Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/November

November 2

• 2012 – According to the Local Coordination Committees of Syria, Syrian Air Force strikes on Harem, Syria, kill 70 people.[1]

• 2012 – The Space Shuttle Atlantis is towed from the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, to an exhibition hall at Cape Canaveral's main tourist stop to be put on display. The 10-mile (16-km) journey takes 12 hours. It is the final act of the Space Shuttle Program.[2]

• 2005 – An AH-1W SuperCobra 165321 from HMLA-369 shot down near Ramadi, killing the two pilots.[3][4]

• 2003 – near Fallujah, CH-47D Chinook 91-0230 of Detachment 1/F Company/106th Aviation Brigade shot down with an SA-7 missile; 16 soldiers killed, 26 wounded.[5][6][7]

• 1992 – First flight of the Airbus A330

• 1992 – A Grumman EA-6B Prowler (United States Navy) crashes in field near NAS El Centro. The three crewmen ejected at a very low altitude while inverted, and all were killed. Crew included Lt. Charles Robert Gurley (USN), Lt. Peter Limoge (USMC), and Ltjg. Dave Roberts (USN)

• 1988 – LOT Flight 703, an Antonov An-24, crashes on approach to Rzeszów-Jasionka Airport, killing one passenger, all others survive.

• 1982 – The last CF-104 course was started by 417 Squadron at CFB Cold Lake, Alberta.

• 1981 – McDonnell-Douglas F-15A-14-MC Eagle. 75-0051, of the 59th TFS, 33d TFW, based at Eglin AFB, crashes near Panama City, Florida after mid-air collision with McDonnell Douglas F-15A Eagle, 76-0048, during night refueling. Pilot killed. Second F-15 lands okay.

• 1968 – Japan Airlines Flight 2, a Douglas DC-8, ditches in San Francisco Bay as a result of pilot error, all on board survive.

• 1964 – A U. S. Air Force HH-43 F helicopter based at Bien Hoa Air Base, South Vietnam, conducts the first night rescue by the Air Force’s Air-Sea Rescue Service in Southeast Asia.

• 1956 – After aerial reconnaissance reveals the destruction of the Egyptian Air Force, the British invasion force commander, General Sir Charles Keightley, orders British and French aircraft to begin a wide-ranging interdiction campaign against Egypt’s military bases, infrastructure, and economy.

• 1955 – Air Force Douglas B-26C-45-DT Invader, 44-35737, crashed into houses on Barbara Drive in East Meadow, Long Island, New York. An aerial photograph of the crash scene was awarded the 1956 Pulitzer Prize.

• 1954 – The VTOL Convair XFY transitions from vertical to horizontal flight and back

• 1953 – First prototype Convair YF-102 Delta Dagger, 52-7994, suffers engine failure during test flight, lands wheels up, severely injuring the pilot, airframe written off.

• 1952 – Marine Corps Maj. William Stratton and Master Sgt. Hans Hoagland, in a Douglas F3D Skyknight, down a North Korean Yak-15, marking the first victory in a jet-versus-jet night action.

• 1947 – With Howard Hughes at the controls, the Hughes H-4 Hercules, also known as the “Spruce Goose, ” makes its first flight, traveling at 135 mph (217 km/hr) for about a mile (1.6 km) at an altitude of 70 feet (21 m) over Long Beach Harbor in California with 32 people on board. Both the largest flying boat and the aircraft with the largest wingspan (319 feet 11 inches; 97.54 m) ever built, it never flies again.

• 1943 – 75 Fifth Air Force B-25 Mitchells escorted by 80 P-38 Lightnings raid Rabaul, where they encounter the newly arrived Japanese carrier aircraft and lose nine B-25 s and 10 P-38 s shot down. They shoot down 20 Japanese planes and sink two merchant ships and a minesweeper.

• 1943 – First flight of the Grumman F7F Tigercat.

• 1942 – A B-17C Flying Fortress breaks apart in the air near Tells Peak, California, while en route to Sacramento for an engine overhaul. Pilot 1st Lieutenant Leo M. H. Walker dies, but the other eight crew members survive.

• 1941 – Wisconsin-native Lieutenant Thomas "Bud" L. Truax is killed, along with his wingman, Lt. Russell E. Speckman, in a Curtiss P-40 Warhawk training accident during poor weather in San Anselmo, California. In the late afternoon, San Anselmo residents are startled when two low-flying Curtiss P-40C Warhawks, 41-13375 and 41-13454, roar up the valley at just above roof level and crash into the east side of Bald Hill just shy of the peak at 1740 hrs. It was almost dark, was misty and they were under a low cloud ceiling. They were critically low on fuel and part of a larger training group that had gotten separated. They were under the wintertime marine layer of low clouds that are common in the Marin County area, searching for nearby Hamilton Field to land.[85][86] Madison Army Air Field, Wisconsin, is named Truax Field in his honor in 1942. A third pilot, Lt. Walter V. "Ramblin" Radovich,flying 41-13392, had left the formation over San Rafael, almost hit the city courthouse on 4th Street, circled the Forbes Hill radio beacon (37°58'44.73"N,122°32'50.78"W), clipped a tree and then turned northeast, towards Hamilton Field. Unsure of what the oncoming terrain might be and critically low on fuel, he decides to climb up though the typically thin marine cloud layer to 2500 ft, trim the airplane for straight and level flight and bail out. According to USAAF accident reports, his left leg was broken when exiting the plane and he parachuted down, landing near Highway 101 in Lucas Valley reportedly near where Fireman's Fund / Marin Commons is currently located (38° 1'10.66"N, 122°32'29.36"W). Ironically, after Lt. Radovich bailed out, the airplane slowly descended back down through the clouds and made a relatively smooth "gear up" landing. All aircraft were of the 57th Pursuit Group (Interceptor), on a cross-country flight from Bradley Field, Windsor Locks, Connecticut, to McChord Field, Washington.

• 1936 – Department of Transport was established and took over control of civil aviation from the Department of National Defense.

• 1931 – The USS Akron, a purpose-built aircraft-carrying airship, is commissioned.

• 1931 – US Marine Corps squadrons VS-15 M and VS-14 M embark on USS Lexington and USS Saratoga, the first time Marine Corps squadrons are assigned to aircraft carriers.

• 1929 - The Ninety-Nines: International Organization of Women Pilots, also known as 99s, was founded at Curtiss Field, Valley Stream, New York, for the mutual support and advancement of women pilots.

• 1923 – Flying a Curtiss R2 C-1, U. S. Navy Lieutenant H. J. Rowe sets a new world airspeed record of 259.16 mph (417.07 km/hr).

• 1922 – QANTAS begins its first scheduled flights, between Charleville, Queensland and Cloncurry, Queensland.

• 1912 – The first airplane flights in Japan by Imperial Japanese Navy personnel are made by two officers at the naval air station at Oppama using Farman and Curtiss seaplanes.

November 3

• 2012 – Syrian rebel units attack the Syrian Air Force base at Taftanaz.[1]

• 2009 – UM-239, a Xian MA60 operated by Air Zimbabwe, hits five warthogs on take-off from Harare International Airport. The take-off is rejected but the undercarriage collapses causing substantial damage to the aircraft.

• 2006 – Qantas announces an order for 8 more Airbus A380 along with an order for 4 Airbus A330-200.

• 2003 – British Airways Concorde G-BOAG leaves London Heathrow at 1500Z as BA9093C for the final time. She would fly on to Seattle Boeing Field and retire to the Museum of Flight.

• 2002 – An McDonnell-Douglas FA-18C Hornet from VFA-34 failed to return to USS George Washington from a night at sea bombing mission and crashed into Adriatic Sea. Pilot was killed.

• 2000 – Last flight of an EC-135E Advanced Range Instrumentation Aircraft as a flight crew from the Air Force Flight Test Center delivers the last EC-135E, (serial number 60-374 – nicknamed “The Bird of Prey”), with full Prime Mission Electronic Equipment (PMEE), to the National Museum of the United States Air Force.

• 1994 – Haris Keč, a Bosnian, hijacks a McDonnell Douglas MD-82 operating as Scandinavian Airlines System Flight 347 en route from Bardufoss Airport to Bodø Airport in Norway with 128 people on board, and makes demands that the Norwegian government take action to stop huminatrian suffering in Bosnia-Herzegovina. No one is injured in the incident.

• 1994 – Launch: Space Shuttle Atlantis STS-66 at 11:59:43.060 am EDT. Mission highlights: ATLAS-3 science platform.

• 1986 – While attempting to land at Zahedan airport, an Iranian Hercules C-130 army transport plane crashes into a mountain; all 103 passengers are killed.

• 1973 – The number three engine of National Airlines Flight 27, a Douglas DC-10-10, explodes while the aircraft is over New Mexico. Fragments penetrate the fuselage, causing one passenger to be sucked from the plane; his body is found two years later. The aircraft lands safely.

• 1973 – NASA launches Mariner 10, a robotic space probe intended to fly past Venus and Mercury, reaching both planets the following February and March respectively. After a year and a half of service and over 2,000 photos sent back to Earth, its nitrogen supply dwindled and its transponder was shut off. It still orbits the sun today.

• 1957 – The Ruskians launch Sputnik 2, an orbiter that delivered the first animal into a space; a female terrier named Laika. The 3-year-old dog was sent to determine if a living creature could withstand launch and weightlessness, but she ultimately died a few hours after launch due to overheating due to a thermal control issue. Regardless, she proved that oxygen-craving creatures could enter space, and Laika was considered a hero.

• 1952 – First flight of the Saab 32 Lansen

• 1950 – Air India Flight 245, a Lockheed L-749 A Constellation, crashes into Mont Blanc in France; all 40 passengers and 8 crew are killed. Sixteen years later, Air India Flight 101 crashes in almost exactly the same spot.

• 1949 – Charles Moore makes the first manned flight in a polyethylene balloon over Minneapolis, Minnesota.

• 1948 – Boeing RB-29A Superfortress, 44-61999, "Overexposed", of the 16th Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron, 91st Reconnaissance Group, 311th Air Division, Strategic Air Command, USAF, crashes on Shelf Moor, Bleaklow, in between Manchester and Sheffield, Derbyshire, while descending through cloud. All 13 crew KWF. It is doubtful they ever saw the ground. The time was estimated from one of the crew members wrist watch. The plane, piloted by Captain L. P. Tanner, was on a short flight, carrying mail and the payroll for American service personnel based at USAF Burtonwood. The flight was from Scampton near Lincoln to Burtonwood near Warrington, a flight of less than an hour. Low cloud hung over much of England, which meant the flight had to be flown on instruments. The crew descended after having flown for the time the crew believed it should have taken them to cross the hill. Unfortunately the aircraft had not quite passed the hills and struck the ground near Higher Shelf Stones, being destroyed by fire.

• 1947 – English Electric test pilot Johnny W.C. Squier takes off from Salmesbury, Lancs. in English Electric-built de Havilland Vampire F.3, VP732, intended for the RCAF as 17043, experiences engine failure, force lands on a farm, narrowly missing trees. Fighter is wrecked but pilot survives.

• 1945 – The prototype Boeing 314, named the Honolulu Clipper, makes an emergency landing in the Pacific 650 miles east of Oahu due to double engine failure; the aircraft is intentionally sunk after salvage was deemed impractical; all 26 passengers on board survive.

• 1944 – The first Japanese Fu-Go balloon bombs are launched against the United States.

• 1936 – New Soviet Polikarpov I-15 and I-16 fighters fly their first missions of the Spanish Civil War, supporting Republican forces. Their superior performance will allow the Republican side to gain air superiority over Nationalist forces.

• 1933 – First fatal accident involving a Fokker YO-27 occurs when pilot Lt. Lloyd E. Hunting with Sgt. John J. Cunningham aboard, departs Olmsted Field, Middletown Air Depot, Pennsylvania, in 31-589 of the 30th Bombardment Squadron at 1800 hrs. after darkness had fallen. Pilot had apparently not observed a mountain ridge, 400 feet (120 m) to 800 feet (240 m) high, one mile from the airfield, when he landed during the afternoon, and upon departure did not see it in the dark, crashing head-on into the ridge, aircraft burned, both crew KWF.

• 1926 – First flight of the Boeing F2B

• 1926 – Captain Charles Lindbergh jumped from his disabled airplane during a night airmail flight, making this the fourth time he has had to use his parachute to save his life.

• 1915 – Royal Naval Air Service Flight Sub-Lieutenant Fowler makes the first British take-off of an aircraft with a conventional, wheeled undercarriage from a ship when he flies a Bristol Scout from HMS Vindex.

• 1915 – Flt Sub-Lt Fowler makes the first take-off of an aircraft with a conventional, wheeled undercarriage from a ship when he flies a Bristol Scout C from HMS Vindex.

• 1914 – Alec Ogilvie patents the first practical airspeed indicator (Wrong Date!) See December 3 (1914). Improvements in or connected with Combined Pitot and Static Pressure Tubes. Filed 1913-12-04 • Granted 1914-12-03 • https://patents.google.com/patent/GB191327931A/en?assignee=Alec+Ogilvie

• 1897 – The first flight in a rigid airship was made by Ernst Jägels, flying an all-aluminum craft designed by the Austro-Hungarian engineer David Schwarz and built by Carl Berg. The Schwarz machine was 134 feet long and roughly 45 feet in diameter, weighing-in at 5,720 pounds. The craft took to the air without the inventor and constructor (having died before the flight). His death led to his wife, Melanie, completing the project to honor his life's work. However, the result was the craft's completion with some key technologies left out to save weight. The airship, having reached its designed altitude, was uncontrollable at that altitude in the face of a strong wind, and the inexperienced pilot, Jägels, released too much gas too suddenly, losing control of the rate of descent, resulting in a crash which destroyed the craft. Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin buys the wreck and its plans from Schwarz’s widow Melanie.[2]

November 4

• 2010 – Aero Caribbean Flight 883, an ATR-72-200, crashes in Sancti Spíritus, Cuba, killing all 68 on board in the joint worst ever accident involving the ATR 72.

• 2010 – Qantas Flight 32, an Airbus A380 "Nancy-Bird Walton" VH-OQA, suffered a substantial mechanical failure of its left inboard engine after taking off from Singapore Changi Airport. The flight turned back and landed safely. All the 433 passengers and 26 crew on board were safe. Cowling parts of the failed engine fell over Batam island.

• 2008 – A Learjet 45 carrying Mexican interior secretary Juan Camilo Mourino and 8 others plunged into a Mexico city neighborhood, killing all on board and 7 on the ground.

• 1993 – China Airlines Flight 605, a Boeing 747-409, overruns Kai Tak Airport runway 13 while landing during a typhoon. The 747 is unable to stop before crashing into Hong Kong harbor; all 374 aboard escape serious injury, but the hull is written off as a total loss; this crash is the first loss of a Boeing 747-400.

• 1982 – Pan Am inaugurates service from Los Angeles to Sydney; at 7,487 non-stop miles (11,979 km), it is the longest non-stop flight in the world.

• 1981 – NASA aborted the second flight of the Space Shuttle Columbia, 31 seconds before the launch due to a computer mis-match.

• 1980 – Elsie MacGill, Canadian aeronautical engineer and the world's first female aircraft designer, died (b. 1905).

• 1977 – Introduction: Dassault-Breguet/Dornier Alpha Jet

• 1976 – A Bali Air Service Fokker F27 Friendship overruns a runway in Indonesia, killing 29 of the 38 on board.

• 1972 – A Balkan Bulgarian Airlines Ilyushin Il-14 diverts to Provdiv due to fog at the original destination. Without charts, however, for the diversion airport, the crew accidentally drives the aircraft into terrain, killing all 35 on board.

• 1968 – First flight of the Aero L-39 Albatros

• 1967 – Iberia Airlines Flight 062, a Sud Aviation Caravelle, crashes at Black Down Hill, Sussex, United Kingdom; all 37 passengers and crew are killed.

• 1964 – First ever automatic blind landing by a passenger aircraft when a British European Airways Hawker Siddeley Trident landed in dense fog

• 1962 – The United States Air Force detonates a nuclear-tipped Nike-Hercules ground-to-air missile 69,000 feet over Johnston Island. It would be the last atmospheric nuclear test ever performed by the U. S.

• 1958 – A United States Air Force Boeing B-47E-56-BW Stratojet, 51-2391, of the 12th Bomb Squadron, 341st Bomb Wing (M), catches fire during take-off from Dyess AFB, Texas, crashes from 1,500 feet (460 m) altitude. Three crew eject, okay: Capt. Don E. Youngmark, 37, aircraft commander; Capt. John M. Gerding, 27, pilot; and Capt. John M. Dowling, 30, observer and navigator. The crew chief was killed - no bail out attempted. Fire sets off single bomb casing on board, creating crater 35X6 feet. Some tritium contamination at crash site.

• 1954 – A USAF Convair T-29A-CO, 50-189, on a routine training flight departs Tucson Municipal Airport, Arizona, after refueling for return leg to Ellington AFB, Texas. Shortly after departure, the pilot radios that he has mechanical problems and requests emergency return to Tucson. Aircraft strikes power lines on final approach and crashes into a perimeter fence short of the runway. All crew are KWF.

• 1954 – Convair YF2Y-1 Sea Dart, BuNo 135762, disintegrated in mid-air over San Diego Bay, California, during a demonstration for Navy officials and the press, killing Convair test pilot, Charles E. Richbourg. Pilot inadvertently exceeded airframe limitations.

• 1953 – The Douglas DC-7 begins service with American Airlines, allowing the company to offer coast-to-coast, nonstop service.

• 1942 – First flight of the Latécoère 631.

• 1941 – Tail section of Lockheed YP-38 Lightning, 39-689, separates in flight over Glendale, California, Lockheed Lightning crashes inverted on house at 1147 Elm Street, killing Lockheed test pilot Ralph Virden. Home owner survives, indeed, sleeps right through the crash.

• 1938 – In the 1938 Jersey Airport disaster, a Jersey Airways de Havilland DH.86 crashes on takeoff from Jersey Airport due to pilot error; all 13 passengers and crew die as well as one person on the ground.

• 1936 – Soviet fighters see combat for the first time in the Spanish Civil War, dispersing a squadron of Italian Fiat CR.32 fighters escorting German Junkers Ju 52 s over Madrid.

• 1933 – Brazilian airline VASP is established.

• 1932 – First flight of the Beechcraft Model 17 Staggerwing

• 1927 – US Army Air Corps Capt. Hawthorne C. Gray succeeds in setting new altitude record in a silk, rubberized, and aluminum-coated balloon out of Scott Field, Illinois, reaching 42,270 feet, but dies when he fails to keep track of his time on oxygen, and exhausts his supply. The record is recognized by National Aeronautical Association, but not by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale because the dead aeronaut "was not in personal possession of his instruments." Gray is posthumously awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his three ascents on 9 March, 4 May and 4 November.

• 1927 – Flying a Macchi M.52 seaplane, Mario de Bernardi sets a new world airspeed record of 479.290 miles (771.342 km).

• 1924 – Prototype Canadian Vickers Vedette was test flown at Montreal by F/O WN Plenderleith, RAF.

• 1923 – Flying a Curtiss R2C-1, U. S. Navy Lieutenant Alford J. Williams, Jr., sets a new world airspeed record of 429.03 kilometers per hour (266.59 miles per hour).

• 1910 – Welshman Ernest Willows makes the first airship crossing from England to France with Willows No. 3 City of Cardiff.

• 1909 – John Moore-Brabazon makes the first live cargo flight by airplane when he puts a small pig in a waste-paper basket tied to a wing-strut of his airplane.

• 1894 – German meteorologist Berson climbs up with an airship to 9,155 m.

• 1884 – Harry Ferguson, Northern Irish aviator and inventor and the first person to fly in Ireland, was born (d. 1960).

November 5

• 2010 – An Israeli Air Force F-16I crashes in Makhtesh Ramon while on a training over the Negev desert in southern Israel, killing both the pilot and navigator of the plane.

• 2010 – In the 2010 Karachi Beechcraft 1900 crash a JS Air charter crashes almost immediately after takeoff, killing all 19 passengers and 2 crew on board.

• 2009 – N120FB, a Grumman Albatross operated by Albatross Adventures, crashes shortly after take-off from St. Lucie County International Airport, Fort Pierce, Florida, after suffering an engine failure. The aircraft was damaged beyond economic repair.

• 2003 - British Airways Concorde G-BOAG became the last Concorde to leave JFK by air. She flew to Seattle Boeing Field and retired to Museum of Flight, Seattle.

• 1995 – Landing: Space Shuttle Columbia STS-73 at 6:45:21 am EST, KSC Runway 33.

• 1981 – First flight of the McDonnell Douglas AV-8B Harrier II

• 1979 – A Chinook helicopter of 450 Squadron successfully lifted a Lancaster aircraft from Gederich Ontario to Mount Hope, Ontario.

• 1959 – A small engine fire forces pilot Scott Crossfield to make an emergency landing on Rosamond Dry Lake, Edwards AFB, California, in North American X-15, 56-6671. Not designed to land with fuel on board, test craft comes down with a heavy load of propellants and breaks its back, grounding this particular X-15 for three months. Footage of this accident is later incorporated in The Outer Limits episode "The Premonition", first aired 9 January 1965.

• 1956 – F4U-7 Corsairs from the French aircraft carriers Arromanches and La Fayette bomb the aerodrome at Cairo. Israeli jets mistakenly attack the British sloop HMS Crane in the Gulf of Aqaba, and Crane shoots one down in self-defense.

• 1956 – The British and French bombing campaign against Egypt ends, with fixed-wing aircraft from the three British aircraft carriers alone having flown 1,300 sorties. Late in the day, the first British forces come ashore in Egypt as elements of the 3rd Battalion of the British Parachute Regiment land by parachute at El Gamil airfield and are reinforced by additional elements brought in by helicopter from the British aircraft carriers HMS Ocean and HMS Theseus.

• 1948 – A Boeing DB-17G Flying Fortress, 44-83678 returning to Eglin AFB, Florida from Fort Wayne, Indiana, crashes in woods SE of Auxiliary Field 2, Pierce Field, crashing and burning NE of the runway at Eglin main base early Friday. All five on board are KWF, including Lt. Col. Frederick W. Eley, 43, of Shalimar, Florida, staff judge advocate at Eglin for nearly three years - he was returning from his grandmother's funeral in Portland, Indiana; Maj. Bydie J. Nettles, 29, who lived in Shalimar, Florida but was originally from Pensacola, Florida, group adjutant for the 3203rd Maintenance and Supply section; Capt. Robert LeMar, 31, Ben's Lake, Eglin AFB, test pilot with the 3203rd; crew chief M/Sgt. Carl LeMieux, 31, of Milton, Florida; and Sgt. William E. Bazer, 36, assistant engineer, Destin, Florida. Bazer's wife was the Eglin base librarian.

• 1947 – First flight of the Scottish Aviation Pioneer

• 1944 – U. S. Army Air Forces Twentieth Air Force B-29 s based at Calcutta, India, begin occasional attacks on drydock and ship repair facilities at Singapore.

• 1944 – (5–6) U. S. Navy Task Force 38 carrier aircraft raid Japanese bases on Luzon. On the first day, SB2 C Helldiver dive bombers and TBM Avenger torpedo bombers from the aircraft carrier USS Lexington (CV-16) sink the Japanese heavy cruiser Nachi in Manila Bay, and U. S. Navy planes claim the destruction of 58 Japanese fighters over Clark and Mabalacat airfields. On the second day, a kamikaze damages Lexington. During the two days, U. S. Navy aircraft claim 439 Japanese aircraft destroyed, losing 25 U. S. aircraft in combat and 11 due to non-combat causes. The strikes cause a sharp reduction in Japanese air attacks on U. S. ships in Leyte Gulf.

• 1943 – 97 carrier aircraft from USS Saratoga (CV-3) and USS Princeton (CVL-23) carry out a destructive strike on a Japanese task force at Simpson Harbor, Rabaul, damaging the heavy cruisers Atago, Maya, Mogami, and Takao, the light cruisers Agano and Noshiro, and a destroyer for the loss of 10 aircraft. The U. S. Army Air Forces’ Fifth Air Force follows up with a strike by 27 B-24 Liberators escorted by 67 P-38 Lighntings on Rabaul town and its wharves. A counterstrike by 18 Japanese Nakajima B5 N (Allied reporting name “Kate”) torpedo bombers against the U. S. aircraft carriers mistakenly attacks a group of PT boats and a tank landing craft. The Japanese never risk heavy ships in the Solomon Islands again.

• 1940 – Four RAF squadrons are deployed to Greece to support the country against Italian attacks.

• 1940 – The U. S. Army Air Corps activates the Hawaiian Air Force, its first air force based outside the continental United States.

• 1938 – 5-7 – Non-stop flight by a pair of Vickers Wellesleys from Egypt to Darwin, Australia. This sets a new world distance record of 7,158 miles (11,520 km).

• 1934 – Pioneer Air Service aviator Col. Horace Meek Hickam, (1885–1934), dies when his Curtiss A-12 Shrike, 33-250, of the 60th Service Squadron, strikes an obstruction during night landing practice on the unlighted field at Fort Crockett, Texas, overturns. Hickam Field, Oahu, Hawaiian Islands, named for him 21 May 1935.

• 1921 – Curtiss test pilot Bert Acosta wins the Pulitzer Trophy in a Curtiss CR-2 and establishes a new closed-circuit airspeed record of 284.36 km/h (176.7 mph).
• 1917 - Jacqueline Auriol, a French Aviator, is born.

• 1911 – Calbraith Rodgers completes the first coast-to-coast airplane flight across the USA in the Vin Fiz Flyer – Taking 49 days, with several crashes en route.

• 1910 – The Willows airship N° 3 City of Cardiff arrives after the first dirigible flight across the English Channel, flying from London 10 hours and 30 min.

• 1909 – The United States Army Wright Military Flyer, serial 1, piloted by Lieutenant Frank P. Lahm with 2nd Lieutenant Frederick E. Humphreys as passenger crashes into the ground at College Park Airport, Maryland, while executing a sharp right turn. The aircraft had lost altitude due to engine misfiring and the aircrew had not taken account of their proximity to the ground when banking the aircraft to the right. Both officers were unhurt but the aircraft required repairs.

• 1908 – Wilbur Wright receives the Grand Gold Medal of the Aéro Club of France for advances in aviation.

November 6

• 2009 – A Russian Naval Aviation Tupolev Tu-142 M3 Bear F/J from the 310th Independent Long Range Anti-Submarine Aviation Regiment based at Kamenny Ruchey Airbase crashes 15–20 km from the coast of Cape Datta north of Sovetskaya Gavan. The Naval aircraft on a routine training exercise crashes into the sea in the Tatar Straight near the island of Sakhalin with the loss of all 11 crew.

• 2006 – AH-64D Apache from A Company, 1–82nd Attack Reconnaissance Battalion (ARB) attached to 25th Combat Aviation Brigade crashes north of Baghdad, killing the two pilots.[1]

• 2002 – National Airlines, already operating under Chapter 11 bankruptcy, permanently ceases operations

• 2002 – Luxair Flight 9642, a Fokker F50, crashes short of the runway while landing near Niederanven, Luxembourg in foggy conditions; of the 19 passengers and three crew on board, only two survive.

• 1990 – Crew of an US Navy Grumman A-6E Intruder, '506', of VA-176, suffering engine fire, aim bomber away from Virginia Beach, Virginia oceanfront before ejecting just after take-off from NAS Oceana, Virginia's Runway 5. Bomber comes down at 1015 hrs. in the Atlantic Ocean ~.75 miles offshore, after just clearing the Station One Hotel, on-shore breeze carries crew inland about three blocks from the beach, one landing in a tree, the other in a courtyard of a condominium, suffering only cuts and bruises. Aircraft, on routine training mission, was unarmed. Officials did not identify the crew, but said the pilot was a 29-year old lieutenant, and the bombardier-navigator was a 34-year old lieutenant commander, both assigned to VA-176.

• 1986 – In the 1986 British International Helicopters Chinook crash, a Boeing 234LR Chinook crashes on approach to Sumburgh Airport, Shetland Islands with the loss of 45 lives.

• 1980 – First flight of the Solar Challenger

• 1967 – TWA Flight 159, a Boeing 707, overruns the runway at Greater Cincinnati Airport and catches fire; all on board escape the aircraft, but a passenger dies four days later.

• 1963 – A TCA Douglas DC-8 operating as Flight 861 was taking off from runway 28L at London Heathrow Airport on a flight to Montreal, Canada with seven crew and 90 passengers on board. As the aircraft passed 132 knots on the take off roll the captain pulled back on the control column but mistakenly thought there was no response from the elevators and aborted the take off. As a result the aircraft overshot the runway and came to rest 800 yards from the end of the runway in a cabbage field. All passengers and crew on board survived the accident and the aircraft was repaired and returned to service.

• 1957 – First Flights: Fairey Rotodyne

• 1957 – A prototype of the Bristol Britannia crashes in Downend, England, during a test flight, killing all 15 people on board and injuring one person on the ground.

• 1956 – The world’s first ship-based helicopter-borne assault takes place, as helicopters from HMS Ocean and HMS Theseus land 425 men of the Royal Marines’ 45 Commando and 23 tons of stores in Port Said, Egypt, in 90 min. During the day, over 1,000 French paratroopers jump into Egypt, and French Corsairs and F-84 F Thunderstreaks provide close air support to French forces. A ceasefire ends hostilities between Egypt and the United Kingdom, France, and Israel in the evening. The last major operation by a British aircraft carrier force in history comes to an end.

• 1956 – A Boeing B-47E-60-BW Stratojet, 51-2421, c/n 450474, of the 96th Bombardment Wing, Altus AFB, Oklahoma, suffers engine trouble while on a routine training mission late Tuesday, crashing on a farm near Hobart, Oklahoma, killing four crew. According to Ranson Hancock, publisher of the Hobart Democrat Chief, the bomber hit the ground about 320 yards W of a barn owned by Charles C. Harris, skidded into the barn and exploded. Officials identified the victims as Maj. Joseph E. Wilford, aircraft commander, Capt. Francis P. Bouschard, pilot, Capt. Lee D. Ellis, Jr., instructor-aircraft observer, all having families at Altus, and 1st Lt. Andrew J. Toalson, observer, Bartlesville, Oklahoma.

• 1945 – The first jet plane to land on an aircraft carrier is a Ryan FR-1 piloted by U. S. Navy Ensign Jake West.

• 1945 – After its piston engine fails, a mixed-propulsion Ryan FR-1 Fireball fighter flown by U. S. Marine Corps pilot J. C. West makes the first landing under jet power on an aircraft carrier, landing aboard USS Wake Island (CVE-65).

• 1943 – (Overnight) The last Japanese air raid on Munda Airfield takes place.

• 1942 – First flight of the Heinkel He 219.

• 1942 – Grumman UC-103, 42-97044, former civilian Grumman G-32 Gulfhawk III, ex-NC1051, built for the Gulf Oil Refining Company, delivered 6 May 1938 and impressed by the USAAF in November 1942, used as VIP ferry aircraft, 427th Air Base Squadron, Homestead Army Air Field,[163] force-lands in the southern Florida Everglades with engine failure: written off.

• 1939 – The formation of the Organization and Training Division at RCAF headquarters was authorized.

• 1936 – The German Luftwaffe’s Condor Legion, a force of about 100 aircraft, begins to depart Germany for Seville, Spain, to support Nationalist forces in the Spanish Civil War.

• 1935 – First flight of the Hawker Hurricane K5083 at Brooklands, England

• 1929 – First flight of the Junkers G.38

• 1929 – A Junkers G 31 crashes near Marden Park, Godstone, Surrey; of the 8 on board, only a passenger survives.

• 1924 – First flight of the Dornier Do J

• 1923 – First flight of the Blériot-SPAD S.61

• 1922 – First flight of the Bristol Bullfinch, an experimental British two-seat fighter biplane

• 1915 – A Curtiss AB-2 piloted by Lt Cdr Henry Mustin is catapulted from the deck of USS North Carolina while the ship is underway.

November 7

• 2009 – A Tupolev Tu-142 of the Russian Navy’s Pacific Fleet crashes in the Tatar Strait some 12 miles (19 km) off Sakhalin Island. All eleven crew are missing, presumed dead.

• 2007 – Romanian Air Force IAR-330 SOCAT attack helicopter belonging to the 90th Airlift Base crashed in Ungheni, 30 km south of Piteşti, Argeş county, southern Romania. Immediately after touching the ground, the aircraft exploded, as it was already on fire. All three crew members aboard were killed, including Commander Nicolae Bucur, who was one of the most experienced pilots of the Romanian Air Force, with over 2,700 flying hours.

• 2006 – FedEx announces the first cancellation of the Airbus A380. Instead FedEx orders 15 Boeing 777 Freighters.

• 2003 – UH-60L Black Hawk 92-26413 (or 92-26431) from 5–101 Aviation Regiment shot down by a MANPAD near Tikrit; all four crew, and both passengers from the Department of the Army are killed.[1]

• 2001 – The supersonic commercial aircraft Concorde resumes flying after a 15-month hiatus.

• 1996 – A Nigerian Boeing 727 crashes into a lagoon 40 miles southeast of Lagos, killing 143.

• 1981 – United States Navy Lockheed S-3 Viking from the USS Nimitz, is lost near Sardinia with all four aviators killed.

• 1978 – USN Douglas A-4F Skyhawk Blue Angel, BuNo 155056, during pre-show exhibition at NAS Miramar, San Diego, California, pilot, Lt. Mike Curtain (sp?-Curtin?), dead on impact, no ejection.

• 1976 – The first non-stop trans-Canada flight by jet fighters was carried out by two 434 Squadron CF-5 s using mid-air refueling.

• 1976 – First flight of the Dassault Falcon 50 F-WAMD

• 1971 – A USAF McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II and a USAF Convair F-106A-130-CO Delta Dart, 59-0125, of the 84th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, Hamilton AFB, California, suffer mid-air and crash in isolated areas near Nellis AFB, Nevada. All three crew eject and survive. F-4 crew, Maj. Henry J. Viccellio and Maj. James A. Robertson, okay. Phantom comes down 35 miles from Caliente, Nevada, Delta Dart attempts recovery to Nellis but pilot Maj. Clifford L. Lowrey ejects eight miles NE of base.

• 1966 – First flight of the Pilatus PC-11

• 1956 – In the Hummelfjell Accident, a Braathens SAFE de Havilland Heron with 12 on board crashes into Hummelfjell mountain near Tolga, Norway, killing the pilot and a passenger.

• 1954 – Soviet Air Force MiG-15 s shoot down a USAF B-29 Superfortress off Hokkaidō, claiming it was spying.

• 1950 – BOAC retires its last flying boat airliner from service.

• 1948 – Second prototype Republic XR-12 Rainbow, 44-91003, crashes at 1300 hrs. while returning to Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. The number 2 (port inner) engine exploded as the aircraft was returning from a photographic suitability test flight. The pilot was unable to maintain control due to violent buffeting, and he ordered the crew to bail out. Five of the seven crew escaped safely, including pilot Lynn Hendrix, rescued by Eglin crash boats and helicopters. Airframe impacts two miles S of the base, in the Choctawhatchee Bay. Sgt. Vernon B. Palmer, 20, and M/Sgt. Victor C. Riberdy, 30, who lived at Auxiliary Field 5, but was from Hartford, Connecticut, are KWF.

• 1945 – Gp Cpt H. J. Wilson sets a new official airspeed record of 606 mph (976 km/h) in a Gloster Meteor. Unofficial German speed records by the rocket-powered Messerschmitt Me 163 during the war had already exceeded 625 mph (1,000 km/h)

• 1942 – Nos. 427, 428 and 429 (Bomber) Squadrons were formed in England.

• 1942 – A U. S. Army Air Forces bomber discovers that Japanese forces are occupying Attu in the Aleutian Islands. American aircraft soon begin a bombing campaign against Attu.

• 1941 – (Overnight) – 392 British bombers attack Berlin, Cologne, and Mannheim, losing 36 of their number – A heavy 9.2 percent loss rate.

• 1936 – Polish Lotnictwo Wojskowe PZL.30 Żubr ("Bison") prototype, a twin-engine bomber design modified from a transport rejected in favour of Douglas DC-2s by LOT Polish Airlines, disintegrates in mid-air when wing structure fails. First flown in March 1936, the uninspired composite design of metal, wood and fabric was the first twin-engined bomber of home design to leave the ground, powered by 680 hp (510 kW) P.Z.L. (Bristol) Pegasus radials, but only 16 Żubrs were completed, most relegated to training, none seeing combat. The Romanian Air Force had shown an interest in the Żubr prototype in 1936, and wanted to buy 24 planes. However, after the prototype crash over Michałowice with two Romanian officers on board, they ordered the PZL.37 Łoś instead. (It should be noted, that the factory published a cover-up story, that the crash was caused by one of Romanians opening the door during flight).

• 1916 –Imperial German Army Zeppelin LZ90, LZ60, broke loose in the direction of the North Sea in a storm and never seen again.

• 1910 – The first air flight for the purpose of delivering commercial freight occurs between Dayton, Ohio and Columbus, Ohio in the United States of America by the Wright Brothers and department store owner Max Moorehouse. The trip is made by Wright pilot Philip Parmalee.

• 1910 – Pilot Didier Masson takes flight on a biplane designed by E. Lilian Todd across the Garden City aviation field. Todd is credited for being the first woman in the world to design airplanes.

• 1849 – (12–25) While blockading Venice, the Austrian Navy launches unmanned balloons (Montgolfières) equipped with explosive charges from the deck of the steamship Vulcano in an attempt to bombard Venice. Although the experiment is unsuccessful, it is both the first use of balloons for bombardment and the first time a warship makes offensive use of an aerial device.

• 1836 – 7-8 – Flight of a Montgolfière covering 722 km from London to Weilburg, passing through Green, Holland and Mason.

November 8

• 2009 – An OH-58 Kiowa experiences a hard landing north of Baghdad in the Salah ad Din Province. Two U.S. Army pilots are killed.[1][2] They were assigned to the 2nd Squadron, 6th Cavalry Regiment, 25th Combat Aviation Brigade, 25th Infantry Division, Schofield Barracks.[3]

• 1998 – Lockheed S-3B Viking, BuNo 159733, of VS-22 lands on the deck of the USS Enterprise at 1918 hrs. during night landing requalifications off of the Virginia coast. At 1920 hrs. an EA-6B ICAP II Block 86 Prowler, BuNo 163885, of VAQ-130 receives a wave-off due to the deck still being fouled, but its starboard wing strikes the Viking.1] The Prowler continues over the side as all four crew eject, as well as two crew from the S-3. The Viking crew are recovered, but the Prowler crew are all casualties with only one body recovered. Deck fire is brought under control in seven minutes. The damaged S-3B is also jettisoned.

• 1989 – A KC-10A Extender tanker aircraft refuels a Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit bomber for the B-2's first aerial refueling.

• 1984 – Launch: Space Shuttle Discovery STS-51-A at 12:15:00 UTC. Mission highlights: Multiple comsat deployments, retrieval of two other comsats Palapa B2 and Westar VI which were subsequently refurbished on Earth and reflown.

• 1983 – A TAAG Angola Airlines Boeing 737 is shot down just after takeoff from Lubango Airport; all 130 on board die.

• 1982 – A United States Air Force in Europe F-4 crashed near Hannover, West Germany, both crew killed.

• 1978 – First flight of the Bombardier Challenger 600 took off at Montreal – Two years after the go-ahead decision. With Canadair‘s chief test pilot, F.D. Adkins, at the controls, it was airborne for 50 min with the undercarriage down and the flaps slightly extended.

• 1967 – (overnight) – Shot down by Viet Cong ground fire in an HH-3E helicopter and badly burned during a rescue mission southeast of Khe Sanh, South Vietnam, U.S. Air Force Captain Gerald O. Young deliberately draws attention to himself, then evades the enemy on the ground for hours to lead enemy forces away from other Americans on the ground and additional helicopters coming to rescue them. He will receive the Medal of Honor for his actions.

• 1965 – American Airlines Flight 383, a Boeing 727, crashes while on approach to Greater Cincinnati airport; of the 62 people on board, one flight attendant and three passengers survive.

• 1963 – Aero O/Y aircraft OH-LCA, Aero Flight 217, crashes before landing in poor visibility at Mariehamn Airport on Åland, killing 22 out of 25 passengers.

• 1961 – Imperial Airlines Flight 201/8, a Lockheed Constellation L-049, crashes on landing at Byrd Field near Richmond, Virginia; all 74 passengers—mostly new US Army recruits being flown to their base for training—die of carbon monoxide asphyxiation, along with three crew members; the captain and flight engineer survive by escaping the burning wreckage.

• 1957 – Pan Am Flight 7, a Boeing 377 Stratocruiser, disappears between San Francisco and Honolulu; small pieces of wreckage and human remains are found almost a week later by the U.S. Navy; all 44 on board are believed to have been killed; carbon monoxide poisoning is a suspected cause of the crash.

• 1954 – Royal Air Force Air Commodore Geoffrey D. Stephenson, former commandant of the Royal Air Force Central Fighter Establishment, is killed in the crash of a USAF North American F-100A-10-NA Super Sabre, 53-1534, c/n 192-29, near Auxiliary Field 2 of Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. Commodore Stephenson, on a tour of the U.S., is flying at 13,000 feet (4,000 m) as he joins formation with another F-100 when his fighter drops into a steep spiral, impacting at ~1414 hrs. in a pine forest on the Eglin Reservation, one mile (1.6 km) NE of the runway of Pierce Field, Auxiliary Fld. 2.

• 1953 – Eight U.S. Marine Corps pilots avoid disaster when their fighters run low on fuel during a flight from Puerto Rico to a Marine Corps base near Miami, Florida. Three pilots, Capt. William H. Johnson, of Miami, Lt. Thomas D. White, of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and Lt. Forest G. Dawson, of Tucson, Arizona, are forced to ditch in the ocean due to fuel exhaustion but are rescued by nearby ships in a short time. Five other planes are forced down at Homestead AFB, Florida, S of Miami, where one, flown by Capt. Donald Edwards, of Opa-Locka, Florida, overshoots the field, ending up in a canal.

• 1950 – 1Lt. Russell Brown shoots down a MiG-15 from his F-80 Shooting Star, the first victory USAF over soviet MiG-15.

• 1943 – A morning strike by 97 Japanese dive bombers and fighters and a few torpedo bombers damages a U.S. attack transport off Bouganiville. An evening strike by 30 or 40 aircraft damages the light cruiser USS Birmingham(CL-62).

• 1943 – Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress 42-3553 "Sad Sack" crashed at Middle Farm, West Harling, Norfolk, United Kingdom shortly after taking off from RAF Snetterton Heath with the loss of all ten crew.

• 1942 – Pilots equipped with anti-G suits carried out combat operations for the first time in history. They were members of 807 Squadron Fleet Air Arm, wearing the Canadian designed Franks suit. They flew Supermarine Seafires over Oran, Algeria.

• 1942 – Operation Torch – the Allied amphibious landings in French North Africa – take place, supported by the British aircraft carriers HMS Victorious, HMS Formidable, HMS Argus, HMS Avenger, HMS Biter, and HMS Dasher with 160 aircraft and the American carriers USS Ranger (CV-4), USS Sangamon (ACV-26), USS Suwannee (ACV-27), USS Chenango (ACV-28), and USS Santee (ACV-29) with 136 aircraft. French aircraft resist the landings, strafing the landing beaches at least five times, and aerial combat occurs between U.S. Navy F4F Wildcats and French Dewoitine D.520 and Curtiss Hawk 75A fighters during the Naval Battle of Casablanca that day. U.S. Navy aircraft bomb and strafe French ships, helping to sink or wreck the light cruiser Primauguet, a destroyer leader, and two destroyers. Off Algiers, 21 German Junkers Ju 88s and Heinkel He 111s attack Allied ships, fatally damaging the transport USS Leedstown (AP-73) and damaging other ships.

• 1938 – On the morning of 9 November 1938, Col. Leslie MacDill, commissioned in the Coast Artillery in 1912, became a military pilot in 1914, and commanded an aerial gunnery school in St. Jean de Monte, France in World War I, is killed tomorrow in the crash of his North American BC-1, 37-670, of the 1st Staff Squadron, at 1807 13th Street, SE, Anacostia, Washington, D.C. after take-off from Bolling Field. Southeast Air Base, Tampa, Florida, is renamed MacDill Field on 1 December 1939.[4]

• 1936 – (8-23) Soviet aircraft play an important role in the Republican defense of Madrid.

• 1935 – Kingsford Smith and Pethybridge were flying the Lady Southern Cross overnight from Allahabad, India, to Singapore, while attempting to break the England-Australia speed record, when they disappeared over the Andaman Sea in the early hours. 18 months later, Burmese fishermen found an undercarriage leg and wheel (with its tyre still inflated) which had been washed ashore at Aye Island in the Gulf of Martaban, 3 km (2 mi) off the southeast coastline of Burma, some 137 km (85 mi) south of Mottama (formerly known as Martaban). Lockheed confirmed the undercarriage leg to be from the Lady Southern Cross. Botanists who examined the weeds clinging to the undercarriage leg estimated that the aircraft itself lies not far from the island at a depth of approximately 15 fathoms (90 ft; 27 m). The undercarriage leg is now on public display at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, Australia.

• 1916 – Lieutenant Clarence K. Bronson, Naval Aviator No. 15, and Lt. Luther Welsh, on an experimental bomb test flight at Naval Proving Ground, Indian Head, Maryland, were instantly killed by the premature explosion of a bomb in their plane.

• 1881 – Robert Estnault-Pelterie, early aviation pioneer is born. He invented ailerons and coined the word astronautics.

November 9

• 2005 – Launch: Venus Express, the first exploration mission of the European Space Agency, launched from Kazakhstan. It arrived on Venus the following April, and is funded to continue to send back data until December 2012.

• 2004 – A U.S. Navy McDonnell-Douglas F/A-18C Hornet crashes 15 miles (24 km) east of Nellis AFB, Nevada, after in flight fire and becoming uncontrollable shortly after takeoff. Pilot ejects safely.

• 2004 – U.S. OH-58D Kiowa shot down by rocket fire over Fallujah.[1]

• 1999 – TAESA Flight 725, a McDonnell Douglas DC-9, crashes near Uruapan, Mexico, killing all 18 on board.

• 1989 – A Navy LTV A-7E Corsair II jet fighter preparing to land at Dobbins Air Force Base crashes into an apartment complex in Smyrna, Ga., and bursts into flames. Two civilians were killed; four civilians injured. Among the dead, a pregnant 24-year-old woman. Her five-year-old daughter survived with burns over half her body.

• 1980 – Dan-Air registers the last commercial flight by a de Havilland Comet. The plane flew enthusiasts on a round-trip flight from London.

• 1978 – First flight of the YAV-8B.

• 1967 – Launch of the Apollo 4 mission, an unmanned Saturn V, the largest launch vehicle ever to fly successfully.

• 1962 – An engine failure forced Jack McKay, a NASA research pilot, to make an emergency landing at Mud Lake, Nevada, in the second North American X-15, 56-6671 on flight 2-31-52. The aircraft's landing gear collapsed and the X-15 flipped over on its back. McKay was promptly rescued by an Air Force medical team standing by near the launch site, and eventually recovered to fly the X-15 again. But his injuries, more serious than at first thought, eventually forced his retirement from NASA. The aircraft was sent back to the manufacturer, where it underwent extensive repairs and modifications. It returned to Edwards AFB in February 1964 as the X-15A-2, with a longer fuselage and external fuel tanks.

• 1961 – USAF Major Robert M White takes the X-15 to a height of 30,970 m.

• 1957 – A Convair RB-36H-10-CF Peacemaker, 51-5745, of the 71st Strategic Reconnaissance Wing, is destroyed by an explosion and groundfire at Ramey AFB, Puerto Rico, all crew members survive. This is the 32nd B-36 written-off in an accident of 385 built and will be the last operational loss before the type is retired.

• 1956 – Second prototype Martin XP6M-1 Seamaster, BuNo 138822, c/n XP-2, first flown 18 May 1956, crashes at 1536 hrs. near Odessa, Delaware due to faulty elevator jack. As seaplane noses up at ~21,000 feet (6,400 m) and fails to respond to control inputs, crew of 4 ejects, pilot Robert S. Turner, co-pilot William Cunningham, and two crew all parachuting to safety. Airframe breaks up after falling to 6,000 feet (1,800 m) before impact.

• 1954 – Spanish Air Force Dornier Do 24T-3, HR.5-1, burnt out.

• 1950 – Flying an F9 F Panther, United States Navy Lieutenant Commander William T. Amen shoots down a MiG-15. It is the first victory by a U.S. Navy jet over another jet.

• 1950 – (9–20) U.S. Navy AD Skyraiders and F4U Corsairs from the aircraft carriers USS Valley Forge (CV-45) and USS Philippine Sea (CV-47) attempt to destroy railroad and highway bridges across the Yalu River. They destroy the highway bridge at Sinuiju and two bridges at Hysanjin and damage other bridges, although the railroad bridge at Sinuiju remains standing. Escorting F9 F Panthers shoot down three MiG-15 s. Nearly 600 sorties are flown, and no U.S. aircraft are lost.

• 1946 – First flight of the Lockheed R6V Constitution by Joe Towle and Tony LeVier.

• 1945 – Disregarding advice from Eric "Winkle" Brown of the Fleet Air Arm (FAA), to treat the rudder of the Heinkel He 162 with suspicion due to a number of in-flight failures, RAF pilot, Flt. Lt. R.A. Marks, starts a low-level roll during the Farnborough Air Show, one of the fin and rudder assemblies breaks off, the aircraft crashes in Aldershot before the ejection seat could be employed, killing Marks.

• 1944 – First flight of the Boeing C-97 Stratofreighter in Seattle. After the war it will be redesigned as an aerial tanker.

• 1942 – No. 431 (Bomber) Squadron was formed in England.

• 1942 – French high-level bombers attack U.S. landing beaches in North Africa and U.S. ships offshore, but do no damage SOC-3 floatplanes from the light cruiser USS Savannah (CL-42) experiment with the use of depth charges to destroy French tanks, with great success Six F4 F Wildcats from USS Ranger engage 11 Dewoitine D.520s, shooting down five and damaging four, and a lone Messerschmitt Bf 109 is shot down over the beach.

• 1932 – Wolfgang von Gronau and crew in a Dornier Wal completed the first flight around the world by a seaplane. Their flight took 111 days.

• 1930 – First airline flight from New York to Panama.

• 1904 – Wilbur Wright flies the Wright Flyer II a distance of 3 miles (5 km) near Dayton, Ohio, the first flight of longer than five seconds.

November 10

• 2010 – An Israeli Air Force F-16I crashes in Makhtesh Ramon while on a training over the Negev desert in southern Israel, killing both the pilot and navigator of the plane.[1]

• 2009 – Kingfisher Airlines Flight 4124, operated by ATR 72-212 A VT-KAC skidded off the runway after landing at Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport. The aircraft suffered substantial damage but all 46 passengers and crew escaped unharmed.

• 2008 – Ryanair Flight 4102 was a flight operated by a Boeing 737-8AS, registered EI-DYG, from Frankfurt-Hahn Airport, Germany, to Rome Ciampino Airport, Italy, that, on 10 November 2008 suffered multiple bird strikes. Of the 172 people on board, two crew and eight passengers were transported to hospital and received treatment for minor injuries.

• 2005 – The Boeing 777-200LR Worldliner establishes a new world record for nonstop distance by a commercial airplane, flying 11,664 nautical miles in 22 hours and 42 min from Hong Kong to London.

• 2003 – The final flight of British Airways Concorde G-BOAD is flown from London Heathrow (LHR) to New York’s JFK, to deliver the aircraft to the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum. It was JFK’s very last Concorde movement.

• 1988 – The US Air Force publicly unveils the F-117 Nighthawk

• 1982 – An Air Combat Manoeuvring Range was opened at Cold Lake. It was the first ACMR built for non-US forces.

• 1982 – First flight of the Mil Mi-28

• 1972 – Southern Airways Flight 49 from Birmingham, Alabama is hijacked and, at one point, is threatened with crashing into the nuclear installation at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. After two days, the plane lands in Havana, Cuba, where the hijackers are jailed by Fidel Castro.

• 1971 – In the 1971 Indian Ocean Vickers Viscount crash, a Merpati Nusantara Airlines plane crashes into the Indian Ocean off Padang, Indonesia in bad weather, killing all 66 on board.

• 1970 – The first of two Russian, unmanned lunar rovers, Lunokhod 1, was launched. As mission Luna 17, the craft was the first remote-controlled robot to land on another celestial body, sending back images and data to Russia until the following September.

• 1963 – SAC Boeing WB-47E Stratojet, 51-2420, built as B-47E-60-BW and modified to weather reconnaissance variant, making emergency landing at Lajes Air Base, Azores, skids into parking ramp, strikes Boeing Boeing C-97C Stratofreighter, 50-0690, loses port inner engine nacelle (numbers 2 and 3), starboard outer nacelle (number 6) and starboard wingtip. Fire damages port inner wing above lost nacelle. Crew survives.

• 1959 – The combination of a blizzard and a blocked runway at Malmstrom AFB, Great Falls, Montana lead to the loss of three Northrop F-89 Scorpion aircraft. During a blizzard the runway was unusable due to a Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star which had sheared it's landing gear on touch down. The Scorpions and an undisclosed number of other aircraft were returning to the base low on fuel and in near zero visibility. Four were lost in two of the crashed planes while the two man crew of the third parachuted to safety. No one was injured in the T-33 incident.

• 1958 – A TCA Vickers Viscount parked at Idlewild Airport, New York while awaiting its passengers was destroyed by fire after it was struck by a Lockheed 1049D Super Constellation of Seaboard & Western Airlines which had crashed while taking off. The two crew members on board survived the accident.

• 1950 – AA USAF Boeing B-50 Superfortress of the 43d Bomb Wing on a routine weapons ferrying flight between Goose Bay, Labrador and its home base at Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona, loses two of four engines. To maintain altitude it jettisons empty Mark 4 nuclear bomb casing just before 1600 hrs. at 10,500 feet (3,200 m) above the St. Lawrence River near the town of St. Alexandre-de-Kamouraska, about 90 miles (140 km) northeast of Quebec, Canada. HE in the casing observed detonating upon impact in the middle of the twelve-mile (19 km)-wide river, blast felt for 25 miles (40 km). Official Air Force explanation at the time is that the Superfortress released three conventional 500-pound HE bombs.

• 1949 – First flight of the Sikorsky H-19, an improved version of HRP helicopter which also will serve as H-21 Shawnee and H-21 Workhorse.

• 1945 – First flight of the Yakovlev Yak-11.

• 1943 – Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress 42-37831 suffered a hydraulics and brakes failure at RAF Snetterton Heath and was written off.

• 1942 – USS Chenango (CVE-28) flies off 75 U. S. Army Air Forces P-40 Warhawk fighters, which establish a base at Port Lyautey, French Morocco. SBD Dauntless dive bombers from USS Ranger damage the French battleship Jean Bart in Casablanca harbor.

• 1941 – First George Cross was awarded posthumously to LAC KM Gravel for his attempted rescue of his pilot from burning wreckage of a DH 82 C Tiger Moth at Calgary, Alberta.

• 1936 – U.S. Navy Aviation Cadet William H. Jones, on approach to USS Ranger in a Grumman F3F-1, accidentally flies into the foremast of plane guard destroyer. Plane and body sink in 4,600 feet of water.

• 1933 – Ronald Evans (Captain, USN Ret.), American astronaut was born (d. 1990). Evans was the command module pilot of Apollo 17, the last scheduled manned mission to the moon for the United States. As of 2007, he holds the record of more time in lunar orbit than anyone else in the world. Evans flew F-8 Crusader aircraft from the carrier USS Ticonderoga during a period of seven months in Vietnam combat operation. The total flight time accrued during his career was 5,100 hours, including 4,600 hours in jet aircraft.

• 1932 – British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin states in a speech that “The bomber will always get through”.

• 1930 – First airline flight from New York to Panama.

• 1919 – First flight of the Blériot-SPAD S.27

• 1915 – Theodore Macauly of Toronto was the first to pilot a twin-engined flying boat in Canada.

• 1907 – Louis Bleriot introduces what will become the modern configuration of the airplane. His Blériot VII has an enclosed or covered fuselage (body), a single set of wings (monoplane), a tail unit, and a propeller in front of the engine.

• 1907 – Henry Farman becomes the first European to be airborne in a powered heavier-than-air machine for longer than Wilbur Wright‘s 59 s. on 17 December 1903 when he flies for 1 min. 14 s. He covers a distance of 1030 m (3,379 ft).

• 1904 – Wilbur Wright flies the Wright Flyer II a distance of 3 miles near Dayton, Ohio, the first flight of longer than five minutes.

November 11

• 2010 – The Zalingei Tarco Airlines Antonov An-24 crash on landing at Zalingei Airport, Sudan, kills 6 of 44 on board.

• 2009 – Swedish airline MCA Airlines declares bankruptcy.

• 2004 – AH-1W SuperCobra 161021 from HMLA-169 is shot down by RPG and small arms fire near Fallujah. It is destroyed by Iraqi rebel forces, crew recovered intact.[1]

• 2002 – Laoag International Airlines Flight 585, a Fokker F-27 Friendship, crashes into Manila Bay shortly after takeoff from Ninoy Aquino International Airport. 19 of the 34 passengers and crew on board are killed.

• 1996 – ADC Airlines Flight 86, a Boeing 727, crashed when the crew lost control of the aircraft while avoiding a mid-air collision on approach to Lagos, Nigeria. All 153 passengers and crew on board were killed.

• 1983 – First flight of the CASA/IPTN CN-235

• 1982 – Canadian Anik C3 satellite was launched from the space shuttle Columbia.

• 1982 – Launch: Space shuttle Columbia STS-5 at 12:19:00 UTC. Mission highlights: Multiple comsat deployments. First EVA of program canceled due to suit problems.

• 1979 – Hawaiian Airlines celebrates 50 years of accident-free air passenger service.

• 1970 – The British government agrees to fund development of the Rolls-Royce RB211 turbofan, rescuing the project from Rolls-Royce's bankruptcy

• 1970 – A USAF McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II crashes in the North Sea after an engine fire. Both crew eject. Capt. Johnny Jones, 28, of Snow Hill, North Carolina, and Capt. David Allen, 27, of Darien, Connecticut are rescued by helicopter, officials at Ruislip, England said.

• 1966 – Gemini 12, the 18th manned American space-flight, launched.

• 1966 – Republic F-84F Thunderstreak of the 104th Tactical Fighter Group, Massachusetts Air National Guard out of Barnes Municipal Airport, Westfield, Massachusetts, goes into flat spin during simulated combat over Porter, Maine and crashes on Colcord Pond Road in Freedom, New Hampshire. Capt. Edward S. Mansfield has minor injuries; plane is destroyed. Star of the 551st AEWCW, out of Otis AFB, Massachusetts, crashes in the North Atlantic ~125 miles E of Nantucket, Massachusetts by unexplained circumstances, approximately the same general area as the one lost 11 July 1965. All 19 crew members are KWF, bodies never recovered.

• 1966 – A USAF Lockheed EC-121H-LO Warning Star of the 551st AEWCW, out of Otis AFB, Massachusetts, crashes in the North Atlantic ~125 miles E of Nantucket, Massachusetts by unexplained circumstances, approximately the same general area as the one lost 11 July 1965. All 19 crew members are KWF, bodies never recovered.

• 1965 – United Airlines Flight 227, a Boeing 727, crashes short of the runway during landing at Salt Lake City International Airport, Utah; 43 of 91 aboard are killed.

• 1962 – A USAF Boeing RB-47H-BW Stratojet, 53-4297, of the 55th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing, crashes at MacDill AFB, Florida, when the Stratojet loses power on an outboard engine, rolls, and crashes within the confines of the base. All three crew KWF – aircraft commander Capt. William E. Wyatt, copilot Capt. William C. Maxwell, and navigator 1st Lt. Rawl.

• 1956 – First flight of the Convair B-58 Hustler

• 1951 – An Argentine Air Force Vickers VC.1 Viking T-77 crashed at Morón Air Base.

• 1950 – AA Fairchild C-82A-FA Packet, 45-57739, c/n 10109, of the 375th Troop Carrier Wing (Medium), en route from Maxwell AFB, Alabama, and due to land at Greenville AFB, South Carolina, at 2230 hrs., crashes near Pickens, South Carolina, ~40 miles W of the destination, shortly after 2200 hrs. this date. On approach to Greenville, the aircraft strikes Bully Mountain in northern Pickens County, killing three crew and one passenger. KWF are Capt. John Miles Stuckrath, pilot; 1st Lt. Robert P. Schmitt, co-pilot; and S/Sgt. John Davis Bloomer; all were attached to Greenville AFB and were part of a Pittsburgh reserve wing called to active duty on 15 October 1950. The passenger was S/Sgt. Walter O. Lott, of Pensacola, Florida. He was a member of a Maxwell AFB unit. "The plane apparently began to plunge after it sheared off tree tops. It cut a cyclonic gap through the immense trees for about 100 yards and plowed into the 2,500-foot mountain near its peak. The impact of the crash sent one motor hurling 800 feet down one side of the mountain, and the other motor landed 500 feet down the opposite side." A post-crash fire burned two acres of forest land. The aircraft had just been overhauled at McChord Air Force Base, Washington, and had refueled at Maxwell AFB before transiting to its new assignment at Greenville AFB.

• 1946 – First flight of the Sud-Ouest Triton, France’s first jet

• 1946 – First flight of the Avions Fairey Belfair

• 1946 – First flight of the Short Solent.

• 1945 – A Short Stirling C.5 operated by No. 158 Squadron RAF was departing for the United Kingdom when it crashed on take off from RAF Castel Benito in Libya after the wing caught fire, 21 soldiers and five crew were killed, one person survived.

• 1944 – 347 carrier aircraft of Task Force 38 attack a convoy of five or six Japanese transports in the Camotes Sea approaching Ormoc, sinking all of them and all four of their escorting destroyers, as well as two more destroyers in Ormoc Bay, and shooting down 16 Japanese aircraft. Almost all of the 10,000 Japanese troops embarked on the transports are killed.

• 1943 – A strike by carrier aircraft from USS Saratoga (CV-3) and USS Princeton (CVL-23) against Japanese ships at Rabaul is ineffective due to bad weather. Another strike by approximately 185 aircraft from USS Essex (CV-9), USS Bunker Hill (CV-17), and USS Independence (CVL-22) sinks a Japanese destroyer and damages the light cruiser Agano and a destroyer; the raid is the combat debut of the SB2 C Helldiver dive bomber. A counterstrike by 108 Japanese Zero fighters, Aichi D3 A “Val” dive bombers, and Nakajima B5 N “Kate” torpedo bombers and a number of Mitsubishi G4 M (“Betty”) bombers is ineffective. The U. S loses 11 aircraft, while the Japanese lose 39 single-engine planes and several G4 Ms. During operations from shore bases at Rabaul, Japanese carrier aircraft have lost 50 percent of their fighters, 85 percent of their dive bombers, and 90 percent of their torpedo bombers in less than two weeks.

• 1943 – The last unit of the former U. S. Army Air Forces Antisubmarine Command, the 480th Antisubmarine Group, is disbanded, and all American antiubmarine activities become the responsibility of the U. S. Navy. The U. S. Army Air Forces’ antisubmarine effort has sunk 12 German submarines.

• 1942 – Hostilities between Allied and French forces in French North Africa end. Since November 8, U. S Navy planes have shot down 20 French aircraft in air-to-air combat and destroyed many more on the ground, losing 44 U. S. Navy aircraft in exchange.

• 1941 – Saro Lerwick flying boat, L7257, of No. 4 OTU, sinks at mooring, Invergordon, when caught in a gale.

• 1940 – 11-12 – Fairey Swordfish from HMS Illustrious make a highly successful raid against Regia Marina ships at Taranto, damaging battleship Conte di Cavour beyond repair, and extensively damaging two others, Littorio and Caio Duilio (Battle of Taranto).

• 1940 – regular ferry flights of US-built warplanes commence across the Atlantic.

• 1937 – The Messerschmidt ME-109 V13 flies world record 379mph/610kph.

• 1935 – 11-13 – Jean Batten becomes the first woman to fly solo across the South Atlantic, taking 2 days 13 hours to cross from Senegal to Brazil in a Percival Gull. She also breaks the speed record for this crossing, by a full day.

• 1935 – A. W. Stevens and O. A. Anderson set a new balloon altitude record of 72,395 ft (22,066 m).

• 1929 – Inter-Island Airways – The future Hawaiian Airlines – commences operations.

• 1924 – Lt Dixie Kiefer makes the first night catapult launch from a ship, the USS California.

• 1922 – 1st Lt. Frank B. Tyndall is the second U.S. Army Air Service pilot to utilize a parachute in a life-saving effort when the Boeing-built MB-3A, (probably AS-68380) he is testing at Seattle, Washington sheds its wings in flight almost directly over the Boeing factory. He would later perish on 15 July 1930 in the crash of Curtiss P-1F Hawk, 28-61, near Mooresville, North Carolina. Tyndall Air Force Base is named in his honor.

• 1922 – Etienne Oehmichen flies 525 m (1,722 ft) in a helicopter.

• 1918 – The Armistice with Germany brings World War I to an end. The Royal Flying Corps, Royal Naval Air Service, and Royal Air Force have suffered 16,623 casualties during the war, while the German Air Service has suffered in excess of 15,000.

November 12

• 2009 – RwandAir Flight 205, a Bombardier CRJ-100, crashes into a terminal shortly after an emergency landing at Kigali International Airport, Rwanda; of the 10 passengers and 5 crew, 1 passenger dies.

• 2008 – A USAF F-16 caught fire on takeoff. The pilot survived.[1]

• 2004 – UH-60A Black Hawk from 1–106th Aviation Regiment shot down northeast of Baghdad, wounding three of the four crew members.[2]

• 2001 – American Airlines Flight 587, an Airbus A300, crashes into a Queens neighborhood in New York City when the plane's vertical tail fin snaps just after takeoff. All 251 passengers and nine crew members on board are killed as well as five people on the ground.

• 1996 – Charkhi Dadri mid-air collision: Saudi Arabian Airlines Flight 763, a Boeing 747, collides in mid-air with Air Kazakhstan Flight 1907, an Ilyushin Il-76, near Charkhi Dadri, India. All 312 on board the Boeing 747 and all 37 on board the Ilyushin Il-76 are killed.

• 1995 – American Airlines Flight 1572, a McDonnell Douglas MD-83 with 78 people on board, lands short of the runway at Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks, Connecticut. Only one person is injured.

• 1995 – Launch: Space Shuttle Atlantis STS-74 at 7:30:43.071 a.m. EST. Mission highlights: 2nd Shuttle-Mir docking. Delivered docking module. IMAX cargo bay camera.

• 1989 – California Polytechnic State University flies the first human-powered helicopter

• 1984 – Space Shuttle astronauts snare a satellite, the first ever “space salvage. ”

• 1983 – McDonnell-Douglas F-15A-16-MC Eagle, 76-076, c/n 0265/A228, of the 71st Tactical Fighter Squadron, 1st Tactical Fighter Wing, jumps chocks during an engine run at Langley AFB, Virginia, and collides with F-15, 76-071, c/n 0259/A223, of the same units. Both are repaired. 76-076 is later placed on display in park near DeBary, Florida, marked as 85-0125, in memory of an airman killed in the Khobar Towers terrorist bombing.

• 1981 – Launch: Space shuttle Columbia STS-2 at 15:09:59 UTC. Mission highlights: First reuse of a manned orbital space vehicle; first test of Canadarm robot arm; Truncated due to fuel cell problem.

• 1980 – Delta Air Lines orders 60 Boeing 757s, the largest single order to this time for a single airliner type.

• 1980 – Voyager 1 makes its closest approach to Saturn, flying 77,000 miles above its surface and taking photo of its rings.

• 1970 – First flight of the Kawasaki C-1

• 1944 – 29 Royal Air Force Avro Lancaster bombers employing 12,000-pound (5,443 kg) Tallboy bombs score two hits on the German battleship Tirpitz at Altenfjord, Norway, sinking her with heavy loss of life.

• 1943 – A strike by five Japanese Mitsubishi G4 M (“Betty”) bombers damages the light cruiser USS Denver (CL-58) off Bougainville.

• 1941 – The British aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal was torpedoed on 12 Nov 1941 and it sank the following day in the Mediterranean Sea east of Gibraltar by the German submarine U-81.[3][4][5][6]

• 1932 – First flight of the de Havilland Dragon

• 1922 – Japan's first airmail service commences, linking Sakai, Osaka and Tokushima.

• 1922 – Lt. Cdr. Godfrey DeCourcelles Chevalier, a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy in June 1910, who was appointed a Naval Air Pilot No. 7 on 7 November 1915 and a Naval Aviator No. 7 on 7 November 1918, crashes in a Vought VE-7 while en route from NAS Norfolk to Yorktown, Virginia, dying in Portsmouth Naval Hospital on 14 November as a result of his injuries. On 26 October 1922 Lieutenant Commander Chevalier made the first landing on the USS Langley's deck, the U.S. Navy's first aircraft carrier, in an Aeromarine 39-B, A-606.

• 1921 – The first air-to-air refueling was made when Wesley May stepped from the wing of one aircraft to that of another carrying a five-gallon can of gasoline strapped to his back.

• 1919 – Keith and Ross Smith set out to fly a Vickers Vimy, G-EAOU, from England to Australia, the first flight between these two places. They arrive in Darwin on December 18.

• 1912 – A Curtiss Triad becomes the first aircraft to be launched by catapult, at the US Navy's Washington Navy Yard.

• 1912 – The first demonstration of naval aircraft at an Imperial Japanese Navy fleet review takes place at Yokohama, with Lieutenant Yōzō Kaneko flying a Farman seaplane and Lieutenant Sankichi Kōno a Curtiss seaplane.

• 1906 – First flight certified and registered by FAI: Brazilian Alberto Santos Dumont in Paris in his “14 bis” flies some 720 feet and wins the Aéro-Club de France prize for exceeding 100 m.

• 1903 – The Lebaudy brothers make a controlled dirigible flight of 54 km (34 miles) from Moisson to Paris.

November 13

• 2011 – The Dubai-based airline Emirates orders 50 Boeing 777 airliners worth about US$18,000,000,000 – the largest order in terms of commercial value in Boeing's history – with an option to purchase 20 more 777s for another $8,000,000,000.[1]

• 2008 – An Antonov An-12 crashes after takeoff from Al Asad Air Base, killing all 7 crew members.[2] Six members of the crew and one passenger died, three of them were Russians. The crew also consisted of a Belarusian, two Ukrainians and an Indian citizen.[3]

• 1993 – China Northern Airlines Flight 6901, a McDonnell Douglas MD-82, crashes on approach to Ürümqi Diwopu International Airport, Xinjiang, China; killing 12 of the 102 on board; pilot error is blamed.

• 1992 – The famous ‘golf balls’ at RAF Fylingdales were replaced in service by the three sided pyramid structure of the new AN/FPS-115 phased-array radar.

• 1992 – First flight of the Progressive Aerodyne SeaRey

• 1981 – Ben Abruzzo and crew make the first crossing of the Pacific Ocean by balloon, in the Double Eagle V

• 1966 – All Nippon Airways Flight 533, a NAMC YS-11, plunges into Seto Inland Sea after an overrun at Matsuyama Airport, Shikoku, Japan, killing all 50 passengers and crew; this crash is the first loss of a YS-11.

• 1958 – Seventh of 13 North American X-10s, GM-19313, c/n 7, on X-10 Drone BOMARC target mission 2, out of Cape Canaveral, Florida. The X-10 flies out over the ocean, then accelerates toward the Cape. However the Bomarc A fails to launch. Autoland is successful, but again the drag chute and landing barrier both fail, and the vehicle burns after overrunning the runway.

• 1951 – A USAF Fairchild C-82A-FA Packet, 45-57801, c/n 10171, 'CQ-801', of the 11th Troop Carrier Squadron, 60th Troop Carrier Group, en route from Rhein-Main Air Base, Germany to Bordeaux–Mérignac Airport, France, goes off-course due to wind drift, compounded with having received weather briefings for 8,000 feet (2,400 m), but flew at 6,000 feet (1,800 m), hits the side of Mt. Dore in poor weather at ~1300 hrs., 20 miles (32 km) SW of Clermont-Ferrand, France. Six crew and 30 passengers all killed. It was transporting US Army postal workers to set up a military post office at Bordeaux, France. This remains the worst all-time C-82 accident in terms of human loss.

• 1950 – The 1950 Tête de l'Obiou C-54 crash: A Curtiss Reid Flying Services-operated C-54 Skymaster crashes 30 mi (48 km) from Grenoble, France on the Tête de l'Obiou mountain; all 52 passengers and crew die.

• 1944 – civil air services to London are restored, with the first flights carried out by Railway Air Services

• 1943 – American preparatory bombing for the amphibious landings in the Gilbert Islands begins with a strike by 17 U. S. Army Air Forces B-24 Liberators against Japanese forces on Betio island at Tarawa Atoll. For the next week, B-24s raid Betio, Butaritari, or both every day, Mili four times, and Jaluit and Maloelap twice each, destroying several Japanese aircraft. Japanese aircraft strike Nanumea and Funafuti once each, destroying one B-24 and damaging two.

• 1942 – A U. S. Navy OS2U Kingfisher floatplane rescues U. S. World War I ace Eddie Rickenbacker and two other survivors of a ditched B-17D Flying Fortress from a life raft. They had been adrift in the Pacific for 22 days.

• 1940 – Introduction: Handley Page Halifax with the Royal Air Force’s No. 35 Squadron

• 1926 – Schneider Trophy race flown at Hampton Roads, USA. Won by Mario De Bernardi (Italy) in a Macchi M.39 at 396.698 km/h (246.5 mph).

• 1916 – Sole prototype of the Zeppelin-Lindau (Dornier) V1, a single-seat, all-metal fighter with pod-type fuselage and pusher 160 hp (120 kW) Maybach Mb III engine, designed by Dipl-Ing Claudius Dornier, and built by the Abteilung 'Dornier' of the Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH at Seemoos, near Friedrichshafen, attempts initial flight. After a series of ground hops in September by Bruno E. Schröter, this pilot refused to fly the prototype due to pronounced tail-heaviness. Oblt. Haller von Hallerstein, instead undertakes initial flight this date, but the V1 performs a loop immediately after take-off, crashing, killing pilot. No further development undertaken of the type.

• 1915 – Flying a BE.2c, Royal Naval Air Service Flight Commander J. R. W. Smyth-Pigott makes a daring night bombing attack on a bridge of the Berlin-Constantinople railway over the Maritsa River at Kuleli Burgas in the Ottoman Empire from an altitude of 300 feet (91 meters). Although the bridge sruvives, he receives the Distinguished Service Order for gallantry.

• 1907 – First flight of the Cornu helicopter

• 1906 – Alberto Santos-Dumont flies the Santos-Dumont 14-bis a distance of 722 feet (220 m) in 21 seconds on the grounds of the Château de Bagatelle. With the event happening after over two years of successful Wright brothers flights in the United States, this is recorded as the first officially observed aeroplane flight in Europe and the distance Santos-Dumont flies is the first officially recognized airplane distance record.

November 14

• 2012 – Israel begins Operation Pillar of Defense by launching its most intense air attacks against Hamas forces in the Gaza Strip since 2008, killing the Hamas defense chief in Gaza, Ahmed al-Jabari, and striking dozens of targets before dark.[1]

• 2009 – English Electric Lightning T5 ZU-BEX crashed during an airshow at AFB Overberg, Bredasdorp, South Africa after a hydraulic failure, killing the pilot.

• 2008 – Launch: Space Shuttle Endeavour STS-126 at 19:55 EST. Mission highlights: ISS assembly flight ULF2: MPLM Leonardo, crew rotation.

• 2006 – EasyJet announces an order for 52 Airbus A319.

• 1990 – Alitalia Flight 404, a Douglas DC-9, crashes into Mt. Stadlerberg, Switzerland, killing all 46 on board.

• 1987 – Air Transat began airline operations.

• 1982 – A Mitsubishi T-2B, 19-5174, of the Blue Impulse (or 11 Squadron) air demonstration team of the Japanese Air Self-Defense Force fails to pull out of a descending bomb-burst manoeuvere following a formation loop, crashes into civilian house, Takaoka Town, Hamamatsu City, Shizuoka Prefecture, N of Hamamatsu Air Base, during base's 30th anniversary air show, killing pilot Capt. Takashima Kiyoshi. Thirteen civilians injured, 28 civilian houses and about 290 cars damaged. Footage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3-m8tIf97A&feature=related

• 1981 – Landing: Space shuttle Columbia STS-2 at 21:23:11 UTC. Mission highlights: First reuse of a manned orbital space vehicle; first test of Canadarm robot arm; Truncated due to fuel cell problem.

• 1974 – Entered Service: F-15 Eagle with the United States Air Force 555th Tactical Fighter Training Squadron at Luke Air Force Base

• 1970 – First flight of the Aerosport Rail

• 1970 – Southern Airways Flight 932, a chartered Douglas DC-9, crashes on approach at Tri-State Airport in Huntington, West Virginia, killing all 75 on board, including 37 players of the Marshall University football team and all but one of the coaching staff.

• 1969 – NASA launches Apollo 12, the second manned mission to the surface of the Moon.

• 1967 – Two McDonnell F-101B Voodoos of the 60th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, out of Otis AFB, Massachusetts, collide over Maine during a cross-country formation flight. Aircraft 57-376 is destroyed crashing on Mount Abraham after the two-man crew ejects with minor injuries. The uninjured crew of moderately damaged aircraft 57-378 makes an emergency landing at Dow AFB, Maine.

• 1967 – A USMC Bell UH-1E Iroquois, BuNo. 153757, of VMO-3, callsign Scarface 1-0, departs Phú Bài, South Vietnam, at 1040 hrs. with three crew, pilot Capt. Milton George Kelsey, co-pilot 1st Lt. Thomas Anthony Carter, and crew chief Cpl. Ronald Joseph Phelps. At 1145 they pick up Major General Bruno Arthur Hochmuth, CG 3rd MARDIV, his aide Maj. Robert Andrew Crabtree and Liaison Maj. Nguyễn Ngọc Chương to visit ARVN Brig. Gen. Ngô Quang Trưởng in Huế, departing the hospital pad at Huế Citadel at 1145. En route to Đông Hà, the helicopter is chased by an HMM-364 UH-34 Choctaw piloted by Capt. J. A. Chancey. At 1150, the UH-1 is flying NW over Highway 1 at ~1500 feet. At YD672266, Capt. Chancey sees the aircraft’s nose yaw to the right twice and at the same instant the aft/engine section explodes in an orange fireball. The fuselage separates from the rotor and the aircraft falls in pieces. The fuselage lands inverted in a flooded rice paddy; the tail cone a short distance away. All on board are apparently killed on impact. Hochmuth was the only Marine Corps officer of General rank to die in Vietnam. Although many theories were postulated for the crash, from enemy gunfire, to ARVN gunfire, to U.S. "friendly fire", to sabotage, the most likely reason was the failure of the tail rotor gearbox and the official findings on the incident, submitted by Brig.Gen. Robert Keller in November, 1967, states “there is no evidence to indicate this mishap was caused either by hostile action or inadvertent friendly fire.”

• 1965 – (14-18) The Battle of Ia Drang in South Vietnam is the culmination of the Ia Drang Valley campaign. The U. S. Army’s helicopter assault concept has made its combat debut as the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) undergoes its baptism of fire, losing only four helicopters to North Vietnamese fire during the campaign.

• 1962 – Yukon aircraft from 437 Squadron began carrying dependants, as well as troops, to and from Canadian military forces in Europe.

• 1961 – The 1961 Cincinnati Zantop DC-4 crash: A Zantop Air Transport DC-4 was on its final approach down to Greater Cincinnati Airport runway 18, when it clipped some trees, lost altitude and crashed into a wooded area near the airport.. This aircraft was the first of at least three aircraft on their final approach that failed to reach the safety of runway 18 at the Greater Cincinnati Airport, becoming victims of the area’s hilly terrain with steep changes in elevation from the Ohio River.

• 1946 – In the 1946 KLM Douglas DC-3 Amsterdam accident, a Douglas DC-3 crashes while attempting to land at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport in the Netherlands; all 26 passengers and crew on board are killed.

• 1944 – (13–14) Task Force 38 carrier aircraft raid Luzon, sinking the Japanese light cruiser Kiso, four destroyers, and seven merchant ships and destroying 84 Japanese aircraft in exchange for the loss of 25 U. S. planes.

• 1944 – RAF Air Chief Marshal Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory, his wife Dora, and eight aircrew are killed when Avro 685 York Mk. C.I, MW126, strikes ridge at the 6,300-foot (1,900 m) level in the French Alps between Belledonne and Seven Lakes Mountains, 30 miles (48 km) S of Grenoble, France, in a blizzard. Wreckage found by a villager in June 1945. Leigh-Mallory, originator of the "Big Wing" concept during the Battle of Britain, and younger brother of Everest mountaineer George Mallory, was en route to his new posting in Ceylon where he was to take over command of Allied air operations in South East Asia Command.

• 1942 – First flight of the Lockheed XP-49

• 1942 – During the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, U. S. Navy aircraft from the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CV-6) and U. S. Marine Corps aircraft from Henderson Field fatally damage the crippled Japanese battleship Hiei in Ironbottom Sound north of Guadalcanal in a series of air strikes during the day. Hiei sinks that evening.

• 1941 – The aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal sinks due to torpedo damage from U 81 sustained on November 13.

• 1940 – 14-15 – 437 Luftwaffe aircraft make a massed air raid on Coventry. 380 civilians are killed and some 800 wounded.

• 1938 – A KLM DC-3 (registered PH-ARY) crashed on approach to Schiphol, Amsterdam in low visibility, killing 6 of the 19 on board.

• 1935 – Prototype Noorduyn Norseman was tested at Pointe aux Trembles, Quebec by WJ McDonough. This was the first all-Canadian designed bush aircraft.

• 1933 – Fred Haise, American astronaut, was born. Haise was the Lunar Module Pilot on the aborted Apollo 13 lunar mission 1970. He later flew five flights as the Commander of the space shuttle Enterprise, 1977, for the Approach and Landing Test Program at Edwards Air Force Base, and was selected to command the original STS-2 mission to rescue the Skylab space station 1979, but was cancelled due to the long delays in the Shuttle’s development as well as the break-up of the Skylab in mid-1979.

• 1932 – 14-18 – Amy Johnson breaks the UK-Cape Town speed record, shaving 11 hours off Mollison's record in March. She flies a de Havilland Puss Moth.

• 1930 – First flight of the Handley Page H.P.42

• 1930 – Edward White (Lt.Col, USAF), American astronaut, was born (d. 1967). On June 3, 1965, he became the first American to conduct a spacewalk. White was killed during the Apollo 1 training accident and posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor and the Purple Heart Medal.

• 1929 – U.S. Navy Naval Aircraft Factory PN-11, BuNo A-7527, delivered 26 October 1929, catches fire at NAS Anacostia, Washington, D.C., and is destroyed after only 13:06 flight hours.

• 1919 – The American Railway Express Company hires a Handley Page V/1500 to carry 454 kg (1,000 lb) of parcels from New York to Chicago, but the attempt fails due to mechanical problems.

• 1910 – Eugene Ely takes off from a temporary platform erected over the bow of the light cruiser USS Birmingham, the first take-off from a ship.

November 15

• 2012 – Israeli aircraft strike 70 underground rocket-launching sites in the Gaza Strip in 60 minutes.[1]
• 2009 – Introduction: Mil Mi-28 (Mi-28 N)
• 2008 –An OH-58 Kiowa Warrior strikes a tower near Mosul, killing the two pilots.[2][3]
• 2007 – China Southern Airlines officially joins the SkyTeam alliance on November 15. Because of this, SkyTeam is the first airline alliance with a mainland china carrier. It is also a major push into the global network for mainland China.
• 2005 – Boeing formally launches the stretched Boeing 747-8 variant with orders from Cargolux and Nippon Cargo Airlines.
• 2003 – Two UH-60L Black Hawks from 4–101st Aviation Regiment(93-26531) and 9–101st Aviation Regiment(94-26548) collide and crash after one aircraft coming under fire; 6 and 11 soldiers (crew and passengers) on board are killed, respectively, and 5 others on board the first AC are injured in Mosul.[4][5]
• 2003 – Two United States Army Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters collide near Mosul, Iraq. Twenty-two soldiers were on both aircraft and 17 were killed.
• 2000 – A chartered Antonov AN-24 crashes after takeoff from Luanda, Angola, killing more than 40 people.
• 1999 – The U. S. Postal Service unveils the new 33-cent “Jumbo Jet” postage stamp honoring the Boeing 747.
• 1992 – An Aerocaribbean Ilyushin IL-18 flying from Santo Domingo to Puerto Plata in Dominican Republic, crashes into a mountain, killing all 34 occupants.
• 1990 – Launch: Space Shuttle Atlantis STS-126 at 18:48:13 EST. Mission highlights: Seventh classified DoD mission. Likely SDS2-2 deployed.
• 1987 – Continental Airlines Flight 1713, a McDonnell Douglas DC-9, crashes on take-off during a snowstorm at Denver's Stapleton International Airport, killing 25 passengers and 3 crew.
• 1985 – A United States Navy turboprop Convair C-131H Samaritan, BuNo 542817, of VR-48, Naval Air Facility, Washington, D.C., crashes shortly after take-off from Napier Field, Dothan, Alabama, killing two pilots of the Navy's Fleet Logistic Support Squadron, Andrews AFB, Maryland, and a flight engineer, also of Andrews AFB.
• 1979 – American Airlines Flight 444 was a Boeing 727 flying from Chicago to Washington DC, which was attacked by the Unabomber. The bomb planted in the cargo hold failed to detonate, but gave off large quantities of smoke, and twelve passengers had to be treated afterwards for smoke inhalation. It was later determined that the bomb was powerful enough to have destroyed the aircraft had it worked correctly.
• 1978 – Icelandic Airlines Flight LL 001, a Douglas DC-8 on a charter flight, crashes into a coconut plantation while on approach to Katunayake, Sri Lanka for a refueling stop; 183 out of 262 people on board are killed.
• 1972 – Ansett Airlines Flight 232 was an attempted hijacking of a Fokker Friendship bound for Alice Springs from Adelaide on Wednesday, 15 November 1972. It was the first aircraft hijacking in Australia. The would-be hijacker died in the incident.
• 1971 – A U.S. Navy Grumman A-6A Intruder, BuNo. 151563, of VA-42, on a maintenance test flight out of NAS Oceana, Virginia, suffers failure of the drogue chute gun in the pilot's ejection seat, pulling the two ejection seat cables and ejecting Lt. Dalton C. Wright. The bombardier-navigator, Lt. John W. Adair, with no pilot in the aircraft, is forced to eject. Jet comes down 15 miles from Oceana. The Navy investigation later determines that five or six flight accidents and one hangar accident may have been caused by the same problem. One source cites date of 15 October 1971.
• 1970 – US Navy Grumman S-2 Tracker crashes at Fort Dix, New Jersey killing four. Wreckage found on 16 November in wooded area off Range Road. Killed were pilot Navy Lt. J.G. James K. Larson, 24, of Milltown, New Jersey, co-pilot 1st Lt. (USMC) Carleton C. Perine, 25, of Orange, New Jersey, and passengers Navy Airman Apprentice Robert Suttle, 20, of Bricktown, New Jersey, and Navy Airman Apprentice Gary B. Warner, 19, of Central Bridge, New York.
• 1968 – The last official maintenance test flight of the RCAF sabre at the STU, Chatham.
• 1967 – The only fatality of the X-15 program occurs during the 191st flight when Air Force test pilot Michael J. Adams loses control of his aircraft which is destroyed mid-air over the Mojave Desert.
• 1967 – On the 191st flight of the North American X-15 program out of Edwards AFB, California, the third of three, 56-6672, suffers problems during reentry from 266,000 foot altitude, 3,750 mph mission. Airframe has massive structural failure, killing pilot Michael J. Adams, the only fatality in X-15s.
• 1966 – Pan Am Flight 708, a Boeing 727, crashes near Berlin, Germany; all three crew members are killed.
• 1965 – A Boeing 707 makes the first polar circumnavigation of the world.
• 1964 – Bonanza Air Lines Flight 114, a Fairchild F27, slams into a mountain in poor weather while on a nighttime approach to Las Vegas, Nevada; all 29 aboard perish when the plane crashes only 10 feet (3 m) below a ridge; initially blamed on a pilot's misreading his approach chart, years later the chart maker agrees to pay a settlement of US$490,000 to some of the victims' heirs after it is shown the chart had incorrect markings.
• 1957 – In the 1957 Aquila Airways Solent crash, a flying boat crashes near Chessell, Isle of Wight, UK, due to engine failure, killing 45 out of the 58 on board.
• 1957 – First flight of the Tupolev Tu-114
• 1957 – USAF Boeing TB-29-75-BW Superfortress, 44-70039, c/n 10871, of the 5040th Radar Evaluation Flight, 5040th Consolidation Maintenance Group, Elmendorf AFB, Alaska, crashed 39 miles (63 km) SE of Talkeetna, Alaska at ~1822 hrs. Mission departed Elmendorf on a ground radar calibration mission at 0954 under instrument flight rules on flight path to the Aircraft Control and Warning radar stations at Campion near Galena and then Murphy Dome, N of Fairbanks. Flight covered 1,800 nmi (3,300 km). with ~ten hours in the air. Superfortress had fourteen hours' fuel and a crew of eight plus an instructor pilot. On final leg of approach to Elmendorf, bomber came down on glacier now known as "Bomber Glacier", three crew with major injuries and one with a minor injury later upgraded to major, others KWF. Due to remoteness of crashsite, wreckage is still there.
• 1956 – A Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) Douglas DC-7 C sets a new distance record for commercial airlines by flying 6,005 miles nonstop from Los Angeles to Stockholm, Sweden, following the Great Arctic Circle route.
• 1954 – No. 433 Squadron was reformed at Cold Lake, Alberta and equipped with Avro Canada CF-100 fighters
• 1952 – A United States Air Force Fairchild C-119C-23-FA Flying Boxcar, 51-2570, c/n 10528, disappears on a flight from Elmendorf AFB to Kodiak Naval Air Station with 20 on board.
• 1945 – First flight of the PZL S-1.
• 1943 – First of three prototypes of the Curtiss XP-55 Ascender, 42-78845, on test flight out of Lambert Field, St. Louis, Missouri, crashes when pilot is unable to recover from a stall, engine then quits, Curtiss test pilot J. Harvey Gray divorces airframe after 16,000-foot (4,900 m) plummet, landing safely, fighter impacts inverted in an open field.
• 1942 – The German submarine U-155 torpedoes and sinks the British aircraft carrier HMS Avenger off Gibraltar with the loss of all but 12 of her crew.
• 1941 – No. 418 (Intruder) Squadron was formed in England.
• 1941 – (November 15-December 5) The Luftwaffe carries out 41 raids on Moscow. Soviet air defenses claim an average of 30 to 40 German aircraft shot down per day during the attacks.
• 1937 – Squadrons of the NPAAF were renumbered by adding 100 to their number, e. g. No. 10 Squadron became No. 110 Squadron.
• 1936 – (15-17) The German Condor Legion sees its first action of the Spanish Civil War, supporting Nationalist forces fighting to take Madrid.
• 1932 – On first flight of United States Navy Hall XP2H-1 four-engine flying boat, BuNo A-8729, it noses straight up on take-off due to incorrectly rigged stabilizer, test pilot Bill McAvoy and aircraft's designer Charles Ward Hall, Sr., manage to chop throttles, plane settles back, suffering only minor damage. Incident occurred at NAS Anacostia, Washington, D.C.. This sole prototype was the largest four-engine biplane the U.S. Navy ever procured, with a wingspan of 112 feet.
• 1929 – The McDonnell Doodlebug makes its first flight. The Doodlebug was a two-seat, low-wing monoplane and was the first airplane James McDonnell both designed and built.
• 1926 – T. Neville Stack and B. S. Leete leave England in an attempt to reach India by air in a de Havilland DH.60. They will arrive in Karachi on January 8 1927.
• 1919 – Alameda officials make an announcement stating that suspected criminals will be subjected to perilous flight to make them confess their crimes.
• 1916 – The Model C two-place training seaplane, the first “all-Boeing” designed aircraft, makes its first flight.
• 1906 – Curtis LeMay, U. S. Air Force general, is born (d. 1990). Lemay took over a B-17 Flying Fortress unit in England in October 1942, as part of the Eighth Air Force and led it in combat until May 1943, notably helping to develop the combat box formation. He was a general in the United States Air Force and the vice presidential running mate of independent candidate George C. Wallace 1968.

November 16

• 2010 – A USAF Lockheed Martin F-22A Raptor, 06-4125, of the 525th Fighter Squadron, 3d Wing, crashes in Alaska near Susitna Lodge, killing pilot Capt. Jeffrey Haney, from Clarklake, Michigan.

• 2009 – Launch: Space Shuttle Atlantis STS-129 at 19:28:09 UTCT. Mission highlights: ISS assembly flight ULF3: ExPRESS Logistics Carriers (ELCs) 1 & 2.

• 2007 – Inclement weather caused a BHP Billiton AS350-B2 helicopter,[1] to crash in Angola, killing the helicopter's five passengers.[2]

• 2004 – NASA's X-43 reaches a record speed of Mach 10 (7,000 mph, 11,200 km/h)

• 1984 – Landed: Space Shuttle Discovery STS-51-A at 11:59:56 UTC KSC, Runway 15. Mission highlights: Multiple comsat deployments, retrieval of two other comsats Palapa B2 and Westar VI which were subsequently refurbished on Earth and reflown.

• 1982 – Landing: Space shuttle Columbia STS-5 at 14:33:26 UTC. Mission highlights: Multiple comsat deployments. First EVA of program canceled due to suit problems.

• 1973 – Skylab 4 launches into orbit as the fourth Skylab mission, bringing the third and final crew to the space station.

• 1973 – While on reserve station south of Crete, a U.S. Marine Corps Boeing-Vertol CH-46 Sea Knight from USS Guadalcanal (LPH-7) loses engine power during a routine flight while hovering above the USS Barry. The helicopter, with crewmen aboard, crashes into the destroyer's ASROC deck, rolls over the starboard side, and almost immediately sinks. While no one on Barry was injured, only two of the three helicopter crew were rescued by the ship's Motor Whale Boat.

• 1970 – First flight of the Lockheed L-1011 TriStar

• 1970 – A U.S. Navy McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II crashed in the Atlantic Ocean 30 miles E of the Virginia Capes shortly after launch from the carrier USS Forrestal, CVA-59. Two crew, out of NAS Oceana, Virginia, are lost, the Navy reported 17 November. Pilot was Lt.j.g. John Dale O'Connor, and RSO was Lt.j.g. Thomas F. Hanagan, both of Virginia Beach, Virginia. They were attached to a fighter squadron based at NAS Oceana at Virginia Beach.

• 1967 – American aircraft attack the shipyards at Haiphong, North Vietnam, for the first time.

• 1965 – Russia’s Venera 3, the first spacecraft to land on another planet’s surface, is launched.

• 1959 – First flight of the Canadair CL-44

• 1959 – National Airlines Flight 967, a Douglas DC-7 B, crashes into the Gulf of Mexico while on a flight from Tampa, Florida to New Orleans, Louisiana, in a possible case of sabotage; all 40 on board perish.

• 1955 – KLM places an order for eight DC-8 s.

• 1953 – First trans-Canada flight by a CF-100 Canuck aircraft from RCAF 445 Squadron took place.

• 1946 – First flight of the Saab 90 Scandia

• 1945 – Pan American World Airways resumes commercial seaplane service between California and Hawaii, using Boeing Clipper aircraft it has leased to the U.S. Navy during World War II.

• 1942 – A B-24D Liberator of the 1st Antisubmarine Squadron based at St. Eval in the United Kingdom flies the first operational mission of the U.S. Army Air Forces Antisubmarine Command.

• 1938 – HMS Ark Royal enters service with the Royal Navy as the world’s first aircraft carrier with deck armor.

• 1937 – A Sabena Junkers Ju 52 crashes near Ostend, Belgium, killing all 11 on board, including the Grand Duke Georg Donatus and Grand Duchess Cecilie of Hesse, who was eight months pregnant.

• 1928 – Western Canada Airways established the Prairie Air Mail Route, an experimental air ail service operated for 20 days.

• 1927 – The United States Navy commissions USS Saratoga (CV-3), its first large aircraft carrier and its first carrier capable of fleet speeds and true combat operations.

• 1920 – QANTAS is formed at Longreach, Queensland.

• 1919 – Cpt Henry Wrigley and Lt Arthur Murphy make the first aerial crossing of Australia, flying a Royal Aircraft Factory BE.2e from Melbourne to Darwin, taking 46 hours

• 1915 – Victor Carlstrom became the first pilot to fly from Toronto to New York. Carlstrom flew in a Curtiss R-2 biplane and was in the air for 6 hours and 40 min.

• 1909 – German Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin forms the world’s first commercial airline, DELAG [Deutsche Luftschiffahrts-Aktiengesellschaft (German for "German Airship Travel Corporation")]

• 1906 – First flight of the Lebaudy Patrie, French semi-rigid airship.

November 17

• 2012 – Israel expands its air campaign in the Gaza Strip to target Hamas government buildings, destroying the offices of Ismail Haniyeh, the Prime Minister of the Palestinian National Authority in Gaza. Israeli airstrikes increase to nearly 200 early in the day.[1]

• 2012 – Syrian rebels capture a Syrian government air base near rebel-held Abu Kamal, Syrian, meaning that the only air base the Syrian government holds in the Deiz ez-zor reigion is the main one near the city of Deiz ez-zor itself.[2]

• 2012 – United Nations attack helicopters strike rebel positions south of Kibumba in North Kivu province in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.[3]

2003 – Concorde G-BOAE Departed London Heathrow for the last time. Flew direct and retired at Grantley Adams International Airport, Barbados

• 1997 – ValuJet Airlines terminated operations after merging to AirTran Airways.

• 1995 – Rollout of the first HAL Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) technology demonstrator, TD-1

• 1967 – American aircraft strike Bac Mai airfield near Hanoi for the first time.

• 1962 – President John F. Kennedy dedicates the Dulles International Airport in Herndon, Virginia.

• 1956 – First flight of the Dassault Mirage III

• 1955 – One of the pilots of two USMC Grumman F9F Panther fighters that collided over the Mojave Desert near Lancaster, California, was killed this date. The dead pilot was identified as Lt. Donald R. Roland, formerly of Itasca, Illinois. The pilot of the other plane, Lt. Robert F. Heinecken, of Riverside, California, made an emergency landing and was uninjured. The planes were from MCAS El Toro, California.

• 1955 – Douglas MC-54M Skymaster, 44-9068, c/n 27294/DO240, attached to the 1700th Air Transport Group, of the Military Air Transport Service, at Kelly AFB, Texas, crashes into Mount Charleston, ~20 miles WNW of Las Vegas, Nevada, while on a routine flight with technical personnel from the Lockheed "Skunk Works" at Burbank, California where it had picked up passengers after departing Norton Air Force Base, California. It was en route to Groom Lake, Nevada, the secret Area 51, when it was blown off course by a severe storm, killing all 14 on board, nine civilians and five military. Because of the secrecy involved with the Lockheed U-2 project, the C-54 crew was never in contact with Air Traffic Control, and, off course and lost in clouds, an error in plotting the position of the Skymaster in relation to the Spring Mountains range resulted in the crash only 50 feet below the crest of an 11,300-foot ridge leading to the peak of Mount Charleston. Lockheed subsequently assumes responsibility for the flights to "Watertown", using a company-owned C-47.

• 1954 – A B-47 is forced by bad weather to remain aloft for 47 hours 35 min, requiring to do air-to-air refueling nine times before successfully landing.

• 1954 – Lt. Col. John Brooke England (1923–1954) is killed in a crash near Toul-Rosieres Air Base, France when he banks away from a barracks area while landing his North American F-86 Sabre in a dense fog. His engine flamed out. He was on a rotational tour from Alexandria AFB, Louisiana, with the 389th Fighter-Bomber Squadron, which he commanded. He was a leading and much-decorated North American P-51 Mustang ace during World War II. Col. England flew 108 missions and scored 19 aerial victories-including 4 on one mission. England also served as a combat pilot in the Korean War. Alexandria Air Force Base is renamed England Air Force Base in his honor on 23 June 1955.

• 1954 – Fairey FD.2, WG774, a single-engined transonic research aircraft, the last British design to hold the World Air Speed Record, suffers engine failure on 14th flight when internal pressure build-up collapses the fuselage collector tank at 30,000 feet (9,100 m), 30 miles (48 km) from Boscombe Down. Fairey pilot Peter Twiss, stretches glide, dead-sticks into airfield, drops undercarriage at last moment but only nose gear deploys, jet bellies in, sustaining damage that sidelines it for eight months. Twiss, only shaken up, receives the Queen's Commendation for Valuable Service in the Air. FD.2 test program does not resume until August 1955.

• 1953 – USAF Fairchild C-119F-KM Flying Boxcar, 51-8163, crashed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, during a joint airborne operation. One of 12 C-119s on a troop drop, it lost an engine, dropped out of formation, hit and killed ten troopers in their chutes that had been dropped from other aircraft, that in addition to four crew members and one medical officer that went down with the plane.

• 1952 – On the first launch attempt of the Martin B-61A Matador, GM-11042, the JATO booster malfunctions and penetrates the rocket which then crashes 400 feet from the launch point.

• 1947 – First flight of the Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcar.

• 1945 – A USAAF Republic P-47N Thunderbolt, 44-88938, crashes between two houses on Windsor Parkway in Hempstead, New York shortly after take-off from Mitchel Field, setting both structures on fire. Morning accident kills pilot, 1st Lt. Daniel D. A. Duncan, 24, of New Iberia, Louisiana.

• 1944 – The U. S. submarine USS Spadefish (SS-411) torpedoes and sinks the Japanese aircraft carrier Shinyo with the loss of 1,130 lives. There are 70 survivors.

• 1943 – Air Solomons (AirSols) fighters intercept 35 Japanese planes heading for a strike on the U. S. landings on Bougainville, shooting down 16 for the loss of two F4U Corsairs. An Japanese torpedo bomber sinks a U. S. destroyer-transport off Bougainville with heavy loss of life.

• 1943 – First flight of the Fisher P-75 Eagle

• 1941 – Ernst Udet, the Luftwaffe's Director-General of Equipment and the second-highest German ace of World War I (62 victories), commits suicide.

• 1940 – Operation White, a second attempt by the British aircraft carrier HMS Argus to fly off aircraft – 14 RAF Hawker Hurricanes and two Fleet Air Arm Blackburn Skuas – to Malta fails almost completely when the aircraft are launched at too great a range and become lost in bad weather. Only four Hurricanes and one Skua reach Malta; the other Hurricanes all ditch in the Mediterranean with the loss of all but one of their pilots, and the one Skua crash lands on Sicily, where the Italians capture its crew.

• 1936 – RCAF accepted its first Blackburn Shark aircraft.

• 1927 – Sir Alan Cobham sets out from England in a Short Singapore to make an aerial survey of Africa.

• 1926 – Mario de Bernardi breaks his four-day old world speed record, reaching 416.618 km/h (258.875 mph) in the same Macchi M.39 at Hampton Roads, Virginia, USA.

• 1915 – Imperial German Navy Zeppelin LZ52, L 18, destroyed in shed fire at Tondern during refilling.

• 1910 – Ralph Johnstone, a pilot for the Wright Exhibition Team, becomes the first American pilot to die in a plane crash when his machine breaks apart in mid air in full view of about 5,000 spectators at Denver, Colorado.

• 1906 – The Daily Mail of London offers a £10,000 prize for the first flight from London to Manchester.

November 18

• 2009 – Pel-Air Westwind ditching or Norfolk Island ditching was an aircraft accident near Norfolk Island. A Westwind II jet operated by Pel-Air was conducting an air ambulance flight for CareFlight International when it was forced to ditch after being unable to land in bad weather and not having sufficient fuel to divert to an alternate destination.

• 2009 – Iran Air Fokker 100 EP-CFO suffered an undercarriage malfunction on take-off from Isfahan International Airport. The aircraft was on a flight to Mehrabad Airport, Tehran when the undercarriage failed to retract. The aircraft landed at Isfahan but was substantially damaged when the left main gear collapsed.

• 2009 – Virgin America commences service between their San Francisco (SFO) hub and Fort Lauderdale (FLL), as well as LAX-FLL.

• 2002 – American Airlines and British Airways announce plans to code-share some transatlantic flights, but the partnership is heavily restricted by US regulators.

• 1997 – The FBI concludes its investigation of the TWA Flight 800 crash, declaring there is no evidence of foul play. The NTSB’s investigation would continue.

• 1985 – The first Space Shuttle, Enterprise, is flown to Washington Dulles International Airport atop a Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft and transferred from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to the Smithsonian Institution for eventual museum display. Although lacking engines and a heat shield and never having flown in space, it has been used for shuttle portability, gliding, vibration, and launch pad tests and on publicity tours.

• 1985 – Cessna is purchased by General Dynamics

• 1983 – (Aeroflot Flight 6833, a Tupolev Tu-134, is hijacked by seven Georgians attempting to defect from the Soviet Union; the aircraft is stormed by Alpha Group who arrest four hijackers; three are executed while the fourth receives a jail sentence; of the 71 on board (including the hijackers), eight die; the aircraft is written off.

• 1978 – First flight of the McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet

• 1975 – Boeing Wichita delivers its first modified B-52D to the Strategic Air Command.

• 1971 – Lockheed U-2A, 56-6952, Article 392, second airframe of the USAF supplementary production, delivered in January 1958, and assigned to the 4080th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing, Laughlin AFB, Texas. Converted to U-2C by November 1966. Assigned to training flights at Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona, in 1969. Destroyed this date at Davis-Monthan, in a fatal landing accident. Pilot was Capt. John Cunney, who lands heavily, wing low, attempts go-around but stalls and crashes onto the runway.

• 1967 – First flight of the Dassault Mirage G

• 1966 – Captain William J. Knight flies the North American X-15 to a record speed of Mach 6.33 (4,250 mph, 6,840 km/h)

• 1964 – First flight of the Grumman C-2 Greyhound

• 1955 – First flight of the Bell X-2

• 1952 – Off northeastern Korea, three U. S. Navy F9 F-5 Panther fighters from Fighter Squadron 781 (VF-781) aboard the aircraft carrier USS Oriskany (CVA-34) engage seven MiG-15 s almost certainly flown by Soviet pilots, shooting down two MiG-15 s without loss to themselves.

• 1949 – A Douglas C-74 Globemaster carries 103 passengers and crew over the North Atlantic, the largest number to have made the crossing in a single flight.

• 1944 – First flight of the Mitsubishi Ki-83

• 1943 – Battle of Berlin (air), 440 Royal Air Force planes bomb Berlin causing only light damage and killing 131. The RAF lost nine aircraft and 53 air crew.

• 1943 – (18-19) Carrier aircraft from USS Essex (CV-9), USS Intrepid (CV-11), and USS Cabot (CVL-28) strike the island of Betio at Tarawa Atoll, inflicting considerable damage on Japanese forces there.

• 1943 – F/O DF McRae and crew, flying a Vickers Wellington of No. 179 (RAF) Squadron, sank the German submarine U-211.

• 1942 – First flight of the Tachikawa Ki-77.

• 1942 – In a typical wartime training accident, a Beechcraft AT-7 Navigator, 41-21079, c/n 1094, of the 341st School Squadron, crashes in the Mendel Glacier (one source says Darwin Glacier) in California’s Kings Canyon National Park. The four-member training flight left Mather Field in Sacramento, California, and was never heard from again. On 24 September 1947, a hiker discovered wreckage of the plane on a glacier in Kings Canyon. On 16 October 2005, a climber on the Mendel Glacier discovered a body believed to be one of the crew members. He was later identified as Leo M. Mustonen, 22, of Brainerd, Minnesota. The others were John M. Mortenson, 25, of Moscow, Idaho; William R. Gamber, 23, of Fayette, Ohio; and Ernest G. Munn of St. Clairsville, Ohio. A second body was found under receding snow in 2007 and was identified Ernest G. Munn.

• 1941 – No. 416 (Fighter) Squadron was formed in England.

• 1938 – The Battle of the Ebro ends with Spanish Nationalists retaking all territory captured by the Republicans. The Spanish Republican Air Force has lost between 150 and 170 aircraft since the battle began on July 25, and the Nationalists also have lost many planes.

• 1930 – First flight of the Boeing XP-9

• 1923 – The first aerial refueling-related fatality occurs during an air show at Kelly Field, Texas, when the fuel hose becomes entangled in the right wings of the refueler and the receiver aircraft. The Army Air Service pilot of the refueler, Lt. P. T. Wagner, is killed in the ensuing crash of DH-4B, 23-444.

• 1923 – Alan Shepard (Rear Admiral, USN, Ret.), American astronaut, was born (d. 1998). Shepard was the first American in space. He later commanded the Apollo 14 mission, and was the fifth person to walk on the moon.

• 1922 – First flight of the Dewoitine D.1

• 1911 – First British seaplane to leave the water, and the first seaplane to take off from British waters, an Avro Type D, the first of six of the type, piloted by Royal Navy Commander Oliver Schwann, lifts off from Cavendish Dock, Barrow-in-Furness, England briefly, falls back into the water and is damaged. His lack of training betrayed him, and the first take-off was not followed by the first successful landing. The Avro will be repaired.

November 19

• 2009 – A de Havilland Canada DHC-8-200 being operated on behalf of United States Africa Command was substantially damaged when the undercarriage collapsed and the starboard wing was ripped off in an emergency landing at Tarakigné, Mali.

• 2009 – Compagnie Africaine d'Aviation Flight 3711, operated by McDonnell Douglas MD-82 9Q-CAB overran the runway on landing at Goma International Airport, suffering substantial damage. The overrun area was contaminated by solidified lava.

• 1999 – Launched: Shenzhou 1, China's first spacecraft.

• 1997 – Launch: Space Shuttle Columbia STS-87 at 14:46 EST. Mission highlights: Microgravity experiments, 2 EVAs, SPARTAN.

• 1996 – Launch: Space Shuttle Columbia STS-80 at 2:55:47 p.m EST. Mission highlights: Wake Shield Facility; ASTRO-SPAS.

• 1996 – United Express Flight 5925, a Beechcraft 1900, collides with a privately-owned Beechcraft King Air at Quincy Regional Airport, Illinois; killing all 14 on board both aircraft.

• 1977 – TAP Portugal Flight 425, a Boeing 727, overruns the runway at Madeira Airport and plunges over a steep bank, bursting into flames and killing 131 of the 164 people on board.

• 1975 – First flight of the AmEagle American Eaglet

• 1975 – First of three Boeing-Vertol YUH-61 helicopters completed, 73-21656, crashes and is moderately damaged during testing, but two company pilots escape injury. Cause is found to be failure of tail rotor drive shaft after the main rotor oversped during an auto-rotational recovery. Airframe is repaired. Now preserved at the Army Aviation Museum, Fort Rucker, Alabama. Type loses competition to Sikorsky UH-60 and airframes four and five are not completed.

• 1969 – Mohawk Airlines Flight 411, a Fairchild 227, crashes near Glens Falls, New York, killing all 14 people on board.

• 1969 – Apollo 12 lands on the Moon, allowing Charles "Pete" Conrad and Alan L. Bean to become the third and fourth humans to walk on its surface.

• 1960 – First flight of the Hawker Siddeley P.1127

• 1958 – Introduction: Fokker F27 Friendships were delivered to Aer Lingus.

• 1954 – A North American B-25 Mitchell on an "unauthorized flight" from Keesler Air Force Base crashed 400 yd (370 m) off shore into the Mississippi Sound, exploding near the Biloxi lighthouse.

• 1952 – A North American F-86D Sabre fighter sets a new world speed record of 698.505 mph.

• 1951 – A Boeing B-47B-5-BW Stratojet, 50-006, crashes shortly after an afternoon take-off at Edwards Air Force Base, California, killing three crew. The bomber comes down a quarter mile W of the runway and explodes. Officials at the base said the bomber was beginning a routine test flight. Killed are Captain Joseph E. Wolfe, Jr., the pilot, Chattanooga, Tennessee; Major Robert A. Mortland, 30, co-pilot, of Clarion, Pennsylvania, and Sergeant Christy N. Spiro, 32, of Worcester, Massachusetts.

• 1948 – Fairey Aviation Company of Canada was established and took over the facilities of the Clark-Ruse Aircraft Co. at Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.

• 1947 – Only accident of the Martin XB-48 test programme occurs when pilot E. R. "Dutch" Gelvin tries to abort takeoff in first prototype, 45-59585, from NAS Patuxent River, Maryland, when fire warning light comes on as engines reach full power. He retards throttle and applies brakes but bomber does not slow. As he runs out of runway and as the brake pressure bleeds off, he has a choice of running into the Chesapeake Bay or heading for the mudflats - he opts for the latter. He turns off the runway, tries to retract the undercarriage, runs across a ditch, a road, another ditch, left outrigger gear collapses and jet slides to stop leaning to port, just 50 feet short of a Navy doctor's home. Damage is minimal, limited to gear doors, outrigger, and flaps. Cause was the emergency fuel system, designed to maintain engine power at 94 percent, regardless of throttle position. This will be eliminated in second prototype.

• 1946 – Trans Canada Airlines received the first of five North Stars on loan from the RCAF.

• 1944 – U. S. Navy Task Force 38 carrier aircraft strike Luzon, destroying more than 100 Japanese aircraft in exchange for the loss of 13 U. S. planes in combat.

• 1941 – North American P-64, 41-19086, assigned to the 66th Air Base Squadron, Luke Field, Arizona, crashes and burns 20 miles NW of Luke Field after a stall/spin, killing pilot Charles C. Ball. Mölders, pilot Oberleutnant Kolbe and flight engineer Oberfeldwebel Hobbie were killed. Major Dr. Wenzel and radio operator Oberfeldwebel Tenz survived the crash landing. Dr. Wenzel sustained a broken arm and leg as well as a concussion, and Tenz a broken ankle. Mölders' fatal injuries included a broken back and a crushed ribcage. Accident investigators then and since have speculated whether Mölders would have survived the crash if he had used his seat belt. In his memory, on 20 December 1941, JG 51 was bestowed the honor name "Mölders".

• 1940 – The formation of the Air Cadet League of Canada formed to train 12-18 year-olds for future enlistment in the RCAF.

• 1938 – RCAF became directly responsible to the Minister of National Defence instead of the Chief of the General Staff, and achieved equal status with the RCN and Canadian Army.

• 1938 – Construction begins on a new airport serving the nation’s capital, Washington, D. C. built in nearby Virginia, and this airport will become Ronald Reagan National Airport.

• 1936 – (19-22) Curious to see the reaction of a civilian population to an attempt to systematically destroy its city by bombing, officers of the German Condor Legion supporting Francisco Franco's desire to bomb Madrid into surrendering oversee a bombing campaign by German Junkers Ju 52 and Italian Savoia-Marchetti SM.81 aircraft that kills 150 people in the city. It is the heaviest bombing ever carried out against a city up to that time.

• 1932 – First flight of the ANF Les Mureaux 170

• 1932 – A national monument to the Wright Brothers is unveiled at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

• 1931 – Introduced: Sikorsky S-40 with Pan American

• 1922 – Malert (Magyar Legiforgalmi) is formed, a fore-runner of MALÉV Hungarian Airlines.

• 1921 – Flying a Curtiss CR-2, Bert Acosta sets a new world speed record of 197.8 mph (318.32 km/hr)

• 1916 – Ruth Law sets a new distance record for cross-country flight by flying 590 miles (950 km) non-stop from Chicago to New York State. She flies on to New York City the next day.

• 1915 – First combat search and rescue: Richard Bell-Davies rescued a comrade who had been shot down in Bulgaria.

• 1912 – Italy's colonial air force is established as the Servizio d'Aviazione Coloniale.

• 1903 – After inventing and patenting the V8 engine the year before, Léon Y. K. Levavasseur demonstrates his Antoinette engine, designed as a lightweight powerplant specifically for aircraft.

November 20

• 2010 – Two people were taken to Pensacola Naval Hospital for evaluation after landing an Air Force Beechcraft T-6 Texan II with the landing gear up. The names of the two crew members were not released after the 1300 hrs. incident, Pensacola Naval Air Station Public Affairs Officer Harry White said. Both people safely exited the plane, which landed at Forrest Sherman Field at the air station, White said. The aircraft and crew are assigned to the U.S. Air Force's 455th Flying Training Squadron at NAS Pensacola. The incident is being investigated by a board of officers, a NAS Pensacola news release said.

• 2009 – Interlink Airlines commences first every passenger flights from Wonderboom Airport outside Pretoria, South Africa. This is the first time the South African capital is connected to other centres in South Africa, instead of using OR Tambo International, Johannesburg. Flights started with 737-200 aircraft, although the runway is inadequate for these aircraft, so severe weight penalties, supposed to use BAe146 aircraft in the near future. Currently flights only to Cape Town and Durban.

• 2007 – A RAF HC.1 Puma ZA938 crashes. 2 SAS troopers die after the Puma troop transporter goes down in an urban area during a covert mission over Baghdad. Two other men from 22 Special Air Service Regiment were seriously injured in the crash although their condition is not thought to be life threatening. A further seven SAS and three RAF survived the impact and were later rescued by Coalition forces.[1][2][3]

• 2006 – Flying imams incident: Six Muslim imams were removed from US Airways Flight 300 to Phoenix, Arizona, at Minneapolis airport, because several passengers and crew members became alarmed by what they felt was suspicious behavior.The airport police and Federal Air Marshal agreed the circumstances were suspicious enough to warrant asking the men to leave the airplane. The airline has stated that the captain delayed takeoff and called airport security workers to ask the imams to leave the plane; the men refused, and that the captain then called police. The plane left without the imams on board about three hours later. The imams were detained, questioned, and then released.

• 1993 – Avioimpex Flight 110, a Yakovlev Yak-42, crashed on approach to Ohrid Airport in Macedonia. All 116 passengers and crew died as a result of the crash though one passenger did live for 11 days before succumbing to his injuries.

• 1991 – 1992 Azerbaijani Mil Mi-8 shootdown occurred when an Azerbaijani helicopter MI-8 military helicopter, carrying peacekeeping mission team consisting of observers from Russia, Kazakhstan, government officials from Azerbaijan and several journalists, was shot down by Armenian military forces near the Karakend village of Khojavend district in Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan. All 22 people (19 passengers and 3 crew) on board were killed in the crash.

• 1978 – The US Air Force orders development of the KC-10 Extender

• 1974 – Lufthansa Flight 540 crashes shortly after takeoff in Nairobi, Kenya; 59 of 157 on board are killed in the first crash of a Boeing 747.

• 1970 – The US Air Force and Army assault the Son Tay prison camp. No POWs are found.

• 1969 – Nigeria Airways Flight 825, a Vickers VC-10, crashes on approach to Lagos International Airport killing all 87 passengers and crew on board.

• 1967 – TWA Flight 128, a Convair 880, crashes in Constance, Kentucky on approach to Greater Cincinnati Airport, killing 70 of 82 persons on board.

• 1964 – Linjeflyg Flight 277, a Convair CV-340, crashes during the approach to Engelholm, Sweden, when, in instrument meteorological conditions, the crew abandons the set procedure and descends prematurely; 31 people are killed; 12 survive.

• 1963 – Tenth Lockheed U-2A, Article 350, 56-6683, delivered to the CIA on 24 April 1956, converted to U-2F by spring 1963; loaned to SAC for Cuba overflight missions, crashes into the Gulf of Mexico 40 miles (64 km) NW of Key West, Florida, killing pilot Capt. Joe Hyde, Jr. Pilot was returning from a Brass Knob mission and was hand-flying the aircraft back to Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana, at 69,000 feet (21,000 m) after failure of autopilot when it entered a flat spin and impacted in the Gulf. Wreckage retrieved from shallow water near Florida coast but ejection seat, seat pack and parachute missing - pilot never found.

• 1956 – It was announced that No. 435 (Transport) Squadron would move from Namao, Alberta to Capodichino, Naples, Italy to assist UNEF in the Egyptian-Israeli crisis.

• 1953 – Scott Crossfield flies the Douglas Skyrocket past Mach 2, the first flight to reach this speed. The world airspeed record is now set at 1,291 mph (2,078 km/h)

• 1949 – In the Hurum air disaster, an Aero Holland Douglas DC-3 crashes near Hurum, Norway, killing 34 of the 35 on board, including 25 Jewish children.

• 1948 – American balloon reaches a record height of 26 miles.

• 1945 – First flight of the Saab 91 Safir

• 1945 – The Boeing B-29 Pacusan Dreamboat sets a world nonstop distance record of 8,198 miles on a flight from Guam to Washington, D. C.

• 1943 – Battle of Tarawa - Operation Galvanic, the American invasion of the Gilbert Islands, begins with amphibious landings on Betio island at Tarawa Atoll and on Butaritari. The invasion is supported by 11 fleet and light aircraft carriers, eight escort aircraft carriers, and land-based aircraft of the U. S. Navy and the U. S. Army Air Force’s Seventh Air Force. To oppose them, the Japanese have only 46 aircraft in the Gilbert and Marshall Islands combined. During the evening, Japanese torpedo bombers hit the aircraft carrier USS Independence (CVL-22) with on torpedo, forcing her to withdraw for repairs but losing eight of their number; it is the only damage Japanese aircraft inflict on any American ship during the Gilbert Islands campaign.

• 1942 – The completion of the Alaska Highway allows the opening of the Northwest Staging Route (or Alaska-Siberia (“Alsib”) Lend-Lease route). It includes flights of American-made aircraft from Great Falls, Montana, to Fairbanks, Territory of Alaska, where they are turned over to Soviet pilots who fly them to Nome, Alaska, and then on to Siberia. By December 31, the United States will have supplied 148 aircraft to the Soviet Union via this route.

• 1919 – The first municipal airport in the United States opens in Tucson, Arizona and is still in use today.

• 1917 – The Battle of Cambrai (1917) begins.

November 21

• 2012 – A military plane of Antonov model has crashed in the Sana'a, capital of Yemen, killing all 10 people on board included five military officers.

• 2012 – A ceasefire brings fighting in the Gaza Strip between Israel and Hamas to an end.

• 2012 – JetBlue Flight 1329: An Embraer E190, taxis to its gate after landing at Baltimore-Washington International Airport in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, a fire breaks out in one of its engines. After the airliner reaches its gate, everyone on board evacuates the plane uninjured via the jetway while firefighters douse the fire.

• 2004 – China Eastern Airlines Flight 5210, a Bombardier CRJ200, stalls and crashes near Baotou, China shortly after takeoff because of frost contamination; all 53 on board and two people on the ground are killed.

• 2003 – OH-58D Kiowa 92-0605 from D Troop, 1–17 Cavalry Regiment written off, reason unknown.

• 1990 – First flight of the Hongdu JL-8

• 1989 – A British Airways Boeing 747 narrowly misses crashing into the Penta hotel near Heathrow Airport

• 1986 – The first ever RAF air-to-air refuelling of a fully-loaded passenger carrying transport aircraft. It was carried out on a trooper flight to Oman as part of Exercise Saif Sareea. The refuelling took place over Sicily as part of the 4,200 mile, 9 h flight.

• 1981 – Aeroflot is banned from flying to the United States, after an earlier Aeroflot flight that overflew American military installations, straying from its supposed flight path.

• 1980 – Continental Micronesia Flight 614, a Boeing 727, crashes on landing at Yap International Airport; all on board survive.

• 1970 – US aircraft begin the first major bombing campaign of North Vietnam since 1968. 300 aircraft attack the Mu Gia and Ban Gari passes.

• 1959 – Ariana Afghan Airlines Flight 202, a Douglas DC-4, crashes after an apparent in-flight fire, killing 24 of 27 on board.

• 1958 – Fairey Gannet AS.1, WN345, fitted with Armstrong Siddeley ASMD.8 Double Mamba 112 coupled turboprop powerplant, suffers belly landing this date during test programme, caused by a partially retracted nosewheel. The pilot tries unsuccessfully to get the gear to deploy. Lands gear-up on foam-covered runway 22 at Bitteswell, suffering minimal damage. Repaired, it is back in the air within weeks.

• 1952 – First flight of the Percival Pembroke

• 1948 – The Roundel, the RCAF service publication, made its first appearance.

• 1917 – 21-24 – The Zeppelin LZ-104 "Das Afrika-Schiff" makes a 6,757 km journey through Africa in 96 hours (average speed 71 km/h).

• 1914 – Three RNAS Avro 504s bomb the Zeppelin sheds at Friedrichshafen.

• 1783 – In a flight lasting 25 min, de Rozier and d'Arlandes take the first untethered ride in a Montgolfière in Paris, the first human passengers carried in free flight by a hot-air balloon.

November 22

• 2012 – The pilot of the Czech subsonic one-seat military aircraft Aero L-159 Alca that crashed in central Bohemia was found dead in its wreckage.

• 2003 – A DHL Airbus A300 is struck by a missile near Baghdad, Iraq and loses hydraulic system function, but manages to land safely with only engine controls without any fatalities. This is the first non-fatal landing of an airliner without control surfaces.

• 1995 – A Japanese Air Self Defense Force Mitsubishi F-15J, 02-8919, of the 308 Hiko-tai, piloted by Capt. Higuchi Tatsumi, is accidentally shot down by an AIM-9L Sidewinder fired by another JASDF F-15 flown by Capt. Hino Junya during air-to-air combat training. Tatsumi ejects and is picked up safe.

• 1994 – TWA Flight 427, a McDonnell Douglas MD-82, collides with a Superior Aviation Cessna 441 on the runway at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport, killing the pilot and passenger in the Cessna; there are no fatalities on board the MD-82.

• 1989 – Launch: Space Shuttle Discovery STS-33 at 0:23:30 UTC. Mission highlights: Fifth classified DoD mission; Magnum/IUS.

• 1981 – United States Navy LTV A-7E-11-CV Corsair II, BuNo 158678, 'AJ-310', of VA-82 from the USS Nimitz air wing and based at Cecil Field, Florida, crashed at 1200 hrs. ~120 miles NW of Sardinia. Aircraft was returning to the ship after routine mission.

• 1968 – Japan Airlines Flight 2 was a flight that was piloted by Captain Kohei Asoh. The DC-8 plane was scheduled to land at San Francisco International Airport but due to heavy fog and other factors, Asoh mistakenly landed the plane in the waters of San Francisco Bay, two and a half miles short of the runway. None of the 96 passengers or 11 crew were killed or injured in the mishap. The plane was recovered 55 hours after the incident.

• 1961 – The first aircraft carrier designed as such to be completed in France, Clemenceau, is completed at the Brest Arsenal at Brest.

• 1961 – In Operation Skyburner, United States Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel Robert B. “Bob” Robertson sets a new world absolute speed record of 1,606.3 mph (2,585.1 km/hr) in a McDonnell F4 H-1 Phantom II.

• 1955 – Soviet Tupolev Tu-16 drops the first Soviet thermo-nuclear bomb RDS-37 in Siberia.

• 1952 – A United States Air Force Douglas C-124A Globemaster II, 51-0107, c/n 43441, on approach to Elmendorf AFB, Anchorage, Alaska, United States crashes into a remote glacier. The wreckage was found several days later on the South side of Mount Gannett. There were no survivors killing all 52 aboard. [41 Army and Air Force passengers and 11 crewmen.] 4th worst accident involving a Douglas C-124 This includes crashes as a result of criminal acts (shoot down, sabotage etc.) and does also include ground fatalities. 4th loss of a Douglas C-124. This is the 4th Douglas C-124 plane that was damaged beyond repair as result of an accident, a criminal act or a non-operational occurrence (hangar fire, hurricanes etc.) Debris from the crash was again found in June 2012.

• 1950 – AFirst official test flight of the U.S. Navy Vought XSSM-N-8 Regulus, FTV-1, (Flight Test Vehicle), '1', from Rogers Dry Lake, Edwards AFB, California, goes badly when, after reaching an altitude of several hundred feet after lift-off, the J33 jet-powered missile rolls violently right and crashes. Had it rolled to the left, it would likely have struck the USN Lockheed TV-2 Seastar chaseplane piloted by Chuck Miller with Roy Pearson on board as missile controller. Cause is found to be a broken brass pin in the port elevator pump assembly that allowed the elevator to deploy, the pin having been worn out during months of ground test runs. Brass is subsequently replaced by steel pins, and problem is solved.

• 1949 – First prototype Gloster E.1/44, TX145, on test flight out of the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE), Farnborough, suffers engine flame-out, crash lands. Repaired.

• 1946 – First flight of the Martin 2-0-2

• 1944 – 96 Task Force 38 carrier aircraft strike Japanese forces on Yap, employing air-to-ground rockets and napalm. Half of the napalm bombs do not ignite.

• 1944 – Consolidated PB4Y-2 Privateer, BuNo 59544, on pre-delivery test flight by company crew out of Lindbergh Field, San Diego, California, takes off at 1223 hrs., loses port outer wing on climb-out, crashes one quarter mile further on in ravine in undeveloped area of Loma Portal near the Navy Training Center, less than two miles (3 km) from point of lift-off. All crew killed, including pilot Marvin R. Weller, co-pilot Conrad C. Cappe, flight engineers Frank D. Sands and Clifford P. Bengston, radio operator Robert B. Skala, and Consolidated Vultee field operations employee Ray Estes. Wing panel comes down on home at 3121 Kingsley Street in Loma Portal. Cause is found to be 98 missing bolts, wing only attached with four spar bolts. Four employees who either were responsible for installation, or who had been inspectors who signed off on the undone work, are fired two days later. San Diego coroner's jury finds Consolidated Vultee guilty of "gross negligence" by vote of 11-1 on 5 January 1945, Bureau of Aeronautics reduces contract by one at a cost to firm of $155,000. Consolidated Vultee pays out $130,484 to families of six dead crew.

• 1943 – G/C CR Dunlap assumed command of No. 139 Wing (RAF), composed of three squadrons of North American Mitchell aircraft. This was the only time an RCAF officer commanded an RAF operational wing.

• 1941 – Malta-based British aircraft attack an Axis convoy bound from Naples to North Africa, damaging the Italian light cruiser Duca degli Abruzzi.

• 1941 – Luftwaffe ace Werner Mölders, traveling as a passenger in a Heinkel He 111, bearing Geschwaderkennung code '1G+TH', of Kampfgeschwader 27 "Boelcke" from the Crimea to Germany to attend the funeral of his superior, Ernst Udet, who had committed suicide, is killed during an attempted landing at Breslau during a thunderstorm when the aircraft crashed at 1130 hrs. Near Breslau, the port engine failed and the crew tried to land at the nearest available airfield, Schmiedefelde. Mölders official kill total stands at 115 at the time of his death, although he is believed to have shot down another 30 Soviet aircraft for which he received no credit while making unauthorized combat flights during the last months of his career.At low altitude, the second engine cut and the He 111 hit the ground near Martin Quander Farm at N°132 Flughafenstrasse.

• 1935 – Pan Am commences the first trans-Pacific airmail service, flying a Martin M.130 from San Francisco to Manila, via Honolulu, Midway Island, Wake Island, and Guam.

• 1917 – A Tellier T.3 seaplane piloted by U.S. Navy Ensign Kenneth R. Smith, with Electrician's Mate Wilkinson and Machinist's Mate Brady on board, was forced down at sea on a flight out of NAS LeCroisic, France, to investigate the reported presence of German submarines south of Belle Isle. Two days later, and only minutes before their damaged plane sank, they were rescued by a French destroyer. It was the first armed patrol by a U.S. Naval Aviator in European waters.

• 1916 – First flight of the Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5

• 1909 – Wright Company is incorporated with a capital stock of $1,000,000. Formed to manufacture airplanes, the company’s president is Wilbur Wright and his brother Orville is the vice president.

• 1901 – The Wright brothers begin wind tunnel experiments at Dayton, Ohio, to optimize the wing design of what will become their 1902 glider. During their experiments, which last into December, they will in essence develop the modern understanding of aerodynamics

• 1898 – Wiley Post, American pilot, was born (d. 1935). Wiley Post was the first pilot to fly solo around the world. Also known for his work in high altitude flying, Post helped develop one of the first pressure suits.

November 23

• 2012 – The People's Republic of China conducts its first carrier flight operations with fixed-wing aircraft, when the People's Liberation Army Navy aircraft carrier Liaoning launches and recovers the Shenyang J-15 fighter for the first time.[1]

• 2012 – Two military aircraft OV-10 Bronco collide in the air during a demonstration flight near military El Libertador Air Base in the state of Aragua,Venezuela. One of the pilots is killed, guiding the aircraft away from a populated area. Three soldiers are also injured in the crash.

• 2009 – Italian Air Force Lockheed KC-130 J Hercules MM62176 crashed just after take-off from Galileo Galilei Airport, Pisa. All five crew were killed.

• 2009 – An Aeronautica Militare Italiana Lockheed Martin C-130J Hercules, MM62176, c/n 5497, '46-41', engaged in a training mission crashes on nearby train tracks bordering the Pisa airport, while climbing and performing a left turn immediately after take-off from Galileo Galilei Airport. The aircraft immediately burst into flames, killing its five-member crew.

• 2002 – Launch: Space Shuttle Endeavour STS-113 at 19:38:25 UTC. Mission highlights: ISS assembly flight 11A: P1 truss, crew rotation, last successful mission before STS-107.

• 1978 – Royal Navy Hawker-Siddeley/McDonnell-Douglas F-4K Phantom II FG.1, XT598, used for trials installations at HSA Holme and A&AEE, Boscombe Down, then passed to 111 Squadron. Written off on approach to Leuchars this date.

• 1996 – Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 , a Boeing 767, is hijacked over Kenya. The aircraft runs out of fuel, and the pilot attempts to ditch the aircraft in the ocean off Moroni, Comoros. Of the 175 people on board, 125 were killed (including the 3 hijackers).

• 1989 – An Airbus A310-300 opens Air France’s new direct Lyon/New York service.

• 1985 – EgyptAir Flight 648, a Boeing 737, is hijacked by Palestinian militants. Egyptian special forces storm the plane on the island of Malta. The incident kills 58 out of 90 passengers and all but one of the hijackers.

• 1973 – First flight of the AIDC T-CH-1

• 1973 – Argo 16 was the codename of an Italian Air Force C-47 Dakota aircraft, registration MM61832, used by the Italian Secret Service and the Central Intelligence Agency in covert operations. Officially, those operations were limited to electronic surveillance on the Adriatic Sea and interference with the Yugoslavian radar network. The aircraft crashed on 1973 at Marghera, Italy after an improvised explosive device detonated on board. Venetian Judge Carlo Mastelloni determined that the Argo 16 aircraft was used to shuttle trainees and munitions of NATO members between the military bases around Italy: the aircraft had been involved in unclear operations, as the repatriation of terrorists and transport of secret service agents. The explosion and the subsequent crash killed the four operatives on board.

• 1964 – TWA Flight 800, a Boeing 707, suffers engine failure and crashes at Leonardo da Vinci-Fiumicino Airport, killing 50 of 73 on board; the cause is an inoperative thrust reverser.

• 1962 – United Airlines Flight 297 , a Vickers Viscount 745D, crashes near Ellicott City, Maryland, following a bird strike; all 17 people on board died.

• 1961 – Aerolíneas Argentinas Flight 322, a de Havilland Comet 4 DH-106 turbojet, crashes in Campinas, Brazil shortly after takeoff, killing all 12 crew and 40 passengers on board.

• 1959 – First flight of the Boeing 720

• 1953 – USAF pilot 1st Lt. Felix Moncla and radar operator 2nd Lt. Robert L. Wilson take of in a F-89C Scorpion from Kinross Air Force Base, Kincheloe, Michigan investigating an unusual target on radar operators. Wilson had problems tracking the object on the Scorpion's radar, so ground radar operators gave Moncla directions towards the object as he flew. Flying at some 500 miles per hour, Moncla eventually closed in on the object at about 8000 feet in altitude. Ground radar showed both the unidentified craft and the Scorpion suddenly disappearing from screen after intersecting. It is presummed the Scorpion crashed into Lake Superior, though now confirmed traces of the craft or Moncla and Wilson have been found.

• 1949 – Introduction: Convair XC-99

• 1947 – First flight of the Convair XC-99

• 1946 – An Avro Lancastrian powered by two Rolls-Royce Merlin piston engines and two Rolls-Royce Nene turbojets returns from Paris to London in just 41 minutes. The flight from London to Paris was made on November 17. The "Nene Lancastrian" only uses its Merlins for takeoff and landing, becoming the first transport aircraft to fly solely on jet power.

• 1943 – The Deutsche Luftfahrt Sammlung (Berlin Air Museum), at Lehrter Bahnhof, is destroyed in an RAF bombing raid by 383 aircraft:365 Avro Lancaster, 10 Handley Page Halifax, and 8 de Havilland Mosquito bombers. Many exhibited aircraft are destroyed, including the Dornier Do-X, and the Focke-Wulf Cierva C.19a demonstrator, Wrke Nr. 35, D-1960 / D-OBIR. Surviving types are moved E from Berlin where they are discovered post-war. Most of these survivors are now in the Muzeum Lotnictwa Polskiego w Krakowie, the Polish Aviation Museum, at Kraków, Poland.

• 1942 – First flight of the Vought XF5U, dubbed “Flying Flapjack, ” the most radical conventionally-engined aircraft ever built makes its first flight when Chance Vought test pilot, Boone T. Guyton, takes the V-173 into the air.

• 1942 – First flight of the Vought V-173

• 1937 – During the Great Purge, Soviet Air Force commander-in-chief Comandarm Yakov Alksnis is arrested.

• 1934 – First flight of the Bloch MB.210

• 1923 – First of only three Bristol Jupiter Fighters, essentially adaptations of the Bristol F.2B airframe converted with 425 hp (317 kW) Bristol Jupiter IV engines and oleo-type undercarriage, crashes due to an engine seizure at high altitude. Second conversion was sold to Sweden in May 1924, and third was converted to a dual-control trainer.

• 1916 – British ace Lanoe Hawker VC is shot down by Manfred von Richthofen.

November 24

• 2009 – Batavia Air Flight 711, operated by a Boeing 737-400 made an emergency landing at El Tari Airport, Kupang after a problem was discovered with the landing gear.

• 2001 – Crossair Flight 3597, an Avro RJ100, crashes near Bassersdorf, Switzerland, while attempting to land in Zürich. Of the 28 passengers and five crew members on board, 21 passengers (including dance singer Melanie Thornton of La Bouche) and three crew members died.

• 1992 – China Southern Airlines Flight 3943, a Boeing 737-300, crashes on descent to Guilin Airport, killing all 141 aboard.

• 1991 – Launch: Space Shuttle Atlantis STS-44 at 6:44:00 pm EST. Mission highlights: DSP satellite deployment.

• 1972 – Two USAF McDonnell Douglas RF-4C Phantom IIs of the 363d Tactical Reconnaissance Wing, Shaw AFB, South Carolina, suffer mid-air collision over the Atlantic Ocean about 30 miles off of Pawley's Island at ~1450 hrs. Two crew from one Phantom recovered 27 miles out to sea by Bell UH-1N Huey, Save 53, of Detachment 8, 44th ARRSq, out of Myrtle Beach AFB, but two others including one officer of HQ 9th Air Force, Shaw AFB, are lost.

• 1971 – A man reported as D. B. Cooper hijacks Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 305, a Boeing 727, out of Portland, Oregon, releasing the passengers in exchange for US$200,000 and four parachutes; the crew takes off with Cooper on board, and he parachutes from the plane; Cooper is never found and his fate remains unknown, although a roll of bills from his ransom is found in a riverbed many years later.

• 1970 – Lockheed U-2R, 68-10335, Article 057, seventh airframe of the first R-model order, first flown 30 July 1968, registered N815X, delivered to the CIA 29 August 1968. Crashes at Taoyuan Air Base, Taiwan, on landing after a routine, high-altitude training flight, this date, ROCAF pilot Capt. Denny Huang KWF. At touchdown he skips slightly and begins drifting to starboard. Exacerbated by a 12-knot crosswind, the aircraft leaves the runway, whereupon the pilot applies power to go around. Before the engine spools up, the airframe strikes a six-foot high runway marker. Begins a slow climbing turn to port but nose-high angle causes stall, jet crashes and burns. The Accident Board recommends that the Dash One pilot's manual be amended to emphasize that a go-around should not be attempted after loss of directional control on landing. This was the first loss of an R-model.

• 1968 – Luis Armando Pena Soltren, Jose Rafael Rios Cruz and Miguel Castro coerce the pilot of Pan Am Flight 281 out of New York's John F. Kennedy Airport on a scheduled route to Puerto Rico to divert to Havana, Cuba. Passengers were evacuated from Cuba by a U.S. State Department aircraft. There were no fatalities.

• 1966 – TABSO Flight 101, an Ilyushin IL-18B, crashes into a wooded hillside shortly after takeoff from Bratislava, Czechoslovakia, killing all 82 aboard.

• 1956 – A Boeing B-47E-60-BW Stratojet, 51-5233, c/n 450518, of the 341st Bomb Wing, runs off runway upon landing at Dyess AFB, Texas, tearing away the port inboard engine nacelle. Aircraft may have been also attempting a go-around. All crew survived.

• 1955 – First flight of the Fairchild F-27

• 1953 – A USAF North American F-86D Sabre crashes near Marianna, Florida this date. The pilot ejects but was killed when his chute fails to deploy, his fighter coming down ~10 miles N of Graham Air Base. Col. Lewis H. Norley, commanding officer of the base, said that due to "unknown circumstances" the chute failed to function. Rescue planes from Maxwell Field at Montgomery, Alabama, and Tyndall Air Force Base, Panama City, Florida, discovered the pilot's body. Norley said that the pilot's identity will not be released until notification of the next of kin.

• 1952 – The second Boeing EB-50A Superfortress, 46-003, which spends most of its operational career used for testing, first by Boeing, and later by the Air Research and Development Command, and Air Material Command, primarily at the Aberdeen Proving Ground, is involved in a fatal accident at Aberdeen, Maryland this date. Four crew were killed when it crashed in the Bush River near Edgewood, Maryland.

• 1947 – First flight of the Grumman F9F Panther

• 1944 – 111 United States Army Air Forces B-29 Superfortresses attack Tokyo, targeting the Musashino aircraft plant. Although they do not damage the plant, it is the first strategic bombing raid against Japan from the Twentieth Air Force’s new bases in the Mariana Islands, and the first air attack of any kind on Tokyo except for the April 1942 Doolittle Raid.

• 1943 – The Japanese submarine I-175 torpedoes and sinks the U. S. Navy escort aircraft carrier USS Liscome Bay (CVE-56) 20 nautical miles (37 km) southwest of Butaritari with the loss of 644 lives, including that of Rear Admiral Henry M. Mullinnix; there are 272 survivors.

• 1943 – The first Allied aircraft – A damaged U. S. Marine Corps SBD Dauntless dive bomber – Lands on Bougainville.

• 1940 – First BCATP graduates from No. 1 Air Navigation School at Trenton, arrived at Liverpool, England.

• 1939 – BOAC is formed by the merger of Imperial Airways and the original British Airways.

• 1924 – A KLM Fokker F.VII makes the first flight from the Netherlands to the Dutch East Indies, taking 127 hours and 16 minutes.

• 1922 – First flight of the Vickers Virginia

• 1913 – Lieuts. Eric Lamar Ellington and Hugh M. Kelly of the 1st Aero Squadron, United States Army Aviation Corps, are killed this date in a fall of about eighty feet in a Wright Model C, Signal Corps 14. The accident occurred at ~0758 hrs. across the bay from San Diego, California on the grounds of the army school on North Island. On impact, the engine broke free, crushing the two aviators. Ellington Field, Texas, which opens on 1 November 1917, is named for Lt. Ellington.

November 25

• 2012 – Syrian rebel forces attack a Syrian government airbase 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) outside Damascus, and claim to have destroyed two helicopters on the ground.[1]

• 2009 – First flight of the Gulfstream G650

• 2003 – OH-58D Kiowa 96-0040 crashes after its tail rotor struck ground.[2]

• 1985 – Aeroflot Antonov An-12 shoot-down: South African Special Forces use a shoulder-launched surface-to-air missile to shoot down a Soviet Antonov An-12 carrying 21 people 43 km (27 miles) east of Menongue, Angola. All aboard the aircraft die.

• 1975 – Israeli Air Force Lockheed C-130H Hercules 203/4X-FBO, c/n 4533, crashed into Mount Jebel Halal, 55 kilometers south-southeast of El Arish, Sinai Peninsula. Pilots were Shaul Bustan and Uri Manor.

• 1973 – KLM Flight 861, called “Mississippi”, was a Boeing 747 that was hijacked by three young Arabs over Iraqi airspace on a scheduled Amsterdam-Tokyo flight with 247 passengers on board. The hijackers threatened to blow up the plane when no country would grant landing permission. Most of the passengers and the eight stewardesses were released after negotiations with the Maltese PM Dom Mintoff. With 11 passengers on board the jumbo jet left Malta to Dubai where the incident ended without fatalities. The hijack was claimed by the Arab Nationalist Youth Organization.

• 1961 – The US Navy's first nuclear powered aircraft carrier, USS Enterprise is commissioned.

• 1961 – The first crash of the CF-104 during the test flight from Canadair. The pilot ejected safely.

• 1956 – Eight Boeing B-52 s complete a record nonstop flight of 17,000 miles over the North Pole.

• 1956 – U. S. Air Force Sergeant Richard Patton makes the first successful parachute jump in Antarctica. He jumps from 1,500 feet as a test to determine the cause of parachute malfunction in sub-zero weather conditions.

• 1950 – The People’s Republic of China launches a major offensive across the Yalu River against United Nations forces in Korea. Under terrible winter weather conditions, United Nations aircraft are heavily committed to supporting ground forces, which are driven out of northern Korea by the end of the year.

• 1944 – Aircraft from seven aircraft carriers of Task Force 38 carry out the task force’s last raids in support of the Leyte campaign, raiding Japanese bases on Luzon, attacking a coastal convoy, and destroying 26 Japanese aircraft in the air and 29 on the ground. Aircraft from USS Ticonderoga (CV-14) sink the Japanese heavy cruiser Kumano in Dasol Bay. Kamikazes respond by damaging the aircraft carriers USS Intrepid (CV-11), USS Essex (CV-9), and USS Cabot (CVL-28); damage to the carriers forces cancellation of strikes against Japanese shipping in the Visayas the next day.

• 1943 – (Overnight) Japanese aircraft attack American ships east of the Gilbert Islands, scoring no hits.

• 1940 – First flight of the de Havilland Mosquito

• 1940 – First flight of the Martin B-26 Marauder

• 1930 – First flight of the Fairey Hendon

• 1930 – Canadian Airways Ltd. acquired companies controlled by the Aviation Corporation of Canada and Western Canada Airways.

• 1924 – The dirigible LZ 126 is commissioned into the U. S. Navy as USS Los Angeles (ZR-3) at Naval Air Station Anacostia in Washington, D. C.

• 1913 – Raymonde de Laroche flies 200 miles (320 km) solo in four hours. The flight will win her the 1913 Fémina Cup for the longest solo flight by a woman that year.[3]

November 26

• 2012 – The U.S. Navy begins testing of the Northrop Grumman X-47B unmanned combat air vehicle aboard the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75). By the time the testing period ends on 18 December, the X-47B will have made a number of successful test launches and recoveries.[1]

• 2011 – American aircraft participating in a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)-Afghan operation against insurgents in Afghanistan near the border with Pakistan mistakenly attack a Pakistani border post, killing 24 Pakistani soldiers.[2]

• 2008 – A US Army C-23 Sherpa from 2–641 Aviation Brigade made a wheels up landing at al-Kut, while operating with Task Force 34. None of the four man crew and seven passengers were injured.[3]

• 2006 – United Airlines Flight 814 returned to Denver Airport after suffering a Coyote strike on take off. The Boeing 737 returned safely.

• 2004 – USMC Bell-Boeing MV-22B Osprey, BuNo 165838, loses a 20 x 4 inch piece of a prop-rotor blade during test flight in Nova Scotia, Canada, but is able to make safe precautionary landing at CFB Shearwater despite severe airframe vibration. The blade failed after apparently being hit by ice which broke off from another part of the aircraft.

• 2003 – Concorde G-BOAF MSN 216, makes the very last flight before retirement from London Heathrow to Bristol Filton, the place she was born on 20th April 1979. She went supersonic off the south west coast before returning and making low level flights over Bristol City and Brunel's Clifton Suspension Bridge, then onto her final landing at Bristol Filton. This was the final flight of Concorde.

• 1993 – Auckland mid-air collision was an aircraft accident in New Zealand. It occurred when an Aérospatiale TwinStar helicopter and a Piper Archer airplane collided and crashed in central Auckland, killing all four occupants—both civilian pilots and two police officers aboard the helicopter.

• 1985 – Launch: Space Shuttle Atlantis STS-61-B at 4:26 am EST. Mission highlights: Multiple comsat deployment, EASE/ACCESS experiment. First Mexican in space, Rodolfo Neri Vela.

• 1982 – An Indian Air Force Mil Mi-8 crashed in Mizoram province, nine killed.

• 1979 – PIA Flight 740, a Boeing 707, crashes after a fire in the cabin in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; all 145 passengers and 11 crew die.

• 1970 – The beginning of Exercise “Acid Test III” where all Canadian military aircraft were tested for their ability to operate in temperatures as low as -60 degrees.

• 1968 – United States Air Force helicopter pilot James P. Fleming rescues an Army Special Forces unit pinned down by Viet Cong fire and is later awarded the Medal of Honor.

• 1964 – Belgian paratroops are dropped into Congo by the US Air Force.

• 1958 – A United States Air Force Boeing B-47 Stratojet on Alert Status at Chennault AFB, Louisiana, accidentally ignites RATO assisted take-off bottles, is pushed off runway into tow vehicle, catches fire, completely destroying single nuclear weapon on board. Contamination limited to area within aircraft wreckage.

• 1957 – First flight of the Piaggio P.166 I-PJAG

• 1951 – First flight of the Gloster Javelin prototype WD804

• 1943 – (Overnight) – Japanese aircraft again strike American ships off the Gilbert Islands, scoring no hits. They encounter the first aircraft-carrier-based night combat air patrol in history, consisting of a TBF Avenger torpedo bomber and two F6 F Hellcat fighters. The Avenger shoots down one Japanese plane, but Lieutenant Commander Edward H. “Butch” O’Hare, the U. S. Navy’s second ace in history and first of World War II, is shot down and killed flying one of the Hellcats; he has seven victories at the time of his death.

• 1941 – Some eight months before the discovery of the nearly intact Akutan Zero, Japanese Mitsubishi A6M2, c/n 3372, coded 'V-172', of the 22nd Air Flotilla Fighter Unit, forced-lands on a beach at Leichou Pantao, China, as lost flight of two runs low on fuel. Discovered mostly intact, dismantled and shipped to United States for testing, this was the first of the type to fall into Allied hands. Later test-flown at Eglin Field, then put on tour as war bond exhibit. Disposition unknown following end of hostilities.

• 1938 – France lays the keel of its second aircraft carrier, Joffre, intended as the first non-experimental French carrier. Joffre’s construction will be abandoned in June 1940, and she will never be launched.

• 1932 – One of two Nakajima Navy Experimental Kusho 6-shi Special Bomber prototypes, the first carrier-based dive bomber design in Japan, crashes in a rural area, killing Nakajima test pilot Tsuneo Fujimaki. Observers reported that the pilot made several attempted recoveries but each time the nose pitched down to vertical. Impact is said have driven the airframe two metres into the ground. Further evaluation of the type is suspended. For security purposes, the term "dive-bomber" was not used, the design being described as a "special bomber".

• 1929 – First flight of the Vickers Type 143

• 1929 – After taking off from Hal Far, Malta, a Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Air Force Fairey Flycatcher lands aboard the British aircraft carrier HMS Courageous, achieving the first night carrier landing by a fleet fighter.

• 1925 – First flight of the Tupolev TB-1.

November 27

• 2009 – The European Commission extends its blacklist to cover all airlines based in Djibouti, the Republic of the Congo and São Tomé. In Ukraine, Ukrainian Cargo Airways and Volare Airlines were removed from the blacklist as their Air Operator’s Certificates had been revoked. Motor Sich Airlines were also removed from the blacklist and Ukrainian Mediterranean Airlines were allowed to operate a single aircraft. TAAG Angola Airlines was allowed to increase the number of aircraft used for flights to Portugal.

• 2009 – A Sri Lanka Air Force Mil Mi-24 Hind Helicopter (CH635, c/n 3532431622597) engaged on a training mission, crashed 5 km north of Buttala(310 km south-east of Colombo) at approximately 1330 HRS due to technical failure. Prior to the crash the pilot have reported a power generator failure to the tail rotor. Pilot, Co-Pilot and 2 door gunners have died from this incident.

• 2008 – XL Airways Germany Flight 888 T was an Airbus A320 which was seen to plunge into the Mediterranean Sea, 7 km off Saint-Cyprien on the French coast, close to the Spanish border. Seven people were aboard, two Germans (pilot and co-pilot from XL Airways) and five New Zealanders (one pilot, three aircraft engineers and one member of the Civil Aviation Authority of New Zealand). Two bodies were recovered within hours of the crash; the others were found during later weeks.

• 2006 – F-16CG, serial 90-0776, from the 524th Fighter Squadron crashes near Fallujah while on a low-altitude ground-strafing run. The pilot, Major Troy Gilbert, was killed. His body was taken by insurgents. It was never recovered.[1][2]

• 1989 – 1989 Jamba Hercules crash refers to an acicdent involving a Lockheed Hercules C-100 aircraft belonging to a CIA front company, Tepper Aviation, that crashed on final approach at Jamba, Huíla in Angola while delivering arms to UNITA.

• 1989 – Avianca Flight 203, a Boeing 727, explodes in mid-air over Colombia, killing all 107 people on board and three people on the ground. The Medellín Cartel claimed responsibility for the attack.

• 1975 – The announcement that Canada to was purchase 18 P-3 s as long range patrol aircraft was to be known as CP-140 Auroras in the Canadian Forces.

• 1969 – First flight of the IAI Arava

• 1964 – A Lockheed SP-2H Neptune, BuNo 135610, c/n 726-7046, "YC 12", of VP-2, out of NAS Kodiak, crashes into a mountain near the tip of Cape Newenham, Alaska. Twelve crew members killed.

• 1956 – Linea Aeropostal Flight 253, a Lockheed L-749 Constellation, crashes while on approach to Caracas International Airport, killing all 25 on board.

• 1952 – James D. Wetherbee, American astronaut, was born. Wetherbee is a veteran of six space shuttle missions, and is the only American to have commanded five missions.

• 1951 – French Leduc 0.22-01 ramjet-powered prototype interceptor is badly damaged in landing accident and the pilot seriously injured.

• 1949 – First flight of the Douglas C-124 Globemaster II

• 1945 – Douglas C-47B Skytrain, 43-16261,[84] of Air Transport Command, piloted by 1st Lt. William H. Myers, disappears during flight from Singapore to Butterworth, British Malaya. Wreckage found on mountain slope in the forest reserve area of Bukit Bubu, near Beruas, Perak, Malaysia. Crew remains never recovered.

• 1944 – In one mission, Captain Charles E. "Chuck" Yeager shoots down four German FW-190s.

• 1944 – During a 3,000-mile out-and-back navigation training mission from Great Bend Army Airfield Great Bend Army Airfield, Kansas, to Batista Army Airfield, Cuba, Boeing B-29-25-BW Superfortress, 42-24447, coded '35', of the 28th Bombardment Squadron (Very Heavy), 19th Bombardment Group (Very Heavy), suffers fire in number 1 (port outer) engine. Aircraft commander, 1st Lt. Eugene Hammond, orders crew bail-out 37 miles S of Biloxi, Mississippi. After all but pilot have departed, the burning engine nacelle drops off of the wing, Lt. Hammond returns to controls, brings the bomber into Keesler Field, Mississippi for emergency landing. Only four recovered from the Gulf of Mexico, one dead, three injured

• 1944 – First flight of the Boeing XF8B

• 1944 – Three Japanese transport aircraft carrying demolition troops attempt to land troops at Buri airfield on Leyte and on the Leyte invasion beachhead via crash landings, but many of the troops are killed in the crashes and the survivors do little damage.

• 1944 – Japanese aircraft staging through Iwo Jima make their first successful strikes against U. S. B-29 s on Saipan. An early raid by two twin-engined bombers destroys a B-29 and damages 11 others, while later in the day 10 to 15 single-engined fighters attack, destroying three B-29 s and damaging two.

• 1944 – Japanese kamikazes damage the battleship USS Colorado (BB-45) and light cruiser USS St. Louis (CL-49) in Leyte Gulf.

• 1944 – 81 B-29 s attempt a second attack on the Musashino aircraft plant in Tokyo. Heavy cloud cover forces them to bomb secondary targets instead.

• 1942 – Douglas O-46A, 35-179, of the 81st Air Base Squadron, piloted by Gordon H. Fleisch, lands downwind at Brooks Field, Harlingen, Texas, runs out of runway, overturns. Written off, it is abandoned in place. More than twenty years later it is discovered by the Antique Airplane Association with trees growing through its wings, and in 1967 it is rescued and hauled to Ottumwa, Iowa. Restoration turns out to beyond the organization's capability, and in September 1970 it is traded to the National Museum of the United States Air Force for a flyable C-47. The (then) Air Force Museum has it restored at Purdue University and places it on display in 1974, the sole survivor of the 91 O-46s built.

• 1941 – No. 417 (Fighter) Squadron was formed in England.

• 1940 – During the Battle of Cape Spartivento, the Italian naval commander Admiral Inigo Campioni orders his fleet to retire upon receiving word of the strength of the opposing British force. A torpedo strike by 11 Swordfish against his fleeing ships is ineffective, as is a belated attack on the British aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal by Italian high-level bombers.

• 1939 – Longest ambulance flight in Canadian history was carried out by a Junkers W-34 of Canadian Airways, piloted by WE Catton from Winnipeg Manitoba, to Repulse Bay, NWT and return.

• 1929 – 27-28 – Richard Byrd and crew make the first flight over the South Pole in a Ford Trimotor.

• 1923 – The Douglas Co. is awarded a $192,684 contract by the War Department to build four DWC aircraft and spares.

• 1912 – The aeronautical division of the US Army Signal Corps receives the first “flying boat”, a Curtiss Model F, capable of takeoff from water.

http://www.chuckyeager.com/four-victory-fw-190-report

November 28

• 2010 – Sun Way Flight 4412, operated by Ilyushin Il-76 4L-GNI on a cargo flight crashed in a populated area of Karachi, Pakistan, shortly after taking off from Jinnah International Airport. All eight people on board were killed, as were a further two people on the ground. The aircraft was reported to have been trying to return to Jinnah after suffering an engine fire.[1]

• 2009 – Avient Aviation Flight 324, operated by McDonnell Douglas MD-11 F Z-BAV, crashed on take-off from Shanghai Pudong International Airport on a flight to Bishkek – Manas International Airport, Kyrgyzstan with the loss of 3 lives. The plane was written-off.

• 2008 – First flight of the Comac ARJ21

• 2005 – Boeing delivers its last 757 passenger airplane to Shanghai Airlines, concluding a 23-year production run. It is the 1,050th Boeing 757, with more than 1,030 still in service.

• 2004 – The landing gear of KLM Flight 1673 struck a bird, which broke a cable in the nose wheel. The flight continued normally, but when the flight crew attempted to land their jet, they were unable to control the aircraft’s movement, and the aircraft veered off the runway before the landing gear collapsed. All 146 passengers on board the Boeing 737-406 survived the accident.

• 2002 – Arkia Israel Airlines Flight 582 was a flight operated by a Boeing 757-300 aircraft that narrowly avoided two surface to air missiles.

• 1995 – First flight of the Gulfstream V

• 1994 – KLM Flight 1673, a Boeing 737-406 with 146 people on board, suffers a landing gear failure during its takeoff roll at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, veers off the runway, and crashes. All on board survive, but the aircraft is written off.

• 1987 – South African Airways Flight 295, a Boeing 747, crashes into the Indian Ocean after a fire in the cargo hold. All 159 aboard die.

• 1983 – Launch: Space shuttle Columbia STS-9 at 11:00:00 EDT (16:00:00 UTC). Mission highlights: First Spacelab mission.

• 1979 – Air New Zealand Flight 901, a McDonnell-Douglas DC-10, collides with Mount Erebus, Antarctica during a sightseeing flight, killing all 257 people on board; this crash is also known as the Mount Erebus Disaster.

• 1972 – Japan Airlines Flight 446 was a Japan Airlines flight from Sheremetyevo International Airport of Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union to Tokyo International Airport (Haneda Airport) in Ōta, Tokyo, Japan. The DC-8-62 on the route crashed during the initial climb phase upon takeoff from Sheremetyevo. While it is established by investigation that the direct reason for the crash was stalling shortly after takeoff, the Soviet Accident Investigation Committee noted the possibility of accidental deployment of the spoilers and reduced thrust due to engine problems as the cause for this accident.

• 1967 – First flight of the McDonnell Douglas DC-9-40

• 1966 – Second prototype Dassault Mirage IIIV, an experimental VTOL fighter design, first flown 22 June 1966, crashes this date. Project, running several years behind schedule, is canceled and plans to build additional prototypes dropped.

• 1964 – Launch: Mariner 4, NASA launches the first Mars fly-by spacecraft.

• 1957 – Lockheed U-2A, 56-6704, Article 371, eleventh airframe of first USAF order, delivered April 1957, moved to 4080th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing, Laughlin AFB, Texas, June: 1957, crashes at night this date. Capt. Benny Lacombe killed when he unsuccessfully attempts to bail out of crippled aircraft 13 miles SE of Laughlin. Ejection seats had not yet been fitted to U-2s at this point.

• 1947 – A USAF Douglas C-47B-6-DK, 43-48736, c/n 14552/25997, of the 15th Troop Carrier Squadron, 61st Troop Carrier Group, piloted by Wesley B. Fleming,[146] en route from Pisa to Frankfurt-Rhein-Main AFB, thirty miles off-course, crashes in the Italian Alps near Trappa, Italy. All five crew and 15 passengers KWF. Wreckage discovered eight months later.

• 1945 – Pan American World Airways orders 20 Boeing Stratocruisers (Model 377), a commercial version of the C-97 military transport.

• 1943 – Japanese resistance on Tarawa Atoll ends. American aircraft carriers depart the Gilbert Islands area before the end of the month.

• 1942 – Australian pilot F/Sgt Ron Middleton earns a posthumous VC for valour in bringing his crew and crippled bomber home after a raid on Turin, Italy.

• 1941 – First prototype Grumman XTBF-1 Avenger, BuNo 2539, suffers fire in bomb bay during test flight out of Long Island, New York factory airfield, forcing pilot Hobart Cook and engineer Gordon Israel to bail out. (Joe Mizrahi source cites date of accident as 28 August 1941.)

• 1938 – 28-30 – A Lufthansa Fw 200 (right) makes the airline's first flight to Japan, flying non-stop from Berlin to Tokyo via Basra, Karachi, and Hanoi. The 14,228 km (8,841 mile) flight breaks the distance record and takes 46 hours 18 min.

• 1936 – Thus far in the Spanish Civil War, Italy has sent about 24 Fiat CR.32 fighters, 19 Savoia-Marchetti SM.81 bombers, and some IMAM Ro.37 reconnaissance aircraft to support the Nationalists.

• 1934 – The RCAF acquired ten more Atlases to increase strength – The were the first new aircraft acquired since 1931!

• 1929 – American Commander Richard Byrd and crew make the first flight over the South Pole, in a Ford 4-AT Trimotor monoplane, November 28-29.

• 1928 – Floyd Bennett, a Ford Trimotor flown by Harold June, Commander Richard Byrd, Bernt Balchen, Captain R. Ashley and C. McKinley made the first flight over the South Pole.

• 1922 – First flight of the Fairey Flycatcher

• 1916 – Three Royal Naval Air Service BE.2 cs, one of them flown by Flight Lieutenant Egbert Cadbury, shoot down the German Zeppelin L 21 off Lowestoft, England.

• 1916 – Central London is bombed by an LVG C.II flown by R. Brandt

• 1912 – The Italian Air Battalion is made a fully operational command, the (Flotta Aerea d'Italia).

November 29

• 2012 – Fighting between government and rebel forces near Damascus International Airport in Damascus, Syria, closes the road to the airport.[1] The airline Emirates suspends flights to Damascus, and an Egyptian airliner that has landed at Damascus International as scheduled and discharged its passengers safely is ordered to take off and return to Cairo without passengers if its pilot feels the situation is too dangerous to allow the plane to stay long enough to embark its passengers for the return flight.[2]

• 2012 – The U.S. Navy successfully conducts the first land-based catapult launch of the Northrop Grumman X-47B unmanned combat air vehicle at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland.[3]

• 2006 – Two members of the Australian Army are killed and seven are injured when a Sikorsky S-70A-9 Black Hawk helicopter, A25-221, of 171 Aviation Squadron, hits the deck of HMAS Kanimbla and crashes off Fiji.

• 2004 – A U.S. Army Sikorsky UH-60L Black Hawk, crashes shortly after taking off from Fort Hood, Texas, when it strikes guy-wires supporting the television antenna of KSWO-TV, near Waco, Texas, killing all seven soldiers aboard. Conditions were foggy and the warning lights on the tower were not lit, in violation of both Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) regulations. Victims included Brigadier General Charles B. Allen of Lawton, Oklahoma; Specialist Richard L. Brown of Stonewall, Louisiana; Chief Warrant Officer Todd T. Christmas of Wagon Mound, New Mexico; Chief Warrant Officer Doug Clapp of Greensboro, North Carolina; Chief Warrant Officer Mark W. Evans of Killeen, Texas; Chief Warrant Officer David H. Garner of Mason City, Iowa; and Colonel James M. Moore of Peabody, Massachusetts.

• 2003 – An Air Force of the Democratic Republic of the Congo Antonov An-26, 9T-TAD, blows out a tire during landing in Boende, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and overruns the runway and crashes into a market square. Of the 24 people on board, 20 are killed and 13 people on the ground die.

• 1997 – The US Airways Arena in Washington DC, aka the Capital Center, shuts down.

• 1999 – First flight of the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet

• 1987 – Korean Air Flight 858, a Boeing 707, crashes into the Andaman Sea after a bomb explodes on board. All 115 people on board are killed.

• 1982 – Shortly after completing a training mission, a USAF Boeing B-52G Stratofortress, 59-4766, suffered hydraulics fire in nose gear, exploded at the end of the runway at Castle AFB, California, but crew of nine escaped before it was fully engulfed. Aircraft commander ordered evacuation as soon as he learned of the wheel fire.

• 1974 – First flight of the Boeing Vertol YUH-61 73-21656

• 1963 – Trans-Canada Air Lines Flight 831, a Douglas DC-8, crashes shortly after takeoff from Montréal/Dorval Airport, killing all 118 people on board.

• 1955 – Royal Air Force Gloster Javelin FAW.1, XA561, on flight out of RAF Boscombe Down, entered spiral at 39,000 feet (12,000 m) from which the pilot could not recover. He ejected and the aircraft came down, largely intact, at Ashley, Isle of Wight.

• 1953 – American Airlines inaugurates the first regular commercial service between New York and Los Angeles. The plane for the job: The Douglas DC-7.

• 1949 – American Airlines Flight 157, a Douglas DC-6, en route from New York City to Mexico City with 46 passengers and crew, veers off the runway and strikes buildings after the flight crew loses control on final approach to Dallas Love Field; 26 passengers and 2 flight attendants die.

• 1949 – Fairey Gannet, VR546, crashes on take-off from Fairey's flight test airfield at White Waltham, Berkshire, following violent porpoising at unstick speed. Repairs take three months and test flying does not resume until March 1950.

• 1945 – A U. S. Army Sikorsky R-5 helicopter off the coast of Long Island, New York, makes the first air-sea rescue.

• 1944 – The U. S. Navy submarine USS Archerfish torpedoes and sinks the Japanese aircraft carrier Shinano southeast of Shingū, Japan, with the loss of 1,436 lives. There are 1,080 survivors.

• 1944 – Kamikazes damage the battleship USS Maryland and a destroyer in Leyte Gulf.

• 1944 – (Overnight) 29 B-29s conduct the first night incendiary raid against Japan, attacking industrial areas in Tokyo and destroying an estimated 0.1 square mile (0.15 square kilometer) of the city.

• 1944 – Douglas A-26 Invader, A-26B-10-DT 43-22298 and A-26B-15-DT 43-22336 both of 641st Squadron USAF collided during formation after take-off from Warton Aerodrome Lancashire. All crew were killed. Both aircraft remained on Freckleton Marsh and were partially recovered as part of a UK Channel 4 Time Team Programme in 2005.

• 1943 – The Essex-class aircraft carrier USS Hornet is commissioned. Today she is a floating museum docked in San Francisco Bay at the former NAS Alameda.

• 1940 – First flight of the Junkers Ju 288, the prime contender for the Luftwaffe's Bomber B production contract.

• 1929 – U. S. Admiral Richard E. Byrd becomes the first person to fly over the South Pole.

• 1929 – Bristol Type 101, a single-bay, biplane two-seat fighter design powered by a 450 hp Bristol Jupiter VI, and later, VIA radial engine, is rejected outright by the Air Ministry due to its all-wooden construction. Continued as a private venture, it first flies at Filton on 8 August 1927, piloted by Cyril Uwins, registered G-EBOW. With the VIA powerplant, Uwins achieves second place in the 1928 King's Cup race at an average speed of 159.9 mph. Subsequently used as a company hack and as a test bed for the 485 hp Bristol Mercury II nine-cylinder radial, it suffers wing centre section failure on this date while being subjected to engine overspeeding tests, the pilot, C. R. I. Shaw, bailing out successfully. This was the last wooden fighter built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company.

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 |November 1

• 2011 – LOT Polish Airlines Flight 016, a Boeing 767-300ER, makes a successful belly landing at Warsaw Chopin Airport in Warsaw, Poland, after its landing gear fails to extend. None of the 231 people on board are injured.

• 2009 – 2009 Yakutia Ilyushin Il-76 crash: An Ilyushin Il-76 operated by the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs crashed shortly after take-off from Mirny Airport. All eleven crew are killed.

• 2007 – Paul Tibbets, US Air Force retired Brigadier General and Pilot of B-29 “Enola Gay” over Hiroshima, dies (b. 1916).

• 2006 – Emirates Airline cancels its order for 10 Airbus A340-600HGW.

• 2004 – Pan American Airways, or Pan Am III, turned down operations once again, but gave operations to Boston-Maine Airways.

• 2000 – Hellenic Air Force LTV A-7H Corsair II, 159666, of the 345th Mira, crashes near Cape Tainaros, Crete, Greece, pilot survives.

• 1997 – Introduction: Saab JAS 39 Gripen

• 1993 – Landing: Space Shuttle Columbia STS-58 at 10:05.42 am EST, Runway 22, Edwards AFB, Calif. It would be Columbia‘s final landing at Edwards.

• 1992 – Landing: Space Shuttle Columbia STS-52 at 9:05:53 am EST, Runway 33, Kennedy Space Center. Fla.

• 1989 – Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) bans smoking on many flights.

• 1984 – British Airways and some other international airlines begin relief flights carrying food and supplies to Ethiopia.

• 1984 – American Eagle Airlines began operations.

• 1980 – British Airways terminates Concorde services to Bahrain and Singapore

• 1968 – President Lyndon B. Johnson’s administration suspends all American bombing of North Vietnam; Operation Rolling Thunder is suspended.

• 1968 – Força Aérea Brasileira Aerotec A-122 Uirapuru pre-production two-place trainer crashes, killing Centro Técnico Aeroespacial test pilot José Mariotto Ferreira, one of the Centre's most experienced pilots.

• 1966 – Air Canada begins the first North American air services to the Soviet Union

• 1964 – Viet Cong infiltrators stage a mortar attack on Bien Hoa Air Base in South Vietnam, destroying five U. S. Air Force B-57 Canberra bombers, a U. S. Air Force HH-43 F helicopter, and four South Vietnamese Air Force A-1 Skyraider attack aircraft, and damaging 15 B-57 s and some HH-43Fs.

• 1957 – The Comets returned to RCAF service after being grounded for modifications since January 1954.

• 1956 – No. 445 Squadron flew from Uplands, Ontario to Marville, France. It was the first Avro Canada CF-100 equipped squadron to join No. 1 Air Division.

• 1956 – During the day, British Fleet Air Arm de Havilland Sea Venoms, Chance Vought Corsairs, and Hawker Sea Hawks from the aircraft carriers HMS Eagle, HMS Albion, and HMS Bulwark conduct a series of daylight strikes against Egyptian airbases, destroying 200 aircraft by nightfall and knocking the Egyptian Air Force out of action. It begins the first large-scale action by the Fleet Air Arm since the end of World War II in 1945 The Egyptian President Abdel Nasser orders Egyptian pilots to fly all surviving aircraft to southern Egypt and avoid further action against British, French, and Israeli forces.

• 1955 – United Airlines Flight 629, a Douglas DC-6 B, is bombed by Jack Gilbert Graham over Longmont, Colorado; all 44 on board are killed.

• 1954 – No. 409 Squadron was reformed at Comox and equipped with Avro Canada CF-100 fighters.

• 1952 – No. 414 Squadron was reformed at Bagotville, Quebec.

• 1951 – No. 1 Fighter Wing was formed in England; on 15 Nov was established at North Luffenham.

• 1950 – Lt Khominich Semen Fedorovich shoots down a F-80 Shooting Star from his MiG-15, the first victory by a jet over another jet.

• 1949 – Eastern Air Lines Flight 537, a Douglas DC-4, on approach to Washington National Airport, suffers a mid-air collision with a Lockheed P-38; all 55 people on board the DC-4 died, including Congressman George J. Bates, New Yorker cartoonist Helen E. Hokinson, and former Congressman Michael J. Kennedy; the pilot and sole occupant of the P-38 is seriously injured.

• 1949 – A Lockheed P-38L Lightning, NX26297 flown by a Bolivian Air Force pilot, collides in midair with Eastern Airlines Flight 537, a Douglas DC-4 airliner, N88727, on its final approach to National Airport. All 55 people on board the Douglas DC-4 die; the P-38 pilot survived with injuries. Bridaux was considered one of Bolivia's most experienced pilots. Among the dead were Congressman George J. Bates and former Congressman Michael J. Kennedy. DC-4 wreckage comes down on Virginia shoreline of the Potomac River, north of Mount Vernon. It was (at the time) the worst plane crash in the history of civil aviation. The P-38 pilot was accused of causing the accident, later tried and cleared of the charges, which now is believed to have been an ATC error.

• 1945 – First prototype McDonnell XFD-1 Phantom, BuNo 48235 crashes as a result of aileron failure[66] killing McDonnell's chief test pilot Woodward Burke.

• 1944 – The International Civil Aviation Conference opens in Chicago.

• 1944 – A Boeing F-13 Superfortress photographic reconnaissance aircraft conducts a mission over Tokyo. It is the first Allied aircraft to fly over Tokyo since the April 1942 Doolittle Raid.

• 1944 – Japanese kamikazes attack the United States Seventh Fleet in Leyte Gulf, sinking one and damaging five destroyers.

• 1944 – (1–11) U. S. Army Air Forces aircraft attack Japanese convoys landing troops and supplies at Ormoc Bay on Leyte with limited success.

• 1943 – U. S. Marines land at Cape Torokina on Bougainville Island. Two Japanese air raids on the ships offshore – The first by 53 and the second by approximately 100 Japanese planes – Are ineffective.

• 1943 – The U. S. Army Air Forces activate the Fifteenth Air Force in the Mediterranean as a strategic air force.

• 1943 – (1-2) Carrier aircraft from USS Saratoga (CV-3) and USS Princeton (CVL-23) raid two Japanese airfields adjacent to the Buka Passage between Buka Island and Bougainville.

• 1943 – 173 Japanese carrier aircraft land at shore bases at Rabaul to reinforce about 200 Imperial Japanese Navy 11th Air Fleet aircraft already there.

• 1940 – Entered Service: Avro Manchester with the Royal Air Force’s No. 207 Squadron

• 1939 – The first jet-powered plane, the Heinkel He 178, is demonstrated to officials of the Reich Air Ministry for their consideration as a warplane. The Nazi bigwigs pass on the design despite its superior speed, preferring to continue using proven piston-driven aircraft rather than investing in the new jet technology.

• 1926 – The Air Commerce Act is passed into law. Created at the urging of aviation industry leaders and President Calvin Coolidge, the act mandates for the first time such fundamentals as pilot licenses, aircraft airworthiness certificates, airways and investigation of accidents.

• 1920 – The US Post Office awards a contract for international air mail to Aeromarine West Indies Airways.

• 1919 – West Indies Airways begins exploitation of a route between Key West in Florida and La Havana, in Cuba.

• 1918 – The French fighter pilot René Fonck scores his 75th and final aerial victory. He ends the war as the highest-scoring Allied ace of World War I.

• 1914 – The Ottoman Empire enters World War I when Russia declares war.

• 1911 – 2nd Lieutenant Giulio Gavotti of the Italian Air Flotilla drops several small bombs on Turkish troops during the Italo-Turkish War. This was the first time bombs had been dropped from an aeroplane in war.