Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/August 7

August 7

• 2012 – Egyptian Air Force aircraft strike militants at Sheikh Zuweid on Egypt's Sinai Peninsula (overnight 7-8 Aug.). It is the first Egyptian airstrike in the Sinai Peninsula since the Yom Kippur War in October 1973.[1]

• 2009 – Canadian airline Island Express Air commences operations.

• 1999 – TACV Flight 5002: A TACV Cabo Verde Airlines Dornier Do 228 (charter from the Cape Verde Coast Guard) crashes into a cliff on Santo Antão, Cape Verde during poor weather. All 18 people on board were killed.

• 1997 – Launch: Space Shuttle Discovery STS-85 at 10:41 am EDT. Mission highlights: CRISTA-SPAS.

• 1990 – Operation Desert Shield begins, as the first American air patrols, troops and equipment land in Saudi Arabia to discourage an Iraqi invasion. Iraq had annexed neighboring Kuwait five days earlier.

• 1989 – U.S. Congressman Mickey Leland (D-TX) and 15 others die in a plane crash in Ethiopia.

• 1982 – Esenboğa International Airport attack was an attack on Esenboğa International Airport in Ankara, Turkey, perpetrated by the “Pierre Gulumian commando” group from the Armenian militant organization ASALA. The bombing killed 9 people and injured some 72.

• 1980 – Janice Brown pilots the MacCready Gossamer Penguin on its first solar powered flight.

• 1980 – Aerolineas Argentinas and Iberia jointly inaugurate the world's longest non-stop air route, between Buenos Aires and Madrid

• 1976 – The Viking 2 probe enters a Martian orbit after an 11 month trip from Earth.

• 1971 – The Apollo 15 spacecraft splashes down in the Pacific, 330 miles north of Hawaii, having been the fourth manned moon mission.

• 1964 – The Turkish Air Force strikes Greek positions on Cyprus (7-9 Aug).

• 1964 – American aircraft begin photographic reconnaissance flights over North Vietnam.

• 1964 – The United States Congress passes the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, authorizing President Lyndon B. Johnson to use conventional military force in Southeast Asia.

• 1963 – First flight of the Lockheed YF-12

• 1959 – The first ever television images of earth from space are transmitted from the Explorer 6 satellite.

• 1951 – William Bridgeman sets a new airspeed record in the Douglas Skyrocket of Mach 1.88 (1,245 mph, 1,992 km/h).

• 1951 – First flight of the McDonnell F3H Demon

• 1949 – Using the probe-and-drogue aerial refueling system, a Royal Air Force Gloster Meteor Mk 3 remains aloft continuously for 12 hours 3 min, with pilot comfort appearing to be the only factor limiting an ability to stay aloft even longer.

• 1945 – 131 B-29s drop 830 tons (752,971 kg) of bombs on the Toyokawa Naval Arsenal in Japan.

• 1945 – First flight of the Nakajima Kikka

• 1943 – First flight of the Ilyushin Il-6

• 1943 – 197 British Lancasters bombers attack Genoa, Milan, and Turin, with the loss of two aircraft (overnight). Over Turin, where 20 people are killed and 79 injured, Group Captain John H. Searby serves as the first successful “Master of Ceremonies”. He's later known as “Master Bomber” – an experienced officer who circles over a bombing target throughout an attack to direct bombing crews by radio and improve their accuracy.

• 1942 – Operation Watchtower, the U.S. invasion of Guadalcanal, Tulagi, Gavutu, and Tanambogo, begins. The aircraft carriers USS Enterprise (CV-6) and USS Saratoga (CV-3) cover the landings with airstrikes, and U.S. Army Air Forces B-17 Flying Fortresses bomb Japanese airfields at Rabaul. Rabaul-based Japanese aircraft attack U.S. transports and their escorts off Guadalcanal, and dogfights with aircraft from Enterprise and Saratoga ensue.

• 1941 – 13 Ilyushin DB-3 bombers of the Soviet Navy’s Baltic Fleet Air Force conduct a raid on Berlin without loss (overnight). It is the first of ten Soviet Naval Aviation raids on Berlin in August and September 941.

• 1941 – Bruno Mussolini, the son of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and commander of the 274a Squadriglia (274th Squadron), was piloting one of the prototypes of the "secret" Piaggio P.108B bomber near the San Giusto Airport in Pisa. He flew too low and crashed into a house.The cockpit section separated from the rest of the aircraft and although the aircraft did not catch fire, it was nevertheless totally destroyed in the impact. Mussolini died of his injuries.

• 1937 – Italian aircraft from Majorca bomb a Greek ship in the Mediterranean Sea.

• 1933 – One of the earliest Korean female aviators, Park Kyung-won, dies a plane crash near Hakone, Japan.

• 1928 – One of the most successful designs of the day, the first Curtiss Model 50 Robin, takes to the air. A typical Robin has a wingspan of 41 ft and a length of 25 ft 8 in with a 185-hp engine.

• 1919 – Capt. Ernest C. Hoy becomes the first pilot to fly over the Canadian Rockies when he carries mail from Vancouver, British Columbia to Calgary, Alberta in a Curtiss JN-4 biplane. Unable to climb above 7,000 feet, he has to fly between mountain peaks, with vicious updrafts and downdrafts pulling at his plane, with only 150 feet between him and the craggy peaks of Crawford Pass. On his return flight, he cartwheels shortly after takeoff and, badly shaken, never flies again.

• 1918 – First flight of the SPAD S.XX

• 1917 – Squadron Commander Edwin H. Dunning, Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS), (17 July 1892 - 7 August 1917) during landing attempt aboard HMS Furious, Pennant number 47, in Sopwith Pup N6452, decides to go around before touchdown, but Le Rhône rotary engine chokes, Pup stalls and falls into the water off the starboard bow. Pilot stunned, drowns in the 20 minutes before rescuers reach still-floating airframe. Dunning had made two previous successful landings on Furious, the first-ever aboard a moving vessel.

• 1917 – The Morane-Saulnier A.I. Parasol fighter airplane makes its first flight in France.

• 1913 – Aviation pioneer Samuel Cody is killed in a crash.