut, and aquanaut.

• 1925 – The Imperial Japanese Army Air Corps is established.

• 1923 – HMS Hermes enters service with the Royal Navy. She is the first ship designed from the waterline up as an aircraft carrier and the first aircraft carrier with an island superstructure to enter service.

• 1922 – Deruluft (Deutsche-Russische Luftverkehrs, "German-Russian Airlines") commences operations.

• 1916 – German Airship Schütte-Lanz SL3 is stranded near Riga as structure of the ship degraded because of atmospheric exposure.

• 1915 – Air Mechanic William Thomas James McCudden of the Royal Flying Corps the elder brother of James McCudden VC died when his Bleriot had engine trouble and crashed at Fort Grange, Gosport.

• 1912 – First flight of the Avro Type F, single seat British aircraft from Avro and the first aircraft in the world to feature a completely enclosed cabin.

• 1898 – Birth of Karl Waldemar Ritscherle, German WWI flying ace, who served in WWII.

• 1897 – Birth of Eugen Bönsch, Austro-Hungarian WWI fighter ace who also served in WWII

• 1896 – Birth of Paul Codos, French Raid Aviator.

• 1892 – Birth of Ehrenfried Günther Freiherr von Hünefeld, German Aviation pioneer and initiator of the first trans-atlantic flight in East-West direction.

• 1889 – Birth of Wilbert Wallace "Wilbur" White, Jr., American WWI flying ace

• 1875 – Birth of Harriet Quimby, early American aviator and movie screenwriter, first woman to gain a pilot's license in the United States