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Just a quick update about upcoming podcasts from Mike Dell (me)

-Mike

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I have decided to change the name of Today in Aviation History to “Aviation History this week” and move it over to my other website, www.flightradio.com. In the next couple of weeks there will be a special page over there for Aviation History This Week and all the new podcasts will come out there. If you are subscribed to the feed in RSS, iTunes or zune, you shouldn’t have to re-subscribe. If you listen on the website, the new website will be over at FlightRadio.com. Stay tuned here and over at the new site for the first weekly installment of Aviation History this week with Mike Dell.

Thanks for your support!

-Mike

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April 1

In 1904… Using a glider imperfectly modeled by Ernest Archdeacon on an outdated Wright design, artillery captain Ferdinand Ferber launched himself into a short hop from a massive dune in Normandy, France.

1911 – The first flying unit of the British Military, the Air Battalion Royal Engineers formed.

1918 – the Royal Flying Corps and Royal Naval Air Service combine to form the Royal Air Force. The Women’s Royal Air Force is formed at the same time.

In 1921… French pilot Adrienne Bollard takes off from Mendoza, Argentina in a Cauldron biplane to become the first woman to fly over the Andes. She completes the historic Andean crossing to the Chilean capital, Santiago in 10 hours.

1924 – The Royal Canadian Air Force is formed.

1953 – BEA and Air France introduce “tourist class” fares

1954 – Last operational flight by an RAF Spitfire, a photo-reconnaissance sortie against bandits in Malaya

1955 – post-World War II bans on powered flight in West Germany are lifted

1972 – BOAC and BEA are merged to create British Airways

In 1976… Lufthansa’s first two Airbus A300Bs enter service. They will fly between Frankfurt and Dusseldorf, Hamburg, Stuttgart and London.

1978 – The Canadian Snowbirds aerobatic team officially becomes the 431 Air Demonstration Squadron

1982 – Air France flies the Concorde over to Rio de Janeiro and Caracas, Venezuela for the last time.

1993 – Queen Elizabeth II of England reviews 70 Royal Air Force aircraft on the ground in celebration of the air force’s 75th anniversary. A mass flypast is cancelled due to poor weather.

2063 – Zefram Cochrane (The Great Great Grandson of the World Famous Tech Podcaster Todd Cochrane) makes the first human warp flight with the Phoenix. This attracts the Vulcans and they make first contact with humans.

2161 – The United Federation of Planets is founded by Earth, Tellar, Andoria, and Vulcan

2343 – The Galaxy class Starship development project is officially given the greenlight by Starfleet Command.

That’s what happened today in Aviation and space history on April fools day! See you tomorrow!

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March 31

1903 – Richard Pearse is reputed to have made a powered flight in a heavier-than-air craft, a monoplane of his own construction, that crash lands on a hedge. This date is computed from circumstantial evidence of eyewitnesses as the flight was not well-documented at the time. The machine made a flight claimed to be around 150 feet (45 m) on his farm at Upper Waitohi, near Timaru in south Canterbury, New Zealand.

In 1912… The world’s first hydroplane competitions, held in Monaco, over the past week, has been a runaway success for Farman biplanes. Belgian Jules Fisher is the overall winner. He is one of only two non-French pilots of the eight starters and flies a Henry Farman machine.

1959 – British Overseas Airways Corporation commences its first scheduled around-the-world service. BOAC was a collaboration between Imperial Airways and British Airway Systems.

In 1975… A specially modified Royal Canadian Air Force de Havilland CC-115 (DMC-5 Buffalo) makes its first flight carrying an inflatable air-cushion landing system beneath the fuselage.

In 1979… The British government announces development and production costs for the Concorde supersonic airliner since November 29, 1962, when agreement was reached with France to design and built the aircraft. Through December 31,
1978, the French government spent a total of £920 million whereas the British spent £898 million. The total cost of £1.818 billion would increase by a further £163 million, before government funding ceased.

2002 – Swiss International Air Lines begins operations, taking over many routes from bankrupt Swissair.

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March 30

1918 – Alan Jerrard VC, British ace (7 victories) is shot down by Benno Fiala von Fernbrugg and taken captive

In 1928… A resident of Zehden, Germany, Samuel Schwartz, asks German airline Deutsche Luft Hansa (DLH) for rent for the airspace above his house, citing law that says his rights extend to the “space above and the ground beneath” his property.

Also In 1928… The Federal Aeronautique Internationale (FAI)-ratified world speed record is pushed through 300 mph for the first time. Flying a specially adapted Macchi M-52bis seaplane, Italian Maj. Mario de Bernardi achieves a speed of 512.69 km/h (318.64 mph). This is an increase of 20.81 mph over his previous record.

In 1929… Imperial Airways inaugurates a weekly passenger service from England to India, part of which would have to be taken by rail. For £130 single fare, the trip ends in Karachi seven days after leaving England.

In 1939… Piloted by Hans Dieterle, the Heinkel He 100 seizes the absolute world air speed record. He records an average speed of 463.92 mph, adding 70 mph to the previous record. Hermann Wurster held the old record of 379 mph.

1974 – The first Airbus to fly revenue passengers, the A300B2 enters service with Air France.

And that’s what happened today, in aviation history, we will see you later!

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March 29

In 1858… Two men – Brown and Dean – make the first balloon flight in Australia in a hydrogen balloon named the Australasian.

In 1920… Located about 10 miles due south of the City of London, England, Waddon Airport at Croydon is used for the first time as London’s airport. Until this date, Hownslow has been considered the capital’s main airport.

In 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.

1981 – British Airways makes its last Vickers VC10 flight. The Vickers VC10 is a long-range British airliner designed and built by Vickers-Armstrongs Ltd, and first flown in 1962. The airliner was designed to operate on long distance routes with a high subsonic speed and also be capable of hot and high operations from African airports. The aircraft is often compared to the somewhat larger Ilyushin IL-62 with which it shares a similar rear-engined layout, the two types being the only airliner designs with such a configuration. That is, 4 engines in (2 on each side) of the tail sort of like a learjet or DC-9 but doubled.

15 VC10s remain in service as aerial refuelling and transport aircraft with the RAF as of 31 December 2009.

That’s what happened today, March 29th in Aviation History. We will see you Tomorrow!

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March 28
In 1843… William Samuel Henson (1805-1888) receives the patent and publishes in London his design for an Aerial Steam Carriage. This is the first reasoned, formulated, and detailed design for a propeller-driven aircraft.

In 1908… Leon Delagrange makes the first passenger flight, taking Farman aboard his Voisin biplane at Issy-les-Moulieaux.

In 1910… The first flight of Henri Fabre’s Hydroavion, the first powered seaplane in the world, takes place at La Mède harbor, Martigues, France. The hydroplane flies for about 1,600 ft. at the maximum height of 7 ft

1935 – Robert Goddard launches the world’s first successful liquid-fuelled rocket.

In 1936… National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) commences operational use of the newly constructed 8-ft.-high speed tunnel (8-Foot HST) at the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory, Langley, Virginia. Built as a companion to the full scale tunnel capable of simulated speeds of up to 118 mph, the new facility can test models and components to 577 mph (Mach 0.75).

1948 – B-29 Superfortresses undergo aerial refueling tests, demonstrating the viability of this technique to extend the range of strategic bombers.

1980 – The 1,000th production Learjet is delivered

1981 – Air France pilot Michel Breton flies the airline’s last Sud Aviation Caravelle service, from Amsterdam to Paris.
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That’s what happened today, March 28h in Aviation History. We will see you Tomorrow!

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March 27

In 1907… Romanian Trajan Vuia begins tests of his airplane, newly fitted with steering surfaces. He makes a short flight of 33 feet in Paris, France.

In 1927… Young American airmail pilot Charles A. Lindbergh registers his entry in the Raymond Orteig challenge for the first man to cross the Atlantic Ocean solo. The challenge and a $25,000 prize, has been issued in 1920, but no one has so far been successful in making the flight.

1931 – the crash of a TWA Fokker F.10 at Bazaar, Kansas prompts the first grounding of an aircraft type. The grounding was ordered by the US Department of Commerce.

In 1946… An air agreement is signed by France and the US giving Air France the right to serve the cities of Boston, New York, Washington, D.C., and Chicago.

1953 – the Royal Netherlands Air Force becomes a separate command.

1968 – Yuri Gagarin, Soviet Cosmonaut, first human in space dies in aircraft training accident.

1970 – The Concorde makes its first supersonic flight.

1977 – A collision between a KLM and a PanAm Boeing 747s at Tenerife, Canary Islands, kills 583.

1984… British Airways inaugurates a Concorde service from London to Miami twice weekly. The service operates through Washington-Dulles, necessitating a 50-minute stopover. The overall trip lasts 6 hours 35 minutes, a saving approximately 2.5 hours over the direct flight by subsonic airliners. The round-trip fare is quoted a £2,509.

1994 – The Eurofighter takes its first flight in Manching, Germany.

2004 – Nasa’s X-43 pilotless plane breaks world speed record for an atmospheric engine by briefly flying at 7,700 kilometers (4,780 miles) per hour (seven times the speed of sound)

That’s what happened today, March 27th in Aviation History. We will see you Tomorrow!

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March 26
In 1922… One of the first small commercial transport aircraft built upon experience from passenger flying and the requirements of airline operators, makes its first flight from Edgware, near London. The 10-seat passenger D. H. 34, with a top speed of 128 mph and a cruising speed of 105 mph has a range of 365 miles.

1931 – Swissair is formed by the merger of Ad Astra Aero and Balair.

In 1934… Piloted by John Lankester Parker and with three passengers on board, the first landplane derivative of the Short Kent flying boat takes off to the air for the first time. Named Scylla (G-ACJJ), the big biplane is followed by Scyrinx (G-ACJK) for the busy Imperial Airways routes into continental Europe.

In 1938… Arthur Clouston and Victor Ricketts land their D. H. 88 Comet Australian Anniversary at Gravesend in Kent, England to complete a 26,500-mile flight from England to New Zealand and back in a record 10 days 21 hours.

1958 – The United States Army launches Explorer 3. Explorer 3 was an artificial satellite of the Earth, nearly identical to the first United States artificial satellite Explorer 1 in its design and mission. It was the second successful launch in the Explorer program.

The satellite was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (now Kennedy Space Center) in Florida at 17:31:00 UTC on March 26, 1958, on the Jupiter-C vehicle.
The Jupiter-C has its origins in the United States Army’s Project Orbiter in 1954. The project was canceled in 1955, however, when the decision was made to proceed with Project Vanguard. Following the launch of the Soviet Sputnik 1 on October 4, 1957, ABMA was directed to proceed with the launching of a satellite using the Jupiter-C, which had already been flight-tested in nose-cone re-entry tests for the Jupiter IRBM (intermediate-range ballistic missile). Working closely together, ABMA and JPL completed the job of modifying the Jupiter-C and building the Explorer I in 84 days.

Explorer 3 burned up in the upper atmosphere on June 27, 1958, after 93 days of operation.
A replica of the spacecraft is currently located in the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum, Milestones of Flight Gallery.

That’s what happened today, March 26th in Aviation History. We will see you Tomorrow!

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March 25

In 1917… One of the greatest fighter pilots of WWI, Canada-born Lt. Col. William Avery Bishop, scores his first combat victory over an Albatros single-seat fighter while flying a Nieuport.

1924 – Royal Air Force officers McLaren, Plenderleith, and Andrews set off in an attempted round-the-world flight in a Vickers Vulture II. Their attempt will ultimately fail in Siberia in early August.

In 1926… Willie Messerschmitt, a graduate of Munich Technical High School and already an experienced designer of light aircraft and sailplanes, forms the Messerschmitt company in Germany.

In 1960… The first NASA flight in the X-15 hypersonic research program gets under way when test pilot Joseph A. Walker makes the first of his flights in this aircraft.

1979 – QANTAS retires its last Boeing 707 and becomes the world’s first airline with a fleet of exclusively Boeing 747s. John Travolta owns one of QANTAS’ old 707′s. His aircraft still bears the marks of Qantas, as Travolta acts as an official goodwill ambassador for the airline wherever he flies it.

In 1993… The first woman Concorde pilot makes her first flight as First Officer of the daily supersonic London-New York route. British-born, Barbara Harmer, is one of only 17 co-pilots in the British Airways Concorde fleet.

2006 – A revolutionary scramjet jet engine Hyshot III designed to fly at seven times the speed of sound is successfully tested at Woomera, South Australia.

And that is what happened, today March 25th in aviation history. We will see you tomorrow.