Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/May 17

May 17

• 2011 – A U.S. Air Force MQ-1 Predator unmanned aerial vehicle carrying a live AGM-114 Hellfire air-to-surface missile misses the runway at Djibouti-Ambouli International Airport in Djibouti, Djibouti, by three miles (4.8 km) and crashes near a residential area. Its missile does not explode, and no one is injured.

• 2010 – Pamir Airways Flight 112, operated by Antonov An-24 YA-PIS crashed in the Salang Pass killing all 43 on board.

• 2007 – Three people, the two pilots and a passenger, were killed Thursday in the accident of a small plane of freight, which was crushed little after its takeoff of Walikale, in the East of the democratic Republic of Congo, one learned near the company. A plane bound for Goma was crushed this Thursday morning in Kilambo, in territory of Walikale, with approximately 300 km in the west of the chief town of North-Kivu.

• 2003 – Death of Gerhard Schöpfel, German WWII flying ace.

• 1997 – First flight of the McDonnell Douglas X-36 tailless fighter technology demonstrator, power for which is provided by a 700 lb. s. t. Williams International F112 turbofan. The fighter takes off from Edwards AFB, California.

• 1992 – Flughafen München Franz Josef Strauß (IATA: MUC, ICAO: EDDM), starts operations as new Munich international airport.

• 1987 – An Iraqi Mirage F1 fighter jet fires two Exocet missiles into the U. S. warship USS Stark in the Persian Gulf.

• 1986 – In the USS Stark Incident, an Iraqi Air Force Dassault Mirage F1 jet hits the United States Navy guided-missile frigate USS Stark (FFG-31) with two Exocet antiship cruise missiles, badly damaging her and killing 37 and wounding 21 of her crew.

• 1981 – Death of Jeannette Ridlon Piccard, American high-altitude balloonist, and first woman to fly to the stratosphere.

• 1968 – Operation Delaware in South Vietnam’s A Shau Valley comes to an end. The U. S. Army’s 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) has captured a large amount of North Vietnamese equipment and supplies but has faced the heaviest enemy antiaircraft fire it has encountered thus far in the Vietnam War, losing 21 helicopters shot down during the operation.

• 1967 – Birth of Joseph Michael "Joe" Acaba, educator, hydrogeologist, and NASA astronaut. He became the first person of Puerto Rican heritage to be named as a NASA astronaut.

• 1964 – Death of John Theodore Cuthbert Moore-Brabazon, first Baron Brabazon of Tara, English aviation pioneer, first person to qualify as a pilot in the United Kingdom, awarded Royal Aero Club Aviator's Certificate number 1.

• 1962 – RAF Blackburn Beverly C.1, XL132, c/n 1033, bound for RAF Thorney Island, suffers engine fire while on approach, ditches in Chichester Harbour, UK. Two crew killed.

• 1958 – Four McDonnell F3 H Demon's and four F8U Crusaders make a non-stop crossing of the Atlantic.

• 1954 – Royal Navy Supermarine Attacker FB.1, WA533, of 736 Squadron is damaged upon landing aboard HMS Illustrious when port main gear collapses. Airframe is repaired, but sees no more operational flying.

• 1950 – The air above Muroc Dry Lake, California, exploded in sonic booms as Lockheed test pilot Tony LeVier put the XF-90 (long-range penetration fighter and bomber escort.) through high-speed dive tests, reaching Mach 1.12.

• 1946 – First flight of the Douglas XB-43 Jetmaster, American jet-powered prototype bomber aircraft.

• 1945 – Former Our Gang actor Bobby "Wheezer" Hutchins (Robert E. Hutchins) is killed in a mid-air collision while trying to land a North American AT-6D Texan, serial number 42-86536, of the 3026th Base Unit, when it strikes North American AT-6C Texan, 42-49068, of the same unit, at Merced Army Air Field in Merced, California, during a training exercise. The other pilot, Edward F. Hamel, survives

• 1945 – First flight of the Lockheed P-2 Neptune, an American Maritime patrol and ASW (Air Anti-Submarine Warfare) Aircraft.

• 1944 – 99 B-24 Liberators of the U. S. Army Air Forces‘ Fifth and Thirteenth air forces strike Biak. On every day but one thereafter through the U. S. amphibious landings on Biak on May 27, the two air forces will conduct almost daily raids on Biak and the Vogelkop.

• 1944 – Aircraft from the British aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious and U. S. carrier USS Saratoga (CV-3) strike the oil refinery at Surabaya, Java.

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

• 1943 – Boeing B-17 F-10-BO Flying Fortress Serial 41-24485, Memphis Belle (aircraft), 324th Bomb Squadron, makes her 25th Bombing mission. The aircraft and entire crew then returned to the United States to sell war bonds. The aircraft is undergoing extensive restoration at the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton, Ohio.

• 1943 – 17-18 – Specially modified RAF Avro Lancasters of 617 Squadron make the "Dambusters" raids on the Möhne Reservoir, Edersee Dam, and Sorpe Dam.

• 1942 – The Sikorsky XR-4, two-place helicopter, flew a distance of 1224 km.

• 1940 – (Overnight) 72 British bombers attack Bremen, Cologne, and Hamburg, killing at least 47 and injuring 127 in Bremen and Hamburg.

• 1938 – The US Congress passes the Naval Expansion Act, leading to the construction of the Essex class aircraft carriers.

• 1935 – Second of three Grumman XF3F-1 prototypes, BuNo 9727 (2nd), crashes on the first day it arrives at NAS Anacostia. Pilot Lee Gelbach is unable to recover from a flat spin which develops during a ten-turn right-hand spin demonstration - bails out safely. A third Grumman XF3F-1 prototype will be built, using some parts salvaged from second prototype, also with BuNo 9727 (3rd), but pilot Bill H. McAvoy will be luckier than his two fellow test pilots, and NOT have to evacuate the Flying Barrel during testing.

• 1934 – First flight of the Avia 50, French single seat motor glider.

• 1930 – Death of Max Valier, Austrian rocketry pioneer, killed when an alcohol-fuelled rocket exploded on his test bench in Berlin.

• 1929 – Colin Spenser (Jack) Caldwell was testing Canadian Vickers Vedette (single-engine biplane flying boat) G-CYZF (CV 122), when on entering a spin he found he was unable to recover. He abandoned the machine by parachute and landed safely on an island in the St Lawrence and became the first Canadian to save his life by a parachute.

• 1928 – First flight of the Vickers Vellore, British large biplane prototype designed as a freight and mail carrier.

• 1928 – Lady Heath (formerly Mrs. Elliot-Lynn) lands in London, becoming the first woman to fly solo from Cape Town, South Africa to London, England in an Avro Avian 594 Avian III.

• 1927 – First flight of prototype Bristol Bulldog MK1, British single-seat biplane fighter.

• 1927 – Major Harold C. Geiger (7 October 1884 - 17 May 1927), born in East Orange, New Jersey, a pioneer in Army aviation and ballooning, and commander of Phillips Field, Aberdeen, Maryland, is killed in the crash of his Airco DH.4B plane, 25-078. Six mechanics and officers at the Middleton Air Station, at Olmsted Field, Pennsylvania told The New York Times Geiger's plane took a 50-foot nose dive. Geiger managed to jump out just as the plane struck and burst into flames. He made desperate efforts to get clear of the wreckage and, according to the onlookers, half crawled and ran as far as the tail of the machine before he was overcome. There he dropped and the flames prevented the watchers from getting near enough to rescue him. When the U.S. Army Air Corps purchases Sunset Field near Spokane, Washington in 1941, it is named Geiger Field in his honor. The Spokane International Airport is designated with the International Air Transport Association airport code GEG in his memory.

• 1924 – During its first aerial circumnavigation of the world, the westbound United States Army Air Service flight of Douglas World Cruiser arrive in northern Japan, completing the first crossing of the Pacific Ocean by airplane.

• 1923 – Death of Thomas Scott Baldwin, U. S. Army major and pioneer balloonist. He was the first American to descend from a balloon by parachute.

• 1920 – KLM and AT&T begin a joint air service between London and Amsterdam.

• 1919 – The War Department in Washington, D.C. orders the use of the national insignia on all U. S. military aircraft.

• 1918 – Death of Eugene Gilbert, French WWI flying ace, in a crash while testing a plane at Villacoublay, France.

• 1916 – Parasite fighter experiments begin in the UK to launch a Bristol Scout from a Porte Baby airship.

• 1912 – Birth of Alexandru "Alecu" Şerbănescu, Romanian WWII leading fighter ace.

• 1911 – Igor Sikorsky makes what he called the first real flight of four minutes of his Sikorsky S-5, in a circuit of the field.

• 1911 – First flight of the Blackburn Mercury.

• 1900 – French-born gliding pioneer Octave Chanute replies to a letter from the Wright brothers. He recommends they study gliding tests carried out by a number of innovators, including Louis Pierre Mouillard and Percy Pilcher.

• 1895 – Birth of Georg Wulf, German aviation pioneer, test pilot and aircraft designer. He was one of the founder of the Focke-Wulf Flugzeugbau AG company.

• 1879 – Birth of Hans Grade, German aviation pioneer.