Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/May 18

May 18

• 2013 – A dawn attack by an American unmanned aerial vehicle kills four al-Qaeda members in Deyfa in Yemen's Abyan Governorate.

• 2011 – Space Shuttle Endeavour docks to the ISS for its final mission.

• 2011 – Sol Líneas Aéreas Flight 5428, a Saab 340, crashes off Prahuaniyeu, Río Negro, Argentina while on approach to General Enrique Mosconi International Airport, Comodoro Rivadavia in heavy rain, killing all 22 passengers and crew on board.

• 2009 – An Antonov An-24 veers off the runway during take-off at Aba Tenna Dejazmach Yilma International Airport, Ethiopia. Damage was described as “substantial”.

• 2006 – The world’s biggest passenger jet, the Airbus A380, lands at Heathrow Airport for the first time, making its UK debut.

• 1996 – A Grumman F-14A-115-GR Tomcat, BuNo 161282, 'NF 101', of VF-154 crashes into the Pacific Ocean 500 miles W of Guam after suffering engine malfunction. Both crew eject safely.

• 1983 – American Airlines carries its 500 millionth passenger.

• 1982 – American Airlines' 1 millionth passenger is flown.

• 1979 – First flight of the Piper PA-42 Cheyenne.

• 1973 – Death of Dieudonné Costes, French aviator, well known for long distance and record breaking flights (Costes with Maurice Bellonte, flew the Breguet 19 from Paris to New York City, as the first aircraft in more difficult westbound direction, between North American and European mainlands), as well as being a fighter ace during World War I.

• 1972 – Aeroflot Flight 1491, an Antonov An-10A, suffers a inflight structural failure while descending to land at Kharkov Airport in the Ukraine. All 122 passengers and crew onboard are killed.

• 1971 – Birth of Desiree Tyler Horton, nicknamed "Chopper Chick" helicopter pilot and television personality. She is one of the few female helicopter pilots/on-camera reporters in Los Angeles television history.

• 1970 – National Airlines ends a 108-day strike by offering ground crews a 33% pay increase.

• 1969 – Launch of Apollo 10, fourth manned mission in the American Apollo space program, for testing all of the procedures and components of a Moon landing without actually landing on the Moon itself.

• 1969 – USMC Lockheed KC-130F Hercules BuNo 149814, c/n 3723, of VMGR-352, collided head-on with McDonnell F-4B Phantom II BuNo 151001 of VMFA-542, MAG-13, from Chu Lai (both crew killed), while refuelling two F-4Bs of VMFA-314 over South Vietnam near Phu Bai. Two crew of F-4B BuNo 151450, survived after jettisoning bombs and ejecting, while the second F-4B recovered safely to Chu Lai. Lars Olausson states that the KC-130F was from VMGR-352, while Chris Hobson claims it was assigned to VMGR-152.

• 1967 – Prototype of the Dassault Mirage F1, French air-superiority fighter and attack aircraft, crashes due to flutter, killing its pilot.

• 1967 – NASA announces crew members for the Apollo 7 space mission (first manned Apollo flight): Walter M. Schirra, Jr., Donn F. Eisele, and R. Walter Cunningham.

• 1966 – British pilot Sheila Scott takes off from London Heathrow for the first round-the-world solo flight. She will fly 29,000 miles (46,670 km) in stages in her Piper Comanche 'Myth Too'.

• 1965 – The United States resumes Operation Rolling Thunder strikes against North Vietnam.

• 1966 – Kosmos 11, soviet spacecraft re-enters earth's atmosphere and breaks up.

• 1961 – Commander J. L. Felsman, US Navy, is killed in a McDonnell F4H-1F Phantom II, BuNo 145316, during the first attempt at "Operation Sageburner" speed record at Edwards Air Force Base, California, when his aircraft disintegrated in the air after pitch damper failure. This was the first fatal Phantom II accident.

• 1958 – An F-104A Starfighter sets a world speed record of 2,259.82 km/h (1,404.19 mph).

• 1958 – In a Zero Length Launch (ZEL) experiment, a U. S. Air Force North American F-100D Super Sabre becomes airborne with no runway or take-off roll at all, using its own engine in afterburner and boosted by a 130,000-pound- (58,967-kg)-thrust Astrodyne rocket.

• 1953 – First flight of the Douglas DC-7, American 4 engine transport aircraft, last major piston engine powered transport made by Douglas.

• 1953 – Jackie Cochran becomes the first woman to break the sound barrier.

• 1952 – Birth of Jeana Yeager, American aviatrix. most famous for co-piloting a non-stop, non-refueled flight around the world in the Rutan Voyager aircraft.

• 1951 – First flight of the Vickers-Armstrongs Valiant, British four-jet bomber, once part of the Royal Air Force's V bomber nuclear force, originally developed for use as high-level strategic bomber, but its role, like other V bombers, was changed to low-level attacks.

• 1951 – Gloster E.1/44, TX145, following test flight out of the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE), Farnborough, suffers damage when starboard undercarriage leg collapses on landing. Probably not repaired as it is struck off charge on 2 August and sent to the Proof and Experimental Establishment (PEE) at Shoeburyness.

• 1949 – New-York city's first helipad, is built on Pier 41 by the Hudson River.

• 1948 – Aquila Airways is formed.

• 1947 – A U.S. Navy pilot and two school boys are killed when a Vought F4U Corsair fighter crashes onto a school playground in Burlington, Iowa, during an airshow at the Municipal Airport. The fighter, one of 35 aircraft from Lambert Field, St. Louis, Missouri, performing a mock formation raid in front of 3,500 spectators to signal the start of National Naval Reserve week, went into a series of barrel rolls, then appeared to go out of control before it crashed onto the playground at the Perkins School where 14 youngsters were playing ball. At least five others were injured, and several homes were struck by debris from the crash.

• 1945 – Boeing B-29-45-MO (serial number 44-86292, victor number 82) Superfortress bomber 'Enola Gay', named after Enola Gay Tibbets, mother of pilot Paul Tibbets rolls out from the manufacture.

• 1942 – RCAF No. 423 (Coastal) Squadron was formed at Oban, England.

• 1940 – First flight of the Pashinin I-21 (not to be confused with the Ilyushin TsKB-32, also known as "I-21") Soviet fighter prototype.

• 1940 – The British aircraft carrier HMS Glorious flies off Fleet Air Arm Supermarine Walrus flying boats of No. 701 Squadron for service at Harstad, Norway.

• 1940 – First flight of Saab 17, Swedish bomber-reconnaissance aircraft.

• 1939 – Death of Col. Charles deForest Chandler, American military aviator, and the first head of the Aeronautical Division, U.S. Signal Corps that later became the United States Air Force.

• 1938 – Tadeusz Góra, Polish glider pilot, is the first winner of the Lilienthal Gliding Medal in the world for his record-breaking 577.8-kilometer flight in a PWS-101.

• 1935 – The Tupolev ANT-20, Maxim Gorky, the largest aircraft ever built to that time, flown by pilots I. V. Mikheyev and I. S. Zhurov, and three more planes (Tupolev ANT-14, Polikarpov R-5 and Polikarpov I-5) take off for a demonstration flight over Moscow. As a result of a poorly executed loop maneuver (a third such stunt on this flight) around the plane performed by an accompanying I-5 fighter, flown by Nikolai Blagin, both planes collide and the Maxim Gorky crashes into a low-rise residential neighborhood west of present-day Sokol station. Forty-five people are killed in the crash, including crew members and 33 family members of some of those who had built the aircraft. (While authorities announced that the fatal maneuver was impromptu and reckless, it has been recently suggested that it might have been a planned part of the show.) Also killed was the fighter pilot, Blagin, who was made a scapegoat in the crash and subsequently had his name used eponymously (Blaginism) to mean, roughly, a "cocky disregard of authority." However, Blagin was given a state funeral at Novodevichy Cemetery together with ANT-20 victims.

• 1934 – Entered into service was the Douglas DC-2 with Transcontinental and Western Air.

• 1930 – Birth of Don Leslie Lind, American scientist and a former NASA astronaut.

• 1929 – During the 1929 U.S. Army maneuvers, two Boeing P-12s of the 95th Pursuit Squadron, operating out of Norton Field (the first airfield to be built in central Ohio), collide over the Linden neighborhood on the north side of Columbus, Ohio, the propeller of 2nd Lt. Andrew F. Solter's XP-12A, 29-362, cutting into the rear fuselage of 2nd Lt. Edward L. Meadow's P-12 (possibly 29-361). Meadow is killed but Solter bails out and lands safely. Gen. Benjamin Foulois tells newsmen, "It's all in a day's work of the Air Corps. Although an unhappy occurrence, the accident will cause no change in the maneuver plans, which will be carried out as scheduled."

• 1919 – Harry Hawker and Lt Cdr Kenneth Mackenzie-Grieve attempt a non-stop Atlantic crossing but are forced to ditch their aircraft only 2,253 (1,400 miles) after leaving Newfoundland. London's Daily Mail newspaper awards them a prize of £5,000 for their attempt anyway.

• 1918 – Birth of Roland Louise Ernest 'Monty' Burton AFC and Bar, British RAF pilot, first man to fly from London to New Zealand in under 24 hours.

• 1916 – Kiffin Yates Rockwell is the first American to claim an air victory for the U.S. Military.

• 1912 – Birth of Robert Hoover?, Nasa Test Pilot.

• 1910 – International talks open in Paris to draw up a legal basis for flight between countries.

• 1908 – First flight of the AEA White Wing.

• 1907 – Wilbur Wright sails for Europe to discuss the sale of his Flyer III in London, Paris, Moscow and Berlin.

• 1905 – Birth of Ruth Blaney Alexander, US Female aviation pioneer.

• 1887 – Birth of Sterling Rohlfs, Early American test pilot.