Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/May

May 2

• 2011 – Operation Neptune Spear. 2 modified Black Hawk helicopters ("stealth" versions) carrying Navy seals lands in at Abbottabad, Pakistan, and kill Terrorist Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Lade, founder of al-Qaeda, the terrorist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets.

• 2010 – A Boeing AH-64 Apache helicopter of the United States Army carrying two soldiers of the 116th Aviation Group, was participating in a routine drill when it crashed on a ramp while taxiing at McEntire Joint National Guard Base, South Carolina, shortly before 1400 hrs. Both crew were taken to hospital. Pilot 1st Lt. Jonathan Shively Jr., 33, of Jamestown, died of injuries, but second pilot, Chief Warrant Officer Roger Carpenter, 46, of Spartanburg, was in stable condition.

• 2009 – Uli Dembinski, German aerobatic pilot, establishes a record of 333 loops with his Yak-55.

• 2008 – A chartered South Sudan Air Connection Beechcraft 1900 carrying 2 crew and 19 passengers, including South Sudan defense minister Dominic Dim Deng, crashed near Rumbek, Sudan, while en route from Wau to Juba. There were no survivors.[1]

• 2005 – Two F/A-18C Block 39/40 Hornet fighter jets of VMFA-323, BuNos 164721 and 164732, collide over south-central Iraq, during a sortie from USS Carl Vinson, killing the two pilots.[2]

• 1999 – The same day an American F-16 was shot down near Šabac and an A-10 Thunderbolt II was heavily damaged, operation control lost contact of an UAV in the Adriatic Sea, close to the coast and minutes from landing. Local fishermen witnesses give credit to the rumors this was a covered Dassault Mirage F1B (codename yogsothoth) damaged in dogfight over Beograd. Reports of airplane discharging something at sea were collected by coast guard, as well as the bail out of two pilots. Following the accident, never credited by the air force, it was confirmed that jet fighters were dropping unused weapons into the sea before landing.

• 1998 – The 100th and final B-1 B was delivered.

• 1981 – A 55-year-old Australian man, Laurence James Downey, enters a lavatory aboard Aer Lingus Flight 164, a Boeing 737-200 with 107 other people on board, five minutes before landing at London Heathrow Airport in London, England, douses himself with petrol (gasoline), and walks into the cockpit with a cigarette lighter in his hand. He demands that the airliner fly to Iran, then specifies France when the flight crew tells him that the aircraft lacks the fuel to fly to Iran. The plane lands at Le Touquet – Côte d'Opale Airport in Le Touquet, France, where Downey demands that Pope John Paul II make public the Third Secret of Fatima. After 10 hours, French police storm the plane and arrest Downey without injury to anyone.

• 1975 – Death of Emil Meinecke, German WWI flying ace and Fokker test pilot post WWI.

• 1970 – Death of Arturo Merino Benítez, Chilean aviator, founder of both the Chilean Air Force and LAN Chile, the national airline.

• 1970 – ALM Flight 980, a Douglas DC-9 operated by Overseas National Airways, ditches near St. Croix, Virgin Islands, killing 23, including two infants and one crew member; 40, including 4 crew members, survive.

• 1968 – Death of Edwin Charles "Ted" Parsons, American former French Foreign Legionnaire, WWI flying ace, Rear Admiral of the US Navy, Hollywood aviation technical advisor, FBI Special Agent, and author.

• 1967 – Delivery to the USAF of the A-37 A and named Dragonfly begins.

• 1966 – British European Airways (British European Airways) opens the first jet service between London Heathrow and Glasgow, using de Havilland Comet 4 Bs.

• 1964 – A North Vietnamese frogman sinks the U. S. Navy aviation transport USS Card (T-AKV-40) – formerly the escort aircraft carrier USNS Card (CVE-11) – pierside while she unloads helicopters at Saigon, South Vietnam. She soon is refloated and repaired.

• 1963 – Death of Fritz Horn, German pioneer of Civilian Aviation.

• 1958 – Roger Carpentier beats Watkin’s two-week-old world altitude record when he flies to 79,452 feet in a Sud-Ouest SO 9050 in Istres, France.

• 1957 – First delivery of the McDonnell F-101 A Voodoo to the 27th Tactical Fighter Wing.

• 1957 – Birth of Dominic Lee Pudwill Gorie, American Naval officer and NASA astronaut, veteran of 4 space shuttle missions.

• 1956 – A USAF Boeing B-47E-85-BW Stratojet, 52-0450, c/n 450732, of the 98th Bomb Wing (also reported as of the 372d Bomb Squadron, 307th Bomb Wing), crashes short of runway, Lincoln AFB, Nebraska. One account states that it was on instrument approach. Another states that it came down "three miles short of the Northwest runway after departing on an evening training mission. Eyewitnesses said the plane appeared to be trying to belly in for a landing, crashed, then exploded and burned. The crash site was on farmland owned by Edmund Nelson, ½ mile west of 79 Hi-way and 2 ½ miles north of U.S. 34." KWF are Captain Marion J. Perdue, aircraft commander, 33, San Antonio, Texas; 2nd Lieutenant Linwood M. McIntosh, co-pilot, 22, Dallas, Texas; Captain Charles H. Stonesifer, navigator/bombardier, 35, Maricopa, California; and Staff Sergeant William F. Rockholt, crew chief, 24, Fellows, California. All crew were from the 345th Bomb Squadron.

• 1953 – BOAC De havilland DH-106 Comet 1 Flight 783/057 crashes just after take off from Calcutta due to structural failure, killing all 43 on board.

• 1952 – BOAC introduces the de Havilland DH.108 Comet on its London-Johannesburg route, the first regular service flown by a jet airliner. G-ALYP makes the first flight.

• 1945 – Death of Eric James Brindley Nicolson, British WWII fighter pilot, only Battle of Britain pilot and the only pilot of RAF Fighter Command to be awarded the Victoria Cross, killed in the crash of a RAF B-24 Liberator in which he was flying as an observer.

• 1945 – The British East Indies Fleet’s 2first Aircraft Carrier Squadron – consisting of the aircraft carriers HMS Emperor, HMS Hunter, HMS Khedive, and HMS Stalker – begin support of Operation Dracula, a British assault on Rangoon, Burma. Their aircraft fly 110 sorties, bombing Japanese forces in support of a British amphibious landing.

• 1942 – The Japanese seaplane carrier Mizuho sinks with the loss of 101 lives after the U. S. Navy submarine USS Drum (SS-228) had torpedoed her late the previous evening 40 nautical miles (74 km) off Omaezaki, Japan. There are 472 survivors.

• 1941 – The Anglo-Iraqi War between British forces and a pro-Axis Iraqi government begins with 41 Royal Air Force Station Habbaniya- and Shaibah-based Royal Air Force planes launching a surprise attack against Iraqi forces surrounding Habbaniya and Iraqi airfields. Royal Iraqi Air Force aircraft respond. By the end of the day, the British have destroyed 22 Iraqi aircraft on the ground, losing five of their own.

• 1936 – American parachutist, Clement Joseph 'Clem' Sohn, makes his first jump in England, at Hanworth airfield near London. Unusually, Sohn attached wings to his body, which were deployed when he opened his arms and legs and allowed him to glide.

• 1935 – First flight of the Bolkhovitinov DB-A, Soviet 4 engine heavy bomber and raid aircraft

• 1932 – Death of Otto Jindra, Austro Hungrian WWI flying ace who, post war, became Czechoslovakian citizen and was instrumental in raising a Czechoslovak Air Force.

• 1927 – Herbert Arthur "Bert" Dargue, leading the U. S. Army Pan American Flight, a public relations goodwill mission to promote U. S. aviation in South America, Flying 5 Loening OA-1 A seaplanes complete the mission after having traveled 22,000 miles (35,200 km) in 59 flight days, stopping at 72 cities along the route.

• 1925 – The Douglas C-1 biplane makes its first flight at Santa Monica, California and during the month completes trials at McCook Field.

• 1923- 2-3 – Kelly MacReady complete the first non-stop flight from New York to Los Angeles, in 27 hours in a Fokker T-2.

• 1919 – A U.S. Army seaplane en route on afternoon flight from Balboa, Panama to France Field, near present-day Colón, Panama, with three aviators on board, suffers engine failure shortly after departure. Pilot Lt. J. R. L. Hitt attempts landing on Miraflores Lake but aircraft falls short and hits the front of the Miraflores Locks of the Panama Canal at ~1700 hrs. Airframe crumples "like a house of cards", according to account published by the Panama Star & Herald on 3 May. Hitt, Lt. Thomas Cecil Tonkin, and Maj. Harold Melville Clark (4 October 1890 - 2 May 1919) are all thrown from the plane into the water of the lock. "Lieutenant Tonkin was undoubtedly killed instantly by the twisting timbers of the machine. ...Major Clark sank to the bottom of the lock, and it's not known whether he was killed in the crash or whether he drowned", stated the article. Hitt was severely injured in the crash, but was rescued by bystanders. The Panama Star & Herald reported that a diver was sent to retrieve Clark's body. The Army rules his death as an accident due to internal injuries caused by "aeroplane traumatism", according to a War Department report on Clark's death dated 8 May 1919, and awards his mother $10,000. Clark is buried 29 May 1919, with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery. Clark had made the first-ever inter-island flight in the Hawaiian Islands on 15 March 1918, in a Curtiss N-9 of the 6th Aero Squadron. Fort Stotsenburg, established in the Philippines in 1902, is renamed Clark Air Base with the establishment of the U.S. Air Force in 1947.

• 1918 – Death of Hans Weiss, German WWI fighter ace, shot down in his Fokker Triplane by a Sopwith Camel.

• 1918 – Death of Edgar Scholtz, German WWI flying ace, Killed in action in his Fokker DR. I

• 1918 – Death of Federico Fenu, Italian Balloonist.

• 1917 – Birth of Hugh Gordon Malcolm VC, Scottish WWII pilot, first RAF Victoria Cross in North Africa.

• 1917 – Camp Borden Aerodrome was formally taken over by RFC Canada – The first of the new training fields.

• 1916 – Eight German Zeppelins raid the east coast of England, causing 39 casualties. The Zeppelin L 20 is wrecked in a storm off Stavanger, Norway on the return journey.

• 1909 – John Moore-Brabazon the first resident British citizen to make a recognized powered heavier-than-air flight in the UK, flying from The Aero Club’s ground at Leysdown on the Isle of Sheppey in his Voisin biplane Bird of Passage.

• 1902 – Birth of Ettore Muti, Italian aviator and Fascist politician.

• 1899 – Birth of George Stacey Hodson, British WWI flying ace and RAF WWII high-ranking officer.

• 1897 – Birth of Thomas Charles Richmond Baker, Australian WWI flying ace.

• 1895 – Birth of Orvil Arson Anderson, American pioneer balloonist.

• 1892 – Born Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen, was a German pilot and is still regarded today as the "ace of aces". He was a very successful fighter pilot, military leader and flying ace who won 80 air combats during World War I.

• 1891 – Birth of Geoffrey Hilton "Beery" Bowman, British WWI fighter ace.

• 1891 – Birth of General Sir Hesperus Andrias 'Pierre' van Ryneveld, South African military commander, WWI fighter ace, raid pilot and WWII high-ranking officer.

• 1883 – Birth of Alessandro Cagno (nickname Sandrin), Italian racing driver and aviation pioneer.

May 3

• 2013 – A United States Air Force KC-135 Stratotanker crashes 100 miles (161 km) west of the U.S. Air Force Transit Center at Manas base at Manas International Airport outside Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, leaving two of its crewman dead and one missing.[1][2]

• 2013 – Israeli Air Force aircraft strike a shipment of advanced surface-to-surface missiles at Damascus International Airport in Damascus, Syria. The shipment had orioginated in Iran and was destined for delivery to Hezbollah in Lebanon.[3][4][5]

• 2010 – Death of Günter F. Wendt, German-American engineer noted for his work in the U. S. manned spaceflight program. "There is no reason to say I am narrow-minded. Just do it my way and you will have no problem at all."

• 2009 – XM715, a Handley Page Victor, briefly becomes airborne during a fast taxi run at Bruntingthorpe Aerodrome, United Kingdom. The aircraft is not airworthy and was not intended to have flown.

• 2009 – Táchira helicopter crash: A Fuerzas Terrestres Venezuela Mil Mi-17 Hip helicopter crashes on a border patrol with Colombia with 18 fatalities including the Venezuelan General Domingo Faneite. The accident occurred near the town of El Alto de Rubio, in Táchira state, Venezuela.

• 2007 – Death of Walter Marty Schirra, Jr., American test pilot, US Navy officer, and one of the original Mercury 7 astronauts chosen for the Project Mercury. He is the only person to fly in all of America's first three space programs (Mercury, Gemini and Apollo), fifth American and the ninth human to ride a rocket into space. He was the first person to go into space three times.

• 2007 – A Chicago businessman who owned a ranch near Twin Bridges and his passenger were killed Thursday morning when the small jet they were flying crashed while trying to land at the Beaverhead County Airport at Dillon. At about 1040 mountain daylight time (MDT), a Cessna Citation S550, N22HP, collided with terrain during a circling instrument approach at Dillon, Montana.

• 2006 – Armavia Flight 967, an Airbus A320, crashes into the Black Sea near the Russian city of Sochi, killing all 113 on board.

• 2005 – Airwork Flight 23, a Fairchild Swearingen Metroliner crashes in Taranaki, New Zealand killing both crew members.

• 2002 – 2002 Jalandhar India MiG-21 crash: An Indian Air Force Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 pilot ejects after takeoff, with the aircraft crashing into a Jalandhar bank building, killing eight on the ground.

• 1998 – STS-90, Space Shuttle Columbia mission is back on earth

• 1986 – Air Lanka Flight 512, a Lockheed L-1011, is bombed by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, killing 21 of 148 on board.

• 1985 – Aeroflot Flight 8381, a Tupolev Tu-134, collides with a Soviet Air Force Antonov An-26; both aircraft crash near Zolochev, Ukraine, killing all 94 on board both aircraft.

• 1983 – The first CC 134 Challenger Jet was delivered to 412 Squadron.

• 1982 – A Gulfstream II from Algerian government is shot down above the border between Iran and Turkey. Both Iran and Iraq rejected responsibility.

• 1982 – Iraq shoots down an aircraft bound for Tehran, Iran, carrying Algerian Foreign Minister Mohammed Ben Yahia and 12 of his colleagues. The incident ends an Algerian attempt to mediate between Iran and Iraq and bring an end to the Iran-Iraq War.

• 1977 – Shortly after 1100 hrs. English Electric Canberra PR.9 aircraft, XH137, of No. 39 Squadron was returning to its base at RAF Wyton, near Huntingdon, after a routine training flight. About two miles from the end of the runway, it crashed by some houses in the estate of Oxmoor in the village of Hartford, north-east of Huntingdon. Three young children were killed and five people were injured, of whom two are detained in hospital. The two RAF members of the crew were also killed, said Secretary of State for Defence, Mr. Frederick Mulley.

• 1976 – A Pan Am Boeing 747SP makes a record around-the-world flight, taking 1 day 22 hours.

• 1973 – Death of Louis Prosper Gros, French WWI flying ace who served also in WWII.

• 1968 – Death of Bernard Artigau, French WWI flying ace, pioneering commercial pilot who also served in WWII

• 1968 – Braniff Flight 352, a Lockheed L-188A Super Electra en route from Houston, Texas to Dallas, breaks up in mid-air in a thunderstorm and crashes near Dawson, Texas; killing its five crew and 80 passengers. Nine years earlier Braniff Flight 542 crashed 49 miles (79 km) away in Buffalo.

• 1965 – The U. S. Marine Corps's first attack helicopters, modified UH-1 Es of Marine Observation Squadron 2 (VMO-2), arrive at Da Nang, South Vietnam, to begin operations in the Vietnam War.

• 1963 – First flight of the production form Piper PA-30 Twin Comanche.

• 1961 – The Boeing Airplane Company changes its name to Boeing Company.

• 1955 – The first pre-series Sud-Ouest SO 9050 Trident II was flown.

• 1952 – The first landing at the North Pole is made by Americans Lt. Col. William P. Benedict and Lt. Col. J. O. Fletcher on a ski-and-wheel equipped Air Force Douglas C-47.

• 1950 – HMS Ark Royal (R09) is Launched at Birkenhead. Audacious-class aircraft carrier, Royal navy's last remaining conventional catapult and arrested-landing aircraft carrier and world's first aircraft carrier to be commissioned with an angled flight deck.

• 1950 – The 2nd prototype Blackburn B-54 Y. A.8. with a crew of three makes his first flight.

• 1949 – Birth of Albert Sacco, Jr.,American chemical engineer who flew as a Payload Specialist on the Space Shuttle Columbia on shuttle mission STS-73 in 1995.

• 1949 – First launch, of Viking 1.( Viking Rocket) It attained an altitude of 50 miles (80 km). The altitude was limited by a premature engine cut-off, eventually traced to steam leakage from the turbine casing.

• 1948 – Second Douglas D-558-1 Skystreak, BuNo 37971, NACA 141, crashes on takeoff on 20th flight for NACA (46th total take-off) at Edwards AFB, California, due to compressor disintegration that cut control runs in fuselage, killing NACA pilot Howard C. Lilly. Lilly is the first NACA pilot to die while on duty, and the first pilot who had flown at supersonic speed to be killed.

• 1945 – Royal Air Force Hawker Typhoon fighter-bombers sink the German passenger ships SS Cap Arcona and SS Deutschland and the German cargo ship SS Thielbek in the Bay of Lübeck, unaware that the ships are carrying more than 10,000 concentration camp prisoners. About 5,000 people die aboard Cap Arcona (the second-greatest loss of life in a ship sinking in history) and about another 2,750 aboard Thielbek, and there also is a heavy loss of life aboard Deutschland.

• 1945 – (3-4) The fifth Japanese Kikusui attack on ships off Okinawa includes 125 kamikazes. They sink three destroyers and two smaller ships and damage the aircraft carrier HMS Formidable, the light cruiser USS Birmingham (CL-62), four destroyers, a destroyer-minelayer, and three smaller ships.

• 1943 – During an inspection tour, Lt. Gen. Frank Maxwell Andrews (1884–1943) is killed in crash of Consolidated B-24D-1-CO Liberator, 41-23728, of the 330th Bomb Squadron, 93d Bomb Group, 8th Air Force,[193] out of RAF Bovingdon, England, on Mt. Fagradalsfjall on the Reykjanes peninsula after an aborted attempt to land at the RAF Kaldadarnes, Iceland. Andrews and thirteen others died in the crash; only the tail gunner, S/Sgt. George A. Eisel, survived. Others KWF included pilot Capt. Robert H. Shannon, of the 330th BS, 93rd BG; six members of Andrews' staff, including Maj. Ted Trotman, B/Gen. Charlie Barth, Col. Marlow Krum, and the general's aide, Maj. Fred A. Chapman; and Capt. J. H. Gott, navigator. Andrews was the highest-ranking Allied officer to die in the line of duty to that point in the war.[194] At the time of his death, he was Commanding General, United States Forces, European Theatre of Operations. Camp Springs Army Air Field, Maryland, is renamed Andrews Field (later Andrews Air Force Base), for him on 7 February 1945.

• 1942 – Tragedy at Kufra - Three Bristol Blenheim Mk. IVs, Z7513, Z7610, and T2252, of No. 15 Squadron, South African Air Force, detached to support Allied ground forces garrisoning the oasis at Kufra in Libya, become lost whilst on a familiarization flight and land in the Libyan Desert. They are not found until 11 May by which time only one of twelve crew survive. Z7610 and T2252 are flown out in May but damaged Z7513 is abandoned in place.

• 1942 – In a raid on the Arctic convoy PQ 15, six Heinkel He 111 s of the Luftwaffe’s I. Gruppe, Kampfgeschwader 26, make Germany’s first torpedo bomber attack of World War II. They sink two merchant ships outright and damage a third, which a German submarine later sinks. Three of the He 111 s are lost.

• 1937 – Death of Cosimo Rennella, Italian born Ecuadorian WWI flying ace, and pioneering aviator in South America Pre and post WWI war.

• 1941 – (3-6) RAF aircraft continue to attack Iraqi positions surrounding RAF Habbinya and Iraqi airfields, eventually forcing Iraq forces to withdraw on May 6.

• 1928 – Imperial Japanese Army Air Corps aircraft see action in China during the Tsinan Incident.

• 1928 – USN LT’s Arthur Gavin and Zeus Soucek, takes off in a PN-12 seaplane for a world duration record for Class C seaplanes.

• 1926 – Birth of Georgi Konstantinowitsch Mossolow, Soviet test Pilot.

• 1924 – Birth of Robert Kenneth "Ken" Tyrrell, British WWII flying mechanic, Formula 2 racing driver and founder of the Tyrrell Formula One constructor

• 1923 – The Sikorsky Aero Engineering Corporation is formed by Igor Sikorsky at a Long Island chicken farm.

• 1923 – U. S. Air Service Fokker T-2 pilots Lts. Oakley G. Kelly and John A. Macready complete the first non-stop flight across the United States in 26 hours, 50 min, 38.4 seconds from Roosevelt Field, Long Island to Wickenburg, Arizona.

• 1918 – Atlantic City, New Jersey became the first US municipal airport (Bader Field).

• 1918 – Death of Samuel Parry, Welsh WWI flying ace, killed in a flying accident in a Bristol F.2b.

• 1918 – Death of Omer Paul Demeuldre, French WWI flying ace, Killed in action in his Spad.

• 1915 – Birth of Ugo Drago, Italian WWII Pilot.

• 1907 – The Wright brothers are elected honorary members of the Vienna Aviation Club, Austria.

• 1896 – Birth of Louis Marcel Germain 'Marcel' Doret, French Aerobatic, Record breaker and test pilot.

• 1896 – Birth of Karl Allmenröder, German WWI flying ace.

• 1891 – Birth of William Graham Westwood, South African WWI flying ace

• 1866 – Birth of Richard von Kehler, German Balloon pioneer.

• 1812 – Birth of William Samuel Henson, pre-Wright brothers aviation engineer and inventor.

• 1695 – Birth of Henri Pitot, French hydraulic engineer and the inventor of the Pitot tube.

May 4

• 2013 – The first Solar Impulse aircraft, HB-SIA, the world's first solar-powered aircraft capable of operating day and night, completes the first leg of its attempt to become the solar-powered aircraft to fly across the contiguous United States, landing at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix, Arizona, at 12:30 a.m. PDT after departing Moffett Field in Mountain View, California, at dawn on 3 May and covering 1,203 km (747 miles) in 18 hours 18 minutes at an average speed-over-ground of 65.5 km/h (40.7 mph). Plans call for the aircraft, which requires no fuel because it uses photovoltaic cells in its wings to supply it with power and charge its batteries for use at night, to make a series of five flights of 19 to 25 hours each, flying at about 40 mph (64 km/h), with a stopover of approximately 10 days in each city it visits, culminating in an arrival at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, New York.[1][2]

• 2012 – A United States Air Force F-16 of the 421 Fighter Squadron crashed at the Utah Test and Training Range, pilot ejected safely.

• 2009 – Northwest Airlines Flight 557, an Airbus A320-211, registration N311US, is substantially damaged in a heavy landing at Denver International Airport, United States. Vertical deceleration in excess of 3G is recorded. The aircraft may be written off.

• 2009 – A Russian Navy Kamov Kamov Ka-27 (Helix) Helicopter landing on the Baltic Fleet Frigate Yaroslav Mudryi, the main-rotor made contact with the ship superstructure, crashed on the deck and then rolled over the side into the sea. The 5 crew from the Kamov helicopter were successfully rescued from the sea.

• 2006 – Hawaiian Airlines announces service to the mainland destinations of San Diego, Seattle and Portland with their four additional Boeing 767-300 airliners.

• 2004 – US Airways becomes the 15th member of the airline coalition Star Alliance.

• 2003 – Frontier Airlines increases service to Atlanta, Dallas/Fort Worth, Los Angeles, Portland, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, San Diego, San Francisco and Seattle. Their regional operation Frontier JetExpress also adds regional jet service to Boise, Oklahoma City and Tucson, while discontinuing service to Oakland.

• 2002 – Launch: Spot-5 satellite, with 2.5 m, 5 m and 10 m capability

• 2002 – EAS Airlines Flight 4226, a BAC 1-11 500 series, crashes into the Gwammaja neighborhood at Kano, Nigeria shortly after takeoff; the ensuing crash resulted in the deaths of 75 passengers and at least 73 civilians on the ground.

• 2002 – Launch of Aqua (EOS PM-1), multi-national NASA scientific research satellite in orbit around the Earth, studying the precipitation, evaporation, and cycling of water.

• 1989 – Launch: Space Shuttle Atlantis STS-30 at 14:48:59 EDT. Mission highlights: Magellan Venus probe deployment.

• 1986 – American Eagle Flight 5452, a CASA C-212 operated by Executive Airlines, crashes on landing at Eugenio María de Hostos Airport in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, killing both pilots. The other four people on board, all passengers, survive with minor injuries.

• 1982 – Argentinian Navy Super Étendard aircraft fatally damage the British destroyer Sheffield with an Exocet missile southeast of the Falkland Islands. Sheffield sinks on May 10.

• 1982 – The British lose their first Sea Harrier of the Falklands War, shot down by ground fire during a bombing raid over Goose Green. The pilot is killed.

• 1978 – First prototype Lockheed Have Blue stealth test bed, c/n 1001, on its 37th flight, hit the runway a little too hard at Groom Lake, Nevada, and had to lift off for another pass rather than go into a skid, but had bent the right main gear strut. The landing gear had been retracted after the "touch and go", and now the right main gear leg wouldn't extend. Despite many attempts, there was no way to get the gear down. Critically low on fuel, Lockheed test pilot Bill Park decided to eject and let the aircraft crash into the desert. Park suffered a serious back injury and concussion, ending his career as a test pilot. The airframe was bulldozed under the desert. News of the crash leaked to the press, and some vague comments were made about the possible existence of "stealth" aircraft.

• 1976 – Launch of LAGEOS 1, or Laser Geodynamics Satellites, scientific research satellitesdesigned to provide an orbiting laser ranging benchmark for geodynamical studies of the Eart.

• 1972 – An Aeroflot Yakalov Yak-40 (CCCP-87778) crashes due to windshear at Bratsk, Russia, killing all 18 on board.

• 1969 – 4-11 – The Daily Mail Transatlantic Air Race commemorates the 50th anniversary of Alcock and Brown's crossing. It is won by a Royal Navy F-4 Phantom, taking 4 hours 47 min.

• 1967 – The Lunar Orbiter 4 launches on a 180-day mission to take photographs of The Moon for research purposes. It would take over 500 photos before striking the surface.

• 1966 – Death of William Edward George "Pedro" Mann, British WWI flying ace, one of the first to fly an inverted formation at Hendon. He also served in WWII and helped to develop mobile radar and signals units that served as models for the entire RAF.

• 1963 – Dassault Falcon 20 first prototype, registered F-WLKB, makes its first flight at Bordeaux-Merignac.

• 1962 – (4–5) During the Carupanazo revolt against Venezuelan President Rómulo Betancourt, Venezuelan Air Force aircraft attack rebel positions at Carúpano.

• 1961 – Project Strato-Lab: To test the Navy's Mark IV full-pressure suit, A world balloon record of 113,739.9 feet is set in a two-place open gondola balloon Strato Lab V by U. S. Navy Commander Malcolm David Ross and Lieutenant Commander Victor A. Prather. The flight lasted 9 hours 54 min and covered a horizontal distance of 140 miles (230 km). Unfortunately, Victor Prather drowned during the helicopter transfer after landing.

• 1959 – First flight of the Pilatus PC-6 Porter, civilian utility aircraft built by Pilatus Aircraft of Switzerland.

• 1959 – Birth of Maurizio Cheli, Italian engineer, air force officer, a European Space Agency astronaut and a veteran of one NASA space shuttle mission.

• 1956 – Birth of Michael Landon Gernhardt, NASA astronaut.

• 1955 – Death of Louis Charles Breguet, French aircraft designer and builder, one of the early aviation pioneers.

• 1953 – English Electric Canberra B2 WD952, fitted with Rolls-Royce Olympus engines set a world altitude record – 63,668 ft (19,406 m).

• 1969 – 4-11 – The Daily Mail Transatlantic Air Race commemorates the 50th anniversary of Alcock and Brown's crossing. It is won by a Royal Navy F-4 Phantom, taking 4 hours 47 min.

• 1950 – Prototype reconnaissance platform Northrop YRB-49 A, makes its first flight.

• 1949 – USAF North American F-82F Twin Mustang, 46-468, out of Mitchel Field crashes into an unfinished house on Fulton Avenue near Duncan Road, a residential neighborhood of Hempstead, New York near Hofstra University; the plane burst into flames but neither the pilot, 2nd Lt. Andrew Wallace, nor his radar observer, 1st Lt. Bryan Jolley, were killed. In fact, Wallace used a brick from the house to smash the right canopy and rescue Jolley.

• 1949 – In the Superga air disaster, an Italian Airlines Fiat G.212 CP carrying the Torino football team crashes into the Superga hills near Turin, killing all 31 on board, including 18 players.

• 1949 – The Avio Linee Italiane (Italian Airlines) Fiat G212CP carrying the Torino A. C. football squad flew into a thunderstorm on the approach to Turin and encountered conditions of low cloud and poor visibility. It crashed into the hill of Superga near Turin killing all 31 aboard

• 1949 – The Canadian Blue Devils aerobatic team is formed.

• 1945 – The British Home Fleet carries out its last operation of World War II, a raid by 44 Avengers and Wildcats from the aircraft carriers HMS Queen. HMS Trumpeter, and HMS Searcher against Kilbotn, Norway, sinking a German depot ship and submarine. It is the last air raid against Norway of World War II.

• 1945 – (4-5) Carrier aircraft of the British Pacific Fleet strike airfields on the Sakishima Gunto.

• 1944 – F/L LJ Bateman and crew in a Vickers Wellington of No. 407 Squadron sank the German submarine U-846 west of the Bay of Biscay

• 1943 – S/L BH Moffit and crew in Consolidated Canso of No. 5 (BR) Squadron, Eastern Air Command, sunk the German submarine U-630 in the West Atlantic Ocean.

• 1942 – The first P-47 Thunderbolt fighters fly a combat mission over Europe.

• 1942 – 4-8 – The Battle of the Coral Sea is fought between US Navy and Imperial Japanese Navy aircraft carriers. Japanese light carrier Shoho is sunk and Shokaku is badly damaged, and the USS Lexington is sunk.

• 1942 – Three Bristol Blenheims of No. 15 Squadron, South African Air Force, on a familiarisation flight from Kufra, Libya, become lost over the Libyan Desert and are forced to land due to fuel exhaustion. One of them is found on May 9 with its entire crew of three dead of exposure, and the other two on May 11 with eight of the nine men with them dead of gunshots or exposure.

• 1942 – (May 4-11, 1942) The Kufra tragedy occurred in May 1942 during World War II when eleven of twelve South African aircrew flying in three South African Air Force No. 15 Squadron Bristol Blenheim Mark IV aircraft died of thirst and exposure after the flight became lost following a navigational error near the oasis of Kufra in Libya and made a forced landing in the Libyan Desert.

• 1937 – Die Heinkel-Werke Oranienburg, important factory for aircraft construction, is inaugurated.

• 1936 – 4-7 – Amy Johnson sets a new England-South Africa speed record of 3 days 6 hours 26 min in a Percival Gull Six.

• 1928 – Death of Leonard Warden Bonney, pioneering aviator, while making the first flight of his 'Bonney Gull '.

• 1927 – First flight of the Boeing TB

• 1927 – First flight of the Short Crusader, a British racing seaplane.

• 1926 – Birth of Milton Orville 'Milt' Thompson, NASA research pilot, first person to fly a lifting body.

• 1924 – First flight of the Sikorsky S-29-A

• 1924 – Etienne Oehmichen, flew for he first time a helicopter following a circular trajectory with a length of about one km after about 7 min and 40 seconds in the same place to land.

• 1918 – Death of Karl Patzelt, Austro-Hungarian WWI flying ace, killed in action.

• 1917 – Birth of Siegfried Freytag "The Malta Lion", WWII German fighter ace and member of the French Foreign Legion during the French indochina war.

• 1916 – Zeppelin LZ-32 is shot down and destroyed by British naval gunfire.

• 1911 – The U. S. War Department approves a suggestion that S. C.No.1 (the Wright Flyer accepted by the Army August 2, 1909) be put at the disposal of the Smithsonian Institution for exhibition purposes following refurbishment.

• 1904 – Birth of Joaquín García-Morato y Castaño, leading Nationalist fighter ace of the Spanish Civil War. He is credited with 40 air victories, four gained while flying Heinkel He 51 s and 36 with the Italian Fiat CR.32.

• 1901 – Birth of Jerzy Bajan, prominent Polish sports and military aviator, winner of the Challenge 1934 contest.

• 1899 – Birth of Reginald Carey Brenton Brading, British WWI flying ace.

• 1899 – Birth of Fritz Adam Hermann Opel (Von Opel) German pilot and engineer remembered mostly for his spectacular demonstrations of rocket propulsion that earned him the nickname "Rocket Fritz".

• 1892 – Birth of Otto Rosenfeld, German WWI flying ace.

• 1890 – Birth of François Marie Noel Battesti, French WWI flying ace

• 1883 – Birth of Jan Olieslagers, Belgian motorcycle racer, aviation pioneer (who set world records with both types of machinery) and WWI flying ace.

• 1860 – Birth of Hans Georg Friedrich Groß, German balloonist and airship constructor.

May 5

• 2013 – Israeli aircraft strike Mount Qassioun, which overlooks Damascus, Syria, targeting surface-to-surface missiles sent from Iran to Hezbollah.[1][2] The Syrian government claims the strike targeted a scientific research facility.[3]

• 2009 – United States Marine Corps Bell AH-1W SuperCobra belonging to HMM-166, based at MCAS Miramar, California, crashes at 1154 hrs. PST into the Cleveland National Forest, California, killing both pilots.

• 2008 – Philippine Airlines’ regional carrier PAL Express began operations with 8 daily flights between Manila and Malay with Bombardier Dash-8-400 turboprops.

• 2007 – Kenya Airways Flight 507, a Boeing 737-800 (5Y-KYA) scheduled to fly to Nairobi, Kenya, crashes just after takeoff from Douala, Cameroon. All 114 occupants are killed after the pilot departs without clearance and then does not realize the aircraft is banking hard to the right in time for correction due to improper auto-pilot inputs. The aircraft strikes a forested swamp a few miles to the south of the airport, where a reporter would find one year later that aircraft wreckage and human remains are still present.

• 2007 – Eos Airlines begins flights from London Stansted to Newark, New Jersey with their 48-seat Boeing 757-200 aircraft.

• 2006 – Siberia Airlines renames their airlines to S7 Airlines, and repainting their aircraft to a bright green, which is partly so the aircraft can be spotted among the tundra of Russia in the event of a crash.

• 2006 – During the Children's Day flight exhibition (Suwon Air Base, South Korea), Capt. Kim Do-hyun of the Republic of Korea Air Force's Black Eagles display team is killed when he loses control of his Cessna A-37B Dragonfly.

• 2005 – First flight of the Dassault Falcon 7X, a large-cabin, long range business jet manufactured by Dassault Aviation

• 2004 – Air France and Netherlands-based KLM (Royal Dutch Airlines) merge, the two airlines are now known as Air France-KLM.

• 1998 – A Peruvian Air Force Boeing 737-282, FAP-351, c/n 23041, line number 962, chartered from Occidental Petroleum, crashes at ~2130 hrs. during poor weather near Andoas, Peru killing 75 of the 88 people on board.

• 1994 – A 1st Fighter Squadron pilot from Tyndall Air Force Base near Panama City, Florida, safely ejected from his McDonnell-Douglas F-15C Eagle of the 1st FS, 325th FW, before it crashed into the Gulf of Mexico about 5 miles south of Port St. Joe, Florida. On a training mission, student pilot lost control due to G‑induced loss of consciousness; was rescued from the gulf by an MH-53 Pave Low Helicopter from the Air Force Special Operations Command at Hurlburt Field.

• 1993 – Jet Airways begins commercial airline operations with four Boeing 737-300 airliners.

• 1990 – A Douglas DC-6 (N84BL) operated by Aerial Transit Company crashes after takeoff from Guatemala City, Guatemala, killing all 3 on the aircraft and an additional 24 on the ground. The cargo flight destined for Miami, Florida, develops engine trouble and strikes the ground while trying to make its way back to the airport.

• 1988 – Birth of Jessica Dubroff, a seven-year-old pilot trainee who died attempting to become the youngest person to fly an airplane across the United States.

• 1985 – Due to air traffic control errors, a Tupolev Tu-134 operating as Aeroflot Flight SSSR-65856 with 79 people on board and a Soviet Air Forces Antonov An-26 with 15 people on board collide at 13,000 feet (3,962 m) near Zolochev in the Soviet Union’s Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, killing all 94 people on board the two planes. Among the dead are the Estonian table-tennis player Alari Lindmäe, two Soviet Army generals, and Nikolai Dmitrijev, a Hero of Socialist Labor and one of the Soviet Union’s most decorated civil airline pilots who had been the captain of the Tu-134.

• 1983 – Eastern Air Lines Flight 855,a Lockheed L-1011 Tristar, loses power from all engines 30 minutes after takeoff from Miami International Airport; the pilot is able to return to Miami after restarting one engine; no casualties are reported on board.

• 1972 – Alitalia Flight 112, a Douglas DC-8 flying from Leonardo da Vinci Airport, Rome, Italy, to Palermo International Airport crashes into Mount Longa, about 5 km (3.1 mi) south-west of Palermo while on approach, killing all 115 passengers and crew; it remains the deadliest single-aircraft disaster in Italy.

• 1969 – USAF North American F-100D-70-NA Super Sabre, 56-3214, one of two 452nd TFS, 81st TFW, RAF Lakenheath, Super Sabres on gunnery mission over Holbeach Range, Cambs., UK, suffers engine failure, forcing pilot Capt. R.E. Riggs to eject. Fighter impacts into farmland, missing group of workers by 400 yards (370 m), airframe demolished in explosion, only fin and rudder assembly intact.

• 1968 – A Grumman Gulfstream II becomes the first executive jet to make a non-stop Atlantic crossing after completing a 3,500-mile (5,633 km) flight from Teterboro, New Jersey to London Gatwick.

• 1967 – Launch of Ariel 3, first artificial satellite designed and constructed in the UK.

• 1965 – Birth of Colonel Fei Junlong, Chinese military pilot and an astronaut. He flew on the second manned spaceflight of the Shenzhou program.

• 1965 – Iberia Airlines Flight 401, a Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation, crashes after striking a tractor on the runway at Los Rodeos Airport, Tenerife, during a go-around in foggy weather; 30 of 49 passengers and crew die.

• 1961 – Commander Alan Shepard, Jr., U. S. Navy, becomes the second man to explore space when he rides his Mercury Freedom 7 capsule, launched by a Redstone missile, to 115 miles above the Earth. It is three weeks since Yuri Gagarin’s first manned space flight.

• 1960 – Birth of Douglas H. Wheelock, American astronaut and the commander of International Space Station (ISS) Expedition 25.

• 1959 – A Kamov Ka-15S, Soviet 2 seat Helicopter, Set a record of 170.455 km/h over 500 km.

• 1958 – A Royal Air Force Miles Marathon T.2 (XA253) crashes after landing at Topcliffe RAF Station in the UK after the crew accidentally retracted the landing gear instead of raising the flaps.

• 1958 – Birth of Lieutenant Colonel Ron Arad (pilot), Israeli Air Force weapon systems officer (WSO) who is officially classified as missing in action since October 1986, but widely presumed dead. (lost on a mission over Lebanon, captured by Shiite group Amal and was later handed over to the Hezbollah)

• 1958 – Lt. Gerald Stull steers his failing Convair F-102A-75-CO Delta Dagger, 56-1348, of the 327th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, away from residential homes while attempting a landing at Truax Field, Madison, Wisconsin, at 1330 hrs., and aims it for Lake Monona, ejecting at the last moment, too late to save himself. Posthumously awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross at Tyndall AFB, Florida, on 5 August, a trust fund was established to provide an education for the pilot's infant son. A memorial to Stull's heroism is installed at Hudson Park near the lake 51 years later.

• 1955 – An agreement was concluded between the United States and Canada for the construction and operation of distant early warning (DEW) radar defense line.

• 1953 – Christopher Draper, WWI Ace & WWII Pilot, ("the Mad Major"), upset at the government's treatment of veterans, protest by flying under the Thames bridges.He flew a rented, 100 h. p. Auster monoplane under 15 of the 18 bridges. It was a spectacular stunt; the bridge arches were only 40 to 50 feet high; Draper was flying 90 mph and dodged around a ship. According to news accounts, he pulled off his stunt as a means of seeking attention and soliciting job offers. He was arrested, charged with flying too low in an urban area, and assessed a nominal ten guineas court costs.

• 1950 – Prototype Scottish Pioneer II (VL515), civil registered as G-AKBF makes its first flight.

• 1950 – First production of Supermarine Attacker F.1 makes its first flight.

• 1949 – Birth of Oleg Atkov, Russian cosmonaut. (Soyuz T-10/Soyuz T-11)

• 1948 – Entered Service: McDonnell FH Phantom with U. S. Navy Fighter Squadron 17 (VF-17) aboard USS Saipan (CVL-48)
• 1947 – First Flight of Alitalia

• 1945 – (5-6) The British aircraft carriers HMS Emperor, HMS Hunter, HMS Khedive, and HMS Stalker resume support of Operation Dracula, bombing Japanese forces south of Rangoon and attacking shipping off Burma’s Tenasserim coast.

• 1942 – Rabaul-based Imperial Japanese Navy aircraft raid Port Moresby, New Guinea.

• 1942 – Operation Ironclad, the British invasion of the Vichy French-controlled island of Madagascar, begins with a destructive surprise strike at dawn by aircraft from the British aircraft carrier HMS Indomitable on French airfields in the vicinity of Diego Suarez.

• 1942 – Royal Air Force Mustang Mark I – The British version of the North American P-51 A Mustang – Tactical reconnaissance aircraft of No. 26 Squadron see combat over the English Channel. It is the first combat action by any version of the P-51 Mustang.

• 1941 – Major George Putnam Moody (13 March 1908 - 5 May 1941), an early Air Force pioneer, is killed while flight-testing a Beechcraft AT-10-BH Wichita advanced two-engine training aircraft at Wichita Army Airfield, Kansas when it stalls/spins. Major Moody earned his military wings in 1930 and flew U.S. airmail as a member of the United States Army Air Corps in 1934. Valdosta Airfield, Valdosta, Georgia, opened 15 September 1941, is renamed Moody Army Airfield on 6 December 1941 in honor of Maj. Moody. The AT-10 is used extensively at Moody AAF during World War II.

• 1941 – Birth of Anatoli Levchenko, Soviet cosmonaut. Mir LII-1 (Soyuz TM-4 / Soyuz TM-3

• 1941 – Two Dutch pilots succeeded in evading an escorting German-flown Fokker G. I and escaped to England. Their G.IB was taken to the Royal Aircraft Establishment, Farnborough, for examination, and used subsequently by Phillips and Powis (Miles Aircraft) at Reading for research into wooden construction.

• 1940 – The British aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal begins a week and a half of support to Allied forces in the Narvik area of Norway.

• 1936 – The Second Italo-Abyssinian War ends in an Italian conquest of Ethiopia as Italian forces enter Addis Ababa. Facing no opposition, the Italian Royal Air Force (Regia Aeronautica) has played a decisive role in Italy’s victory in the eight-month war, but has engaged in a brutal campaign – In which Benito Mussolini’s sons Vittorio and Bruno and son-in-law Count Ciano voluntarily participate – of indiscriminate terror bombing and widespread use of mustard gas.

• 1934 – Carina Massone Negrone establishes her first altitude record (5 544 m) with a Seaplane Class C.

• 1931 – Death of Glen Kidston, record-breaking aviator and motor racing driver from Britain. His borrowed de Havilland Puss Moth broke up in mid-air while flying through a dust storm over the Drakensberg mountains (South Africa).

• 1931 – Richard Waghorn lost control of his Hawker Horsley biplane bomber in high winds. He and his passenger parachuted from the aircraft but was seriously injured and died 2 days later.

• 1930 – Birth of Michael J. Adams, American aviator, engineer, USAF astronaut and X-15 Pilot.

• 1930 – First solo flight from England to Australia by a woman begins with British Amy Johnson in her de Havilland D. H.60G Moth 'Jason'. She flies from Croydon, England to Darwin, Australia in 19 days.

• 1928 – USN LT’s Arthur Gavin and Zeus Soucek, with a PN-12 seaplane, flew a total of 36 hours and 1 min, setting the world duration record for Class C seaplanes.

• 1926 – First flight of the Wright XF3W.

• 1923 – Birth of Nikolai Vasilevich Sutyagin, Soviet WWII fighter pilot, Korean war fighter ace and high-ranking officer.

• 1918 – Death of Giovanni Nicelli, Italian WWI flying ace, killed in action

• 1913 – Birth of Robert William Prescott, American WWII flying ace, founder and president of Flying Tiger Line, pioneer of the air cargo industry.

• 1904 – Birth of Squadron Leader Robert Kronfeld, AFC, Austrian-born gliding champion and sailplane designer. He became a British subject and an RAF test pilot.

• 1897 – Birth of Gilbert Sardier, French WWI flying ace.

• 1893 – Birth of Georges Halberger, French WWI flying ace

• 1887 – Birth of Charles Richard Fairey, British aircraft manufacturer, involved with the development of many of the companies most important products including; aircraft, rotorcraft, marine craft, mechanical engineering and rocketry.

May 6

• 2012 – An American unmanned aerial vehicle strike in eastern Yemen kills Fahd al-Quso, the al-Qaeda leader in Yemen, wanted in connection with the 12 October 2000 bomb attack on the U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer USS Cole (DDG-67). [1]

• 2010 – A PZL-104 (Polish designed and built short-takeoff-and-landing (STOL) Civil Aviation utility aircraft) carrying The former UK Independence Party (UKIP) leader Nigel Farage crashed at Hinton-in-the-Hedges Airfield, Northamptonshire.

• 2009 – World Airways Flight 8535, a McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30, registration N139WA, makes a hard landing at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, United States, causing overhead panels to detach. A go-around is initiated and the aircraft subsequently lands safely. The damage to the aircraft was described as substantial.

• 2007 – A French Air Force de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter transporting Multinational Force and Observers crashes into a truck while making an emergency landing near El-Thamad, Egypt killing all nine people on board.

• 2006 – SkyValue USA and their fleet of one Boeing 737 (leased from Xtra Airways) ceases operations, citing poor demand and even blaming hot weather forcing them to fuel-stop on flights from Las Vegas, NY to Mesa and Phoenix, AZ

• 2006 – The U. S. Air Force retired the last Lockheed Martin C-141 Starlifter The Hanoi Taxi landed for the last time and was received in a formal retirement ceremony at the National Museum of the United States Air Force, located at WPAFB in Riverside, Ohio near Dayton.

• 2006 – A Westland Lynx AH.7 (Royal Navy) from 847 Squadron is shot down with a SA-14 over Basra, killing five crewmen and crashing into a house.[2][3]

• 2004 – An Air Cush Let 410UVP (9XR-EF) stalls on takeoff in Jiech, Sudan, due to an imbalance after a shift in its cargo load. The plane is sent crashing into the ground, killing 6 of the 10 occupants.

• 2003 – OH-58D Kiowa 94-0163 of N Troop, 4th Squadron, 3d ACR crashes near Al Asad and burns out. One crewmember injured.[4]

• 2001 – Soyuz TM-31 is back on earth.

• 1993 – STS 55, 55th overall flight of the US Space Shuttle and the 14th flight of Columbia lands at Edwards AFB.

• 1988 – Widerøe Flight 710, a Dash 7, crashes in Torghatten, Norway in thick fog, killing all 36 passengers in the worst-ever Dash 7 accident.

• 1988 – Royal Air Force Boeing Chinook HC.1 ZA672 hit a pier at Hanover Airport while taxiing and was destroyed, 3 crew killed.

• 1988 – Sikorsky CH-53D Stallion from Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 46 crashed into South China Sea killing all 17 on board.

• 1983 – Death of Harris George "Clem" Clements, British WWI flying ace

• 1983 – Death of Sergei Petrovich Izotov, Russian aircraft turbine engine designer

• 1982 – second prototype (SP-PSB) of the Helicopter PZL Swidnik W-3 "Sokol" makes his first flight.

• 1982 – Royal Navy Sea Harrier FRS.1s, XZ452, '007', and XZ453, '009', of 801 Naval Air Squadron on combat air patrol from HMS Hermes of the Falklands task force, collide in poor visibility, killing pilots Lt. Cmdr. John Eyton-Jones in 452 and Lt. Alan Curtis in 453. Another source states that they were from the HMS Invincible.

• 1981 – Death of Jens Frederick "Swede" Larson, American WWI flying ace

• 1981 – A mechanical failure caused an abrupt nose pitch-down of United States Air Force Boeing EC-135N ARIA, 61-0328, call sign AGAR 23, of the 4950th Test Wing, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, from Flight Level 290, disappearing from radar at 10:49:48 EDT to crash in a farmer's field, in Walkersville, Maryland. All 21 aboard were killed. A memorial is scheduled to be built at Walkersville Heritage Farm Park pending funds.

• 1968 – Astronaut Neil Armstrong ejects from Bell Aerospace Lunar Landing Research Vehicle No. 1, known as the "Flying Bedstead", at NASA's Manned Spacecraft Center, Ellington AFB, Houston, Texas, as it goes out of control. Had he ejected 1/2 second later, his chute would not have deployed fully. Armstrong suffers a bit tongue.

• 1966 – Birth of Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Skvortsov, Russian cosmonaut.

• 1966 – USMC McDonnell RF-4B-24-MC Phantom II, BuNo 153090, of VMCJ-3, MCAS El Toro, California, on out-and-back familiarization flight from MCAS Yuma, Arizona, is lost ~2 miles off of Del Mar, California in the Pacific when the pilot gets into an aerobatic maneuver stall. Both crew eject. Cause of the accident was pilot factor in that he failed to control the aircraft properly resulting in a spin. He then failed to execute properly the spin recovery technique. His instrument scan and awareness of what his airplane was doing were also seriously deficient. Wreckage discovered in 1994 by the UB88 dive group.

• 1963 – Death of Paul Ward Spencer 'George' Bulman CBE, MC, AFC and Bar, British WWI pilot, air racer and chief test pilot for Hawker aircraft.

• 1962 – In the 1962 Channel Airways Dakota accident, a Douglas Dakota flies into a hill on the Isle of Wight in bad weather, 12 killed.

• 1960 – Death of Marcel Marc Dhôme, French WWI flying ace, racing car driver, who also served in WWII and during the Korean war.

• 1959 – SNECMA C.450-01 Coleoptere made its first free vertical flight at Melun-Villaroche.

• 1959 – Boeing B-47E-75-BW Stratojet, 51-7041, of the 306th Bomb Wing aborts takeoff at MacDill AFB, Florida, burns to right of runway. Three crew escape but co-pilot is killed.

• 1957 – Birth of Didier Delsalle, French Helicopter test pilot, first pilot to land a Helicopter on Mount Everest.

• 1955 – United Airlines begins the first nonstop flights between New York and San Francisco.

• 1955 – Birth of Donald Alan Thomas, American engineer and a former NASA astronaut.

• 1952 – Birth of Chiaki Mukai, Japanese doctor, and JAXA astronaut. She was the first Japanese woman in space, and was the first Japanese citizen to have 2 spaceflights.

• 1951 – Convair B-36D-25-CF Peacemaker, 49-2660, of the 7th Bomb Wing, Carswell AFB, Texas, crashes while landing at Kirtland AFB, New Mexico, in high winds, 23 of 25 crew killed.

• 1949 – Birth of David Cornell Leestma, American astronaut.

• 1949 – Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA) operates its first flight with a leased Douglas DC-3 with weekly service between San Diego and Oakland with a stop in Burbank, California. They would later be absorbed by USAir in May of 1987.

• 1946 – Birth of Patrick Pierre Roger Baudry, French Air Force pilot And CNES astronaut.

• 1945 – 1st Lt. Vincent J. Rudnick, on local training and acrobatics flight out of King's Cliffe, Great Britain, in North American P-51D Mustang, 44-13720, coded 'MC-X' and named "Mine 3 Express", of the 20th Fighter Group, loses control at top of a loop at ~1445 hrs. near Stoke Ferry, aircraft goes into irrecoverable spin, pilot bails out, airframe impacting near cottage of Springside. In June 1985, crash site excavated and some wreckage located.

• 1945 – Royal Air Force sinks its last German submarine. (British Liberator aircraft Sqdn. 224/T)

• 1944 – Mitsubishi A7 M1 Reppu (designed as the successor to the Imperial Japanese Navy's A6 M Zero) officially flies for the first time.

• 1944 – First flight of the Douglas XB-42 Mixmaster, American experimental bomber aircraft, designed for a high top speed, with two engines within the fuselage driving a pair of contra-rotating propellers mounted at the tail, leaving the wing and fuselage clean and free of drag-inducing protrusions.

• 1943 – Curtiss XP-60D, 41-19508, crashed at Rome Air Depot, New York. Was second XP-53 - later redesignated XP-60D.

• 1942 – Four U. S. Army Air Forces B-17 Flying Fortresses attack the Japanese aircraft carrier Shōhō south of Bougainville, but do not damage her.

• 1942 – First flight of the Kawanishi N1K (“Mighty Wind”), an Allied reporting name “Rex”

• 1941 – First flight of the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt. In its 25 years of service, more than 15, 600 were made by Republic Aviation in Farmingdale, NY.

• 1941 – (Overnight) through 11-12 (overnight) – Royal Air Force Bomber Command mounts four major raids on Hamburg, Germany, over the course of six nights, averaging 128 bombers per raid. The second, third, and fourth raids combined kill 233, injure 713, and leave 2,195 homeless.

• 1941 – Igor Sikorsky sets a world endurance record for helicopter flight of 1 h 32 min, in a Sikorsky VS-300

• 1940 – Trans World Airlines receives their first Boeing 307 Stratoliner, one month after Pan Am becomes the launch airline.

• 1937 – The Zeppelin Hindenburg bursts into flames and crashes while attempting a landing at Naval Air Engineering Station, Lakehurst, New Jersey; of the 97 people on board, 35 are killed; one person on the ground also dies.

• 1936 – First flight of the Latécoère 298, French seaplane that served during WWII. It was designed primarily as a torpedo bomber, but served also as a dive bomber against land and naval targets, and as a maritime reconnaissance aircraft

• 1935 – First flight of the Curtiss P-36 Hawk, also known as the Curtiss Hawk Model 75, American Fighter aircraft.

• 1930 – First flight of the Boeing Monomail, American single, low set, all metal cantilever wing. Retractable landing gear and a streamlined fuselage.

• 1926 – Flying a Blackburn Dart, Flight Lieutenant Gerald Boyce makes the first night deck landing in history, landing aboard the British aircraft carrier HMS Furious off the south coast of England.

• 1919 – The first commercial flight, from Canada to United States, occurs as a Canadian Curtiss aircraft flies 150 pounds of raw furs from Toronto to Elizabeth, New Jersey. It is not a non-stop flight.

• 1918 – Death of Jean Chaput, French WWI fighter ace, killed in action in his SPAD XIII.

• 1918 – Death of William Lewis Wells, British WWI flying ace from wounds received in action.

• 1917 – Birth of Rex Theodor Barber, American WWII fighter pilot, best known as a member of the top secret mission to intercept the aircraft carrying Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto

• 1912 – Birth of Paul M. Fitts, known as one of the pioneers in improving aviation safety

• 1908 – The Wright brothers fly for the first time since 1905, at Kitty Hawk. Wilbur pilots the 1905 Flyer III, modified so that the pilot and a passenger can sit erect, on a flight of just over 1,000 feet.

• 1906 – Death of Carl Berg, German entrepreneur and airship builder

• 1899 – Birth of Edward Grahame Johnstone, British WWI fighter ace

• 1896 – Samuel Pierpont Langley flies the unmanned Aerodrome No. 5 from a houseboat on the Potomac river a distance of 3,300ft.

• 1895 – Birth of Ernest Charles Hoy DFC, Canadian WWI flying ace, and airmail flight pioneer.

• 1894 – Birth of Richard Raymond-Barker, British WWI flying ace.

• 1894 – Birth of Sir Alan John Cobham, KBE, AFC, English aviation pioneer.

• 1894 – Birth of George Clifton Peters, Australian WWI flying ace

• 1888 – Birth of Johann Frint, Austro-Hungarian WWI flying ace.

May 7

• 2011 – A U.S. Air Force MQ-1 Predator unmanned aerial vehicle suffers an electrical failure and crashes in the Gulf of Aden one mile (1.6 km) off Djibouti, Djibouti.[1]

• 2011 – Swiss “Jetman” Yves Rossy completed an eight-minute flight along the Grand Canyon, Flying his jet-propelled wing attached to his back, and steering only by moving his body.

• 2011 – Launch of GEO-1, first Space-Based Infrared System (SBIRS) satellite, designed to provide key capabilities the areas of missile warning, missile defense and battlespace characterization.

• 2011 – Merpati Nusantara Airlines Flight 8968, a Xian MA60, crashes off West Papua, Indonesia while on approach to Kaimana Airport in heavy rain, killing all 27 passengers and crew on board.

• 2005 – Lockhart River air disaster: Aero Tropics Air Services Flight 675 crashes into the side of a mountain while on approach to Lockhart River Airport in Australia, killing all 15 occupants. The Swearingen SA.227DC Metro 23 (VH-TFU) strikes the ridge at a height of 1,200ft, well below the minimum safe altitude of 2,060ft, and is blamed on the crew not noticing their AGL (above ground level) and increased descent rate.

• 2002 – China Northern Airlines Flight 6136, a McDonnell Douglas MD-82, crashes near Dalian, China, after a passenger sets fire to the cabin with gasoline; all 103 passengers and 9 crew are killed.

• 2002 – EgyptAir Flight 843, a Boeing 737-566, crashes near Tunis, Tunisia, while landing in rough weather; of the 62 people on board, 14 perish.

• 1999 – Express Airlines, later to become Pinnacle Airlines, announces that they will be the launch operator of the Bombardier Regional Jet (CRJ) for Northwest Airlines.

• 1992 – Launch: Space Shuttle Endeavour STS-49 at 7:40 pm EDT. Mission highlights: Intelsat VI repair; first flight of Endeavour. First 3 person EVA. ASEM space station truss experiment EVA, record four EVAs total for mission.

• 1991 – The brand new Space Shuttle Endeavour, built to replace the destroyed Challenger, arrives at Kennedy Space Center in Florida atop a NASA 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft.

• 1990 – Air India Flight 132 catches fire on landing at Delhi-Indira Gandhi International Airport in India. An improperly installed fuse pin on the #1 engine on the Boeing 747 causes a fuel line to rupture after the reverse thrust is activated on landing. All 215 people on the aircraft escape with their lives, although the aircraft is completely destroyed.

• 1986 – Aircraft designer Al Mooney dies, aged 80.

• 1986 – Capt. Håkan Lundqvist is forced to eject from Saab Draken, 131, of F10 Wing of the Svenska Flygvapnet during an air defence sortie at low level in J2 sector outside the west coast of Sweden when he inadvertently flies through his wingman's vortices and goes into a superstall. Time from ejection until the fighter strikes the water is only 3 to 5 seconds. Pilot, suffering from spinal compression due to the ejection, is rescued by a ferry and then transferred to an F10 Wing helicopter.

• 1984 – First flight of the first Pilatus PC-9

• 1982 – 2 Sea Harriers from HMS Invincible are lost, they are believed to have collided while descending through cloud.

• 1981 – Austral Lineas Aereas Flight 901, a BAC-111 (LV-VOX) crashes 9 miles out on approach to Buenos Aires-Jorge Newbery Airport in Argentina. While in a holding pattern over the Río de la Plata, the aircraft succumbs to a violent thunderstorm, killing all 31 onboard after crashing into the river.

• 1979 – Air France is the first airline to operate the Lockheed L-1011-500, a long-range version of the TriStar with shorter fuselage, more powerful engines, and improved aerodynamics.

• 1975 – Launch of Satellite ANIK A3 (first generation of a series of synchronous orbit communications satellites developed by Hughes Aircraft Company for individual nations to use within their territorial boundaries)

• 1975 – Second prototype General Dynamics YF-16A Fighting Falcon, 72-01568, on practice flight prior to deployment for the Paris Air Show, suffers failure of main undercarriage leg to extend. General Dynamics test pilot Neil Anderson flies aircraft until fuel is nearly exhausted then makes expert grass belly-landing at Carswell Air Force Base, Texas. Aircraft is not heavily damaged and pilot is uninjured. Airframe is then sent to Rome Air Development Center Newport Site for use in radar tests. This was the first F-16 mishap.

• 1965 – First flight of the Canadair CL-84 Dynavert

• 1964 – Pacific Air Lines Flight 773, a Fairchild F27, crashes near San Ramon, California, killing all 44 aboard, after a passenger shoots both the captain and first officer before turning the gun on himself.

• 1963 – Death of Theodore von Kármán, Hungarian-American aerospace engineer and physicist who was active primarily in the fields of aeronautics and astronautics. He is responsible for many key advances in aerodynamics, notably his work on supersonic and hypersonic airflow characterization.

• 1963 – Telstar 2 (communications satellite) is launched.

• 1960 – The Soviet Union exposes an American cover-up about the status of a USAF Lockheed U-2 spy plane that was shot down over Russia six days prior. Assuming the aircraft was destroyed and the pilot killed, the US said a weather recon aircraft was lost, added NASA titles to a different airframe for media photos, and said the aircraft reported problems with oxygen before disappearing. Russia then came forward, adding information previously held back, that the pilot had survived and much of the spy aircraft was intact, proving the American scheme. Pilot Francis Gary Powers would be returned to the United States in February of 1962.

• 1959 – Birth of Tamara Elizabeth "Tammy" Jernigan, American scientist and former NASA astronaut and a veteran of 5 shuttle missions

• 1959 – First flight of the Procaer Picchio

• 1958 – U. S. Air Force Major Howard C. Johnson of the 83rd Fighter Interceptor Squadron set a new world record for altitude, flying a Lockheed F-104 Starfighter to 27,813 m (91,249 feet).

• 1958 – An Indian Air Force de Havilland Vampire crashed into the Delhi Flying Club hangar at Safdar Jung Airport, Delhi while attempting an emergency landing following an in-flight fire. Both Vampire crew died and four engineers working in the hangar and 11 aircraft were destroyed.

• 1946 – The Central Flying School is reformed at RAF Little Rissington.

• 1946 – The Empire Central Flying School is renamed the Empire Flying School.

• 1946 – First flight of the Handley Page Hastings

• 1945 – All German forces surrendered unconditionally. The instrument of surrender was signed at Berlin, Germany on 8 May, V. E. Day.

• 1945 – The Royal Air Force sinks its last German submarine

• 1944 – Flight test program of the Mikoyan/Gurevich I-222, high-altitude Soviet fighter aircraft, Evolution of the MIG-3, begins. All proposals for series production were discarded at the end of war.

• 1944 – First flight of the Beechcraft XA-38 Grizzly.

• 1943 – The first developmental prototype Finnish Valtion Lentokonetehdas VL Myrsky (State Aircraft Factory Storm), a low-wing single-seat cantilever monoplane fighter, completed on 30 April 1943, crashes "a week later."

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

• 1942 – Death of Jean Assollant (Bernache-Assollant), French aviation pioneer, WWII pilot, well known for having flown the 'Oiseau canari' on a north atlantic crossing. Killed in his MS 406 by British fighters during the Battle of Madagascar.

• 1942 – The Battle of the Coral Sea, the first battle ever fought between aircraft carriers, begins between a U. S. force centered around the aircraft carriers USS Lexington (CV-2) and USS Yorktown (CV-5) and a Japanese force with the aircraft carriers Shōhō, Shōkaku, and Zuikaku. Early in the morning, a 56-plane strike from Shōkaku and Zuikaku sinks a destroyer and fatally damages an oiler. Later in the morning, a 93-plane strike from Lexington and Yorktown sinks Shōhō – The first Japanese carrier ever sunk – prompting an American dive bomber pilot to send one of World War II’s most famous radio messages, “SCRATCH ONE FLATTOP. ” In the evening, confused Japanese carrier pilots mistake Yorktown for their own carrier and begin to fly a landing pattern before realizing their mistake.

• 1942 – On Madagascar, Diego Suarez falls to invading British forces. Since the invasion began on May 5, aircraft from the British aircraft carriers HMS Indomitable and HMS Illustrious have suppressed Vichy French aircraft, supported British ground forces ashore, attacked coastal artillery, a wrecked a French sloop, and sunk a French armed merchant cruiser and two French submarines.

• 1941 – The second prototype MiG I-200, fitted with a prototype of the temperamental Mikulin AM-37 engine and first flown on 6 January 1941, experiences severe vibration problems and, despite efforts to cure the problems, it fails during a flight this date, and the airframe is destroyed in the ensuing crash.

• 1941 – 40 RAF aircraft attack Iraqi reinforcements headed for Habbaniya, inflicting about 1,000 casualties and paralyzing the Iraqi column. Over the next few days, British aircraft destroy the remainder of the Royal Iraqi Air Force.

• 1940 – A Bristol Beaufort torpedo bomber of RAF Coastal Command drops the first 2,000 pound bomb to be delivered by the Royal Air Force (RAF) during WWII. The target is an enemy cruiser near Nordeney, but the weapon missed the warship.

• 1938 – First flight of the Arpin A-1, a two seat low-wing monoplane which was powered by a single radial engine in pusher configuration.

• 1937 – Birth of Aviard Gavrilovich Fastovets, Soviet test pilot.

• 1936 – Amy Mollison lands at Wingfield Aerodrome, Cape Town, South Africa, to set a new record of 3 days, 6 hours, 26 min for a flight from England.

• 1936 – 7-8 – Stanislaw Skarzynski flies the South Atlantic from Senegal to Brazil in a small single-seater tourist airplane RWD-5bis, in 20 hours 30 min, over a distance of 3,582 km (2,238 miles). The RWD-5bis was the smallest plane to have ever flown the Atlantic – Empty weight below 450 kg (990 lb), loaded 1100 kg. It is a part of 17,885 km Warsaw – Rio de Janeiro flight from April 27 to June 24.

• 1932 – First flight of the Dornier Do 11

• 1931 – Death of Richard Dick Waghorn AFC, English aviator, a pilot with the Royal Air Force who flew the winning aircraft in the 1929 Schneider Trophy seaplane race. Died from injuries after his crash 2 days before.

• 1930 – Curtiss B-2 Condor, 29-30, is wrecked at Rockwell Field, San Diego, California, but is repaired and serves until it is surveyed in December 1933. This was third and final accident involving the 13 total B-2 Condors acquired by the Air Corps.

• 1927 – Varig is founded as the first Brazilian airline.

• 1926 – First flight of the Blériot 127

• 1920 – Mitchel Field, New York held the first Intercollegiate Air Meet.

• 1918 – First flight of the Curtiss 18, unofficially known as the Wasp and by the United States Navy as the Kirkham, early American triplane fighter aircraft designed by Curtiss Engineering for the US Navy

• 1917 – First night bombing raid on London by an aeroplane takes place.

• 1917 – British ace Major Edward Mannock claims his first kill.

• 1917 – British ace Captain Albert Ball (44 victories) is killed in a crash following a dogfight with Lothar von Richthofen, who also crashes but survives.

• 1916 – Birth of Fred Hargesheimer, USAAF WWII pilot. Shot down over Papua New Guinea in June 1943. He became a philanthropist who helped out the village which had hidden him from the Japanese for many months.

• 1916 – Birth of Siegfried F. Erdmann, German Engineer specialized in supersonic Aerodynamics.

• 1916 – Birth of Johannes Wiese, German WWII fighter ace.

• 1913 – HMS Hermes, formerly a protected cruiser, recommissions as the Royal Navy’s first experimental seaplane carrier.

• 1912 – An American Wright biplane, flown by Lieutenant Thomas De Witt Milling at College Park in Maryland, becomes the first aeroplane to be armed with a machine gun

• 1910 – First airplane flight in Cuba. For a few minutes, Frenchman André Bellot rose into space in a 60HP Voisin biplane. He took off from the Almendares Hippodrome and fell almost immediately but he was not hurt.

• 1910 – The Antoinette Company builds a simulator at Mourmelon air school for pilots to practice the controls of an Antoinette monoplane.

• 1909 – The Royal Navy awards a contract to build its first rigid airship to Vickers.

• 1894 – Birth of Wendel Archibald Robertson, American WWI flying ace

• 1893 – Birth of Karl Paul Schlegel, German WWI fighter ace and balloon-buster.

• 1878 – Birth of Karl Gustav Vollmöller, German playwright, screenwriter and early aircraft designer.

May 8

• 2011 – China Southern Airlines Flight 3456 (CZ3456) was a flight from Chongqing to Shenzhen Huangtian Airport (now Shenzhen Bao’an International Airport), Guangdong Province, People’s Republic of China crashed while attempting to land in a thunderstorm. The aircraft crashed on its third landing attempt in severe weather with a high vertical speed. The first landing attempt caused damage to the plane’s hydraulic systems, landing gear, and flaps. The main warning, hydraulic system, and gear warnings all sounded. The crew decided on a go-around and warned the passengers to prepare for a crash landing. The aircraft skidded off the runway, broke into three pieces and caught fire, killing 33 passengers and 2 crew members.

• 2010 – After being recovered and completely rebuilt over an eight-year period and an estimated 18,000 man hours by Pemberton and Sons Aviation in Spokane, Washington, a Boeing Model 40 (mail plane and first aircraft built by the Boeing company to carry passengers) had an aerial rendezvous with Boeing's newest passenger aircraft, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

• 2009 – Saudi Arabian Airlines Flight 9061, a McDonnell Douglas MD-90-30, registration HZ-APW, departs the runway at King Khalid International Airport, Saudi Arabia, while taxiing and suffers a main gear collapse and engine fire. The damage is described as “substantial”.

• 2004 – Death of William J. "Pete" Knight, U. S. politician, combat pilot, test pilot, and astronaut. Knight holds the world's speed record for flight in a winged, powered aircraft.

• 2004 – First (glide) Flight of Hopper (phoenix), proposed European Space Agency orbital and reusable launch vehicle. Dropped from 2.4 km (8,000 ft) by a helicopter, it landed precisely and without incident after a GPS-guided 90 sond glide.

• 1997 – China Southern Airlines Flight 3456, a Boeing 737, makes a hard landing in Shenzhen, China during poor weather and crashes, killing 35 of the 74 people on board.

• 1992 – Excavations begin at Devonport Naval Base, near Auckland, in search of two Boeing seaplanes supposedly buried there in 1919 – The first two aircraft built by that company. The search proves fruitless.

• 1987 – Death of Hugh William Lumsden "Dingbat" Saunders, South African WWI fighter ace, High-ranking officer during and post WWII.

• 1987 – American Eagle Flight 5452, a CASA C-212, crashed while landing at Mayagüez, Puerto Rico due to maintenance issues and pilot error. All four passengers survived, both crew were killed.

• 1983 – Death of James Andrew Healy, American WWI flying ace, WWII officer. He has been technical advisor for the movie 'Wings'.

• 1980 – (8-12) Maxie Anderson and his son, Kristian Anderson, make the first nonstop balloon crossing of North America, flying from Fort Baker in California to Sainte-Félicité, Quebec, Canada.

• 1978 – National Airlines Flight 193, a Boeing 727, lands short on approach to Pensacola, Florida, United States in Escambia Bay, as a result of pilot error; three passengers out of fifty-eight people on board drown.

• 1975 – Second prototype General Dynamics YF-16A Fighting Falcon, 72-01568, on practice flight prior to deployment for the Paris Air Show, suffers failure of main undercarriage leg to extend. General Dynamics test pilot Neil Anderson flies aircraft until fuel is nearly exhausted then makes expert grass belly-landing at Carswell Air Force Base, Texas. Aircraft is not heavily damaged and pilot is uninjured. Airframe is then sent to Rome Air Development Center Newport Site for use in radar tests. This was the first F-16 mishap.

• 1973 – The Airbus A300 B prototype makes the type’s first fully automatic landing in Toulouse, France.

• 1972 – Four members of Black September hijack Sabena Flight 571, a Boeing 707 with 86 other people on board flying from Vienna, Austria, to Tel Aviv, Israel. After the plane arrives as scheduled at Lod Airport in Lod, Israel, the hijackers threaten to blow up the plane if Israel does not release 315 Palestinians from prison. The next day, 16 Israeli Sayeret Matkal commandos led by Ehud Barak and including Benjamin Netanyahu, storm the plane in Operation Isotope, killing two hijackers and capturing the other two; Netanyahu and three passengers are wounded and one of the wounded passengers later dies of her wounds.

• 1958 – An Indian Air Force de Havilland Vampire crashed into the Delhi Flying Club hangar at Safdar Jung Airport, Delhi while attempting an emergency landing following an in-flight fire. Both Vampire crew died and four engineers working in the hangar and 11 aircraft were destroyed.

• 1956 – A USAF Martin B-57C-MA Canberra, 53-3858, crashes on the Ship Shole island bombing range near Langley AFB, Virginia, killing both crew. From the accident report: "Cause of accident - Undetermined: The aircraft was observed to be flying in a northeasterly direction at an estimated 500 feet altitude and traveling at a high rate of speed. It was probable that the speed was 425 knots indicated, because this was the prebriefed airspeed since the aircraft was on the run-in route on the LABS bombing range. Witnesses observing the aircraft reported that everything appeared to be normal. The aircraft was then seen to abruptly dive and disappear; this was followed by an immediate explosion. The instructor pilot and the pilot of this dual control B-57C received fatal injuries."

• 1953 – First flight of the SNCASO Farfadet, gyrodyne type aircraft featuring a tip-jet driven, three-bladed rotor, a fixed wing and a turboprop engine driving a nose-mounted propeller

• 1952 – Birth of Charles Joseph "Charlie" Camarda, American engineer and a NASA astronaut who flew his first mission into space on board the Space Shuttle mission STS-114.

• 1947 – A North American P-51D-30-NA Mustang, 44-74652, of the 77th Fighter Squadron, 20th Fighter Group, based at Shaw Field, South Carolina, crashes at ~noon near Cassatt, South Carolina in Kershaw County. Col. W. M. Turner, executive officer at Shaw Field, said that ambulances and firefighting equipment went to the scene but that his information was that the pilot, Max J. Christensen, was not injured. He said that he was awaiting a full report on the crash.

• 1945 – Flying a Messerschmitt Bf 109, Luftwaffe fighter pilot Erich Hartmann scores his final aerial victory, shooting down a Soviet Yakovlev Yak-9 fighter over Brno, Slovakia. He is the highest-scoring ace in history, with 352 kills. He surrenders to Allied forces soon afterward.

• 1945 – First flight of the Yokosuka R2Y, a reconnaissance aircraft built in Japan late in WWII.

• 1945 – VE Day – Germany surrenders, ending the War in Europe

• 1945 – First prototype (of three) Curtiss XF15C-1, BuNo 01213, crashes on a landing approach to Buffalo, New York due to fuel starvation, killing test pilot Charles Cox. Two other prototypes modified with a T-tail to correct problems, but this last Curtiss design for the U.S. Navy never enters production. Second prototype was scrapped but the third and final airframe is preserved at the New England Air Museum in Connecticut.

• 1944 – Vought OS2U-2 Kingfisher, BuNo 3092, suffers midair collision with OS2U-3 Kingfisher, BuNo 5422, 1/2 mile S of NAS Pensacola, Florida.

• 1944 – Introduction: Boeing B-29 Superfortress

• 1943 – A USAAF Douglas C-33, 36-85, c/n 1518, of the 482d Air Base Squadron, is written off at Hill Field, Ogden, Utah, when the undercarriage retracts on take off.[59][198] Pilot was William B. Cline.

• 1943 – First flight of the Savoia-Marchetti SM.95, an Italian four-engine, mid-range transport aircraft.

• 1943 – A 60-plane U. S. strike from Henderson Field, Guadalcanal, sinks two Japanese destroyers and badly damages a third off Kolombangara.

• 1943 – Allied aircraft begin a bombing campaign against Pantelleria, the first of 5,285 sorties they will fly against the island before it is invaded on June 11.

• 1942 – WWII German Fighter ace Adolf Dickfeld scores 11 on that single day.

• 1942 – On the morning of the second and final day of the Battle of the Coral Sea, the two sides launch airstrikes at almost the same time. The strike by 84 aircraft from Lexington and Yorktown badly damages Shōkaku. Shortly afterwards, the 70-plane strike from Shōkaku and Zuikaku sinks Lexington – The first American aircraft carrier ever sunk – And badly damages Yorktown, after which both sides retire with the Japanese abandoning their plans for an amphibious invasion of Port Moresby. Shōkaku’s damage and Zuikaku’s aircraft losses will keep them out of combat for two months, forcing them to miss the Battle of Midway in June. The Battle of the Coral Sea ends as the first naval battle in which ships of the opposing sides never sight one another.

• 1941 – Death of Armando Boetto and Franco Cappa, Italian WWII pilots, killed in acton in their S. M.79 s while attacking a British convoy near Malta.

• 1941 – No. 407 (Coastal) Squadron was formed in England.

• 1937 – Lieutenant Colonel Mario Pezzi of Italy sets a world altitude record of 15,655 m (51,362 feet) in a Caproni Ca.161.

• 1935 – First flight of the Handley Page H.P.51, monoplane conversion of the earlier, unsuccessful biplane bomber-transport aircraft, the Handley Page H.P.43.

• 1935 – The U. S. Commerce Department announces in Washington, D. C. that blind-landing radio equipment developed by a U. S. Army Air Corps team under Captain Hegenberger is to be installed at all major airports between New York and Los Angeles.

• 1935 – Amelia Earhart makes a non-stop flight from Mexico City to Newark in New Jersey, in 14 hours 19 min.

• 1934 – 8-23 – Jean Batten sets a new women's speed record between England and Australia. She flies a de Havilland DH.60 and makes the trip in 14 days 22 hours.

• 1929 – Flying the Wright Apache, Lt Apollo Soucek set the world altitude record for landplanes by flying to the height of 39,140 feet (11,930 m).

• 1927 – 8-9 – Charles Nungesser and François Coli attempted to cross the Atlantic from Paris to New York City in Levasseur PL-8 The White Bird (L'Oiseau Blanc) biplane, but disappeared.

• 1926 – The first federal legislation regulating civil aeronautics is passed by the U. S. Congress. The Air Commerce Act authorizes the Weather Bureau to provide meteorological service over routes designated by the Secretary of Commerce.

• 1919 – A US Navy flying boat, NC-4 begins an Atlantic crossing, flying by short stages from Long Island, New York to Lisbon, Portugal. It arrives 19 days later on May 28.

• 1919 – Death of Bernard Paul Gascoigne Beanlands, Canadian WWI flying ace, killed in a flying accident at RAF Northolt

• 1918 – Death of Roderick McDonald, Canadian WWI flying ace, Killed in action in his Sopwith Camel.

• 1915 – Lieutenant (jg) Melvin L. Stolz, student aviator, is killed in a crash of the AH-9 hydroaeroplane at Pensacola, Florida

• 1914 – A civilian pilot, René Caudron, makes the first French shipboard takeoff in an airplane from a ramp constructed over the foredeck of the seaplane carrier Foudre, using a Caudron G.3 amphibian floatplane.

• 1913 – John Henry Towers flew a long-distance flight of 169 miles in a Curtiss flying boat from the Washington Navy Yard down the Potomac River and then up the Chesapeake Bay to the U. S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland in 3hrs 5 min.

• 1911 – US Naval Aviation Service created and the Navy's first airplane, a Curtiss Model D, is ordered.

• 1896 – Birth of Viktor von Pressentin von Rautter, German WWI fighter ace

• 1895 – Birth of James H. "Dutch" Kindelberger, American pioneer of aviation. He was also a leader of North American Aviation for a number of years.

• 1895 – Birth of Percy Henry Olieff, British WWI flying ace

• 1891 – Birth of James Robert Smith, Canadian WWI flying ace

• 1888 – Birth of Maurice Jean-Paul Boyau, French rugby union player, WWI flying ace and one of the most successful balloon busters.

• 1885 – Birth of Phillip von Doepp, German Engineer and aircraft designer, specialized in inverted wings, expert in guided missile aero design during WWII.

May 9

• 2012 – A Sukhoi Superjet 100 airliner crashes on Mount Salak on Java in Indonesia during a demonstration flight for airline representatives and journalists, killing all 45 people on board. Its wreckage is discovered on 10 May.

• 2008 – Death of Ronald Anthony Parise, Italian American scientist who flew aboard two NASA Space Shuttle missions as a payload specialist.

• 2004 – Southwest Airlines begins service to Philadelphia International Airport in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

• 2004 – American Eagle Flight 5401 is damaged by high winds during landing in San Juan, Puerto Rico, injuring 13 people.

• 2003 – Launch of Hayabusa, Japanese uncrewed spacecraft developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency to return a sample of material from a small near-Earth asteroid named 25143 Itokawa to Earth for further analysis.

• 2003 – UH-60A Black Hawk 86-24507 of 571st Medical Company (AA) crashes into Tigris River, the vicinity of Samarrah, Iraq killing two pilots and crew chief. One more soldier was injured.[1]

• 1991 – Death of Aviard Gavrilovich Fastovets, Soviet test pilot.

• 1987 – LOT Flight 5055, an Ilyushin Il-62M, crashes near Warsaw during landing because of engine failure. All 183 passengers and crew members perish in the worst ever accident involving the Ilyushin Il-62.

• 1983 – The first all-woman flight crew to fly a round trip across the Atlantic is the Air France C-141 crew form the 18th Military Airlift Squadron, McGuire Air Force Base, New Jersey.

• 1981 – Second prototype of Dornier 228 200 (E-2 extended version, twin-turboprop STOL utility aircraft), makes its first flight.

• 1981 – After modifications, the British aircraft carrier HMS Hermes reenters service with the Royal Navy as the world’s first carrier with a ski-jump ramp. Royal Navy Lieutenant Commander D. R. Taylor had developed the ramp.

• 1981 – Thunderbird 6 a United States Air Force Northrop T-38A Talon of the Thunderbirds demonstration team crashed during a display at Hill AFB, Utah, United States, pilot killed.

• 1978 – David Cook makes the first crossing of the English Channel in a powered hang-glider.

• 1977 – Death of Ian Patrick Robert "Old Naps" Napier, Scottish WWI flying ace.

• 1976 – Imperial Iranian Air Force, flight ULF48, a 747 freighter crashed near Madrid, due to the structural failure of its left wing in flight, killing the 17 people on board. The accident investigation determined that a lightning strike had caused an explosion in a fuel tank in the wing, leading to flutter and the separation of the wing.

• 1972 – In Operation Pocket Money, U.S. Navy A-6 Intruder and A-7 Corsair II bombers from three aircraft carriers lay naval mines in the harbors at Haiphong and six other North Vietnamese ports.

• 1970 – U.S. Navy attack helicopters are the first American aircraft to reach Phnom Penh during the American and South Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia.

• 1967 – First flight of the Fokker F28 Fellowship, Dutch short range jet airliner.

• 1965 – Launch of Luna 5 (E-6 series), uncrewed space mission of the Luna program, also called Lunik 5.

• 1964 – de Havilland’s Chief Test Pilot Bob Fowler took the first flight of the Cariboo.

• 1964 – A Republic F-105B-15-RE Thunderchief, 57-5801, Thunderbird 2, one of nine delivered to the Thunderbirds demonstration team in mid-April 1964, suffers structural failure and disintegrates during 6G tactical pitch up for landing at airshow at Hamilton AFB, California, killing pilot Capt. Eugene J. Devlin. The failure of the fuselage's upper spine causes the USAF to ground all F-105s and retrofit the fleet with a structural brace, but the air demonstration team reverts to the North American F-100 Super Sabre and never flies another show in F-105s.

• 1962 – First flight of the Sikorsky CH-54 Tarhe, twin-engine heavy-lift helicopter designed by Sikorsky Aircraft for the US Army. It is named after Tarhe (whose nickname was "The Crane"), an eighteenth-century chief of the Wyandot Native American tribe.The civil version is the S-64 Skycrane.

• 1960 – First flight of the Auster D.6 G-25-10.

• 1958 – A USAF North American F-100F-10-NA Super Sabre, serial number 56-3810, crashed 8 miles (13 km) NNE of Kadena AB,Japan. Instructor/test Pilot:Capt Theodore Christos and rear seat pilot Capt James Looney ejected but were killed. Crash Investigation Board report indicated cause of crash was undetermined.

• 1957 – Boeing KC-97F-55-BO Stratotanker, 51-0258, c/n 16325, en route from Sidi Slimane Air Base, Morocco, to Terceira-Lajes AFB, Azores, ditches at 0616 hrs. in the Atlantic 550 km (343.8 mls) SE of the Azores Islands following a double engine failure, no fatalities amongst the seven crew. The airplane floated for ten days and was sunk by USS Wisconsin.

• 1957 – 1st Lt. David Steeves departs Hamilton AFB, California for Craig AFB, Alabama, in T-33A-1-LO Shooting Star, 52-9232, and disappears without a trace. Declared dead by the Air Force, he emerges from the Kings Canyon National Park in the Sierra Nevada mountains 54 days later, having ejected from the jet after an in-flight emergency. He stumbled on a ranger cabin during his ordeal where he found fish hooks, a canned ham and a can of beans. Unable to locate the downed trainer, officials eye him with suspicion and rumors that he traded to jet to the Russians, or flew it to Mexico, dog the pilot and ruin his military career. He returns to civilian life and eventually dies in an aircraft accident in 1965. Finally, in 1977, Boy Scouts hiking in the national park discover the canopy of his T-33, too late to vindicate the pilot's story and reputation.

• 1954 – First flight of the Goodyear GA-400R Gizmo, an American one man helicopter for liaison and observation.

• 1952 – Death of Elia Antonio Liut, Italian Aviation pioneer.

• 1952 – French Leduc 0.16 research ramjet again suffers landing gear collapse on touchdown and is damaged. After several more flights in 1954, it will be retired to the Musée de l'Air.

• 1952 – Maj. Neil H. Lathrop attempts low-level aileron roll in second prototype Martin XB-51-MA, 46-686, crashes at end of runway at Edwards AFB, California with fatal result.

• 1949 – Birth of Oleg Yur'yevich At'kov, Soviet Medical Doctor and Cosmonaut.

• 1949 – First flight of the Republic XF-91 Thunderceptor, an American mixed-propulsion interceptor using a jet engine for most flight, and a cluster of four small rocket engines for added thrust during climb and interception.

• 1948 – First flight of the Aeronova A. E. R.1, Italian road-able monoplane.

• 1947 – First flight of the Percival Merganser, British light civil transport twin-engine, high-wing monoplane of all-metal, stressed skin construction with retractable tricycle undercarriage.

• 1945 – British Pacific Fleet carrier aircraft strike the Sakishima Gunto. Kamikazes hit the aircraft carriers HMS Formidable and HMS Victorious.

• 1943 – A German night fighter crew defects to the United Kingdom, flying a Junkers Ju 88R-1 there. The defection gives British scientists and tacticians access to a Lichtenstein airborne interception radar for the first time.

• 1942 – Operation Bowery, 64 Supermarine Spitfires are flown to Malta from the US aircraft carrier USS Wasp and the Royal Navy carrier HMS Eagle.

• 1942 – Chief of Staff of the United States Army General George C. Marshall proposes the creation of an organization within the U.S. Army Air Forces similar to the Royal Air Force’s Coastal Command. His proposal eventually will lead to the establishment of the Army Air Forces Antisubmarine Command.

• 1941 – Death of Sydney "Timbertoes" Carlin, British WWI flying ace and air gunner during WWII, dying from wounds after an enemy bombing raid at RAF Wittering.

• 1940 – First flight of the second prototype of the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-1, Soviet fighter aircraft.

• 1937 – First flight of the Lockheed XC-35, American twin-engine, experimental pressurized airplane, first American aircraft to feature cabin pressurization. It was initially described as a 'supercharged cabin' by the Army, development of the Lockheed Model 10 Electra.

• 1937 – Death of Walter Mittelholzer, Swiss aviation pioneer, pilot, photographer, travel writer, and also as one of the first aviation entrepreneurs.

• 1936 – The German airship Hindenburg lands at Lakehurst, New Jersey after its first scheduled transatlantic flight.

• 1934 – First flight of the de Havilland Hornet Moth, a single-engined cabin biplane designed by the de Havilland Aircraft Company as a potential replacement for its highly successful de Havilland Tiger Moth trainer.

• 1934 – An Air France Wibault 282 T-12 airliner crashes into the English Channel off Dungeness, Kent, England, killing all six people on board.

• 1933 – First flight of the Vought XF3U-1, an American two-seat, all-metal biplane fighter prototype.

• 1932 – Captain Albert Hegenberger makes the first completely blind solo flight entirely on instruments, in a Consolidated NY-2.

• 1931 – Hawker Hart light bomber prototype, J9052, modified as a naval fleet spotter-cum-fighter Hawker Osprey to Specification O.22/26, returned to Hawker after trials, is wrecked this date in take off accident with crossed aileron controls. Orders for 133 are placed, in four Marks, serving in operational units until May 1939, as well as small orders for Portugal, Spain and Sweden.

• 1931 – Birth of Vance DeVoe Brand, American engineer and former test pilot and NASA astronaut.

• 1926 – Richard Byrd and Floyd Bennett make the first flight over the North Pole in a Fokker F.VIIa-3 m. Their total distance from Spitzbergen, Norway is 1,600 miles (2,575 km).

• 1923 – First flight of the: Blériot 115, a French 4 engine 8 passengers biplane airliner.

• 1918 – U.S. Army Maj. Harold Melville Clark accomplishes first three-island flight in the Hawaiian Islands when he and mechanic Sgt. Robert Gray depart from Fort Kamehameha in a Curtiss N-9 of the 6th Aero Squadron, make a stop in Maui, and then continue to the island of Hawaii. Clark encounters fog and darkness over the island, causing him to crash in the jungle near Hilo. Two days after the crash, Clark and Gray emerge from the Hawaiian jungle unhurt. According to Harold Richards in "The History of Army Aviation in Hawaii", Clark accomplished another "first" on this flight as he had agreed to deliver two letters from Oahu residents to their relatives on Hawaii. After emerging from the jungle, Clark delivers the letters to their intended recipients. Thus, Clark carried the first letters by airmail in the Hawaiian Islands.

• 1918 – Death of Charles Roger Lupton, British WWI flying ace, killed in a midair collision with a French Aircraft.

• 1917 – William E. Boeing's Pacific Aero Products Company is renamed the "Boeing Airplane Company. "

• 1917 – Death of Victor Carlstrom, early Swedish-American aviation pioneer, killed with a student when the wing of the aircraft he was piloting failed in flight.

• 1917 – French WWI fighter ace René Fonck shoots down 6 German aircraft that day.

• 1917 – Death of Wilhelm Cymera, German WWI flying ace, killed in action.

• 1917 – French ace René Fonck shoots down six German aircraft in a day.

• 1916 – Using a bombsight developed by Bourdillon and Tizard, a British Short 184 seaplane hits a target in with a 500 pound bomb from a height of 4,000 feet.

• 1916 – Birth of Franco Cappa, WWII Italian pilot.

• 1914 – First parachute descent from an aircraft in Great Britain is made by William Newell from a Grahame-White Type X Charabanc (or Aerobus) at Hendon.

• 1912 – Lieutenant Commander Charles Samson becomes the first person to fly an aircraft off the deck of a moving ship. He takes off in a Short S.38 from the deck of HMS Hibernia in Weymouth Bay.

• 1904 – 9 – 11 – The Imperial Russian Navy armored cruiser Rossia carries a balloon on a raiding cruise against Japanese ships into the Sea of Japan in the first use by a warship of a balloon on the high seas in wartime. The balloon makes 13 successful ascents before it breaks its mooring lines and is damaged after landing on the sea.

• 1888 – Birth of Francesco Baracca, Italy's top fighter ace of WWI, credited with 34 aerial victories.

May 10

• 2012 – First flight of the AgustaWestland AW169 I-EASF.

• 2012 – The women's international record-holder for number of flight hours logged as a pilot in a lifetime, Evelyn Bryan Johnson, dies at the age of 102. Between her first solo flight on 8 November 1944 and her retirement from flying in the mid-1990s, she had logged 57,635 hours (about 6½ years) in the air, flying about 5,500,000 miles (8,856,683 km). Only one person, Ed Long (1915-1999), had logged more hours (over 65,000, or about 7 years) in the air during a lifetime.[1]

• 2010 – A Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II from 23rd Wing 75th Fighter Squadron s/n 79-0141 of the US Air Force crashed during take off at Moody Air Force Base, Georgia. Pilot ejected safely.

• 2010 – A Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter of the United States Army made a controlled landing after being hit by enemy fire in Helmand Province . All crewmembers were safely returned to base. Helicopter was intentionally destroyed by international forces.

• 2009 – YV-1467, a BAe 3201 Jetstream 31, crashes near Útila Airport, 2009 Honduras during an illegal drug smuggling flight carrying almost 1,700 kilograms (3,700 lb) of cocaine. One of the three occupants are killed.

• 1995 – A Lockheed F-117A Nighthawk, 85-0822, callsign Spear 26, from the 49th Fighter Wing, Holloman AFB, New Mexico, crashes 7 miles S of Zuni, New Mexico, while on a training mission. The pilot, Capt. Kenneth W. Levens, 35, of the 9th Fighter Squadron, was killed in the crash. The autopilot apparently disengaged, aircraft enters inverted near-vertical dive, impacts on the Zuni Indian Pueblo in a 70 degree dive with 120 degrees starboard bank at more than 600 mph at 2225 hrs, creating a 30-foot crater. A Kirtland AFB H-60 Blackhawk finds the impact site shortly after 0000 hrs.

• 1991 – First flight of Bombardier CRJ100, regional airliner.

• 1990 – Flight Lieutenants Julie Ann Gibson and Sally Cox become the first female pilots to fly solo in Royal Air Force (RAF) jet aircraft. Both officers flew Jet Provosts as part of their flying training at No.1 Flying Training School, RAF Linton-on-Ouse.

• 1986 – The U. S. Navy selects the F/A-18 Hornet as the official airplane of the Blue Angels.

• 1979 – The US Air Force sends E-3 Sentry AWACS aircraft (a military variant of the Boeing 707) to perform surveillance over Yemen, which is in the midst of a civil war.

• 1978 – First flight of the Dassault Mirage 2000.

• 1977 – The first woman navigator candidates report to Mather AFB, California, to begin undergraduate navigator training.

• 1974 – “Turbo” Tarling flew his 5,000th T-33 hour.

• 1972 – First flight of the Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II is an American single-seat, twin-engine, straight-wing jet aircraft designed for close air support.

• 1972 – Lts Randy Cunningham and J G William become the first US Navy aces of the Vietnam War, adding three Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17s to their tally on this day alone.

• 1972 – Vietnam People's Air Force Shenyang J-6 of the 925th Fighter Regiment, piloted by Nguyen Manh Tung, runs out of fuel after CAP mission, deadsticks from altitude of 1,400 meters, descends too rapidly, and overruns runway at Yen Bai airfield, North Vietnam, overturning and exploding, killing pilot instantly.

• 1970 – Lockheed SR-71A, 61-7969, Article 2020, crashed near Korat RTAFB, Thailand, after a refuelling resulted in a subsonic high-speed stall. Pilot Lawson and RSO Martinez eject safely.

• 1969 – The U. S. Army's 10 first Airborne Division (Airmobile), the U. S. 9th Marine Regiment, and the South Vietnamese Army's 3rd Regiment begin Operation Apache Snow in South Vietnam's A Shau Valley with a helicopter assault on North Vietnamese forces. It will lead to the Battle of Hamburger Hill.

• 1967 – Northrop M2-F2, NASA 803, during the 16th glide flight, crashes on landing at Edwards Air Force Base, California, due to a pilot-induced oscillation coupled with misjudged height and drift. Airframe rolls over six times, footage used for television program "The Six Million Dollar Man". Pilot Bruce Peterson survives. Project is cancelled.

• 1967 – First (of five) LTV XC-142As, 62-5921, crashes on 149th flight during simulated downed-pilot recovery mission test. Rapid descent from 8,000 feet to avoid ground-fire ends badly when aircraft pitches over violently at low altitude, impacting in heavily wooded, marshy area at Mountain Creek Lake, near Dallas, Texas, killing three crew. Airframe destroyed by impact and post-crash fire. KWF are contract pilot Stuart Madison, co-pilot Charles Jester, and hoist operator John Omvig. Investigation finds cause to be failure of tail propeller control system, causing overspeed condition which generated unexpected and uncontrollable nose-down pitch.

• 1963 – Birth of Lisa Marie Nowak, United States naval officer and a former NASA astronaut.

• 1961 – Air France Flight 406, a Lockheed Starliner, crashes into the Sahara Desert near the Edjele oilfield in Algeria after a bomb goes off on board. All 78 passengers and crew were killed in the crash.

• 1961 – A Convair B-58 cruises at a speed of 1,302 miles per hour (2,095 km/h) and wins the Blériot trophy, created 30 years ago for the first airplane to maintain a speed of more than 2,000 kilometres per hour (1,200 mph) for more than 30 min in a closed circuit.

• 1958 – Birth of Ellen Lauri Ochoa, former astronaut and engineer.

• 1956 – First of two F-101 A Voodoo| service-test reconnaissance Voodoos flew.

• 1953 – Death of Georges Pelletier d'Oisy, French WWI flying ace.

• 1950 – First flight of the de Havilland DH.114 Heron was a small, propeller-driven British airliner.

• 1946 – First successful launch of an American V-2 rocket at White Sands Proving Ground.

• 1945 – Naval Auxiliary Air Facility Lewiston-based Howard GH-2 Nightingale ambulance, overloaded for runway length, crashes on takeoff from Rangeley, Maine airstrip, killing Lt. Eugene B. Slocum, AMM3C Louis F. Ceurvorst, Pfc. James V. Haney of the USMC and one more unidentified.

• 1945 – Sighting a Japanese Kawasaki Ki-45 (Allied reporting name “Nick” fighter flying high over Okinawa, U. S. Marine Corps First Lieutenant Robert R, Klingman in a Vought F4U Corsair gives chase for over 185 miles and intercepts the Ki-45 at 38,000 feet (12,000 m). Finding his guns frozen, he climbs well above the Corsair's service ceiling of 41,600 feet (12,700 m) and cuts off the Kawasaki Ki-45′s tail with his propeller in several passes, causing it to crash. He then belly lands safely at Kadena Air Base on Okinawa. He receives the Navy Cross for the action.

• 1945 – 10 – 11 – The sixth Japanese Kamikaze attack off Okinawa includes 150 kamikazes. They damage two destroyers and the aircraft carrier USS Bunker Hill (CV-17), which suffers 353 killed, 43 missing, and 264 wounded. One of the most heavily damaged aircraft carriers to survive the war, Bunker Hill is out of service for the rest of World War II.

• 1942 – The commander of Luftflotte 2, Field Marshal Albert Kesselring, reports to Berlin that “the neutralization of Malta is complete, ” marking the end of the heavy German air campaign against the island that had begun the previous December. The same day, the newly arrived Spitfires confront Axis aircraft with a superior force over the island for the first time in months, shooting down 12 German aircraft for the loss of three Spitfires.

• 1943 – First Curtiss YC-76 Caravan constructed at the Louisville, Kentucky plant, 42-86918, loses tail unit at 1729 hrs. due to lack of "forgotten" securing bolts during test flight, crashes at Okolona, Kentucky, killing three Curtiss test crew, pilot Ed Schubinger, co-pilot John L. "Duke" Trowbridge, and engineer Robert G. Scudder. Miserable attempt at building all-wood cargo design is cancelled by the USAAF on 3 August with only nineteen completed, all grounded by 12 September 1944. Four C-76s at the St. Louis, Missouri plant are granted one-time flight clearance and flown directly to Air Training Command bases for use as instructional airframes.

• 1943 – First Consolidated XB-32 Dominator, 41-141, crashes on take-off at Lindbergh Field, San Diego, probably from flap failure. Although bomber does not burn when it piles up at end of runway, Consolidated's senior test pilot Dick McMakin is killed. Six others on board injured. This was one of only two twin-finned B-32s (41-142 was the other) - all subsequent had a PB4Y-style single tail.

• 1941 – At 2305 hrs. Messerschmitt Bf 110D, Werknr 3868, 'VJ+OQ', appears over Eaglesham, Renfrewshire. Pilot bails out and when challenged by David McLean, Head Ploughman of a local farm, as to whether he is German, the man replies in good English; "Yes, I am Hauptmann Alfred Horn. I have an important message for the Duke of Hamilton". Horn is taken to McLean's cottage where McLean's wife makes a pot of tea, but the German requests only a glass of water. Horn has hurt his back and help is summoned. Local Home Guard soldiers arrive and Horn is taken to their headquarters at the Drill Hall, Busby, near Glasgow. Upon questioning by a visiting Royal Observer Corps officer, Major Graham Donald, Horn repeats his request to see the Duke. Donald recognises "Hauptmann Horn" to be none other than Rudolf Hess. The remains of Hess' Messerschmitt Bf 110 are now in the Imperial War Museum.

• 1941 – RCAF No. 406 (Night Fighter) Squadron was formed in England at Acklington. The Squadron was initially equipped with the Bristol Blenheim Mk I and IV aircraft.

• 1941 – Flying via Vichy French-controlled Syria, aircraft of the German Luftwaffe begin to arrive at Mosul, Iraq, to support Iraqi forces against the British under the command of Fliegerführer Irak.

• 1941 – Rudolf Hess parachutes into Scotland to try to negotiate an alliance with Britain against the Soviet Union.

• 1941 – 550 German bombers drop more than 635,036 kilograms (1,400,015 lb) of bombs on London, killing 1,500 people and seriously injuring 1,800.

• 1940 – World War II: The first German bombs of the war fall on England at Chilham and Petham, in Kent.

• 1940 – Germany invades the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg. Paratroops again play a key role.

• 1937 – First of two prototypes of the Caudron C.690 is destroyed in a crash that killed René Paulhan, Caudron's chief test pilot.

• 1936 – Cautious taxiing and hops by A. P. Charnyavskii of the TsAGI A-12, transport autogyro.

• 1933 – Death of Robert Heibert, German WWI flying ace.

• 1932 – Sole Lockheed Y1C-12 Vega, 31-405, c/n 158, of the 59th Service Squadron, a Lockheed DL-1 Vega acquired by the Army Air Corps for service tests and evaluation, is moderately damaged at Langley Field, Virginia, while piloted by Thomas D. Ferguson. Aircraft eventually scrapped at Langley Field on 16 May 1935.

• 1926 – Maj. Harold C. Geiger is slightly injured in a collision between two planes at Langley Field, near Hampton, Virginia. While attending the Air Corps Tactical School at Langley Field, his Eberhart S.E.5e, 22-317, collides in mid-air during a flight formation with fellow student, Horace Meek Hickam's Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5a, SO-8044. Hickam parachutes to safety, and narrowly escapes death. Hickam is initiated into the famed Caterpillar Club, a fraternal order with membership based on surviving an emergency parachute jump. Geiger was also a member of the Caterpillar Club.

• 1925 – First flight of the prototype Armstrong Whitworth Atlas, British single-engine biplane.

• 1919 – The recently formed Avro Transport Company in Manchester opens Britain's first scheduled air service. A fare of four guineas (£4.20) is being charged for the journey of 50 miles (80 km). The company is using four of Avro 504K aircraft, modified to carry two passengers.

• 1918 – Birth of George Welch (pilot), World War II flying ace, a Medal of Honor nominee, and an experimental aircraft pilot after the war. Welch is best known both for being one of over 17 United States Army Air Forces fighter pilots able to get airborne to engage Japanese forces in the attack on Pearl Harbor.

• 1915 – Curtiss Aviation School commenced operation from Toronto Island using Curtiss F flying boats.

• 1915 – Death of Denys Corbett Wilson, pioneering Irish aviator, Killed with his observer during a reconnaissance mission in a Morane Parasol when their aircraft was struck by an enemy shell.

• 1913 in aviation|1913 – First flight of the Sikorsky Russky Vityaz, or Russian Knight, also called Le Grand, first four-engine aircraft in the world piloted by Igor Sikorsky, first man to fly a four engine powered aircraft.

• 1913 – First bombing attack against a surface ship: Didier Masson and Captain Joaquín Bauche Alcalde, flying for Mexican Revolutionist Venustiano Carranza, dropped dynamite bombs on Federalist gunboats at Guaymas, Mexico.

• 1913 – First air drop of propaganda leaflets from the air: Didier Masson, flying for the Mexican Revolutionist Venustiano Carranza.

• 1911 – First U.S. Army pilot casualty, 2nd Lt. George Edward Maurice Kelly (1878–1911), London-born, and a naturalized United States citizen in 1902, is killed when he banks his Curtiss Type IV (or Curtiss Model D), Army Signal Corps serial number 2, sharply to avoid plowing into an infantry encampment near the present site of Fort Sam Houston, Texas. The Aviation Camp (aka Remount Station) at Fort Sam Houston is renamed Camp Kelly, 11 June 1917, then Kelly Field on 30 July 1917, and finally Kelly AFB on 29 January 1948. Airframe rebuilt, finally grounded in February 1914, refurbished, and placed on display in the Smithsonian Institution National Air and Space Museum, Washington, D.C. Due to this crash, the commanding officer of Fort Sam Houston bans further training flights at the base, the flying facilities being moved to College Park Airport, College Park, Maryland in June–July 1911. A replica of this airframe is preserved at the National Museum of the United States Air Force.

• 1910 – What is recognized as of today as being the starting point of the aviation in Switzerland, occurred when Ernest Failloubaz piloted the first aircraft built and flown by Swiss citizen (Bleriot XI)).

• 1909 – Birth of Valentina Stepanovna Grizodubova, one of the first female pilots in the Soviet Union and WWII pilot.

• 1899 – Birth of Zeus Soucek, US Navy aviator and record setter.

• 1898 – Birth of Adrian James Boswell Tonks, British WWI flying ace

• 1897 – Birth of Wilfred Beaver, British born Canadian WWI fighter ace, who became an American citizen and served in the USAF in WWII.

• 1896 – Birth of Sydney Philip Smith, British WWI flying ace.

• 1893 – Birth of Thomas Percy Middleton, British WWI fighter ace

• 1890 – Birth of Fernand Bonneton, French WWI flying ace and balloon buster.

May 11

• 2013 – After an Israeli Air Force Heron-1 unmanned aerial vehicle flying over the Mediterranean Sea malfunctions, the Israeli Army shoots it down to prevent it from crashing in a populated area.[1] The following day Israel grounds its fleet of Heron-1 unmanned aerial vehicles.[1]

• 2011 – Libyan rebel forces capture Misrata Airport, which also serves as a Libyan Air Force base.[2]
• 2010 – Death of Walker Melville "Bud" Mahurin, American WWII and Korean war fighter ace, (only USAF pilot to score in both the European and Pacific Theaters and the Korean War).

• 2010 – A Dassault Mirage 2000 of the French Air Force crashed in a forest of Bougue close to Villeneuve-de-Marsan (Landes, Aquitaine), 6 km east of Mont de Marsan AB (LFBM), after technical problems. The pilot ejected safely and only received minor injuries.

• 2009 – Launch: Space Shuttle Atlantis STS-125 at 18:01:56 UTC. Mission highlights: Last Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission (HST SM-04). Final Non-ISS flight.

• 2007 – After 50 years of service, the English Electric Canberra was finally retired.

• 2007 – A Republic of China Air Force Northrop F-5 crashes onto a building at an army base in Hukou, Taiwan. The two crew members are killed, as well as two soldiers of the Singapore Army undergoing training at the base. Another nine Singapore Army soldiers are injured, one dies of his injuries 17 days later.

• 1997 – Continental Airlines Flight 1760, a Boeing 737-524 with 54 people on board attempting to land through low clouds at Corpus Christi International Airport in Nueces County, Texas, mistakenly lands safely at Cabaniss Field, a part of Naval Air Station Corpus Christi in Corpus Christi, Texas, 5.8 miles (9.3 km) away.

• 1996 – ValuJet Flight 592, a McDonnell Douglas DC-9, crashes in the Everglades near Miami, because of a fire in its cargo hold. All 110 people on board are killed.

• 1995 – Death of John Geoffrey Sadler Candy, British WWI flying ace who served during WWII.

• 1990 – Philippine Airlines Flight 143, a Boeing 737, explodes and burns on the ground at Ninoy Aquino International Airport, killing 8 of 120 on board, marking the first loss of a Boeing 737-300.

• 1987 – First flight of the Learjet 31, American ten seat (two crew and eight passengers) twin-engined, high speed business jet. Manufactured by Learjet (a subsidiary of Bombardier Inc.).

• 1973 – First flight of the Dassault Falcon 30 F-WAMD.

• 1970 – Death of William Howard "Hank" Stovall, American WWI flying ace, Businessman and High Ranking officer in WWII.

• 1970 – A category F5 tornado strikes Lubbock, Texas destroying about one quarter of the city. Nineteen of 23 U.S. Air Force trainers (probably Cessna T-41 Mescaleros) at Lubbock International Airport are destroyed, amongst 100 aircraft damaged.

• 1969 – A Royal Navy F-4 Phantom of 892 Naval Air Squadron set a new world air speed record between New York and London in 4 hours and 46 min, winning the Daily Mail Trans-Atlantic Air Race. It flew from the Floyd Bennet Naval Air Station to Wisley Aerodrome and was refuelled by a Handley Page Victor aerial tanker over the Atlantic.

• 1964 – A Bell 533 modified with 2 small sweptback fixed wings to convert the aircraft into a compound helicopter, flew at 357 km/h.

• 1964 – Jackie Cochran sets a new women's airspeed record of 1,429 mph (2,300 km/h) in a F-104 Starfighter.

• 1964 – A USAF Boeing C-135B-BN Stratolifter, 61-0332, c/n 18239, crashed on landing at Clark Air Force Base, Philippines, hitting a taxi. 84 on board, 5 survivors, passengers in taxi also killed. Date of 11 August 1964 cited by Joe Baugher. The crash occurred while attempting to land during a rainstorm at approximately 1920 hrs.

• 1960 – A United States Army Signals Corps balloon ascends to an altitude of 43,890 m (144,000 feet) before bursting setting a record breaking night time altitude ascent.

• 1957 – Death of Victor Herbert Strahm, American WWI flying ace, who served in WWII and was chief test pilot for the USAAF.

• 1957 – Nimble Bat 3 – CF-100s of 440 Squadron flown from Bagotville to Zweibrucken.

• 1953 – INS Garuda becomes the first Indian Navy aircraft carrier, serving as the base for the Indian Naval Air Arm.

• 1953 – First prototype of the Tupolev Tu-95 Bear, Tu-95/1, first flown 12 November 1952, crashes this date NE of Noginsk, Russia, during its 17th flight and burns due to an engine fire in the starboard inner turboprop. Engine falls off of wing, nine of twelve crew parachute to safety but three are killed, including test pilot Alexey Perelet.

• 1949 – No. 28 Squadron RAF flies from Malaya to Hong Kong to help reinforce the island against Communist forces on mainland China.

• 1948 – Maj. Simon H. Johnson, deputy commanding officer of the Eglin AFB, Florida, fighter section, is killed when his Republic F-84 Thunderjet disintegrates during an air demonstration on the Eglin reservation, in front of some 600 witnesses. The public information officer at Eglin stated that the pilot was "engaged in operational tests on the plane" when the accident occurred. Maj. Johnson, a resident of Shalimar, Florida, was originally from Houston, Texas. He had served a year in Italy flying 50 missions in North American P-51 Mustangs with the 31st Fighter Group, earning the Distinguished Flying Cross and the air medal with five clusters. He had attended the University of Texas and graduated from the U.S. Army flying school in 1940.

• 1945 – World War II: Off the coast of Okinawa, the aircraft carrier USS Bunker Hill (CV-17), is hit by two kamikazes, killing 346 of her crew. Although badly damaged, the ship is able to return to the U. S. under her own power.

• 1944 – Death of Walter "Gulle" Oesau, German World War II fighter ace who served in the Luftwaffe from 1934 until his death in 1944. He rose to command Jagdgeschwader 1 (World War II), which was named in his honor after his death.

• 1943 – In Operation Landcrab, American forces invade Attu. With an all-F4 F Wildcat airwing consisting of 26 F4 F-4 fighters and three F4 F-3P photographic reconnaissance aircraft, the escort aircraft carrier USS Nassau (CVE-16) supports operations on Attu until May 20; it is the first time that the U. S. Navy employs carrier-based photographic reconnaissance aircraft and the first time in the Pacific Ocean theatre of World War II of Operations that an escort carrier engages in combat. The U.S. Navy concludes that bombers should be included in future escort carrier air wings to make them more effective in supporting amphibious operations.

• 1940 – (Overnight) British bombers interdict German Army troop movement near the Belgium and Netherlands border, as 37 Handley Page Hampdens and Armstrong Whitworth Whitleys bomb road and rail junctions near Mönchengladbach. Three British bombers are lost.

• 1936 – First flight of The Bristol Type 138 High Altitude Monoplane, British high-altitude research aircraft, single-engine, low-wing monoplane with a fixed, tailwheel undercarriage.

• 1934 – Sole prototype of U.S. Navy Douglas XO2D-1, BuNo 9412, noses over on water landing near NAS Anacostia, Washington, D.C., after starboard landing gear would not retract, nor support runway landing. Pilot survives. Aircraft salvaged, rebuilt, but no production contract let.

• 1934 – First flight of the Douglas DC-2.

• 1932 – The USS Akron, arriving at Camp Kearny, San Diego, California, after a cross-continent transit attempts to moor, but proves too buoyant. The mooring cable is cut to avert a catastrophic nose-stand by the airship and the Akron heads up. Most men of the mooring crew, predominantly "boot" seamen from the Naval Training Station San Diego, let go of their lines but three do not. One man was carried 15 feet (4.6 m) into the air before he let go and suffered a broken arm in the process while three others were carried up even farther. Two of these men — Aviation Carpenter's Mate 3d Class Robert H. Edsall and Apprentice Seaman Nigel M. Henton — lost their grips and fell to their deaths. The third, Apprentice Seaman C. M. "Bud" Cowart, clung desperately to his line and made himself fast to it before he was hoisted aboard the Akron one hour later. Akron managed to moor at Camp Kearny later that day. The stranded crewman provides the template for the very first rescue by George Reeves' portrayal of Superman in the first television episode of "Adventures of Superman", "Superman on Earth", first aired 19 September 1952.

• 1928 – Death of Ulrich Neckel, German WWI fighter ace

• 1927 – Charles Lindbergh lands his new Ryan airplane, the Spirit of St. Louis, in St. Louis after a record non-stop overnight flight from San Diego of 14 hours, 25 min.

• 1926 – 11-14 – Roald Amundsen makes the first airship flight over the North Pole. The Norge leaves Spitsbergen and arrives in Teller, Alaska three days later.

• 1919 – French Aviator Joseph Sadi Lacointe sets a new altitude record with a Spad Herbemont (8 155 m).

• 1918 – Death of Kurt Nachod, Austro Hungarian WWI flying ace, from injuries after the crash of his Hansa-Brandenburg C. I 2 days before

• 1917 – Death of Edmund Nathanael, German WWI fighter ace, killed in action in his Albatros D.III by a SPAD VII.

• 1911 – Édouard Nieuport, a racing cyclist before he went into aircraft construction (co-founder with his brother Charles of the eponymous Nieuport aircraft manufacturing company), sets a new speed record of 74.4 mph (119.7 km/h) flying his "Nieuport 11-N, " monoplane powered by a 28-hp engine.

• 1906 – Birth of Jacqueline Cochran, pioneer American aviator, considered to be one of the most gifted racing pilots of her generation. She was an important contributor to the formation of the wartime Women's Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC) and Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP)

• 1903 – Richard Pearse is claimed to have made a flight of around 1,000 yards (900 m), landing in the semi-dry bed of the Opihi River.

• 1897 – Birth of Robert Ellsworth Gross, American businessman involved in the field of aviation.

• 1896 – Birth of Heinrich Henkel, German WWI flying ace

• 1896 – Birth of Paul Wilhelm Bäumer, German WWI fighter ace.

• 1892] – Birth of Walter Ewers, German WWI flying ace

• 1881 – Birth of Theodore von Kármán, Hungarian-American aerospace engineer and physicist who was active primarily in the fields of aeronautics and astronautics. He is responsible for many key advances in aerodynamics, notably his work on supersonic and hypersonic airflow characterization.

• 1875 – Birth of Harriet Quimby, early American aviator and movie screenwriter, first woman to gain a pilot's license in the US and first woman to fly across the English Channel.

May 12

• 2011 – A Eurocopter X3 (X-Cube), French experimental compound helicopter, flew at a speed of 430 km/h (267 mph).

• 2011 – An EMBRAER Super Tucano from Brazilian Air Force crashed close to Manibu countryside, near the cities of Ceará-Mirim and Pureza, 50 km north of Natal. The pilot, Danilo Bello Seixas, died during his first solo flight.

• 2010 – Afriqiyah Airways Flight 771 operated by Airbus A330-202 5A-ONG crashed on approach to Tripoli International Airport, Libya, killing 103 people.
• 2011 – Judy Wexler becomes the first woman to pilot a human-powered helicopter, remaining airborne for 4 seconds and achieving an altitude of a few inches in the University of Maryland's Gamera I.

• 2010 – After taking off from the base at Rimini, an Italian Air Force NH 500 helicopter of 15º Stormo (83º Centro CSAR) flew about fifty feet above the ground when the engine suddenly quit. The helicopter autorotated to impact. Both occupants escaped unhurt.

• 2009 – A South African Air Force Agusta Westland AW109E, helicopter, 4022, crashes at the Woodstock Dam, near Bergville, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The aircraft from No. 17 Squadron SAAF was travelling from Durban International Airport to a satellite base of the 87 Helicopter Flying School SAAF at Dragon's Peak, Drakensberg for a week long training exercise. Flying with two another aircraft at low level and at high speed over the surface of the Dam, the helicopter stuck the water and crashed, then sinking into the lake killing the 3 crew.

• 2004 – The last F-4 Phantom fighters are withdrawn from service with the Israeli Air Force.

• 2002 – Death of Alfred Vogt, German glider designer.

• 2002 – The hangar housing Buran OK-1K1 in Kazakhstan collapses, due to poor maintenance. The collapse kills eight workers and destroys the orbiter as well as a mock-up of an Energia carrier rocket.

• 2001 – Death of Alexei Andreyevich Tupolev, Soviet aircraft designer who led the development of the first supersonic passenger jet, the Tupolev Tu-144. He also helped design the Buran space shuttle and the Tu-2000.

• 1998 – A Mauritanian Air Force Antonov An-24B, RA-12973, c/n 9346505, crashes near Néma, Mauritania during a sandstorm killing 39 of the 42 people on board.

• 1987 – Grumman A-6E Intruder, BuNo 155657, of VA-142, misses trap on the USS Lexington, both crew eject as jet leaves deck, lightened airframe climbs away, even on reduced power, to crash in the Gulf of Mexico ~50 miles S of NAS Pensacola, Florida. Footage of this accident: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czvEDNdyFBU&feature=related.

• 1984 – Entered Service: Airbus A310 with Air France.

• 1982 – Braniff Airways ceased all operations, thus ending 54 years of service in the American airline industry. Braniff flights at DFW that morning were suddenly grounded, and passengers on the jets were forced to disembark, being told that Braniff now ceased to exist.

• 1975 – The Mayaguez incident begins. U. S. Air Force and U. S. Navy aircraft begin searching for the American container ship SS Mayaguez, which Cambodian Khmer Rouge forces seized earlier in the day in the Gulf of Thailand.

• 1972 – SA-7 Grail surface-to-air missiles shoot down five American AH-1 Cobra attack helicopters in five minutes near An Loc, South Vietnam.

• 1970 – Indian Air Force prototype HAL HF-24 Marut HF 001, BR 461, is lost due to unknown circumstances in the sea off of Goa while on routine ferry flight. Squadron Leader K. L. Narayan is lost with aircraft.

• 1967 – First flight of the Aermacchi AM.3, Italian single engine high wing observation aircraft, joint venture between Aermacchi and Aeritalia, initially designated the MB-335.

• 1965 – After loss of control as a result of a gyroscope problem, Luna 5 crashed. It was the second Soviet spacecraft to reach the surface of the Moon.

• 1965 – The prototype HFB-320 Hansa Jet crashes due to a tail design problem; killed was manufacturer Hamburger Flugzeugbau’s chief test pilot.

• 1964 – American flyer Joan Merriam Smith lands her Piper Apache to complete the second round-the-world flight by a woman. she took 56 days.

• 1962 – Birth of Gregory Harold "Box" Johnson, former colonel in the United States Air Force and a NASA astronaut.

• 1960 – A USAF C-130 Hercules drops a record 35,000 lb (15,876 kg) by parachute.

• 1959 – Capital Airlines Flight 75, a Vickers Viscount 745D flying from New York City to Atlanta, breaks up in flight over Chase, Maryland, due to loss of control in severe turbulence; all 31 on board are killed.

• 1958 – First flight of the Morane-Saulnier Epervier MS.1500 (en: Sparrowhawk), French two-seat ground attack and reconnaissance aircraft.

• 1958 – A formal North American Aerospace Defense Command NORAD agreement is signed between the United States and Canada.

• 1954 – Operational introduction of the Republic F-84F Thunderstreak, which first flew 3 Jun 1950.

• 1953 – Bell X-2, 46-675, exploded in belly of Boeing EB-50D Superfortress mothership during captive LOX topping-off test and was dropped into Lake Ontario. Bell test pilot Jean "Skip" Ziegler's body dropped with airframe and Bell flight engineer Frank Wolko is also apparently carried over the side in the explosion. Neither body recovered. The EB-50D, 48-096, limps into Niagara Falls Airport, New York – never flies again. Death of Jean "Skip" Ziegler, American test pilot, killed in the explosion of the Bell X-2 during a captive-carry flight test.

• 1952 – Death of Elia Antonio Liut, Italian Aviation pioneer, first pilot to fly over the Andes.

• 1952 – Squadron Leader P. G. Fisher makes the first non-stop, unrefuelled flight from England to Australia in an English Electric Canberra bomber in a record 23 hours 5 min.

• 1950 – AAfter the United States Air Force gives Convair a contract to install an Allison J33-A-29 jet engine with afterburner in place of the Allison J33-A-23 in the Convair XF-92A, 46-0682, test pilot Chuck Yeager attempts ferry flight from Edwards AFB, California to the Convair plant at San Diego but engine fails immediately after take off, forcing an emergency landing on the dry lakebed. Airframe is subsequently trucked to San Diego.

• 1949 – Berlin Blockade by the Soviets is lifted at one minute after midnight.

• 1945 – A kamikaze hits the battleship USS New Mexico (BB-40) at Hagushi anchorage, Okinawa.

• 1945 – 12-13 – Aircraft carrier's of Task Force 58 strike targets on Kyushu and Shikoku. The British Pacific Fleet’s carriers strike the Sakishima Gunto.

• 1941 – First flight of the Platt-LePage XR-1, also known by the company designation PL-3, early American twin-rotor helicopter.

• 1940 – First bombing over Germany by the Royal Air Force.

• 1940 – First operational sortie of the Boulton Paul Defiant. Defiants flew with six Spitfires of 66 Squadron, and a Ju 88 was shot down over the Netherlands.

• 1938 – The US Navy commissions its sixth aircraft carrier, USS Enterprise.

• 1938 – Three B-17 Flying Fortresses use dead reckoning navigation to intercept the ocean liner SS Rex more than 600 miles at sea.

• 1936 – First flight of the Loire 102, French flying boat designed as a mail plane by Loire.

• 1936 – First flight of the Messerschmitt Bf 110, often called Me 110, twin-engine heavy fighter (Zerstörer – German for "Destroyer").

• 1930 – With the Latécoère 28 "Comte-de-la-Vaulx", Jean Mermoz takes off from Saint-Louis, Senegal, to Natal, Brazil for the first south Transatlantic Postal flight.

• 1927 – First flight of the Armstrong Whitworth Starling A. W.14, British single-engine biplane fighter.

• 1927 – First flight of the Yakovlev AIR-1 was a 1920s Soviet two-seat light biplane the first aircraft designed and built by Aleksandr Sergeyevich Yakovlev.

• 1926 – The Norge (semi-rigid Italian-built airship) reached the North Pole, at which point the Norwegian, American and Italian flags were dropped from the airship onto the ice. The expedition was the brainchild of polar explorer and expedition leader Roald Amundsen, the airship's designer and pilot Umberto Nobile and American explorer Lincoln Ellsworth, who along with the Aero Club of Norway financed the trip.

• 1912 – Guido Nardini is the first Italian to cross the English Channel.

• 1912 – The Central Flying School (CFS), Royal Air Force's primary institution for the training of military flying instructors is established.

• 1902 – Brazilian Augusto Severo and French engineer Georges Saché fly the semi-rigid airship Pax, which Severo designed, over Paris for its maiden flight. When they begin to lose control of the airship, it catches fire and explodes 1,200 feet (366 m) above Montparnasse Cemetery, killing both men instantly.

• 1893 – Birth of Tenente Silvio Scaroni, Italian World War I fighter pilot credited with 26 victories. He was the second ranking Italian ace of the war.

• 1890 – Birth of Kurt Student, German Luftwaffe general who fought as a fighter pilot during WWI and as the commander of German Fallschirmjäger (Paratroopers) during the Second World War.

May 13

• 2011 – The first Solar Impulse aircraft, HB-SIA, the first solar-powered aircraft capable of both day and night flight thanks to its batteries charged by solar power, makes its first international flight, flying 630 km (391 miles) from Payerne Airport outside Payerne, Switzerland, to Brussels Airport in Belgium, in 12 hours 59 minutes at an average speed of 50 km/hr (31 mph).[1][2]

• 2011 – A North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) airstrike targeting a Libyan government command and control bunker in Brega hits a building, killing 11 civilians and wounding 45.[3][4]

• 1992 – A U.S. Navy instructor pilot is killed after two Navy Beechcraft T-34C Turbo Mentors collide over a densely wooded field 6 miles SW of NAS Whiting Field, Florida.

• 1989 – The Antonov An-225 Mriya, Soviet strategic airlift cargo aircraft, makes its first carrying flight of the Buran space shuttle.

• 1985 – Death of Alexander Alexandrovich Mikulin, Soviet aircraft engine designer.

• 1982 – Launch of Soyuz T-5, Russian manned spaceflight into Earth orbit to the then new Salyut 7 space station.

• 1982 – A United States Navy HH-46 crashed into the Gulf of Mexico, one killed.

• 1982 – Braniff International Airways' president Howard D. Putnam announces the airline has filed for protection under bankruptcy laws, and the airline's fleet of 71 aircraft is grounded.

• 1980 – First flight of the Antonov An-3.

• 1975 – (13 – 14) U. S. Navy P-3 Orion patrol aircraft discover Mayaguez off Cambodia’s Puolo Wai island. For two days, U. S. Navy and U. S. Air Force aircraft exchange fire with Khmer Rouge ground and sea forces in the vicinity of Mayaguez.

• 1975 – Sikorsky CH-53C, 68-10933, c/n 65-231, Knife 13, of the 21st Special Operations Squadron, departs from Nakhon Phanom Royal Thai Air Force Base with a crew of five and 18 USAF Security Police onboard to assist in the recovery operation of the SS Mayaguez. The helicopter disappears from the airfield's departure radar 40 miles W of the airfield. All on board are KWF. The Air Force issues a "temporary flight restriction" order, service parlance for a grounding order, on 22 May 1975, for 40 HH-53 and 12 CH-53, following an inspection crew reaching the jungle crash site. A main rotor blade separated from the head in flight.

• 1965 – The United States suspends Operation Rolling Thunder strikes against North Vietnam.

• 1963 – NORAD Region Headquarters was moved from St Hubert to North Bay.

• 1957 – Three USAF North American F-100 Super Sabres set a new world distance record for single-engine aircraft by covering the 6,710 mi (5,835 nmi, 10,805 km) distance from London to Los Angeles in 14 hours and 4 min. The flight was accomplished using in-flight refueling.

• 1957 – Birth of Claudie Haigneré, French doctor, politician, and astronaut.

• 1956 – Birth of Aleksandr Yuriyevich "Sasha" Kaleri, Russian cosmonaut and veteran of extended stays on the Mir Space Station and the International Space Station(ISS).

• 1955 – On seventh and final flight of Northrop N-69A test vehicle for the Northrop XSM-62 Snark, only two of which were successful, mission was cut short when the missile collided with its T-33A photo plane.

• 1954 – First flight of the Kellett KH-15 "Stable Mable". This helicopter was designed to test the new gyro-stabilizing system, a kind of small rotor mounted concentrically and intended to stabilize the main rotor.

• 1953 – 59 U. S. Air Force F-84G Thunderjet fighter-bombers attack the Toksan dike in Korea.

• 1949 – First flight of the English Electric Canberra, British first-generation jet-powered light bomber.

• 1944 – (13 – 17) U. S. Army Air Forces Fifth Air Force bombers carry out heavy strikes against Japanese forces at Wakde Airfield and Sawar Airfield, Western New Guinea.

• 1943 – 20 Japanese Mitsubishi G4 M (Allied reporting name “Betty”) torpedo bombers fly from Paramushiro to attack American ships, but bad weather forces them to turn back without launching an attack.

• 1942 – Birth of Vladimir Aleksandrovich Dzhanibekov, soviet cosmonaut who made 5 flights.

• 1942 – Construction of the German aircraft carrier Graf Zeppelin resumes after a two-year hiatus.

• 1940 – First flight of the General Aircraft Fleet Shadower G. A. L.38, British long-range four-engine patrol prototype aircraft.

• 1940 – First flight of the Bell XFL Airabonita, United States experimental shipboard interceptor aircraft developed for the United States Navy by Bell Aircraft. It was similar to and a parallel development of the land-based P-39 Airacobra, differing mainly in the use of a tailwheel undercarriage in place of the P-39's tricycle gear.

• 1940 – The Sikorsky VS-300, which made its first flight the previous year, makes its first untethered flight.

• 1938 – (13-15) A Japanese Gasuden Koken aircraft breaks the closed-circuit world distance record of 11,651 km (7,240 mi).

• 1934 – US airmail pilot William John "Jack" Frye sets a new United States coast-to-coast record, carrying mail from Los Angeles to Newark. The journey is completed in 11 hours 31 min with a Douglas DC-1.

• 1933 – Lowe Wylde, designer and managing director of British Aircraft Company dies in the crash of a British Aircraft Company Drone during a demonstration at west Malling.

• 1930 – With the Latécoère 28 "Comte-de-la-Vaulx", Jean Mermoz complete the first south Transatlatic Postal flight from Saint-Louis, Senegal, to Natal, Brazil.

• 1927 – Colonial Air Transport offers a sightseeing trip from Teterboro, New Jersey, around New York City for just $8, less than the price of a similar trip in a taxi.

• 1923 – Birth of Donald Milton Sorlie, American test pilot who conducted test flights of the Northdrop M2-F2 lifting body.

• 1917 – Death of Julius Busa, Austro Hungarian WWI flying ace, shot down by Italian ace Francesco Baracca in a SPAD VII.

• 1913 – Sikorsky Russky Vityaz, the world’s first four-engined aircraft and the first aeroplane with a lavatory.

• 1912 – Birth of Felix Kracht, German aviation engineer.

• 1912 – King George V of the United Kingdom approves the formation of the Royal Flying Corps.
• 1912 – A Flanders Monoplane crashed at Brooklands, Surrey, United Kingdom, killing the pilot and his passenger. The accident was investigated by the Royal Aero Club, which issued the first-ever report into an aviation accident and established the science of aviation accident investigation.

• 1911 – Jan Kašpar, Czech aviator, aircraft constructor, designer and engineer, flies from Pardubice to Velká Chuchle (121 km) in 92 min. At the time, it was the longest flight in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

• 1896 – Birth of Louis Marcel Germain Doret, (Marcel Doret), French raid Aviator, Test Pilot and Aerobatic pilot.

• 1894 – Birth of Elwyn Roy "Bo" King, Australian WWI fighter ace and instructor during WWII.

• 1890 – Birth of Charles John Biddle, American WWI flying ace and lawyer.

• 1883 – Birth of Charles Alexander Holcombe Longcroft, Britsh WWI pilot and squadron commander in the Royal Flying Corps who went on to become a senior commander in the Royal Air Force.

May 14

• 2013 – The world's first catapult launch of an unmanned aircraft from an aircraft carrier takes place when the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush (CVN-77) launches a Northrop Grumman X-47B demonstrator unmanned combat air vehicle in the Atlantic Ocean off Virginia. The X-47B makes two low passes as if preparing to land on the carrier, then flies to a landing at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland, about an hour later.[1]

• 2012 – Agni Air Dornier 228 crash: After aborting its landing at Jomsom Airport at Jomsom, Nepal, Agni Air Flight CHT, the Dornier 228 AG-CHT, strikes a hillside with its wing while attempting a go-around and crashes, killing 15 of the 21 people on board and injuring all six survivors.

• 2010 – Death of Stelio Frati, Italian mechanical engineer and aeroplane designer. He graduated from the University of Milan as a Mechanical Engineer in 1943, and after teaching aircraft design became a freelance aircraft designer, being responsible for many well known aircraft designs. Best known designs are the Falco F8L and the Aermacchi SF.260.

• 2010 – Launch: Space Shuttle Atlantis STS-132 at 10:21:22 UTC. Mission highlights: ISS assembly flight ULF4: Mini-Research Module 1.

• 2009 – A Royal Air Force BAE Systems Harrier GR9 (ZG478/68) from No. 1 Squadron based at RAF Cottesmore makes a heavy landing at Kandahar International Airport, Afghanistan due to an engine failure forcing the pilot to successfully eject from the aircraft.

• 2006 – AH-6M Little Bird (OH-6 Cayuse) from 1–160th SOAR shot down during combat operations in Yusufiyah, southwest of Baghdad, killing the two crewmen.[2]

• 2005 – A Eurocopter AS350 helicopter piloted by Eurocopter test pilot Didier Delsalle touched down on the top of Mt. Everest, at 8,850 m (29,035 feet). This record has been confirmed by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale.

• 2005 – The former USS America (CV-66), a decommissioned super carrier of the United States Navy, is deliberately sunk in the Atlantic Ocean after four weeks of live-fire exercises. She is the largest ship ever to be disposed of as a target in a military exercise.

• 1997 – Star Alliance is founded. The world's first and largest airline alliance, headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany (near Frankfurt Airport) the five founders were the world's leading airlines Air Canada, Lufthansa, Scandinavian Airlines, Thai Airways International and United Airlines.

• 1985 – Second of three Northrop F-20 Tigersharks, 82-0063, c/n GG1002, N3986B, during stopover at Goose Bay, Labrador, en route to the Paris Air Show, crashes at 1350 hrs. Atlantic Daylight Time at the end of sixth practice flight of the day, in circumstances much like the loss of the first prototype on 10 October 1984. Hesitating in the inverted position at the top of a series of 9G vertical rolls, airframe dove erratically into the ground, coming down in an upright, wings-level, nose-up attitude on snow-covered ground, killing Northrop test pilot Dave Barnes. Again, G-induced pilot unconsciousness was suspected, investigation finding no sign of airframe failure.

• 1979 – Progress 6 (Soviet unmanned cargo spacecraft) docks with Salyut 6.

• 1977 – In the 1977 Dan-Air Boeing 707 crash, a Boeing 707 crashes near Lusaka, Zambia, due to structural failure, killing all 6 on board.

• 1973 – Skylab, the United States' first space station, is launched.

• 1972 – Two American Bell UH-1 attack helicopters using TOW missiles blunt a major North Vietnamese attack near Kontum, South Vietnam.

• 1968 – Death of Husband Edward Kimmel, four-star admiral in the United States Navy. He served as Commander-in-chief, U.S. Pacific Fleet at the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Because of the attack, he was removed from office and was reduced to his permanent two-star rank of rear admiral.

• 1964 – Birth of James McNeal "Vegas" Kelly, NASA Astronaut.

• 1959 – Convair YB/RB-58A-10-CF Hustler, 58-1012, c/n 19, of the 43rd Bomb Wing, destroyed by fire at the Convair plant, Carswell AFB, Texas. Fuel leak on the ramp during refuelling followed by accidental ignition kills two Convair ground support personnel.

• 1957 – Birth of William George "Borneo" Gregory, former NASA astronaut.

• 1957 – A Royal Canadian Navy McDonnell F2H-3 Banshee, BuNo 126310 of VF-871, strikes a hilltop during ground-attack exercises near Terence Bay, Nova Scotia, killing pilot SubLt. Conrad Bissett.

• 1952 – Birth of Donald Ray McMonagle, USAF test pilot & Manager, Launch Integration at the Kennedy Space Center.

• 1945 – A kamikaze crashes on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CV-6), knocking her out of action for the rest of World War II.

• 1945 – The final Arctic convoy of World War II, Convoy JW 67, departs Scapa Flow for the Kola Inlet in the Soviet Union escorted by the British aircraft carrier HMS Queen. It returns to the United Kingdom later in the month as Convoy RA 67. Queen's presence as an escort is deemed necessary in case any German submarine commanders opt to ignore Germany's surrender and attack the convoy.

• 1941 – During testing, the Grumman XP-50 prototype (39-2517) is lost, falling victim to a turbo-supercharger explosion that destroyed the aircraft. The test pilot Bob Hall bailed out while the XP-50 plunged into Smithtown Bay in Long Island Sound.

• 1944 – The German Luftwaffe employs circling torpedoes in a predawn attack on Allied ships at Naples, Italy, but scores no hits.

• 1941 – German aircraft begin daily bombing of Crete to soften it up for the upcoming German airborne assault on the island.

• 1941 – The RAF receives authorization to attack German aircraft on Vichy French airfields in Syria. British fighters disable two Heinkel He 111s on the ground at Palmyra, Syria.

• 1940 – The Allies lose 110 aircraft – 70 British Fairey Battles and Bristol Blenheims and forty French planes – on one day in a disastrous attempt to bomb bridges over the River Meuse.

• 1940 – Fifty-three German Heinkel He.111 bombers drop nearly 100 tons of bombs on Rotterdam in the Netherlands. The attack kills nearly 1,000 people, destroys 20,000 buildings, and leaves 78,000 people homeless.

• 1940 – The Yermolayev Yer-2, a long-range Soviet medium bomber, has its first flight.

• 1939 – Following first flight of the prototype Short S.29 Stirling four-engine bomber, L7600, out of Rochester, Kent, one of the brakes locks, causing it to slew off the runway and collapse the undercarriage, airframe damaged beyond repair.

• 1938 – First prototype Focke-Wulf Fw 187 V1, D-AANA, crashes at Bremen, Germany, when test pilot Paul Bauer, having completed test series, makes high-speed run across airfield, pulls up too sharply, stalls, spins in next to the control tower.

• 1936 – First flight of the Miles Whitney Straight M.11,two-seater light aircraft with a dual-control, 'side-by-side' cockpit configuration.

• 1923 – Air Union Farman F.60 Goliath crashes near Monsures, Somme, France due to the structural failure of a wing, killing all 6 on board.

• 1917 – Flight Sub-Lt Robert Leckie and crew of Curtiss H-12 flying boat shot down Zeppelin L-22.

• 1915 – The U.S. Navy contracts with the Connecticut Aircraft Company for its first airship.

• 1912 – Birth of Giorgio Graffer, Italian Alpinist and WWII pilot.

• 1909 – Pilot S.F.Cody makes first flight of more than a mile in Britain using British Army Aeroplane No 1, flying from Laffan's Plain to Danger Hill in Hampshire at average height of 30 ft (9.1 m). Later in the afternoon, the Prince of Wales asks Cody to repeat the flight, but in so doing, Cody is forced to turn quickly to avoid some troops in his path, smashing the tail against an embankment. Aircraft rebuilt at Farnborough with design changes to improve performance.

• 1908 – Charles Furnas becomes the first North American passenger in an aeroplane, piloted by Wilbur Wright. Wilbur Wright flew Charles W. Furnas for a distance of 2.5 miles in a Wright Model B.

• 1902 – Birth of Friedrich Schmiedl, Austrian Rocket pioneer.

• 1897 – Birth of Robert Ludvigovich Bartini, Italian aircraft designer and scientist. Active mostly in Soviet Union, he was named, because of his noble descent, Barone Rosso (Red Baron).

• 1894 – Birth of Gilbert Stuart Martin Insall VC MC, British WWI pilot.

• 1884 – Birth of Claude (Claudius) Honoré Desiré Dornier, German airplane builder and founder of Dornier GmbH.

May 15

• 2010 – A Blue Wing Airlines Antonov An-28 crashed shortly after take-off from Godo Holo Airstrip killing all eight on board.

• 2009 – A Fuerza Aérea Colombiana Dassault Mirage 5COAM (FAC-3031) on a routine training flight from the Comando Aéreo de Combate No. 1, crashed shortly after take-off from the Palanquero airbase, Puerto Salgar, Cundinamarca Department, Colombia. The aircraft from the Escuadrón de Combate 112 suffered a technical fault causing a fire which forced the pilot to successfully eject from the plane without injury.

• 2009 – An Indian Air Force Mikoyan MiG-27 Flogger crashed shortly after take-off and the pilot successfully ejected from the aircraft. The accident occurred near the Konkani village, Jodhpur, India and resulted in injuries to 7 local villagers.

• 2008 – Aloha Air Cargo commenced operations as an independent airline after Aloha Airlines ceased operations.

• 2000 – Helios Airways commences airline operations.

• 1997 – Launch: Space Shuttle Atlantis STS-125 at 4:07:48.62 am EST. Mission highlights: Shuttle-Mir docking.

• 1989 – US Navy North American CT-39E Sabreliner, BuNo 158383, 'JK', of VRC-40, NAS Norfolk, Virginia, runs off runway at Andrews AFB, Maryland, at 1100 hrs. Crew of four and one passenger uninjured.

• 1987 – The Soviet Union launches the Polyus spacecraft prototype orbital weapons platform. It fails to reach orbit.

• 1984 – First flight of the AMX International AMX

• 1981 – Prototype of an improved variant PZL-106 Kruk (Polish agricultural aircraft) was flown with redesigned wings using shorter struts.

• 1975 – Birth of Dorothy Marie "Dottie" Metcalf-Lindenburger, Nasa Astronaut.

• 1975 – Eight U. S. Air Force helicopters carry a force of U. S. Marines in an assault on Cambodia’s Koh Tang island in an attempt to rescue the crew of Mayaguez; three are shot down. U. S. Navy Grumman A-6 Intruder and A-7E Corsair II bombers and McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II fighters from the aircraft carrier USS Coral Sea (CVA-43) strike Ream airfield and targets at Kompong Som in Cambodia. The Khmer Rouge releases the Mayaguez crew, which actually is being held at Rong Som Lem island.

• 1970 – The Dymshits – Kuznetsov aircraft hijacking affair (Leningrad Process) was an attempt to hijack a civilian aircraft by a group of Soviet refuseniks in order to escape to the West.

• 1967 – Over Malden Island in the south Pacific, a British Vickers Valiant piloted by Kenneth Hubbard drops the nation’s first nuclear bomb in a test called Operation Grapple. Designed to yield a one megaton explosion, the bomb fails to detonate properly and only disperses about 300 kilotons.

• 1965 – The U. S. Navy deploys its first aircraft carrier to Dixie Station in the South China Sea off South Vietnam’s Mekong Delta. It is a single-carrier station for the provision of air support in South Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, and will remain in use until August 1966.

• 1963 – Launch of Mercury-Atlas 9, final manned space mission of the U. S. Mercury program, The spacecraft, named Faith 7, completed 22 Earth orbits before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean, piloted by astronaut Leroy Gordon Cooper (alias 'Gordo'). It was Cooper's first Space Flight.

• 1962 – During refuelling at Whiteman AFB, Missouri, Boeing B-47E-135-BW Stratojet, 53-6230, of 340th Bomb Wing catches fire, 10,000 gallons of fuel ignite. Four firemen are killed and 18 others injured when fireball engulfs all within 100 feet of burning aircraft.

• 1960 – Launch of Korabl-Sputnik 1 (also known as Sputnik 4 in the West) was the first test flight of the Soviet Vostok programme, and the first Vostok (spacecraft).

• 1958 – The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 3. It carried a large array of instruments for geophysical research. Its tape recorder failed, making it unable to measure the Van Allen radiation belts.

• 1957 – First flight of The Miles Student M.100, lightweight trainer.

• 1957 – A Royal Air Force Vickers Valiant drops the first British Hydrogen bomb, over Christmas Island.

• 1956 – Fifth Lockheed U-2A, Article 345, 56-6678, delivered to the CIA on 16 December 1955, crashes at Groom Lake, Nevada, killing Agency pilot Wilburn S. "Billy" Rose. Aircraft had just departed Groom with a full fuel load, but an underwing pogo hung up. Pilot attempted to return to try to shake it loose, but let angle of bank increase too much and fully fuelled starboard wing kept dropping.

• 1956 – A RCAF Avro CF-100 Mk. IVB Canuck, 18367, of 445 Squadron, out of CFB Uplands, falling from 33,000 feet (10,000 m) crashed into Villa St. Louis, a convent of the Grey Nuns of the Cross in Orleans, Ontario, Canada at roughly 2300 hrs. (reports vary). 15 people were killed; both crewmen of the aircraft, a priest, 11 nuns and one other woman.

• 1953 – An errant United States Air Force Republic F-84E-30-RE Thunderjet, 51-628, of the 22d Fighter-Bomber Squadron, 36th Fighter-Bomber Group, collides with two USAF C-119 Flying Boxcars of the 10th Troop Carrier Squadron, 60th Troop Carrier Group, flying in formation near Weinheim, Germany, sending all three planes down in flames. Fairchild C-119C Flying Boxcar, 51-8235, was struck by the fighter, which then hit struck C-119C, 51-8241, three Flying Boxcar crew killed, three injured. F-84 pilot James W. Chilton parachutes to safety.

• 1948 – Tel Aviv is attacked by the Egyptian Air Force. The Israeli Air Force retaliates by striking Arab troops near Samakh.

• 1945 – Aircraft from the British aircraft carrier HMS Emperor attack the Japanese heavy cruiser Haguro in the Indian Ocean, but achieve only one near-miss.

• 1944 – Ex-RAF de Havilland Mosquito B.IV, DK296, formerly flown by 105 Squadron as 'GB-G', delivered to the Soviet Union for testing on 19 April 1944 by Soviet flight crew, is written off this date in landing accident at Sverdlovsk when pilot A. I. Kabanov loses control with engines at low power setting, turns to port, runs off runway, shears off undercarriage and skids to a stop on its belly. Pilot and navigator P. I. Perevalov unhurt. This was the ninth flight of DK296 (which never received a Soviet serial) since it arrived in Russia and was the only Mosquito delivered to Russia. Kabanov was the Deputy Director of the Scientific Research Institute of the Air Force at this time, and had much experience flying foreign types

• 1944 – A raid by Fairey Barracuda from the British aircraft carriers HMS Furious and HMS Victorious against German battleship Tirpitz anchored in Norway is recalled due to heavy cloud cover over the target area.

• 1941 – Frank Whittle’s jet engined plane, the Gloster E.28/39, the first British jet, flew for the first time. Whittle had built his first engine in 1935 and completed a successful test in 1937.

• 1941 – 15-16 – Iraqi and German aircraft attack a British column moving into Iraq from Palestine.

• 1940 – 15-16 – British bombers make their first attack on German land targets, in the Ruhr Valley.

• 1940 – During British evacuation and demolition operations in Dutch ports, German dive bombers attack the British destroyer HMS Valentine, which is beached and wrecked at the mouth of the Scheldt.

• 1940 – (Overnight) Royal Air Force Bomber Command conducts its first strategic bombing raid of World War II, as 99 Handley Page Hampden, Armstrong Whitworth Whitley, and Vickers Wellington bombers strike German targets in the Ruhr Valley. One British bomber was lost.

• 1936 – British aviation pioneer Amy Johnson returns to England after a record-breaking flight to South Africa in a Percival Gull (G-ADZO).

• 1930 – Ellen Church becomes the world's first flight attendant, working for Boeing Air Transport.

• 1930 – Cleveland Municipal Airport was the first airport with radio air traffic control.

• 1928 – Rev John Flynn founds the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia at Cloncurry, Queensland, using a de Havilland DH.50. The service takes medical services to remote parts of the Australian bush.

• 1928 – In a preview shown at a Los Angeles movie theater, Mickey Mouse makes his debut in a cartoon called Plane Crazy, an animated homage to Charles Lindbergh. Walt Disney fails to find a distributor for his first Mickey cartoon until March 1929, five months after Steamboat Willie‘s release. Despite Plane Crazy being produced earlier, Disney considers Steamboat Willie to be Mickey Mouse’s debut.

• 1925 – Entered into service: Junkers G.23 with Swedish Air Lines.

• 1923 – First course of Provisional Pilot Officers began training at Camp Borden.

• 1922 – Instone Air Line commences flights between London and Brussels.

• 1921 – Laura Bromwell loops in New York State 199 times in 1 h, 20 min, setting a new women’s record for consecutive loops.

• 1919 – An intercity air route between Chicago and Cleveland is inaugurated by the United States Post Office.

• 1919 – The U.S. Post Office Department begins its first air mail service operations between Chicago and Cleveland, later extended to New York and San Francisco. An Airco DH.4 carried the mail.

• 1918 – First flight of the Packard-Le Peré LUSAC-11.

• 1918 – The first regular US airmail service commences, between New York and Washington, DC. The first flight is made by Lt Geoffrey Boyle in a Curtiss JN-4H.

• 1793 – Spanish inventor Diego Marín Aguilera flies a glider nearly 1/4 mile in one of the first human attempts at flight.

May 16

• 2013 – Nepal Airlines Flight 555, the de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter 9N-ABO, skids off the runway at Jomsom Airport in Jomsom, Nepal, and falls 20 meters (65 feet) into the Gandaki River. All 21 people on board survive, but seven suffer serious injuries.

• 2011 – Launch: Space Shuttle Endeavour STS-134 at 12:56:28 UTC. Mission highlights: ISS assembly flight ULF6, ELC 3, ROEU, Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer. Final flight of Endeavour.

• 2001 – A Turkish Air Force CASA CN-235M-100 crashes into a field in Malatya, Turkey killing all 34 on board.

• 1995 – A Royal Air Force BAe Nimrod is forced to ditch in Moray Firth

• 1992 – STS-49, maiden flight of the Space Shuttle Endeavour lands at Edwards AFB.

• 1992 – Munich-Riem Airport, the main, international airport of Munich until is closed down. Operations moved to the new location near Freising. The IATA airport code MUC and the ICAO airport code EDDM were transferred to the new Munich Franz Josef Strauss Airport.

• 1992 – The 2,000th C-130 Hercules rolls off the production line.

• 1986 – Top Gun (film) opens in theaters in United States.

• 1977 – The landing gear failed on a New York Airways Sikorsky S-61 while it was taking on passengers on the roof of the Pan Am building. The aircraft rolled onto its side. Its spinning rotor blades killed four passengers waiting to board (including movie director Michael Findlay) and injured a fifth. Parts of a broken blade fell into the streets below, killing one pedestrian and injuring another.

• 1969 – Venera 5, probe in the Soviet space program Venera lands on Venus.

• 1968 – A British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) Super Vickers VC10 on a routine service from Chicago and Montreal makes the airline’s first fully automatic approach and landing in London.

• 1961 – First flight of Mikoyan/Gurevich Ye-152/1, Soviet single-seat fighter/interceptor aircraft.

• 1959 – Newly-formed RCAF aerobatic team, the Golden Hawks, flying gold-finished North American F-86 Sabre, performed its first demonstration at Torbay, Newfoundland.

• 1958 – Captain Walter W. Irwin sets a new airspeed record of 1,404 mph (2,259 km/h) in a F-104 Starfighter, the first record over 2,000 km/h.

• 1957 – First flight of the Saunders-Roe SR.53, prototype interceptor aircraft of mixed jet and rocket propulsion developed for the Royal Air Force.

• 1954 – Birth of Dafydd Rhys "Dave" Williams, Canadian physician and a retired CSA astronaut. He had two space flights, both of which were Space Shuttle missions.

• 1953 – 90 U. S. Air Force Republic F-84 Thunderjets carry out a successful attack against Chusan, Korea.

• 1946 – A B-17G Flying Fortress crashes into White's Hill near Fairfax, California, while en route to Hamilton Field in Marin County, California, after running out of fuel. Two crew members are killed.

• 1945 – Birth of Brewster Hopkinson Shaw, Jr. former NASA astronaut, veteran of three space shuttle missions and has logged 533 hours of space flight. He was pilot of Space Shuttle Columbia in November 1983, commander of Space Shuttle Atlantis in November 1985 and commander of Space Shuttle Columbia in August 1989.

• 1945 – (16-17) British Pacific Fleet carrier aircraft strike Japanese airfields in the Sakishima Gunto.

• 1943 – Launch of Operation Chastise, attack on German dams by Royal Air Force No. 617 Squadron, subsequently known as the "Dambusters", using a specially developed "bouncing bomb" invented and developed by Barnes Wallis.

• 1942 – Canadian Pacific Airlines was formed.

• 1940 – Death of Allen Benjamin Angus, DFC, Canadian WWII fighter pilot and first Canadian ace of WWII.

• 1930 – First flight of the Blériot Bl-110 nicknamed 'Joseph Le Brix', French high wing single engine monoplane prototype designed for endurance records.

• 1929 – Wings, a silent film about World War I fighter pilots, is the first film, and the only silent film ever, to win the Academy Award for Best Picture.

• 1920 – Birth of Joseph Otis Fletcher, American Air Force pilot and polar researcher, first pilot to land at the North Pole along with William Pershing Benedict with a Douglas C-47 Skytrain.

• 1919 – A naval Curtiss aircraft NC-4 commanded by Albert Cushing Read leaves Trepassey, Newfoundland, for Lisbon via the Azores on the first transatlantic flight.

• 1918 – The Imperial German Navy recommissions the light cruiser Stuttgart after her conversion into a seaplane carrier. She is the only German seagoing aviation ship capable of working with the fleet commissioned during either World War I or World War II.

• 1917 – Death of Enrico Cottino and Francesco Guadalupi in their Farman 14.

• 1915 – (16-17 overnight) Two Royal Naval Air Service Avro 504s interceot the Imperial German Navy Zeppelins LZ 38 and LZ 39, badly damaging LZ39 with four 20-lb (9-kg) bombs dropped on its envelope from above.

• 1890 – Birth of http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucien_Bossoutrot, French pioneer aviator and politician.

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.

May 18

• 2013 – A dawn attack by an American unmanned aerial vehicle kills four al-Qaeda members in Deyfa in Yemen's Abyan Governorate.[1]

• 2011 – Space Shuttle Endeavour docks to the ISS for its final mission.

• 2011 – Sol Líneas Aéreas Flight 5428, a Saab 340, crashes off Prahuaniyeu, Río Negro, Argentina while on approach to General Enrique Mosconi International Airport, Comodoro Rivadavia in heavy rain, killing all 22 passengers and crew on board.

• 2009 – An Antonov An-24 veers off the runway during take-off at Aba Tenna Dejazmach Yilma International Airport, Ethiopia. Damage was described as “substantial”.

• 2006 – The world’s biggest passenger jet, the Airbus A380, lands at Heathrow Airport for the first time, making its UK debut.

• 1996 – A Grumman F-14A-115-GR Tomcat, BuNo 161282, 'NF 101', of VF-154 crashes into the Pacific Ocean 500 miles W of Guam after suffering engine malfunction. Both crew eject safely.

• 1983 – American Airlines carries its 500 millionth passenger.

• 1982 – American Airlines' 1 millionth passenger is flown.

• 1979 – First flight of the Piper PA-42 Cheyenne.

• 1973 – Death of Dieudonné Costes, French aviator, well known for long distance and record breaking flights (Costes with Maurice Bellonte, flew the Breguet 19 from Paris to New York City, as the first aircraft in more difficult westbound direction, between North American and European mainlands), as well as being a fighter ace during World War I.

• 1972 – Aeroflot Flight 1491, an Antonov An-10A, suffers a inflight structural failure while descending to land at Kharkov Airport in the Ukraine. All 122 passengers and crew onboard are killed.

• 1971 – Birth of Desiree Tyler Horton, nicknamed "Chopper Chick" helicopter pilot and television personality. She is one of the few female helicopter pilots/on-camera reporters in Los Angeles television history.

• 1970 – National Airlines ends a 108-day strike by offering ground crews a 33% pay increase.

• 1969 – Launch of Apollo 10, fourth manned mission in the American Apollo space program, for testing all of the procedures and components of a Moon landing without actually landing on the Moon itself.

• 1969 – USMC Lockheed KC-130F Hercules BuNo 149814, c/n 3723, of VMGR-352, collided head-on with McDonnell F-4B Phantom II BuNo 151001 of VMFA-542, MAG-13, from Chu Lai (both crew killed), while refuelling two F-4Bs of VMFA-314 over South Vietnam near Phu Bai. Two crew of F-4B BuNo 151450, survived after jettisoning bombs and ejecting, while the second F-4B recovered safely to Chu Lai. Lars Olausson states that the KC-130F was from VMGR-352, while Chris Hobson claims it was assigned to VMGR-152.

• 1967 – Prototype of the Dassault Mirage F1, French air-superiority fighter and attack aircraft, crashes due to flutter, killing its pilot.

• 1967 – NASA announces crew members for the Apollo 7 space mission (first manned Apollo flight): Walter M. Schirra, Jr., Donn F. Eisele, and R. Walter Cunningham.

• 1966 – British pilot Sheila Scott takes off from London Heathrow for the first round-the-world solo flight. She will fly 29,000 miles (46,670 km) in stages in her Piper Comanche 'Myth Too'.

• 1965 – The United States resumes Operation Rolling Thunder strikes against North Vietnam.

• 1966 – Kosmos 11, soviet spacecraft re-enters earth's atmosphere and breaks up.

• 1961 – Commander J. L. Felsman, US Navy, is killed in a McDonnell F4H-1F Phantom II, BuNo 145316, during the first attempt at "Operation Sageburner" speed record at Edwards Air Force Base, California, when his aircraft disintegrated in the air after pitch damper failure. This was the first fatal Phantom II accident.

• 1958 – An F-104A Starfighter sets a world speed record of 2,259.82 km/h (1,404.19 mph).

• 1958 – In a Zero Length Launch (ZEL) experiment, a U. S. Air Force North American F-100D Super Sabre becomes airborne with no runway or take-off roll at all, using its own engine in afterburner and boosted by a 130,000-pound- (58,967-kg)-thrust Astrodyne rocket.

• 1953 – First flight of the Douglas DC-7, American 4 engine transport aircraft, last major piston engine powered transport made by Douglas.

• 1953 – Jackie Cochran becomes the first woman to break the sound barrier.

• 1952 – Birth of Jeana Yeager, American aviatrix. most famous for co-piloting a non-stop, non-refueled flight around the world in the Rutan Voyager aircraft.

• 1951 – First flight of the Vickers-Armstrongs Valiant, British four-jet bomber, once part of the Royal Air Force's V bomber nuclear force, originally developed for use as high-level strategic bomber, but its role, like other V bombers, was changed to low-level attacks.

• 1951 – Gloster E.1/44, TX145, following test flight out of the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE), Farnborough, suffers damage when starboard undercarriage leg collapses on landing. Probably not repaired as it is struck off charge on 2 August and sent to the Proof and Experimental Establishment (PEE) at Shoeburyness.

• 1949 – New-York city's first helipad, is built on Pier 41 by the Hudson river.

• 1948 – Aquila Airways is formed.

• 1947 – A U.S. Navy pilot and two school boys are killed when a Vought F4U Corsair fighter crashes onto a school playground in Burlington, Iowa, during an airshow at the Municipal Airport. The fighter, one of 35 aircraft from Lambert Field, St. Louis, Missouri, performing a mock formation raid in front of 3,500 spectators to signal the start of National Naval Reserve week, went into a series of barrel rolls, then appeared to go out of control before it crashed onto the playground at the Perkins School where 14 youngsters were playing ball. At least five others were injured, and several homes were struck by debris from the crash.

• 1945 – Boeing B-29-45-MO (serial number 44-86292, victor number 82) Superfortress bomber 'Enola Gay', named after Enola Gay Tibbets, mother of pilot Paul Tibbets rolls out from the manufacture.

• 1942 – RCAF No. 423 (Coastal) Squadron was formed at Oban, England.

• 1940 – First flight of the Pashinin I-21 (not to be confused with the Ilyushin TsKB-32, also known as "I-21") Soviet fighter prototype.

• 1940 – The British aircraft carrier HMS Glorious flies off Fleet Air Arm Supermarine Walrus flying boats of No. 701 Squadron for service at Harstad, Norway.

• 1940 – First flight of Saab 17, Swedish bomber-reconnaissance aircraft.

• 1939 – Death of Col. Charles deForest Chandler, American military aviator, and the first head of the Aeronautical Division, U.S. Signal Corps that later became the United States Air Force.

• 1938 – Tadeusz Góra, Polish glider pilot, is the first winner of the Lilienthal Gliding Medal in the world for his record-breaking 577.8-kilometer flight in a PWS-101.

• 1935 – The Tupolev ANT-20, Maxim Gorky, the largest aircraft ever built to that time, flown by pilots I. V. Mikheyev and I. S. Zhurov, and three more planes (Tupolev ANT-14, Polikarpov R-5 and Polikarpov I-5) take off for a demonstration flight over Moscow. As a result of a poorly executed loop maneuver (a third such stunt on this flight) around the plane performed by an accompanying I-5 fighter, flown by Nikolai Blagin, both planes collide and the Maxim Gorky crashes into a low-rise residential neighborhood west of present-day Sokol station. Forty-five people are killed in the crash, including crew members and 33 family members of some of those who had built the aircraft. (While authorities announced that the fatal maneuver was impromptu and reckless, it has been recently suggested that it might have been a planned part of the show.) Also killed was the fighter pilot, Blagin, who was made a scapegoat in the crash and subsequently had his name used eponymously (Blaginism) to mean, roughly, a "cocky disregard of authority." However, Blagin was given a state funeral at Novodevichy Cemetery together with ANT-20 victims.

• 1934 – Entered into service was the Douglas DC-2 with Transcontinental and Western Air.

• 1930 – Birth of Don Leslie Lind, American scientist and a former NASA astronaut.

• 1929 – During the 1929 U.S. Army maneuvers, two Boeing P-12s of the 95th Pursuit Squadron, operating out of Norton Field (the first airfield to be built in central Ohio), collide over the Linden neighborhood on the north side of Columbus, Ohio, the propeller of 2nd Lt. Andrew F. Solter's XP-12A, 29-362, cutting into the rear fuselage of 2nd Lt. Edward L. Meadow's P-12 (possibly 29-361). Meadow is killed but Solter bails out and lands safely. Gen. Benjamin Foulois tells newsmen, "It's all in a day's work of the Air Corps. Although an unhappy occurrence, the accident will cause no change in the maneuver plans, which will be carried out as scheduled."

• 1919 – Harry Hawker and Lt Cdr Kenneth Mackenzie-Grieve attempt a non-stop Atlantic crossing but are forced to ditch their aircraft only 2,253 (1,400 miles) after leaving Newfoundland. London's Daily Mail newspaper awards them a prize of £5,000 for their attempt anyway.

• 1918 – Birth of Roland Louise Ernest 'Monty' Burton AFC and Bar, British RAF pilot, first man to fly from London to New Zealand in under 24 hours.

• 1916 – Kiffin Yates Rockwell is the first American to claim an air victory for the U.S. Military.

• 1912 – Birth of Robert Hoover?, Nasa Test Pilot.

• 1910 – International talks open in Paris to draw up a legal basis for flight between countries.

• 1908 – First flight of the AEA White Wing.

• 1907 – Wilbur Wright sails for Europe to discuss the sale of his Flyer III in London, Paris, Moscow and Berlin.

• 1905 – Birth of Ruth Blaney Alexander, US Female aviation pioneer.

• 1887 – Birth of Sterling Rohlfs, Early American test pilot.

May 19

• 2011 – (Overnight) NATO aircraft raid Libyan Navy bases at Tripoli, Khoms, and Sirte in the largest attack against Libyan government naval forces thus far in the Libyan Civil War. During the Khoms raids, British aircraft hit two corvettes at Khoms with laser-guided bombs and damage an inflatable-boat manufacturing facility, and NATO aircraft set a warship at Tripoli afire. NATO aircraft also hit a police academy in Tripoli's Tajoura neighborhood.[1]

• 2009 – A Lockheed C-130 Hercules of the Indonesian Air Force crashes at Magetan killing 97 people on board the aircraft and a further two on the ground. (This is repeated on 20 May.)

• 2009 – A United States Navy Sikorsky HH-60H Seahawk crashes into the Pacific Ocean 16 miles (26 km) SW of San Diego, California. The aircraft was on a routine training flight and returning to the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz when the accident occurred off of Point Loma, California, killing all 5 members of its crew. Only 3 bodies were recovered.

• 2008 – First flight of the Sukhoi Superjet 100, Russian modern fly-by-wire regional jet in the 75- to 95-seat category.

• 2003 – CH-46E Sea Knight 156424 of HMM-364 crashes in Al-Hilla, killing four Marines; another Marine drowns trying to rescue the crew.[2]

• 2000 – Death of Yevgeni Vassilyevich Khrunov, Soviet cosmonaut.

• 2000 – Launch: Space Shuttle Atlantis STS-101 at 6:11 am EDT. Mission highlights: ISS supply.

• 1996 – Launch: Space Shuttle Endeavour STS-77 at 6:30:00.066 am EDT. Mission highlights: SPACEHAB; SPARTAN, Canadian astronaut Marc Garneau's second trip into space.

• 1993 – SAM Colombia Flight 501, a Boeing 727, crashes into Mount Paramo Frontino, killing all 132 on board.

• 1993 – Sikorsky VH-60A Sea Hawk, BuNo 163267,1] of HMX-1, MCAS Quantico, Virginia, crashes ~35 miles SW of Washington, D.C. during a routine inspection flight, killing Maj. William S. Barkley Jr., Capt. Scott J. Reynolds, Staff Sgt. Brian D. Haney, and Sgt. Timothy D. Sabel.

• 1982 – A Royal Navy Westland Sea King HC.4 ZA294, transferring from HMS Hermes to HMS Intrepid during the Falklands/Malvinas conflict, crashes into the sea after a bird strike with a Black-browed Albatross. The crash results in 22 fatalities including 18 members of the 22 Squadron SAS, one fatality each from the Royal Signals and Royal Air Force.

• 1978 – McDonnell Douglas delivers its 5,000th F-4 Phantom II aircraft, twenty years after the first flight of the prototype.

• 1978 – First prototype Sikorsky YUH-60A Black Hawk, 73-21650, crashes during testing at the Sikorsky plant, Stratford, Connecticut, killing three company personnel. Army investigation reveals that during routine maintenance the night before the fatal flight, the airspeed sensor for the tailplane actuating system was inadvertently left unconnected. As the aircraft transitioned from hover to forward flight, the tailplane did not automatically change its angle and as speed built up, it forced the helicopter's nose down until an attitude was reached from which recovery was impossible. A manual back-up system was available and functioning, and could have been used to correct the tailplane angle, but for unexplained reasons it was not used, possibly due to failure to analyze the nature of the problem in time. Minor modifications are introduced as a result of this accident.

• 1977 – First flight of the Sukhoi T-10 (prototype of Sukhoi Su-27).

• 1971 – Boeing announces that it has canceled its Supersonic Transport (SST) project.

• 1971 – Launch of Mars 2, Soviet unmanned lander and orbiter, first human artifacts to impact the surface of Mars.

• 1967- First flight of Dassault Mirage 5, French supersonic attack aircraft.

• 1967 – American aircraft strike military targets in downtown Hanoi.

• 1965 – Pakistan International Airlines Flight 705, a Boeing 720-040 B on an inaugural flight carrying mostly journalists and owners of travel agencies and crewed by what the airline considered its best crew members, crashes short of the runway while descending to land at Cairo International Airport in Cairo, Egypt, killing 119 of the 125 people on board and injuring all six survivors.

• 1961 – Venera 1, first planetary probe launched to Venus by the Soviet Union, passed within 100,000 km of Venus and entered a heliocentric orbit.

• 1958 – Vickers Viscount N7410 of Capital Airlines collides in mid-air with a Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star of the Air National Guard. All eleven on board the Viscount are killed when it crashes at Brunswick, Maryland, as is one of the two crew members of the T-33. (This is repeated on 20 May)

• 1956 – First flight of the Aerfer Sagittario 2, Italian prototype all-metal single-seat lightweight fighter aircraft, first Italian aircraft to break the sound barrier in controlled flight.

• 1955 – Birth of Pierre Joseph Thuot, retired U. S. Navy captain and NASA astronaut

• 1952 – First flight of the Grumman XF10F Jaguar, American prototype swing-wing fighter aircraft.

• 1951 – First flight of the Fokker S.14 Machtrainer, Dutch two-seater military training jet aircraft.

• 1951 – U. S. Air Force Captain James Jabara becomes the first fighter ace to score his five victories in a jet (an F-86 Sabre) against jets (Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 s). (This is repeated on 20 May, which is the correct date)

• 1951 – RCAF No. 410 Squadron began re-equipping with North American Sabre fighters. It was the first RCAF squadron to receive this new fighter.

• 1949 – A JRM Mars sets a new record of 308 for the largest number of people to be carried on a single aircraft.

• 1948 – Birth of Jean-Pierre Haigneré, French Air Force officer and former CNES astronaut.

• 1947 – The crash of a Beechcraft C-45F Expeditor, 44-87142, of the 4000th AAF Base Unit, two miles S of Windsor, Ontario, Canada, kills three officers and two enlisted men of the 4140th Base Unit, Wright Field, Ohio, who had departed that base at 1805 hrs. on a flight to Selfridge Field, Michigan, to make advance preparations for air shows throughout the country. The twin-prop, twin-tailed aircraft came down in an open area during a driving rainstorm at ~2105 hrs. and broke into six major pieces. One crew attempted to parachute but was unsuccessful. The plane impacted within 500 yards of St. Mary's academy girls' school on the outskirts of Windsor

• 1947 – First flight of the Cunliffe-Owen Concordia, British twin-engined small airliner.

• 1946 – First flight of the Handley Page Marathon

• 1945 – 29 aircraft from the British aircraft carriers HMS Ameer, HMS Khedive, and HMS Stalker conduct devastating strikes against Japanese shipping, airfields, and communications in southern Burma and Sumatra.

• 1945 – First flight of Tupolev TU-10, a Soviet twin-engine, high speed daylight bomber, an evolution of the TU-2.

• 1944 – American aircraft raid Marcus Island.

• 1943 – Northrop N-9M-1, one-third scale flying testbed for the Northrop XB-35 flying wing design, crashes approximately 12 mi (19 km) W of Muroc Army Air Base, California, killing pilot Max Constant. First flown 27 December 1942, airframe had only logged 22.5 hours, and little data was accumulated before the loss. Post-crash investigation suggested that: "...while Constant was conducting stalls and aft centre of gravity stability tests, aerodynamic forces developed full aft, which were too strong for Constant to overcome, trapping him in the cockpit. To prevent this happening on future flights, a one-shot hydraulic boost device was installed to push the controls forward in an emergency."

• 1942 – RCAF No. 162 (BR) Bomber Reconnaissance Squadron was formed at Yarmouth, Nova Scotia with Canso A aircraft.

• 1939 – Birth of Francis Richard "Dick" Scobee, American astronaut who was killed commanding the Space Shuttle Challenger, which suffered catastrophic booster failure during launch of the STS-51-L mission.

• 1937 – Prototype Sud-Est LeO H-47 flying boat sustains fatigue failure damage to hull bottom on take-off and, upon landing at Antibes at 19,000 kg (42,000 lb), took in water that displaced the centre of gravity, sinking the aircraft.

• 1937 – Entered into service was the Fairey Battle with No. 63 Squadron, Royal Air Force.

• 1934 – First flight of the Russian Tupolev ANT-20 Maxim Gorky, Soviet eight-engine aircraft, at this time the largest aircraft in the world. Capable of carrying 80 passengers, it was used mainly as a mobile propaganda office.

• 1924 – The first aerial circumnavigation of Australia is carried out, by an RAAF crew in a Fairey IIID.

• 1918 – First prototype Sopwith Salamander, E5429, crashes during test program while with No. 65 Squadron when the pilot has to avoid a tender crossing the aerodrome responding to another crash.

• 1918 – Raoul Lufbery, commander of the US 94th Aero Squadron|94th (Hat in the Ring) Aero Squadron and second highest scoring American ace with 17 victories, is killed in air combat.

• 1917 – A Royal Naval Air Service Curtiss H-12 Large America flying boat bombs and sinks the German submarine U-36 in the North Sea near the North Hinder light ship while flying a “Spider Web” patrol. U-36 becomes the only German submarine sunk by an aircraft during World War I. (This is repeated on 20 May)

• 1912 – First official mail flight service of the Deutschen Reichspost between Mannheim and Heidelberg.

• 1910 – Birth of Jean Niland (Aka James Williams), French early parachutist and record setter.

• 1897 – Birth of Frank Luke, Jr., WWI American fighter ace, ranking second among U. S. Army Air Service pilots to Captain Eddie Rickenbacker in number of aerial victories during World War I.

• 1891 – Birth of Oswald Boelcke, WWI German flying ace and one of the most influential patrol leaders and tacticians of the early years of air combat.

• 1886 – Birth of Richard Bell Davies VC, CB, DSO, AFC, British WWI fighter pilot and Royal Navy officer.

May 20

• 2013 – Passenger-carrying flights of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner resume in the United States as United Airlines Flight 1 flies from Houston, Texas, to Chicago, Illinois. United, which plans to resume international 787 service on 10 June, becomes the fourth airline to resume Dreamliner flights, after Ethiopian Airlines, Qatar Airways, and Air India.[1]

• 2009 – The 2009 Indonesia C-130H Hercules crash was an aircraft accident in Indonesia on May 20, 2009. The Indonesian Air Force Lockheed C-130 Hercules airplane was carrying 112 people (98 passengers and 14 crew) and crashed at about 6:30 local time (23:30 UTC), while flying from Jakarta to eastern Java. The crash resulted in at least 98 deaths, 5 of which occurred on impact when the plane ploughed through a neighborhood, striking at least four houses before skidding into a paddy, in the village of Geplak. Two people on the ground were killed. At least 70 others had been taken to a local hospital. Authorities believe that there is still 1 missing body.

• 2003 – First flight of the SpaceShipOne (first captive flight, unmanned)

• 1982 – A Dassault Mirage III of the Brazilian Air Force crashed, two crew killed.

• 1978 – McDonnell Douglas delivers its 5,000th F-4 Phantom II aircraft, twenty years after the first flight of the prototype.

• 1977 – Introduction: Embraer EMB 121 Xingu

• 1977 – First flight of the Sukhoi T-10 (prototype of Sukhoi Su-27)

• 1973 – First flight of the PZL M-15 Belphegor

• 1971 – Boeing announces that it has canceled its Supersonic Transport (SST) project.

• 1967 – American aircraft strike military targets in downtown Hanoi.

• 1965 – Pakistan International Airlines Flight 705, a Boeing 720-040 B on an inaugural flight carrying mostly journalists and owners of travel agencies and crewed by what the airline considered its best crew members, crashes short of the runway while descending to land at Cairo International Airport in Cairo, Egypt, killing 119 of the 125 people on board and injuring all six survivors.

• 1965 – DHC-6 Twin Otter prototype was test flown at Downsview by R. H. Fowler.

• 1959 – First flight of the Aérospatiale N 262 (MH.250)

• 1959 – A USAF Lockheed C-130A Hercules 57-0468, c/n 3175 overshot the runway at Ashiya AB, Japan . The pilot tried to pull up, but the C-130 crashed into Air Force barracks. 9 fatalities.

• 1958 – Vickers Viscount N7410 of Capital Airlines collides in mid-air with a Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star of the Air National Guard. All eleven on board the Viscount are killed when it crashes at Brunswick, Maryland, as is one of the two crew members of the T-33.

• 1958 – A United States Air Force Lockheed T-33A-5-LO Shooting Star, 53-5966, operated by the Maryland Air National Guard collided in mid-air with a Capital Airlines Vickers Viscount, registered N7410 operating flight Capital 300 at 8,000 ft (2,400 m) four miles (6 km) east of Brunswick, Maryland. All 11 on board the Viscount were killed and the T-33 co-pilot, the T-33 pilot ejected and survived.

• 1951 – U. S. Air Force Captain James Jabara becomes the first fighter ace to score his five victories in a jet (an F-86 Sabre) against jets (Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 s).

• 1949 – A USAF Fairchild C-82A Packet, 48-572, c/n 10207, of the 1227th Air Base Group, Goose Bay, Labrador, veers off runway during takeoff at primitive Arctic Isachsen airstrip, Isachsen weather station, Ellef Ringnes Island, Northwest Territory, Canada, at 1745 hrs. Zulu. Despite crew attempts to keep the aircraft from drifting to the left, the port landing gear catches a snow bank, increasing veer, then port propeller strikes snow pack at 90 mph and 2800 rpm, ripping engine from mount and making aircraft uncontrollable. Three crew uninjured but aircraft written off, abandoned on site. Hull used for a shelter for a time. Wreckage still on site. The C-82 had delivered an engine and parts to repair a stranded Douglas C-54D-5-DC Skymaster, 42-72614, with a failed number 2 engine. The position of the Skymaster had required a downwind takeoff run.

• 1946 – Grumman J4F-2 Widgeon amphibian out of NAS Brunswick, Maine, makes forced landing on Sebago Lake due to engine trouble and suffers moderate damage. Crew uninjured.

• 1946 – In an accident very similar to the B-25 Mitchell that struck the Empire State Building in 1945, a USAAF Beech C-45F Expeditor, 44-47570, of the 4108th AAF Base Unit, Air Material Command, piloted by Manuel R. Campbell, on a navigation training flight from Lake Charles Army Air Field, Louisiana,[97] crashes in fog at ~2010 hrs. into the 58th floor of the Bank of Manhattan Trust Building at 40 Wall Street, Manhattan, New York City, whilst attempting to land at Newark Army Airfield, New Jersey. Four crew KWF, no injuries on the ground.

• 1945 – 29 aircraft from the British aircraft carriers HMS Ameer, HMS Khedive, and HMS Stalker conduct devastating strikes against Japanese shipping, airfields, and communications in southern Burma and Sumatra.

• 1944 – American aircraft raid Marcus Island.

• 1941 – Italian CANT Z.1007 high-level bombers sink the British destroyer HMS Juno southeast of Crete.

• 1941 – Germany invades Crete in Operation Merkur (“Mercury”), the Luftwaffe’s first large airborne assault and the first mainly airborne invasion in military history, dropping 10,000 paratroopers and 750 glider troops onto the island; 610 bombers, dive bombers, and fighters, 500 transport aircraft, and 80 gliders support the operation. The Germans encounter such unexpectedly heavy opposition by British and Commonwealth troops on the island that they fear the operation will fail.

• 1937 – Entered Service: Fairey Battle with No. 63 Squadron, Royal Air Force

• 1937 – First flight of the de Havilland Albatross.

• 1932 – Amelia Earhart, flying a Lockheed Vega, becomes the first woman to make a solo flight across the North Atlantic, flying from Harbour Grace in Newfoundland to Derry in Northern Ireland in 14 hours 54 min.

• 1929 – The Peruvian Army’s aviation branch and the Peruvian Navy’s Naval Aviation Corps are combined to form the Peruvian Aviation Corps, forerunner of the Peruvian Air Force.

• 1929 – Charles Lindbergh marries Anne, daughter of Dwight W. Morrow, U. S. Ambassador to Mexico and author of an influential report on American aviation on 27 May 1929.

• 1927 – (20-21) Charles Lindbergh flies across the Atlantic nonstop from New York City to Paris. It is the first solo transatlantic flight. In his Ryan monoplane Spirit of St. Louis, he covers 3,600 miles in 33 hours, 29 min and wins the Orteig Prize of $25,000.

• 1927 – Flight Lieutenant Roderic Carr sets out to set a new distance record, attempting to fly from England to India in a Hawker Horsely. Three days later, he will be rescued from the Persian Gulf.

• 1924 – French Captain Georges Pelletier d'Oisy and Adjutant Lucien Besin crash their Breguet 19.A.2 on a golf course in Shanghai, ending their attempt to fly around the world eastbound. They had covered 10,580 miles (17,037 km) in 26 days since leaving Paris.

• 1918 – German bombs fall on London for the last time in World War I. During their one-year-long heavier-than-air bombing campaign against England, the Germans have dropped 84,745 kg (186,830 lbs) of bombs and lost 61 bombers.

• 1917 – A Royal Naval Air Service Curtiss H-12 Large America flying boat bombs and sinks the German submarine U-36 in the North Sea near the North Hinder light ship while flying a “Spider Web” patrol. U-36 becomes the only German submarine sunk by an aircraft during World War I.

• 1784 – The first women to ascend in a tethered balloon are the Marchioness de Montalembert, the Contess de Montalenbert, the Contess de Podenas, and Mademoiselle de Ligarde. Their Montgolfier balloon lifts to the length of the restraining rope.

May 21

• 2011 – NATO conducts 147 air sorties over Libya, targeting two command-and-control facilities in and near Tripoli, an ammunition storage facility near Tripoli, a naval asset near Sirte, two air defense radars near Al Khums, and a tank and a military truck near Zintan. Since NATO took command of air strikes in Libya on 31 March 31, its aircraft have conducted 2,975 strike and 4.757 other sorties.[1]

• 2010 – A U.S. Navy Lockheed P-3 Orion accidentally released a sonobuoy shortly after departure from NAS Jacksonville, Florida, which fell 500 feet (150 m) and crashed through the roof of a home in Mandarin, Florida, coming to rest in a bedroom next to a bed. Resident Marwan Saman said his daughter had just gotten out of that bed about a half hour earlier. The Navy sent an explosives demolition team to retrieve the 3-foot (0.91 m)-long, 40-pound cylinder. No injuries were reported, and the Navy was making arrangements to pay for the damage. A malfunctioning launch tube was theorized for the drop.

• 2009 – An Air Force test pilot student is killed when his Northrop T-38A Talon jet trainer crashes N of Edwards Air Force Base, California, ~ nine miles N of the base, near California City.

• 2008 – A Serbian Air Force single-seat SOKO J-22 Orao ground attack aircraft flown by Major Tomas Janik crashed near the village of Baranda. The aircraft that crashed was wearing serial 25114 and was operational with the 241 Fighter-Bomber Aviation Squadron, of 98th Air Base Lađevci. The flight went well until 1130 hours local time when pilot Major Janik experienced problems with his plane and was forced to eject. The aircraft went down in the vicinity of the village Baranda and was completely destroyed.

• 2007 – A CH-47D Chinook 87-00102 from B Company, 4–123rd Aviation Regiment crashes in Iraq due to failure of both engines. Five crewmen injured. Helicopter was blown in-place.[2]

• 1995 – (21-22) Historic Boeing B-29-95-BW Superfortress, 45-21768, "Kee Bird", of the 46th/72d Reconnaissance Squadrons, abandoned in 1947 and recently restored to flying condition after a number of highly calamitous setbacks, is severely damaged by fire while attempting to take off from a frozen lakebed in Greenland. Its remains are abandoned to sink into the melting ice.

• 1982 – British ground troops begin landing at San Carlos on East Falkland Island, and the Argentinian Air Force begins a seven-day-long bombing campaign again British ships in Falkland Sound and San Carlos Water; it will be the Royal Navy’s largest combat engagement since the end of World War II in August 1945. On the first day, the Argentinians sink the British frigate Ardent but lose 16 aircraft.

• 1981 – Ecuadorian Air Force de Havilland Canada DHC-6 crashed into high ground in bad weather with the loss of all 18 on board.

• 1977 – Concorde makes a special trip from New York to Paris to mark the 50th anniversary of Charles Lindbergh’s historic flight on the same route in the Spirit of St. Louis; the airliner takes just 3 hours, 44 min, compared with Lindbergh’s time of 33 hours, 29 min.

• 1975 – First flight of the Rutan VariEze

• 1969 – First flight of the Antonov An-26

• 1965 – The last flight of an RCAF Harvard was made.

• 1964 – Pathet Lao antiaircraft artillery damages a U. S. Navy RF-8 Crusader photographic reconnaissance aircraft over Laos. The RF-8 A, flown by Lieutenant Charles F. Klusmann, burns for 20 min in the air but lands safely aboard the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk (CVA-63).

• 1957 – First Sud-Aviation (Sud-Ouest) SO.9050 Trident II -001, rocket-powered short-range interceptor, is destroyed during a test-flight out of Centre d'Essais en Vol (Flight Test Center) when its highly volatile fuels, Furaline and nitric acid, accidentally mix and explode, killing test pilot Charles Goujon. Project is discontinued following this accident.

• 1956 – A B-52 Stratofortress drops the US's first air-dropped hydrogen bomb, a 3.75 MT device on Bikini Atoll

• 1949 – A Sikorsky S-52 sets a new helicopter altitude record of 21,200 ft (6,468 m).

• 1946 – Royal Dutch Airlines, KLM, inaugurates a scheduled service to New York. It is the first European airline to open post-war flights to New York.

• 1945 – Entered Service: Avro Lincoln with the Royal Air Force’s Bomber Development Unit

• 1945 – Entered Service: Grumman F8 F Bearcat with U. S. Navy Fighter Squadron 19 (VF-19)

• 1941 – German airborne forces belatedly capture Maleme airfield on Crete, allowing an airlift of 5,000 German mountain troops to begin.

• 1941 – The British aircraft carrier HMS Argus flies off 43 Royal Air Force Hawker Hurricanes to Malta from a point south of Sardinia.

• 1940 – The British aircraft carriers HMS Glorious and HMS Furious fly off Royal Air Force aircraft for service ashore at Bardufoss, Norway, with Glorious delivering the Hurricanes of No. 46 Squadron and Furious the Gladiators of No. 263 Squadron.

• 1938 – First flight of the Dornier Do 26

• 1927 – Charles A. Lindbergh landed his Spirit of St. Louis near Paris, completing the first solo airplane flight across the Atlantic Ocean.

• 1923 – A Curtiss bomber and two Curtiss scout aircraft of the Argentine Navy make a flight of just under 500 miles (805 km) along the coast of Argentina from Puerto Militar to Buenos Aires. It is a significant step forward in the development of Argentine aviation.

• 1918 – President Woodrow Wilson creates a Bureau of Aircraft Production responsible for aeronautical equipment.

• 1908 – First flight of the AEA June Bug

• 1878 – Glenn Hammond Curtiss was born in Hammondsport, New York. He became the pioneer of the first years of powered flight and rival of the Wright brothers.

May 22

• 2010 – Iraqi Airways ceases operations.

• 2010 – Air India Express Flight 812, operated by Boeing 737–800 VT-AXV crashed at Mangalore International Airport with the loss of 162 lives.

• 2002 – First flight of the Boeing X-45

• 1990 – The German Luftwaffe flies the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter for the last time before it is withdrawn from service; the airplane was nicknamed “the widow-maker” because of its terrible safety record – In its years of service, 110 Starfighter pilots were killed.

• 1986 – US Navy Grumman A-6E Intruder, BuNo 162181, c/n I-674, of VA-65, bound for the USS John F. Kennedy at Puerto Rico, crashes on take-off from NAS Oceana, Virginia Beach, Virginia, at 1105 hrs., killing two crew and one motorist on Oceana Boulevard. Aircraft had no munitions but carried a full fuel load and burst into flame as it came down just outside the station perimeter, killing pilot Lt. James P. Hoban, 26, of River Vale, New Jersey, and bombardier-navigator Lt. Michael F. Wilson, 27, of Medford, New Jersey, as well as Navy wife Tammy Fowler, 25, of Virginia Beach, in the vehicle on Oceana Boulevard. Navy officials said that this was the first Navy plane crash in the area in more than two years. Witnesses reported that the Intruder's tail appeared to be on fire as it came down.

• 1984 – ULockheed U-2R, 68-10333, Article 055, fifth airframe of first R-model order, first flight 8 May 1968, registered N812X; delivered to the CIA, 28 May 1968. To 100th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing mid-1974. To 9th SRW in 1976. Damaged at Akrotiri, Cyprus, 24 April 1980 - repaired. Crashes this date at Osan Air Base, South Korea, pilot Capt. David Bonsi survives. Aircraft suffers tailpipe failure on climb-out at ~3,000 feet forcing an ejection. This was the first of three such tailpipe-related crashes.

• 1983 – A Canadian Forces Lockheed CF-104 Starfighter, 104813, of 439 Sqn., explodes in mid-air during airshow performance at Rhein-Main Air Base, Frankfurt, Germany, wreckage falling onto parked cars in woods near the airport, setting several afire and killing three adults and two children watching the display, Reuters news service reported. A Canadian Forces spokesman said that the CF-104, flown by Capt. Alan J. Stephenson, 27, was in a formation of five Starfighters, and that he was to do a solo display. He had done two complete circuits and had leveled off for a low-speed fly-past when the plane malfunctioned. He ejected safely. The spokesman said that a board of inquiry has been convened to investigate the cause of the crash.

• 1982 – The first aircraft carrier to be launched in Spain, Principe de Asturias, is launched at Ferrol.

• 1976 – NASA launches space vehicle S-179

• 1970 – A USAF Lockheed T-33A Shooting Star of the 1st Composite Wing, Andrews AFB, Maryland, crashes just short of the north runway on approach to that base, killing pilot Maj. John H. McDowell Jr., 37, Clinton, Maryland, and Lt. Edwin D. Billmeyer, 24, of Baltimore, Maryland, and injuring three motorists on the ground.

• 1969 – Thomas P. Stafford & Eugene Cernan pilot the Apollo 10 lunar module to within 15 kms above the moon's surface in a dress rehearsal for the first lunar landing, which took place in July 1969.

• 1968 – Los Angeles Airways Flight 841, a Sikorsky S-61L, crashes near Paramount, California resulting in the loss of 23 lives.

• 1962 – Robert A. Rushworth, USAF major, takes the X-15 to an altitude of 30 600 m.

• 1962 – Continental Airlines Flight 11, a Boeing 707, breaks up in mid-air near Unionville, Missouri after a passenger's bomb exploded in the lavatory; all 45 people on board are killed.

• 1961 – (22 or 24) To celebrate the 50th anniversary of naval aviation in the United States, five United States Navy McDonnell F4 H-1 F Phantom II fighters fly across the United States in less than three hours in Operation LANA. The fastest, flown by Lieutenants Richard F. Gordon, Jr., (pilot) and Bobbie Long (radar intercept officer), sets a new record for a transcontinental flight across the United States, flying from Ontario, California, to Floyd Bennett Field in New York City in 2 hours 47 min at an average speed of 869.74 mph (1,400.28 km/hr) with three in-flight refuelings. They receive the 1961 Bendix Trophy for their flight.

• 1959 – Benjamin O. Davis Jr. becomes the first African-American general-major in the United States Air Force.

• 1958 – (22-23) Flying a Douglas F4D-1 Skyray, United States Marine Corps Major N. LeFaivre breaks five world climb-to-height records, including 15,000 m (49,221 feet) in 2 min 36 seconds.

• 1957 – A U.S. Air Force B-36J-5-CF Peacemaker, 52-2816, (c/n 372), ferrying a Mark 17 nuclear bomb from Biggs AFB, Texas to Kirtland AFB, New Mexico, accidentally drops it through closed bomb doors, impacting 4.5 miles (7.2 km) south of Kirtland tower. High explosives detonate creating crater 25X12 feet, but no fuel capsule fitted, no injuries.

• 1953 – S/L Keith R. Greenaway won the McKee Trans-Canada Trophy in recognition of his new methods of aerial navigation in the Arctic regions.

• 1947 – The prototype Boeing XC-97 Stratofreighter, 43-27472, c/n 8483, on a flight out of Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, comes down in a wheat stubble field and bursts into flames.

• 1946 – First flight of the de Havilland Canada DHC-1 Chipmunk

• 1943 – Royal Air Force scatters first copies of The Flying Hollander

• 1943 – A U. S. Navy antisubmarine hunter-killer group scores a kill of an enemy submarine for the first time, when TBM Avengers of Composite Squadron 9 (VC-9} from the escort aircraft carrier USS Bogue (CVE-9) sink the German submarine U-569 in the North Atlantic Ocean. Aircraft of U. S. hunter-killer groups will sink – or cooperate with surface warships in sinking – 31 more German and two Japanese submarines in the Atlantic during World War II.

• 1943 – 19 Mitsubishi G4 M “Betty” torpedo bombers based at Paramushiro make the only Japanese air strike of the Battle of Attu, attacking the U. S. Navy destroyer USS Phelps (DD-360) and gunboat USS Charleston (PG-51) off Attu. They lose two aircraft and score no hits.

• 1941 – German dive bombers attack a British naval task force as it retires westward after raiding caiques carrying German troops north of Crete. They sink the light cruisers HMS Fiji and HMS Gloucester and the destroyer HMS Greyhound and damage the battleship HMS Warspite and the light cruisers HMS Carlisle and HMS Naiad.

• 1939 – The German Condor Legion holds a farewell parade in León, Spain.

• 1937 – The Spanish Republican Air Force sends fighters on a risky flight across Nationalist-controlled territory to Republican bases in northern Spain to support the Basque defense against Nationalist forces there; seven of them arrive safely. Over the next several weeks, 50 more Republican aircraft – Polikarpov I-15 and I-16 fighters and Polikarpov R-5 light bombers – will make the trip, with 45 arriving safely.

• 1931 – First flight of the Berliner-Joyce XFJ

• 1929 – Pan American Airways inaugurates a new passenger service from Miami, Florida to Managua, Panama with stops at Belize. The journey by a F. VII/3 ns takes 56 hours.

• 1920 – Bristol F.2C Badger partial prototype, completed in 1919 for aerodynamic tests, using Armstrong-Siddeley Puma engine, but only the wings and undercarriage of the Badger design (and locally referred to as the Badger X - for experimental) crashes this date. It is entered on the civil register as K110, AFTER it has already been written off.

• 1906 – The Wright brothers are granted US patent No. 821,393 for their airplane control.

May 23

• 2013 – Solar Impulse aircraft HB-SIA completes the second and longest leg of its trip across the continental United States, arriving at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport in Texas after a 957-mile (1,541-km) flight from Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix, Arizona, at an average speed-over-ground of 52 mph (83.7 km/h), reaching an altitude of 27,000 feet (8,230 meters). The flight, which takes 18 hours 21 minutes, sets a new world distance record for a solar-powered flight, exceeding the previous record, also established by HB-SIA, in a flight from Switzerland to Spain on 25 May 2012.[1][2]

• 2012 – A Pakistan Army School of Aviation Schweizer 300C crashed into the Chenab river in Pakistan, two occupants killed.

• 2011 – France and the United Kingdom announce that they will begin to use attack helicopters in Libya to increase the accuracy of NATO airstrikes and allow more precise strikes against urban targets.[3]

• 2006 – A Greek Lockheed Martin F-16C Block 52 Fighting Falcon, 514, of 343 Mira, and Turkish Lockheed Martin F-16C Fighting Falcon, 93-0684, of 192 Filo, collide over the Aegean Sea as the Greek pilot attempts to intercept the Turkish, after an alleged airspace violation. The Greek pilot, Flight Lieutenant Konstantinos Iliakis, is presumed dead, but the Turkish pilot, 1st Lieutenant Halil Ibrahim Ozdemir, is rescued.

• 2004 – Frontier Airlines begins service to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Billings, Montana; and Spokane, Washington.

• 1988 – Shamu One, a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-300 painted like and named after a SeaWorld killer whale, begins flying for the airline.

• 1982 – Argentina loses seven aircraft during raids against British warships in Falkland Sound and San Carlos Water.

• 1969 – A drunken U.S. Air Force assistant crew chief, Sgt. Paul Adams Meyer, 23, of Poquoson, Virginia, suffering anxiety over marital problems, starts up a Lockheed C-130E Hercules, 63-7789, c/n 3856, of the 36th Tactical Airlift Squadron, 316th Tactical Airlift Wing, on hardstand 21 at RAF Mildenhall and takes off in it at 0655 hrs. CET, headed for Langley AFB, Virginia. At least two North American F-100 Super Sabres from RAF Lakenheath, a C-130 from Mildenhall, and two RAF English Electric Lightnings are sent aloft to try to make contact with the stolen aircraft. The Hercules crashes into the English Channel off Alderney (5000N, 0205W) ~90 minutes later. In the last transmission from Meyer, to his wife, in a link-up over the side-band radio, he stated "Leave me alone for about five minutes, I've got trouble." There is speculation whether the Hercules was shot down. Some wreckage was recovered but the pilot's body was never found. Meyer had been arrested for being drunk and disorderly earlier in the morning in the village of Freckenham and had been remanded to quarters, but sneaked out to steal the Hercules.

• 1967 – First flight of Hawker Siddeley Nimrod

• 1967 – President Lyndon B. Johnson‘s administration prohibits any American air attacks within a 10-mile (16-km) radius of Hanoi.

• 1966 – Death of Ernest William Norton, Welsh WWI flying ace and RAF senior officer post WWI.

• 1966 – (23-26) Round-the-world demonstration flight by a new Learjet 24 to exhibit its capabilities; flight time was 50 hours and 20 min.

• 1960 – Death of Julius Buckler, German WWI fighter ace.

• 1958 – Flying a Douglas F4D-1 Skyray, USMC Major Edward N. LeFaivre breaks 5 world climb-to-height records, including 15,000 m (49,221 feet) in 2 min 36 seconds.

• 1958 – A Nike Ajax missile of Battery B, 526th AAA Missile Battalion, exploded accidentally at a battery at Site NY-53 near Leonardo, New Jersey at 1315 hrs. on this date, setting off six other missiles of A Section, killing 6 soldiers and 4 civilians. The nearest missile in B Section had its booster ignited by flying shrapnel and it flew into a nearby hill, but the warhead fortunately failed to explode. This was the first fatal Nike Ajax accident. A memorial can be found at Fort Hancock in the Sandy Hook Unit of Gateway National Recreation Area.

• 1958 – First flight of The PZL-102 Kos, Polish two-seat touring and training monoplane.

• 1958 – Birth of Thomas Arthur Reiter, European astronaut and Brigadier General in the Luftwaffe.

• 1958 – Explorer 1 (first Earth satellite of the USA) stopped transmission of data when its batteries died. It remained in orbit for more than 12 years

• 1958 – The Short SC.1 VTOL aircraft makes its first hovering flight on 26 May while tethered. The first free hover was 6 Apr 1960[4]

• 1956 – Retired: of the Douglas X-3 Stiletto

• 1950 – AWhile flying Supermarine Attacker F.1, WA469, to test airbrakes, Supermarine pilot Leslie R. Colquhoun makes a high-speed run over South Marston airfield, experiences a sudden nose-down pitch as the starboard wingtip folds upwards. Using only the rudder - the ailerons had jammed - he makes a wide circuit and touches down at ~200 knots (370 km/h), coming to a stop just short of the end of the runway with a burst tyre. He receives the George Medal for saving the aircraft under daunting circumstances.

• 1948 – In the early evening, ex-RAF Handley Page Halifax C.MK 8, registered G-AIZO, ex-PP293, and operated by Bond Air Services Ltd. carrying a cargo of apricots from Valencia, Spain, crashes at Studham, Bedfordshire while on a Standard Beam Approach (SBA) to RAF Bovingdon in bad weather. After a steep turn to port and losing height rapidly, the Halifax sideslips towards the ground until, seeming to recover and flying straight and level and with engines at full power, the aircraft strikes the ground flat and disintegrates, breaking into its component sections. Miraculously, the crew escape alive. After initial suspicions that the cargo may have shifted in flight, the subsequent AAIB report blames loss of control by the pilot while the aircraft was too close to the ground for recovery.

• 1947 – First flight of the SNCAC NC.1070, French twin engine carrier born bomber prototype.

• 1945 – (23-25) The seventh Kikusui attack off Okinawa involves 165 kamikazes. They sink a destroyer-transport and two smaller ships and damage a destroyer and a destroyer-transport on May 25.

• 1944 – First flight of the British Martin-Baker MB 5 (actually second Martin-Baker MB 3), prototype fighter aircraft.

• 1943 – An aircraft sinks an enemy submarine with air-to-surface rockets for the first time, as a Fairey Swordfish from the British escort carrier HMS Archer sinks the German submarine U-752 in the Atlantic.

• 1941 – German aircraft attack British positions around Fallujah for the first time, with little effect.

• 1941 – 24 German dive bombers attack the British destroyers HMS Kelly and HMS Kashmir as they attempt to retire after a patrol north of Crete the previous night, sinking both. Among the survivors is Captain Lord Louis Mountbatten.

• 1940 – S/L FM Gobeil, an RCAF exchange officer and CO of No. 242 Squadron RAF, was the first RCAF officer to enter combat. He engaged a Messerschmitt Bf 109 near Berck, France.

• 1938 – First flight of the Fiat CR.42, Italian single-seat sesquiplane WWII fighter.

• 1933 – Birth 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.

• 1930 – President Herbert Hoover presents the crew of the flying boat NC-4 with gold medals for completing the first transatlantic flight in 1919.

• 1928 – Umberto Nobile commands the Italian airship Italia on an ill-fated flight over the North Pole. The airship crashes on its way back, and Roald Amundsen is killed trying to rescue survivors.

• 1925 – Death of Rudolf Rienau, German WWI flying ace, Post War instructor, killed in a flying accident.

• 1924 – The first scheduled air service in Canada began. Laurentide Air Service Ltd. (which still exists today) offered flights between Angliers, Lake Fortune and Rouyn, Quebec.

• 1923 – Birth of Walter Wolfrum, German WWII fighter ace (127 credited), and later a successful aerobatics pilot, winning the German Championship in 1962 and taking second place in 1961, 1963, 1964 and 1966.

• 1923 – Belgian airline SABENA is formed, adding new European routes to SNETA's routes in Belgian Congo that it takes over.

• 1918 – Death of George Edwin Thomson, Scottish WWI fighter ace, Killed in a flying accident on take off.

• 1917 – First flight of the 5 F.1 Sopwith Dolphin, British WWI biplane fighter aircraft.

• 1916 – Birth of Tiberiu Vinca, Romanian WWII flying ace

• 1915 – Birth of James A. "Jim" Chamberlin, Canadian aerodynamicist who contributed to the design of the Canadian Avro Arrow; and NASA's Gemini spacecraft and the Apollo program.

• 1915 – First flight of the Fokker Eindecker, German WWI monoplane single-seat fighter aircraft.

• 1915 – Italy enters World War I, declaring war on Austria-Hungary.

• 1914 – Death of Gustav Hamel, pioneer British aviator, over the English Channel while returning from Paris in a new 80hp Morane-Saulnier monoplane he had just collected

• 1908 – Crash of the AEA White Wing (or Aerodrome #2), early US aircraft. Unusual for aircraft of its day, it featured a wheeled undercarriage. The wings were equipped with ailerons controlled by a harness worn around the pilot's body; leaning in one direction would cause the aircraft to bank to follow.

• 1908 – First Airship disaster in the USA. A Morrell airship, 450 ft. long, collapsed 300 ft. above the earth, hurling its 16 occupants at Berkekey Ca.

• 1908 – The first airplane flight in Italy is made by Léon Delagrange in Rome.

• 1908 – Birth of Hélène Boucher, French aviatrix who set altitude and speed records, pupil of Michel Detroyat.

• 1894 – Birth of Edward Robert "Ted" Pennell, British WWI flying ace who served during WWII.

• 1893 – Birth of Jean Charles Romatet, French WWI flying ace and WWII high-ranking officer.

• 1881 – Birth of Artur de Sacadura Freire Cabral, known simply as Sacadura Cabral, Portuguese aviation pioneer.

• 1848 – Otto Lilienthal, key figure in the history of flying, is born in Anklam, Germany. He became the first man to fly (glide) with both regularity and control. The Wright brothers regarded his 1899 book as their bible.

May 24

• 2013 – Pakistan International Airlines Flight PK709, a Boeing 777 with 322 people on board bound from Lahore, Pakistan, to Manchester, England, is intercepted by two Royal Air Force Eurofighter Typhoon fighters over the United Kingdom after two British nationals on board get into an argument with the flight crew, make threats about setting off a bomb aboard the aircraft, and attempt to force their way into the locked cockpit. The airliner diverts to Stansted Airport outside London, where armed police board the plane and arrest the two men.[1][2]

• 2012 – Speaking to the British House of Commons in London, Brigadier General Aqil Hashem, a former senior Syrian Army officer who has defected to the rebel side in the Syrian Civil War, suggests international intervention, perhaps including air strikes by unmanned aerial vehicles, is needed to stop what he calls the genocide the Syrian Army is committing in Syria.[3]

• 2011 – Soyuz TMA-20, manned spaceflight to the International Space Station (ISS) is back on earth.

• 2011 – NATO stages the largest air attacks against Tripoli since th beginning of the international intervention in the Libyan Civil War, with ore than 20 airstrikes hitting Tripoli near Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's compound. The Libyan government reports at least three people killed and dozens wounded.[4]

• 2007 – A Peruvian Air Force de Havilland Canada DHC-6-300 Twin Otter, FAP-303, c/n 483, crashes in dense jungle after taking off from Pampa Hermosa, Peru. Of the 20 people on board, 13 were killed.

• 2001 – Death of Patricia Consolatrix Hilliard Robertson, American physician and a NASA astronaut, from burn injuries sustained in the crash of a private plane at Wolfe Air Park, Manvel, Texas.

• 1997 – STS-84, NASA spaceflight mission of Space Shuttle Atlantis to the Mir space station is back on earth

• 1992 – Death of Francis Thomas Bacon, English engineer who developed the first practical hydrogen – oxygen fuel cell.

• 1989 – Death of Viktor Schobinger, German WWI flying ace

• 1988 – TACA Flight 110, a Boeing 737, suffers dual engine failure due to water ingestion; the aircraft lands safely at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans; all on board survive.

• 1988 – British Airways takes over British Caledonian.

• 1986 – Death of Stephen Douglas Thorne, American Naval officer and a NASA astronaut candidate.

• 1984 – United States Navy Lcdr. Daniel Joseph Harrington IV (1945–), Pilot of VC-5, ejected safely from a Douglas TA-4J Skyhawk out of Cubi Point, Philippines. Rear seat pilot Ltjg Dickerson was killed on impact with water. The TA-4J impacted near Grande Island, Subic Bay, Philippines in the water. Catastrophic engine failure was found to be the cause.

• 1983 – First CF-18 Hornet aircraft arrived at Cold Lake, Alberta

• 1982 – The last service by a British Airways Boeing 707, from Cairo, Egypt to London, is performed.

• 1982 – Argentinian bombers sink the British frigate Antelope in Falkland Sound.

• 1982 – Two Fleet Air Arm Sea Harriers of No. 800 Squadron aboard {the aircraft carrier HMS Hermes attack four Argentinian Dassault Mirage 5 fighter-bombers off the Falkland Islands and use AIM-9L Sidewinder air-to-air missiles to shoot down three of them in less than five seconds.[5]
• 1981 – A Beechcraft 200 Super King Air of the Fuerza Aérea Ecuatoriana, FAE-723, flew into a Huairapungo Mountain, Loja Province, Ecuador, with the loss of all 9 on board including Jaime Roldós Aguilera, the President of Ecuador.

• 1978 – TWA Flight 541: Barbara Ann Oswald hijacks a St. Louis, Missouri-based charter helicopter and orders its pilot, Allen Barklage, to fly it to United States Penitentiary, Marion, in Marion, Illinois, so that her husband, Garrett B. Trapnell – Imprisoned there for a 1972 airliner hijacking – can escape. Barklage wrestles Oswald’s gun from her as he lands the helicopter in the prison yard and shoots her to death. In December, her daughter Robin Oswald will hijack an airliner in an unsuccessful attempt to get Trapnell released.

• 1976 – Two Concorde supersonic airliners – one in British Airways colors, the other in those of Air France – Land at Washington’s Dulles International Airport. They are the first Concordes to visit the USA.

• 1976 – Three hijackers and seven hostages die as Filipino troops storm a hijacked Philippine Airlines Douglas DC-9.

• 1969 – First flight of The SIAI-Marchetti SM.1019, an Italian STOL liaison monoplane built by SIAI-Marchetti for the Italian Army and based on the O-1 Bird Dog.

• 1972 – Birth of Maksim Viktorovich Surayev, Russian cosmonaut.

• 1970 – A USAF Lockheed C-5A Galaxy makes an emergency landing at Dobbins AFB, Georgia, suffering an electrical malfunction that knocks out landing lights, causes minor damage to the nosegear and flattens four of 28 tires.

• 1967 – First flight of the Aero Spacelines Mini Guppy, large, wide-bodied US cargo aircraft used for aerial transport of outsized cargo components.

• 1963 – Central Intelligence Agency pilot Ken Collins is forced to eject from Lockheed A-12, 60-6926, Article 123, during subsonic test flight when aircraft stalls due to inaccurate data being displayed to pilot. Airframe impacts 14 miles (22.5 km.) S of Wendover, Utah. Official cover story refers to it as a Republic F-105 Thunderchief. Cause was found to be pitot-static system failure due to icing. Airframe had made 79 flights for a total time of 136:10 hours.

• 1962 – Project Mercury: American astronaut Scott Carpenter orbits the Earth 3 times in the Aurora 7 space capsule.

• 1962 – USAF Douglas C-124A-DL Globemaster II, 51-0147, c/n 43481, on local training flight out of Tachikawa Air Base, Japan, strikes Oku-Chichibu Mountains, killing seven crew.

• 1961 – USAF Douglas C-124A Globemaster II, 51-0174, of the 63d Troop Carrier Wing, MATS, Donaldson AFB, South Carolina, loses power on number two (port inner) engine, catches fire at 500 feet altitude one minute after 0230 hrs. take-off from McChord AFB, Washington, hits trees two miles south of runway, explodes, 18 of 22 on board KWF. The transport was en route to Lawton Municipal Airport, Lawton, Oklahoma, with 12 soldiers from Fort Sill, who had been taking part in Exercise Lava Plains at the Yakima Firing Center. In addition, the Globemaster carried a truck, several jeeps and two trailers. One additional badly burned survivor died en route to hospital. Air Force Board of Investigation, relying heavily on two eyewitness accounts of the aircraft's final moments, determined the accident was probably caused by a ruptured fuel line resulting in engine failure during takeoff, the plane's most vulnerable period. One of the four survivors was Master Sergeant Llewellyn Morris Chilson (1920–1981), whom President Harry S Truman (1884–1972) referred to as a "one-man army." On December 6, 1946, in a ceremony at the White House, President Truman had bestowed seven combat decorations on Sergeant Chilson for killing 56 German soldiers and helping to capture 243 others during five months of combat during World War II (1941–1945). Sgt. Chilson received three Distinguished Service Crosses, two Silver Stars, the Bronze Star and the Legion of Merit. He had previously received two Purple Hearts, a Distinguished Unit Citation, the Combat Infantryman's Badge and the French Army's Croix de guerre with palms. Chilson, described as one of the nation's greatest soldiers, died 2 October 1981, while visiting friends in Florida.

• 1960 – After the pilot of his Avro CF-100 suffered a lack of oxygen, navigator F/O CM Alexander assisted him to make a safe landing. Alexander was awarded the Air Force Cross.

• 1960 – Launch of Midas II, American Missile Defense Alarm System satellite.

• 1958 – First complete VTOL cycle flight the Bell X-14 (Bell Type 68), experimental VTOL. The main objective of the project was to demonstrate horizontal and vertical takeoff, hover, transition to forward flight, and vertical landing.

• 1956 – Colette duval, French parachutist sets a record. Jumping off from 35OOO Feet she opens the parachute at 800 Feet after an over 3 min fall.

• 1956 – First flight of the Piper PA-24 Comanche, four-seat, low-wing, all-metal, light aircraft of monocoque construction with retractable landing gear.

• 1951 – Birth of Ronald Anthony Parise, Ph. D., Italian American scientist who flew aboard two NASA Space Shuttle missions as a payload specialist

• 1951 – Entered Service: English Electric Canberra with the Royal Air Force’s No. 101 Squadron.

• 1950 – Death of Claude Marcel Haegelen, French WWI fighter ace, Test pilot for Hanriot, record setter, and WWII fighter pilot.

• 1945 – Death of Robert Ritter von Greim, German Field Marshal, WWI flying Ace, army officer, and last commander of the Luftwaffe (German Air Force) during WWII.

• 1945 – (24-25) British Pacific Fleet carrier aircraft make the final strikes of the war against the Sakishima Gunto, where all Japanese airfields have now been knocked out.

• 1945 – (overnight) Five Imperial Japanese Army Mitsubishi Ki-21 (Allied reporting name “Sally”) bombers carrying Giretsu Kuteitai special airborne attack troops make a suicide raid on Kadena and Yontan airfields on Okinawa. Four are shot down, but the fifth belly lands on the principal runway at Yontan and disgorges ten giretsu troops, who destroy seven and damage 26 planes, blow up two fuel dumps, and kill two Americans and wound 18 before being killed. Japanese planes also bomb Ie Shima during the night.

• 1944 – American aircraft raid Wake Island.

• 1941 – Nine Swordfish torpedo bombers from the British aircraft carrier HMS Victorious score a torpedo hit on the German battleship Bismarck in the North Atlantic Ocean, aggravating damage she had sustained early in the day in the Battle of Denmark Strait.

• 1940 – Adolf Hitler endorses the “Halt Order, ” stopping the German ground advance in France against Allied forces surrounded at Dunkirk to allow the Luftwaffe to finish them off. He does not rescind the order until May 26.

• 1940 – Erman bombers sink the British destroyer HMS Wessex off Calais and damage a British and a Polish destroyer while they support British troops fighting there.

• 1939 – The Royal Navy takes practical control of British naval aircraft for the first time since the dissolution of the Royal Naval Air Service in 1918. British naval aircraft, since 1918 under Royal Air Force control and since 1924 known collectively as the “Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Air Force, ” officially become the Royal Navy’s Air Branch, although the term “Fleet Air Arm” remains in widespread informal use and finally will be adopted officially in 1953.

• 1939 – First flight of The Caproni-Reggiane Re.2000 Falco I, Italian WWII interceptor/fighter, all metal, low-wing, monoplane with a Curtiss-style retractable undercarriage.

• 1939 – Experiments were carried out to install 20 mm cannons on the Hurricane L1750. It had flown with two of these mounted in the wings.

• 1939 – The English Imperial Airways Short Seaplane Cabot is successfully refueled in mid-air by a Handley Page bomber modified to carry 891 gallons of aviation fuel.

• 1937 – A Spanish Republican air raid against Palma, Majorca, hits the Italian armed merchant cruiser Barletta – A unit of the non-intervention patrol around Spain.– killing six of her crew.

• 1936 – First flight of The Fieseler Storch Fi 156, small German WWII liaison aircraft. It remains famous to this day for its excellent STOL performance

• 1932 – The Dornier Do X flying boat returns from his promotional flight from New York and ditch on the Müggelsee, Berlin.

• 1930 – Amy Johnson lands her de Havilland Moth 'Jason' in Darwin, Northern Territory, becoming the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia.

• 1928 – Stevenson Aerodrome, an airfield in the Rural Municipality of St. James, named after the late Western Canada Airways pilot who had died in a test flight at The Pas, began operations.

• 1920 – First flight of the Boeing Model 8, American biplane aircraft designed by Boeing specifically for their first test pilot, Herb Munter.

• 1920 – Death of Emile Taddéoli, Swiss aviation pioneer, active as a pilot, instructor, test pilot, and also the probably most prominent pioneer using seaplanes in Switzerland. Killed during a demonstration flight at an air show in Romanshorn aboard his Savoia S.13 flying boat, disintegrating in flight at an altitude of 700 m (2,300 ft).

• 1919 – Avro Civil Aviation Service begins the first domestic airline service in Britain.

• 1918 – Death of Thomas Colvill-Jones, British WWI flying ace from wounds received in action.

• 1918 – József Kiss, Austro-Hungarian 5th highest scoring ace, is shot down in combat. He had scored 19 victories.

• 1918 – In Russia, Order No. 385 of the Bolshevik People’s Commissariat on Military and Naval Affairs creates the Main Directorate of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Air Fleet, the predecessor of the Soviet Air Forces.

• 1918 – The United States Department of War recognizes the Bureau of Aircraft Production and the Division of Military Aeronautics as constituting the United States Army Air Service.

• 1912 – Anthony Fokker crashes his Goedecker-built B1912 monoplane at Berlin, just 10 days after demonstrating it to the German Army.

• 1910 – First flight of the Blackburn First Monoplane (also known as Monoplane No 1), a British experimental aircraft which lasted for around one minute, and ended in a crash in which the aircraft was damaged beyond repair.

• 1910 – Prince Charles of Romania becomes the first royal aeroplane passenger, in a Farman piloted by M. Osmontat at Bucharest.

• 1903 – Birth of Milo Garrett Burcham, American aviator. He worked as a stunt pilot, airshow pilot, and test pilot.

• 1898 – Birth of John Everard Gurdon, British WWI fighter ace who also served in WWII.

• 1897 – Birth of Cecil Guelph Brock, Canadian WWI flying ace who participated at the dogfight which conducted to Manfred Von Richtofen's death.

• 1896 – Birth of Albert René Chabrier, French WWI flying ace

• 1895 – Birth of Mario Stoppani, Italian WWI flying ace and record breaker.

• 1894 – Birth of Oliver Colin "Boots" LeBoutillier, French WWI flying ace, Skywriter, Barnstormer who and piloted aircraft for eighteen movies. He gave Amelia Earhart her first instruction in a twin-engined aircraft and was a Civil Aviation Authority inspector in charge of Colorado and Wyoming.

• 1892 – Birth of Edward Arthur Simpson, British WWI flying ace

• 1887 – Birth of Edward Corringham "Mick" Mannock, British WWI fighter ace and maybe the highest-scoring British Empire ace of all time, also regarded as one of the greatest fighter pilots of WWI.

• 1886 – Birth of Hans Ritter von Adam, German WWI fighter ace

• 1868 – Birth of Charles Edward Taylor, who built the first aircraft engine used by the Wright brothers and was a vital contributor of mechanical skills in the building and maintaining of early Wright engines and airplanes.

• 1832 – Francois Arban, early French balloonist makes his first ascent.

May 25

• 2012 – The first Solar Impulse aircraft, HB-SIA, the first solar-powered aircraft capable of both day and night flight thanks to its batteries charged by solar power, completes the first leg of its first intercontinental flight, arriving at Madrid, Spain, after a flight from Payerne Airport outside Payerne, Switzerland. During the flight, it sets a world distance record for a solar-powered flight between pre-declared waypoints of 1,099.3 km (683.1 mi) and a world distance record for a solar-powered flight along a course of 1,116 km (693 mi). The second and final leg of the flight will take HB-SIA to Rabat, Morocco, the following month.[1][2]

• 2011 – First flight of the e-Genius, German manned electric airplane, two seated side by side high wing configuration aircraft completely manufactured of fibre composites and equipped with a retractable landing gear, propulsion realized by a permanent magnet synchronous motor with an electrical driven variable pitch propeller.

• 2008 – Phoenix (Robotic Spacecraft) lands on Mars to search for environments suitable for microbial life on Mars, and to research the history of water there.

• 2008 – Kalitta Air 2008 Boeing 747-209 F/SCD cargo overran runway 20 at Brussels Airport. The plane broke in three and came to a complete stop in a field bordering the runway. There were four crew members and one passenger on board, and no injuries were reported.

• 2005 – A chartered Maniema Union Antonov An-28 aircraft, owned by Victoria Air, crashed into a mountain near Walungu, Democratic Republic of the Congo about 30 min after takeoff. All of the 22 passengers and 5 crew members were killed.

• 2003 – Boeing 727 tail number N844AA mysteriously disappears in Angola, along with pilot Ben Charles Padilla.

• 2002 – China Airlines Flight 611, a Boeing 747-200B, disintegrates in mid-air above the Taiwan Strait, apparently because of metal fatigue; all 206 passengers and 19 crew members – a total of 225 – are killed.

• 2000 – Reginald Chua hijacks Philippine Airlines Flight 812, an Airbus A330-301 with 290 other people on board, just before landing at Ninoy Aquino International Airport near Manila, the Philippines. He demands the passengers place their valuables in a bag, and then attempts to jump from the plane via the rear door using a homemade parachute, but panics and instead clings to the door; a male flight attendant then pushes him from the door and he falls from the plane over Antipolo, Rizal. His body is found three days later near Llabac in Real, Quezon.

• 1998 – PIA Flight 544, a Pakistan International Airlines Fokker F27, was hijacked shortly after it took off from Gwadar International Airport, by three armed men belonging to Baloch Students Organization (BSO). The aircraft, with 33 passengers and 5 crew members aboard, had just arrived from Gwadar International Airport, Baluchistan,and was sat to land in Hyderabad Airport, Sindh. The Army’s SSG’s Haideri Company, 7th Commando Zarrar Battalion, SSG Division, accompanied with elite members of Army Rangers stormed the aircraft, while the Pakistan Police surrounded the plane. The operation concluded with all three hijackers arrested and sentenced to death by Pakistan, with no human casualties.

• 1998 – A Lao People's Liberation Army Air Force Yakovlev Yak-40, RDPL-34001, '001', c/n 9431835, crashes into a mountain during heavy rain killing all of the 26 on board, including Lt. Gen. Dao Trong Lich, Chief of the General Staff of the Vietnamese Peoples' Army.

• 1996 – Death of David Wayne Howe, American WWII flying ace and later test pilot for Bell.

• 1995 – A combined force of NATO aircraft attack a Serb ammunition depot near Jahorinski Potok.

• 1993 – In an 1844 hrs. flight deck accident aboard USS Theodore Roosevelt, the undercarriage of an McDonnell-Douglas F/A-18 Hornet attempting a wave-off from the carrier due to still fouled deck, strikes the vertical fin on Grumman A-6E Intruder, BuNo 164382, '500', shearing away a large portion of the empennage, as the A-6 was taxiing away from the arresting gear. The Hornet dropped its underwing tanks and safely recovered to the carrier. Footage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=ai7nnJNIwuU

• 1986 – A prisoner in a Parisian jail escapes when his wife rescues him in a helicopter

• 1982 – VASP Boeing 737-2 A1 on landing procedures at Brasília during rain, made a hard landing with nose gear first. The gear collapsed and the aircraft skidded off the runway breaking in two. Two passengers out of 118 occupants died.

• 1982 – HMS Coventry (D118), Type 42 (Sheffield Class) destroyer of the Royal Navy, is sunk by Argentine Air Force A-4 Skyhawks during the Falklands War.

• 1982 – A RAF Hawker-Siddeley/McDonnell-Douglas F-4 Phantom II piloted by Roy Lawrence and Alistair Inverarity was engaging a Royal Air Force SEPECAT Jaguar GR1, XX963, 'AL', piloted by Flt. Lt. D. Steve Griggs in training exercises. During the encounter the Phantom shot a live AIM-9 Sidewinder forcing the Jaguar pilot to eject.

• 1979 – American Airlines Flight 191, a McDonnell-Douglas DC-10, crashes on takeoff from O'Hare International Airport after an engine falls off, killing all 271 on board and 2 on the ground; prior to the September 11, 2001 attacks, this was the deadliest airliner occurrence in American history, and it remains the worst single-aircraft airliner accident on US soil.

• 1978 – The first Challenger was rolled out at Cartierville, Montreal.

• 1976 – First Flight Boeing E-3 Sentry (E-3), U. S. military airborne warning and control system (AWACS) aircraft based on the Boeing 707 that provides all-weather surveillance, command, control and communications.

• 1973 – Launch of Skylab 2, first manned mission to Skylab, the first U. S. orbital space station.

• 1970 – First commercial aircraft to exceed Mach 2 in level flight is a Tupolev Tu-144.

• 1969 – Birth of Dmitri Yur'yevich Kondrat'yev, Russian cosmonaut.

• 1968 – First flight of the Northrop Grumman EA-6B Prowler, twin-engine, mid-wing electronic warfare aircraft, Developed from Grumman A-6 Intruder.

• 1968 – Tupolev Tu-16 "Badger" F, commanded by sub-Cmdr. Alexander Pliyev, crashes into the Norwegian Sea after a low pass by the aircraft carrier USS Essex (CV-9). The bomber had flown by the ship just 15 meters above the sea.

• 1966 – Launch of Explorer 32 (also known as Atmosphere Explorer-B (AE-B)), satellite launched by the United States for studying the Earth's upper atmosphere.

• 1965 – The Soviet Union announces the construction of surface-to-air missile sites in North Vietnam around Hanoi.

• 1965 – Birth of John Daniel "Danny" Olivas, American engineer of Mexican descent and a NASA astronaut

• 1964 – Birth of Ivan Bella, Slovak Air Force officer who became the first Slovak citizen to fly in space

• 1964 – First flight of The Ryan XV-5 Vertifan, American jet-powered V/STOL experimental aircraft.

• 1961 – Brigadier General Barnie B. McEntire, Jr., commander of the South Carolina Air National Guard, is killed when his Lockheed F-104A-25-LO Starfighter, 56-0853, suffers engine failure on take off from Olmsted Air Force Base, Pennsylvania, and he stays with the jet to crash into the Susquehanna River rather than risk it crashing into populated areas of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Congaree Air National Guard Base near Eastover, South Carolina is subsequently renamed in his honor in October 1961 by Governor Ernest F. Hollings.

• 1960 – A Vickers Valiant of No.214 Squadron, captained by Squadron Leader J. H. Garstin, takes off for the first non-stop flight between the UK and Singapore.

• 1958 – The 1958 Dan-Air Avro York crash occurred near Gurgaon, India due to an engine fire; of the 5 on board, only one survives.

• 1958 – USAF Lockheed RC-121D-LO Warning Star, 55-123, of the 551st AEWCW, burns out on the ramp at Otis AFB, Massachusetts, 0 dead.

• 1955 – Convair B-36J-5-CF Peacemaker, 52-2818A, c/n 374, of the 6th Bomb Wing, call sign Abbott 27, on a routine training flight, crashes at ~2305 hrs. CST, in the SW corner of Glasscock County, Texas, on the Drannon Ranch, ~18.5 miles (29.8 km) SW of Sterling City, Texas. The aircraft had apparently disintegrated due to thunderstorm or tornadic activity, losing its outer wing panels and all tail control surfaces, and impacted in a flat attitude with little forward motion. Aircraft wreckage was found in a 25 X 3-mile (4.8 km) path on a heading of 66 degrees true. None of the 15 members of crew L-22 were able to escape the damaged bomber and all hatches and ports were found still in place. The wings and forward fuselage burned on impact, with only the rear fuselage remaining. The aircraft had been preparing to land at Walker AFB, New Mexico, when it was lost. Due to the extended period that the crash site was kept secured while crew remains were recovered and identified, and wreckage from the disintegration was searched for (almost a week), there was some question as to whether the B-36 was armed with a nuclear weapon, but there is no evidence to support this.

• 1954 – United States Navy (USN) ZPG2 airship, flown by Commander M. H. Eppes and crew, lands at Key West Florida after being airborne for just over 200 hours.

• 1953 – First flight of the North American F-100 Super Sabre, supersonic jet fighter aircraft.

• 1951 – First delivery of The English Electric Canberra B2, first-generation jet-powered light bomber, to replace the Lincolns of No. 101 Squadron at Binbrook, Lincolnshire.

• 1950 – The first prototype of Arsenal VG 90 turbojet strike fighter design for the Aéronavale, VG-90.01, F-WFOE, first flown 27 September 1949, crashes this date killing the pilot Pierre Decroo.