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The Aviation Portal

A Boeing 747 in 1978 operated by Pan Am

Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. Aircraft includes fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as lighter-than-air craft such as hot air balloons and airships.

Aviation began in the 18th century with the development of the hot air balloon, an apparatus capable of atmospheric displacement through buoyancy. Some of the most significant advancements in aviation technology came with the controlled gliding flying of Otto Lilienthal in 1896; then a large step in significance came with the construction of the first powered airplane by the Wright brothers in the early 1900s. Since that time, aviation has been technologically revolutionized by the introduction of the jet which permitted a major form of transport throughout the world. (Full article...)

Selected article

Ben Gurion International Airport is the largest and busiest international airport in Israel, with about 10.2 million passengers passing through it in 2007. It was known as Wilhelma Airport when it was first founded by the British Mandate of Palestine. It was known as Lod Airport from 1948 until 1973, when the name was changed to honor Israel's first prime minister, David Ben Gurion.

The airport is located near the city of Lod, 15 km (9 mi) southeast of Tel Aviv. It is operated by the Israel Airports Authority, a government-owned corporation that manages all public airports and border crossings in Israel. Ben Gurion Airport is on Highway 1, the main Jerusalem-Tel Aviv Highway, accessible by car or public bus.

Ben Gurion Airport is the hub of El Al, Israir Airlines, Arkia Israel Airlines, and Sun d'Or International Airlines. During the 1980s and 1990s, it was a focus city of the now-defunct Tower Air. Today, Terminal 3 is used for international flights, and Terminal 1 is used for domestic flights. The airport has three runways and is used by commercial, private, and military aircraft.

Ben Gurion Airport is considered to be among the five best airports in the Middle East due to its passenger experience and its high level of security. Security forces such as Israel Police officers, IDF and Israel Border Police soldiers are complemented by airport security guards who operate both in uniform and undercover. The airport has been the target of several terrorist attacks, but no attempt to hijack a plane departing from Ben Gurion airport has succeeded. (Full article...)

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Did you know

...that Suriname's worst air disaster was Surinam Airways Flight 764, which crashed after the pilots ignored repeated warnings that they were flying too low? ...that Roy Marlin "Butch" Voris, founder of the United States Navy's Blue Angels flight demonstration team, chose the name based on a nightclub advertisement in The New Yorker magazine? ... that the PZL SM-4 Łątka never flew, because its engine was not approved for use in flight?

More Did you know facts

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

In the news

Wikinews Aviation portal
Read and edit Wikinews

Associated Wikimedia

The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:

Selected biography

Elbert Leander "Burt" Rutan (born June 17, 1943 in Estacada, Oregon) is an American aerospace engineer noted for his originality in designing light, strong, unusual-looking, energy-efficient aircraft. He is most famous for his design of the record-breaking Voyager, which was the first plane to fly around the world without stopping or refueling, and the suborbital rocket plane SpaceShipOne, which won the Ansari X-Prize in 2004.

Selected Aircraft

A spitfire in flight
A spitfire in flight

The Supermarine Spitfire was a single-seat fighter used by the RAF and many Allied countries in World War II.

Produced by Supermarine, the Spitfire was designed by R.J. Mitchell, who continued to refine it until his death from cancer in 1937. The elliptical wing had a thin cross-section, allowing a faster top speed than the Hurricane and other contemporary designs; it also resulted in a distinctive appearance. Much loved by its pilots, the Spitfire saw service during the whole of World War II, in all theatres of war, and in many different variants.

More than 20,300 examples of all variants were built, including two-seat trainers, with some Spitfires remaining in service well into the 1950s. It was the only fighter aircraft to be in continual production before, during and after the war.

The aircraft was dubbed Spitfire by Sir Robert MacLean, director of Vickers (the parent company of Supermarine) at the time, and on hearing this, Mitchell is reported to have said, "...sort of bloody silly name they would give it." The word dates from Elizabethan times and refers to a particularly fiery, ferocious type of person, usually a woman. The name had previously been used unofficially for Mitchell's earlier F.7/30 Type 224 design.

The prototype (K5054) first flew on March 5, 1936, from Eastleigh Aerodrome (later Southampton Airport). Testing continued until May 26, 1936, when Mutt Summers (Chief Test Pilot for Vickers (Aviation) Ltd.) flew K5054 to Martlesham and handed the aircraft over to Squadron Leader Anderson of the Aeroplane & Armament Experimental Establishment (A&AEE).

  • Length: 29 ft 11 in (9.12 m)
  • Wingspan: 36 ft 10 in (11.23 m)
  • Height: 12 ft 8 in (3.86 m)
  • Number Built: 20,351 (excluding Seafires)
  • Maximum speed: 330 knots (378 mph, 605 km/h)
  • Maiden flight: March 5, 1936
  • Powerplant: 1× Rolls-Royce Merlin 45 supercharged V12 engine, 1470 hp at 9250 ft (1096 kW at 2820 m)

Today in Aviation

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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.

References

  1. ^ "U.S. Army pilots die in Iraqi helicopter crash". BNO News. 2009-11-09. Retrieved 2009-11-10.
  2. ^ "US helicopter pilots die in Iraq". BBC.com. 2009-11-09. Retrieved 2009-11-10.
  3. ^ "Idaho Soldier Dies In Helicopter Crash In Iraq". 2009-11-11. Retrieved 2010-09-23.
  4. ^ http://www.earlyaviators.com/emacdill.htm
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