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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 aircraft 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. Clément Ader built the "Ader Éole" in France and made an uncontrolled, powered hop in 1890. This is the first powered aircraft, although it did not achieve controlled flight. 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

Mirabel Satellite photo
Mirabel Satellite photo
Montréal-Mirabel International Airport is a large airport located in Mirabel, Quebec, near Montreal and was opened 4 October 1975. The airport serves mainly cargo flights, and is a manufacturing base of Bombardier Aerospace, where final assembly of regional jets (CRJ700 and CRJ900) aircraft is conducted. It is part of the National Airports System. It is the second largest airport in the world in terms of area, covering more land area than the five New York City boroughs.

The airport's location and lack of transport links, as well as Montreal's economic decline relative to Toronto, made it unpopular with airlines. Eventually relegated to the simple role of a cargo airport, Mirabel became an embarrassment widely regarded in Canada as being a boondoggle, or a "white elephant," and one of the best examples of a failed megaproject. (Full article...)

Selected image

Nevada test Site, August 7, 1957. The tail, or “After” section of a U.S. Navy Blimp is shown with the Stokes cloud in background. Blimp was in temporary free flight in excess of five miles from ground zero when collapsed by the shock wave from the blast. The airship was unmanned and was used in military effects experiments on blast and heat. Navy personnel on the ground in the vicinity of the experimental area were unhurt. On ground to the left are remains of the forward section.

Did you know

...the study of airmail is known as aerophilately? ...that the Blohm und Voss Bv 144 was an attempt by Nazi Germany to develop an advanced commercial airliner for post-war service? ... that former USAF officer David P. Cooley who was the chief test pilot for the F-117 Nighthawk died in March 2009 while testing the F-22 Raptor?

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

Amelia Earhart, c. 1928
Amelia Mary Earhart (July 24, 1897 – missing as of July 2, 1937), daughter of Edwin and Amy Earhart, was an American aviator and noted early female pilot who mysteriously disappeared over the Pacific Ocean during a circumnavigational flight in 1937.

By 1919 Earhart had enrolled at Columbia University to study pre-med but quit a year later to be with her parents in California. Later in Long Beach she and her father went to a stunt-flying exhibition and the next day she went on a ten minute flight.

Earhart had her first flying lesson at Kinner Field near Long Beach. Her teacher was Anita Snook, a pioneer female aviator. Six months later Earhart purchased a yellow Kinner Airster biplane which she named "Canary". On October 22, 1922, she flew it to an altitude of 14,000 feet, setting a women's world record.

After Charles Lindbergh's solo flight across the Atlantic in 1927, Amy Guest, a wealthy American living in London, England expressed interest in being the first woman to fly (or be flown) across the Atlantic Ocean, but after deciding the trip was too dangerous to make herself, she offered to sponsor the project, suggesting they find "another girl with the right image." While at work one afternoon in April 1928 Earhart got a phone call from a man who asked her, "Would you like to fly the Atlantic?"

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

March 29

  • 2012 – Venezuelan Air Force AS332B1 Super Puma crashes near Chparralito, Venezuela on an anti-narcotics mission, killing all seven on board.
  • 2011 – A U.S. Marine Sikorsky CH-53 Sea Stallion crashes in Kaneohe Bay, killing one and injuring three crew members.
  • 2011 – A U.S. Navy Lockheed P-3 Orion fires at a Libyan Navy patrol vessel that has launched missiles at merchant ships in the port of Misrata. A U.S. Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt II attacks two smaller Libyan vessels accompanying the patrol vessel, sinking one and forcing the other to be abandoned.[1]
  • 2010 – A Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter of the U.S Army crashed in Forward Operating Base Atgar in the Zabul province of Afghanistan.
  • 2006 – The Sea Harrier was withdrawn from service.
  • 2003 – First flight of the Ullmann 2000 Panther prototype N202 kT
  • 2001 – X-32 B Joint Strike Fighter Concept Demonstration Aircraft makes its first flight.
  • 2001 – In the 2001 Avjet Aspen crash, an Avjet charter flight, a Gulfstream III jet with 15 passengers and 3 crew, crashes on approach into Aspen, Colorado, killing all on board.
  • 1999 – RQ-4 Global Hawk #2 prototype crashes at Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake.
  • 1998 – A Peruvian Air Force Antonov An-32, FAP-388/OB-1388, carrying villagers affected by floods, crashes in Piura, Peru after engine failure. Of the 55 people on board, 22 are killed.
  • 1996 – First flight of the Lockheed Martin RQ-3 DarkStar
  • 1990 – First flight of the Ilyushin Il-114.
  • 1985 – Two Canadian Forces Lockheed CC-130H Hercules, 130330 and 130331, both of 435 Squadron, crashes after having a mid-air collision over CFB Namao, near Edmonton, Alberta. This is the only dual Hercules mid-air collision.
  • 1981 – British Airways makes its last Vickers VC10 flight
  • 1979 – Quebecair Flight 255, a Fairchild F-27, crashes after an explosion in an engine, killing 17 of 24 on board.
  • 1965 – William Oefelein, American Astronaut, was born. William Anthony “Bill” Oefelein is an American Naval officer and former NASA astronaut. He flew as pilot of the STS-116 space shuttle mission.
  • 1960 – First flight of the Tupolev Tu-124
  • 1959 – Barthélemy Boganda, the prime minister of the Central African Republic autonomous territory (the future Central African Republic) dies when his plane explodes in mid-air over Boukpoyanga, killing all on board.
  • 1951 – Flight Safety Inc. begins operations at the Marine Air Terminal at LaGuardia Airport, New York with just one secretary and rented late night hours on a Link trainer simulator.
  • 1945 – Germany launches the final wartime V2 rocket, soon followed by the end of the war in Europe the defeat of Germany.
  • 1944 – (29–30) Bougainville-based Air Solomons (AirSols) aircraft make daylight raids against Japanese bases at Truk Atoll.
  • 1944 – (Overnight) U.S. Kwajalein-based bombers make night attacks on Truk Atoll on four consecutive evenings.
  • 1942 – HMS Eagle makes the third delivery of Spitfires to Malta, flying off seven.
  • 1942 – The production of Spitfire aircraft reached an all-time peak in one day, 134 aircraft.
  • 1942 – (Overnight) In an experiment to see whether a first wave of bombers could start a conflagration in a city center that would guide later waves of bombers to the city during an area bombing attack, 234 British bombers attack Lübeck, Germany. The experiment succeeds, with the center of Lübeck largely destroyed and over 300 people killed.
  • 1939 – The Curtiss YP-37 enters service with the U.S Army Air Corps
  • 1936 – First flight of the Vought V-141
  • 1920 – Croydon replaces Hounslow as London's airport
  • 1912 – Hanna Reitsch, German test pilot, was born (d. 1979). Reitsch was a famous female German test pilot. Several of her later international gliding records are still standing in 2008. Reitsch was born in Hirschberg, Silesia. The daughter of an ophthalmologist, she studied to become a medical doctor and in 1932 began her aviation career. She was a test pilot on the Junkers Ju 87 Stuka and Dornier Do 17 projects and was one of the few pilots to fly the Focke-Achgelis Fa 61, the first fully controllable helicopter.
  • 1858 – Two men – Brown and Dean – make the first balloon flight in Australia in a hydrogen balloon named the Australasian.

References

  1. ^ "US Aircraft Engage Libyan Coastguard Vessel". Associated Press (via Google News). 29 March 2011. Retrieved 29 March 2011.
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