Portal:Aviation/Today in aviation

2012 – Myanmar Air Force jets and attack helicopters strike rebel Kachin Independence Army forces in northern Myanmar. The Government of Myanmar at first denies the strikes, but eventually will admit to them on 2 January 2013.^[1]

2007 – TAROM Flight 3107 was a charter flight operated by a Boeing 737-300 that during the takeoff procedure, hit a service car carrying out repair work on lighting equipment on the runway at Henri Coandă International Airport in Otopeni, Romania.

1982 – A military HAL Ajeet trainer operated by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited exploded in mid-air in Dharmarpuri province killing the test pilot.

1972 – President Richard Nixon halts aerial bombing of North Vietnam and announces peace talks.

1970 – Jeanne Holm became the first female General in the United States Air Force, also the first of that rank in any military branch.

1970 – Prototype Grumman F-14 Tomcat (Grumman F-14-01-GR Tomcat, 157980) suffers hydraulic fluid leak on second flight, crew attempts return to Grumman plant at Calverton, New York, but loses flight controls just before crossing airfield threshold, both crew eject as airframe plunges into woods short of runway.

1962 – Four Avro Canada CF-100 squadrons with No. 1 Air Division: Nos. 419, 423, 440 and 445 Squadrons – were disbanded.

1951 – The year-end tally showed that for the first time, total passenger flying miles exceeded that of railroad miles at 10.6 million.

1950 – A Royal Australian Air Force CAC Wirraway crashes into a crowded beach at Maroochydore in Queensland, Australia, killing three children and injuring 14 other people on the beach. The two-man crew survives the crash.

1946 – 1946 Antarctica PBM Mariner crash: A U.S. Navy Martin PBM Mariner flying boat supporting Operation Highjump crashes during a blizzard in Antarctica. Three crew members are killed and six others were stranded 13 days before being rescued. The three who died were buried at the crash site and their remains have not been recovered.

1945 – Five top scoring Canadian fighter pilots of WWII: F/L GF Beurling, DSO, DFC, DFM – 31 victories. S/L HW McLeod, DSO, DFC and Bar – 21 victories. S/L VC Woodward, DFC and Bar – 21 victories. F/O WE McKnight, DFC and Bar – 16 victories. G/C RW McNair, DSO, DFC and 2 Bars – 16 victories.

1945 – RCAF strength had now been reduced to 58,047 from 181,235 a year previous.

1943 – Luftwaffe pilot Lt. Joschi Pöhs is killed when, upon takeoff in a Messerschmitt Me 163A Komet of training unit EK 16 from Bad Zwischenahn, near Oldenburg, he releases the takeoff dolly too soon. The bouncing dolly strikes the airframe, apparently damaging a T-Stoff line, and the engine loses power. The pilot banks the Komet round for an attempted landing but just prior to lining up for touchdown a wingtip grazes a flak tower, all control is lost, and the rocket fighter crashes just outside the airfield perimeter. It was felt that if Pōhs had begun his turn back to the airfield immediately after the power loss he would have made a safe return; however, he lowered the landing skid and dropped flaps before beginning the turn and ate up precious altitude.

1942 – (30 – 31) U. S. Army Air Forces and U. S. Navy aircraft drop 42,000 pounds (19,051 kg) of bombs in a night raid on Kiska, but the Japanese trick them into bombing a wrecked hulk instead of a newly arrived, fully loaded transport. They do damage some midget submarines and destroy a Nakajima A6M2-N (Allied reporting name "Rufe") float plane fighter on the water in exchange for the loss of four aircraft.

1941 – Nine Martin B-26 Marauder bombers of the 33d Bombardment Squadron, 22d Bombardment Group, depart Muroc Army Air Field for March Field, California, but only eight arrive. In bad weather, B-26, 40-1475, snags a pine tree and crashes on Keller Peak in the San Bernardino Mountains, killing nine. Wreckage not found until 14 January 1942. Late the next day, a recovery team of sheriff officers and members of the 33rd Squadron reaches the site after a four-mile trek with toboggans from Snow Valley. All of the crew had been thrown from the plane except for one, whose body was trapped beneath the fuselage. A plaque was installed on a rock near the crash site in August 1995 commemorating the lost crew.

1933 – In the 1933 Imperial Airways Ruysselede crash in Belgium, an Avro Ten collides with a radio mast, killing all 10 on board.

1922 – A Deutsche Luft-Reederei Dornier Komet became the first German aircraft to fly over Britain since the end of World War I.

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