Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/September 11

September 11

• 2004 – A Hellenic Army Boeing-Vertol CH-47SD Chinook, EZ-916, of 4 TEAS, ditches into the Aegean Sea off Mount Athos, Greece around 1056 hrs. killing all 17 on board. Among those killed was Patriarch Peter VII of Alexandria.

• 2003 – While landing aboard USS George Washington, operating off the Virginia Capes, an McDonnell-Douglas F/A-18D-32-MC Hornet (Lot 13), BuNo 164198, c/n 961/DO63, 'AD 432', of VFA-106, goes off the angle at ~1600 hrs. when the arresting cable parts, pilot ejects and is recovered. The broken cable, whipping back across the deck, injures eleven deck crew, the most serious of which are airlifted to shore medical facilities. Footage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OxMox2Kdxs&feature=related

• 2001 – United Airlines Flight 93, a Boeing 757-200 with 44 people on board, is hijacked after taking off from Newark, New Jersey; passengers struggle with the hijackers, and the aircraft crashes in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, killing all on board.

• 2001 – American Airlines Flight 77, a Boeing 757-200 with 64 people on board, is hijacked after taking off from Dulles International Airport and is flown into The Pentagon; all on board are killed as well as 125 people in the building and on the ground

• 2001 – United Airlines Flight 175, a Boeing 767-200 with 65 people on board, is hijacked after taking off from Boston and is flown into the south tower of the World Trade Center in New York City; all on board are killed as well as others on the ground and in the building; the collapse of both towers brings the total death toll from the two crashes to at least 2,759.

• 2001 – American Airlines Flight 11, a Boeing 767-200ER with 92 people on board, is hijacked after taking off from Boston, and is flown into the north tower of the World Trade Center in New York City; all on board are killed as well as others on the ground and in the building.

• 1997 – NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor reaches Mars.

• 1996 – First flight of the Boeing Bird of Prey, an American black project aircraft, intended to demonstrate stealth technology.

• 1994 – Death of Friedrich Schmiedl, Austrian Rocket pioneer.

• 1991 – Death of Rudolf Kaiser, German glider designer who worked for Alexander Schleicher GmbH & Co.

• 1991 – Continental Express Flight 2574, an Embraer 120RT Brasília, crashes on descent in Eagle Lake, Texas, killing all 14 people on board. Maintenance crews traded work shifts during repairs to the horizontal stabilizer, inadvertently leaving 47 bolts missing. Reformers pointed to this error and called for development of a "safety culture".

• 1983 – First flight of the Agusta A129 Mangusta, an Italian attack helicopter and First attack helicopter to be designed and produced wholly in Western Europe.

• 1982 – At an airshow in Mannheim, Germany, celebrating the 375th anniversary of that city, a United States Army Boeing-Vertol CH-47C Chinook, 74-22292, of the 295th Assault Support Helicopter Company—"Cyclones", located at Coleman Army Airfield, Coleman Barracks, near Mannheim, carrying parachutists crashed, killing 46 people. The crash was later found to be caused by an accumulation of ground walnut shells that had been used to clean the machinery.

• 1981 – Giovanni Carta (John Carta) becomes the First man to land with a parachute on the top of the World Trade Center. (he sustained a 50$ fee).

• 1974 – Eastern Air Lines Flight 212, a DC-9, crashes on approach to Charlotte, North Carolina; 72 of 82 people on board are killed.

• 1973 – An AVE Mizar flying car prototype broke-up in flight over Oxnard, California killing the company founder and the pilot.

• 1973 – JAT Airways Flight 769, a Sud Aviation Caravelle, crashes into Mt. Maganik near Kolašin, Montenegro, killing all 41 on board.

• 1972 – General Dynamics F-111A, 65-5703, c/n A1-21, of the 6510th Test Wing, used in spin tests out of Edwards AFB, California, crashes this date, impacting in the desert ~10 miles from the base in a near vertical dive at ~500 knots after the crew ejected in their escape capsule. Crew of Winters and Sharp, okay.

• 1971 – Lockheed C-121 Constellation of the West Virginia Air National Guard, carrying five state governors to a conference in Puerto Rico, experiences engine problems, force-lands at Homestead AFB, Florida. Governors of Connecticut, Minnesota, Montana, Texas and Utah, transfer to another aircraft to continue flight.

• 1970 – First flight of the Britten-Norman Trislander (more formally designated the BN-2 A Mk III Trislander), a British 18-seat three-engined piston-powered civilian utility aircraft.

• 1968 – Air France Flight 1611, a Sud Aviation SE-210 Caravelle, crashes off Nice, France, after a fire in the cabin, killing 95 passengers and crew.

• 1968 – Air New Zealand flies T. H. Williams, Sir Charles Kingsford Smith's navigator to Sydney to commemorate the 40th anniversary of their first trans-Tasman flight

• 1968 – Second prototype Grumman/General Dynamics F-111B, BuNo 151971, c/n A2-02, crashes into the Pacific Ocean killing Hughes pilot Barton Warren and his RIO Anthony Byland.

• 1966 – Death of Collett Everman Woolman, one of four founders of Delta Air Lines.

• 1965 – The US First Cavalry Division arrives in Vietnam with 400 helicopters

• 1956 – Death of William Avery “Billy” Bishop VC, CB, DSO & Bar, MC, DFC, ED, Canadian WWI flying ace, officially credited with 72 victories, making him the top Canadian ace, and according to some sources, the top ace of the British Empire.

• 1946 – A Lockheed P2 V-1 Neptune “The Truculent Turtle” sets a new distance record of 11,235 miles (18,082 km), Landing in Columbus, Ohio from Perth, Australia, after a 55 h and 18 min unrefueled flight and with a nine-month-old gray kangaroo, a gift from Australia for the Washington, D. C. zoo.

• 1946 – First flight of the North American FJ-1 Fury, First operational jet aircraft in the US Navy

• 1943 – French fighter ace Pierre Le Gloan (18 victories) died in a crash.

• 1936 – Sole Kellett YG-1 gyrocopter, 35-278, now assigned to the 16th Observation Squadron, is moderately damaged in a takeoff accident at Pope Army Airfield, Fort Bragg, North Carolina, its second at this field this year. Pilot was Hollingsworth F. Gregory.

• 1937 – Birth of Robert Laurel Crippen, US Navy pilot and NASA astronaut.

• 1935 – Birth of Gherman Stepanovich Titov, Soviat air force pilot and cosmonaut.

• 1933 – First flight of the Breguet 521, a French long-range military reconnaissance flying boat.

• 1932 – Polish Challenge 1932 winners, Franciszek Zwirko and Stanislaw Wigura died in an aircrash.

• 1927 – The only Short Crusader, British racing seaplane, crashed during flying tests.

• 1926 – First flight of the Vickers Type 123, a British single-seat biplane fighter prototype built as a private venture.

• 1924 – Canada's first regular airmail service begins, with Laurentide Air Services linking Haileybury with Rouyn.

• 1920 – Edison Mouton flies into Marina Field, San Francisco, to complete the First US transcontinental airmail flight. Having left from New York, it took Mouton and his crew over 75 hours to complete the feat.

• 1918 – Third prototype Vickers Vimy, B9954, crashes during testing - stalls on takeoff with full load at Martlesham Heath, bomb load explodes, pilot killed.

• 1917 – Birth of Donald James Matthew Blakeslee, USAF pilot whose career began as a pilot in the RCAF and flew Spitfire fighter aircraft, during WWII and became a member of the RAF Eagle squadrons. He flew more combat missions against the Luftwaffe than any other American fighter pilot.

• 1917 – French ace Capitaine Georges Guynemer goes missing in action. Kurt Wisserman of Jasta 3 is credited with shooting him down, but his body is never found.

• 1912 – Lieutenant Riccardo Moizo, Italian pilot, is the First pilot to be captured in warfare when his Nieuport makes a forced landing at Azizia during the Libyan campaign. Moizo, at the time of his capture, was the longest serving pilot in the theatre with 11 months and 82 sorties to his name.

• 1911 – Robert Grant Fowler takes off in a Wright biplane from San Francisco to Jacksonville, Florida, for a west to east coast-to-coast journey. It will take four months to complete the journey.

• 1910 – Robert Loraine makes the First aeroplane flight across the Irish Sea, from Holyhead to Howth, in his Farman biplane, but fails to reach the Irish coast when his engine cuts out.

• 1900 – Birth of Semyon Alekseyevich Lavochkin, Soviet aerospace engineer and Soviet aircraft designer.

• 1893 – Birth of James Martin CBE DSc CEng FIMechE FRAeS, British engineer who, with Captain Valentine Baker, was the founder of the Martin-Baker aircraft company which is now a leading producer of aircraft ejection seats.

• 1890 – Birth of Armando de Dominicis, Italian aviation pioneer and WWI pilot.