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March 11

1910… Lieutenant J. W. Dunne’s D5 tailless biplane is tested at Eastchurch, Kent, England. It has a 60-hp Green engine and was built by Short Brothers.

1957… The prototype Boeing 707 jet lands after a press demonstration flight from Seattle, Washington to Baltimore, Maryland during which it covers 2,350 miles in a record time of 3 hours 48 minutes.

1998… The first two of four Boeing E-767 airborne warning and control system (AWACS) aircrafts are officially handed over to the Japanese Air Self-Defense Force.

2001 – Jim Voss and Susan Helms made a spacewalk from Discovery’s airlock. A PAD device used to attach equipment to the RMS arm floated free and Voss retrieved a spare one from Unity, putting the walk behind schedule. The astronauts installed the Lab Cradle Assembly and the Rigid Umbilical on Destiny and disconnected the umbilicals connecting the PMA-3 docking port to Unity. The astronauts then spent two-and-a-half hours back in the depressurized airlock in case their help was needed during the move of PMA-3.

2008 – Space Shuttle Endeavour blasted off with to deliver of the Canadian Dextre robotic manipulator (fitted to the end of the Canadarm-2 robotic arm already installed on the station) and the Japanese Kibo ELM-PS Experiment Logistics Module – Pressurized. It also brought astronaut Reisman to the station, replacing Eyharts on the long-duration crew. On 13 March the shuttle docked with the PMA-2 port of the International Space Station. Mission accomplished, Endeavour undocked on March 25, completed the customary ISS flyaround. Endeavor deorbited the next day, and landed at Kennedy Space Center.

And that’s what happened today, March 11th in Aviation History. See you tomorrow.

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