Portal:Aviation

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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. (Full article...)

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A Ryanair Boeing 737 on the landing roll at Bristol Airport

Ryanair is an airline based in Ireland. It is Europe's largest low-cost carrier, operating 209 low-fare routes to 94 destinations across 17 European countries. Over the years it has evolved into the world's most profitable airline, running at remarkable margins by relentlessly driving costs down. Ryanair has been characterised by rapid and continuing expansion, enabled by the deregulation of the air industry in Europe in 1997. It operates a fleet of 74 Boeing 737s, and currently has firm orders for an additional 225 Boeing 737-800 airplanes by 2010, with options on a further 193. Ryanair is one of Europe's most controversial companies, praised and criticised in equal measure. Its supporters praise its commitment to exceptionally low fares, its radical management, its populism, and its willingness to challenge what Ryanair calls the 'establishment' within the airline industry. Critics, meanwhile, have attacked its labor union policies, and have charged that it practises deceptive advertising. (Full article...)

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V-22 Osprey

Credit: U.S. Navy photo by Chief Petty Officer Joe Kane

Crew members refuel an A V-22 Osprey before a night mission in central Iraq, Feb. 2, 2008.

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Did you know

...that after the Red Baron, French ace René Fonck had the most confirmed World War I aerial victories? ...that Theo Osterkamp was the first German reconnaissance pilot to fly a land-based aircraft to England during World War I? ... that in the middle of building Fagernes Airport, Leirin, the authorities changed their minds and gave the airport more than twice the runway length?

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The following are images from various aviation-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1The economy class cabin of an Airbus A350 (from Wide-body aircraft)
Image 2First female combat pilot, Sabiha Gökçen, reviews her Breguet 19 (from History of aviation)
Image 3"Governable parachute" design of 1852 (from History of aviation)
Image 4The Wright Flyer: the first sustained flight with a powered, controlled aircraft (from History of aviation)
Image 5Jean-Marie Le Bris and his flying machine, Albatros II, 1868 (from History of aviation)
Image 6Sailplane, a Rolladen-Schneider LS4 (from General aviation)
Image 7Apollo 11 lifts off on its mission to land a man on the Moon (from History of aviation)
Image 8The Aeroplane of Victor Tatin, 1879. (from History of aviation)
Image 9Clément Ader Avion III (1897 photograph) (from History of aviation)
Image 10Otto Lilienthal, 29 May 1895 (from History of aviation)
Image 11Daedalus working on Icarus' wings (from History of aviation)
Image 121928 issue of Popular Aviation (now Flying magazine), which became the largest aviation magazine with a circulation of 100,000. (from History of aviation)
Image 13La France flying in 1885 (from History of aviation)
Image 14D.H. Comet, the world's first jet airliner. As in this picture, it also saw RAF service (from History of aviation)
Image 15French reconnaissance balloon L'Intrépide of 1796, the oldest existing flying device, in the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum, Vienna (from History of aviation)
Image 16Nieuport 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)
Image 17Qantas De Havilland biplane, c. 1930 (from History of aviation)
Image 18Me 262, world first operational jet fighter (from History of aviation)
Image 19Robinson R22, a light piston-engine helicopter (from General aviation)
Image 20One of Leonardo's sketches (from History of aviation)
Image 21Experimental 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)
Image 22Flagg biplane from 1933 (from History of aviation)
Image 23Félix du Temple's 1874 Monoplane (from History of aviation)
Image 24Cessna CitationJet/M2, part of the Citation family of business jets (from General aviation)
Image 25First failure of Langley's manned Aerodrome on the Potomac River, 7 October 1903 (from History of aviation)
Image 26Maxim's flying machine (from History of aviation)
Image 27Early Voisin biplane (from History of aviation)
Image 28German Taube monoplane, illustration from 1917 (from History of aviation)
Image 29Concorde, 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)
Image 30Planophore model aeroplane by Alphonse Pénaud, 1871 (from History of aviation)
Image 31The Wright Military Flyer aboard a wagon in 1908 (from History of aviation)
Image 32"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)
Image 33Alberto Santos-Dumont flying the Demoiselle over Paris (from History of aviation)
Image 34Leonardo da Vinci's ornithopter design (from History of aviation)
Image 35Cathay Pacific's first class cabin on board a Boeing 747-400 (from Wide-body aircraft)
Image 36The 14-bis, or Oiseau de proie (from History of aviation)
Image 37Map of record breaking flights of the 1920s (from History of aviation)
Image 381843 artist's impression of John Stringfellow's plane Ariel flying over the Nile (from History of aviation)
Image 39Woodcut print of a kite from John Bate's 1635 book The Mysteryes of Nature and Art (from History of aviation)
Image 40The business class cabin on an A350 (from Wide-body aircraft)
Image 41A Boeing 787 Dreamliner of United Airlines landing at Beijing Capital International Airport on 28 December 2018. (from Wide-body aircraft)
Image 42General aviation aircraft at Cheb Airfield in Czech Republic (from General aviation)
Image 43The Biot-Massia glider, restored and on display in the Musee de l'Air (from History of aviation)
Image 44Santos-Dumont's "Number 6" rounding the Eiffel Tower in the process of winning the Deutsch de la Meurthe Prize, October 1901 (from History of aviation)

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Selected biography

Marshal of the Royal Air Force Hugh Montague Trenchard, 1st Viscount Trenchard GCB OM GCVO DSO (3 February 1873 – 10 February 1956) was a British officer who was instrumental in establishing the Royal Air Force. He has been described as the Father of the Royal Air Force.

During his formative years Trenchard struggled academically, failing many examinations and only just succeeding in meeting the minimum standard for commissioned service in the British Army. As a young infantry officer, Trenchard served in India and in South Africa. During the Boer War, Trenchard was critically wounded and as a result of his injury, he lost a lung, was partially paralysed and returned to Great Britain. While convalescing in Switzerland he took up bobsleighing and after a heavy crash, Trenchard found that his paralysis was gone and that he could walk unaided. Some months later, Trenchard returned to South Africa before volunteering for service in Nigeria. During his time in Nigeria, Trenchard commanded the Southern Nigeria Regiment for several years and was involved in efforts to bring the interior under settled British rule and quell inter-tribal violence.

In 1912, Trenchard learned to fly and was subsequently appointed as second in command of the Central Flying School. He held several senior positions in the Royal Flying Corps during World War I, serving as the commander of Royal Flying Corps in France from 1915 to 1917. In 1918, he briefly served as the first Chief of the Air Staff before taking up command of the Independent Air Force in France. Returning as Chief of the Air Staff under Winston Churchill in 1919, Trenchard spent the following decade securing the future of the Royal Air Force. He was Metropolitan Police Commissioner in the 1930s and a defender of the RAF in his later years.

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Selected Aircraft

The Embraer ERJ-145 is a regional jet produced by Embraer, a Brazilian aerospace company. The ERJ 145 is the largest of a family of airliners, which also includes the ERJ 135, ERJ 140, and Legacy. All aircraft in the series are powered by two turbofan engines. It is one of the most popular regional jet families in the world with primary competition coming from the Canadair Regional Jet.

The first flight of the ERJ 145 was on August 11, 1995, with the first delivery in December 1996 to ExpressJet Airlines (then the regional division of Continental Airlines). ExpressJet is the largest operator of the ERJ 145, with 270 of the nearly 1000 ERJ 145s in service. The second largest operator is American Eagle, with 206 ERJ 145 aircraft. Chautauqua Airlines also operates 95 ERJ 145s through its alliances with American Connection, Delta Connection, US Airways Express and United Express. By some accounts, the ERJ 145 has a cost of ownership of about $2,500,000 per year.

Span: 20.04 m (65 ft 9 in)
Length: 29.9 m (98 ft 0 in)
Height: 6.76 m (22 ft 2 in)
Engines: 2× Rolls-Royce AE 3007A turbofans, 33.0 kN (7,420 lbf) thrust each
Cruising Speed: 834 km/h (518 mph, Mach 0.78)
First Flight: August 11, 1995
Number built: ≈1000

Today in Aviation

May 17

2011 – A U.S. Air Force MQ-1 Predator unmanned aerial vehicle carrying a live AGM-114 Hellfire air-to-surface missile misses the runway at Djibouti-Ambouli International Airport in Djibouti, Djibouti, by three miles (4.8 km) and crashes near a residential area. Its missile does not explode, and no one is injured.^[1]

2010 – Pamir Airways Flight 112, operated by Antonov An-24 YA-PIS crashed in the Salang Pass killing all 43 on board.

2007 – Three people, the two pilots and a passenger, were killed Thursday in the accident of a small plane of freight, which was crushed little after its takeoff of Walikale, in the East of the democratic Republic of Congo, one learned near the company. A plane bound for Goma was crushed this Thursday morning in Kilambo, in territory of Walikale, with approximately 300 km in the west of the chief town of North-Kivu.

2003 – Death of Gerhard Schöpfel, German WWII flying ace.

1997 – First flight of the McDonnell Douglas X-36 tailless fighter technology demonstrator, power for which is provided by a 700 lb. s. t. Williams International F112 turbofan. The fighter takes off from Edwards AFB, California.

1992 – Flughafen München Franz Josef Strauß (IATA: MUC, ICAO: EDDM), starts operations as new Munich international airport.

1987 – An Iraqi Mirage F1 fighter jet fires two Exocet missiles into the U. S. warship USS Stark in the Persian Gulf.

1986 – In the USS Stark Incident, an Iraqi Air Force Dassault Mirage F1 jet hits the United States Navy guided-missile frigate USS Stark (FFG-31) with two Exocet antiship cruise missiles, badly damaging her and killing 37 and wounding 21 of her crew.

1981 – Death of Jeannette Ridlon Piccard, American high-altitude balloonist, and first woman to fly to the stratosphere.

1968 – Operation Delaware in South Vietnam’s A Shau Valley comes to an end. The U. S. Army’s 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) has captured a large amount of North Vietnamese equipment and supplies but has faced the heaviest enemy antiaircraft fire it has encountered thus far in the Vietnam War, losing 21 helicopters shot down during the operation.

1967 – Birth of Joseph Michael "Joe" Acaba, educator, hydrogeologist, and NASA astronaut. He became the first person of Puerto Rican heritage to be named as a NASA astronaut.

1964 – Death of John Theodore Cuthbert Moore-Brabazon, first Baron Brabazon of Tara, English aviation pioneer, first person to qualify as a pilot in the United Kingdom, awarded Royal Aero Club Aviator's Certificate number 1.

1962 – RAF Blackburn Beverly C.1, XL132, c/n 1033, bound for RAF Thorney Island, suffers engine fire while on approach, ditches in Chichester Harbour, UK. Two crew killed.

1958 – Four McDonnell F3 H Demon's and four F8U Crusaders make a non-stop crossing of the Atlantic.

1954 – Royal Navy Supermarine Attacker FB.1, WA533, of 736 Squadron is damaged upon landing aboard HMS Illustrious when port main gear collapses. Airframe is repaired, but sees no more operational flying.

1950 – The air above Muroc Dry Lake, California, exploded in sonic booms as Lockheed test pilot Tony LeVier put the XF-90 (long-range penetration fighter and bomber escort.) through high-speed dive tests, reaching Mach 1.12.

1946 – First flight of the Douglas XB-43 Jetmaster, American jet-powered prototype bomber aircraft.

1945 – Former Our Gang actor Bobby "Wheezer" Hutchins (Robert E. Hutchins) is killed in a mid-air collision while trying to land a North American AT-6D Texan, serial number 42-86536, of the 3026th Base Unit, when it strikes North American AT-6C Texan, 42-49068, of the same unit, at Merced Army Air Field in Merced, California, during a training exercise. The other pilot, Edward F. Hamel, survives

1945 – First flight of the Lockheed P-2 Neptune, an American Maritime patrol and ASW (Air Anti-Submarine Warfare) Aircraft.

1944 – 99 B-24 Liberators of the U. S. Army Air Forces‘ Fifth and Thirteenth air forces strike Biak. On every day but one thereafter through the U. S. amphibious landings on Biak on May 27, the two air forces will conduct almost daily raids on Biak and the Vogelkop.

1944 – Aircraft from the British aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious and U. S. carrier USS Saratoga (CV-3) strike the oil refinery at Surabaya, Java.

1943 – Colonel Frank Gregory made the first helicopter landing aboard ship in Long Island Sound, USA with a Sikorsky XR-4, two-place helicopter.

1943 – Boeing B-17 F-10-BO Flying Fortress Serial 41-24485, Memphis Belle (aircraft), 324th Bomb Squadron, makes her 25th Bombing mission. The aircraft and entire crew then returned to the United States to sell war bonds. The aircraft is undergoing extensive restoration at the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton, Ohio.

1943 – 17-18 – Specially modified RAF Avro Lancasters of 617 Squadron make the "Dambusters" raids on the Möhne Reservoir, Edersee Dam, and Sorpe Dam.

1942 – The Sikorsky XR-4, two-place helicopter, flew a distance of 1224 km.

1940 – (Overnight) 72 British bombers attack Bremen, Cologne, and Hamburg, killing at least 47 and injuring 127 in Bremen and Hamburg.

1938 – The US Congress passes the Naval Expansion Act, leading to the construction of the Essex class aircraft carriers.

1935 – Second of three Grumman XF3F-1 prototypes, BuNo 9727 (2nd), crashes on the first day it arrives at NAS Anacostia. Pilot Lee Gelbach is unable to recover from a flat spin which develops during a ten-turn right-hand spin demonstration - bails out safely. A third Grumman XF3F-1 prototype will be built, using some parts salvaged from second prototype, also with BuNo 9727 (3rd), but pilot Bill H. McAvoy will be luckier than his two fellow test pilots, and NOT have to evacuate the Flying Barrel during testing.

1934 – First flight of the Avia 50, French single seat motor glider.

1930 – Death of Max Valier, Austrian rocketry pioneer, killed when an alcohol-fuelled rocket exploded on his test bench in Berlin.

1929 – Colin Spenser (Jack) Caldwell was testing Canadian Vickers Vedette (single-engine biplane flying boat) G-CYZF (CV 122), when on entering a spin he found he was unable to recover. He abandoned the machine by parachute and landed safely on an island in the St Lawrence and became the first Canadian to save his life by a parachute.

1928 – First flight of the Vickers Vellore, British large biplane prototype designed as a freight and mail carrier.

1928 – Lady Heath (formerly Mrs. Elliot-Lynn) lands in London, becoming the first woman to fly solo from Cape Town, South Africa to London, England in an Avro Avian 594 Avian III.

1927 – First flight of prototype Bristol Bulldog MK1, British single-seat biplane fighter.

1927 – Major Harold C. Geiger (7 October 1884 - 17 May 1927), born in East Orange, New Jersey, a pioneer in Army aviation and ballooning, and commander of Phillips Field, Aberdeen, Maryland, is killed in the crash of his Airco DH.4B plane, 25-078. Six mechanics and officers at the Middleton Air Station, at Olmsted Field, Pennsylvania told The New York Times Geiger's plane took a 50-foot nose dive. Geiger managed to jump out just as the plane struck and burst into flames. He made desperate efforts to get clear of the wreckage and, according to the onlookers, half crawled and ran as far as the tail of the machine before he was overcome. There he dropped and the flames prevented the watchers from getting near enough to rescue him. When the U.S. Army Air Corps purchases Sunset Field near Spokane, Washington in 1941, it is named Geiger Field in his honor. The Spokane International Airport is designated with the International Air Transport Association airport code GEG in his memory.

1924 – During its first aerial circumnavigation of the world, the westbound United States Army Air Service flight of Douglas World Cruiser arrive in northern Japan, completing the first crossing of the Pacific Ocean by airplane.

1923 – Death of Thomas Scott Baldwin, U. S. Army major and pioneer balloonist. He was the first American to descend from a balloon by parachute.

1920 – KLM and AT&T begin a joint air service between London and Amsterdam.

1919 – The War Department in Washington, D.C. orders the use of the national insignia on all U. S. military aircraft.

1918 – Death of Eugene Gilbert, French WWI flying ace, in a crash while testing a plane at Villacoublay, France.

1916 – Parasite fighter experiments begin in the UK to launch a Bristol Scout from a Porte Baby airship.

1912 – Birth of Alexandru "Alecu" Şerbănescu, Romanian WWII leading fighter ace.

1911 – Igor Sikorsky makes what he called the first real flight of four minutes of his Sikorsky S-5, in a circuit of the field.

1911 – First flight of the Blackburn Mercury.

1900 – French-born gliding pioneer Octave Chanute replies to a letter from the Wright brothers. He recommends they study gliding tests carried out by a number of innovators, including Louis Pierre Mouillard and Percy Pilcher.

1895 – Birth of Georg Wulf, German aviation pioneer, test pilot and aircraft designer. He was one of the founder of the Focke-Wulf Flugzeugbau AG company.

1879 – Birth of Hans Grade, German aviation pioneer.

References

^ Whitlock, Craig, "Drone Crashes Pile Up Abroad," The Washington Post, December 1, 2012, p. A8.

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[Whitlock,_Craig_2012-1] Whitlock, Craig, "Drone Crashes Pile Up Abroad," The Washington Post, December 1, 2012, p. A8.

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