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The Aviation Portal

A Boeing 747

Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. Aircraft includes fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as lighter-than-air craft such as hot air balloons and airships.

Aviation began in the 18th century with the development of the hot air balloon, an apparatus capable of atmospheric displacement through buoyancy. Some of the most significant advancements in aviation technology came with the controlled gliding flying of Otto Lilienthal in 1896; then a large step in significance came with the construction of the first powered airplane by the Wright brothers in the early 1900s. Since that time, aviation has been technologically revolutionized by the introduction of the jet which permitted a major form of transport throughout the world. (Full article...)

Selected article

BAE Systems' offices in Farnborough, UK
BAE Systems' offices in Farnborough, UK
BAE Systems is a British defence and aerospace company headquartered in London, UK, which has worldwide interests, particularly in North America through its subsidiary BAE Systems Inc. BAE is the world's seventh-largest defence contractor and the largest in Europe. BAE was formed on 30 November 1999 by the £7.7 billion merger of two British companies: Marconi Electronic Systems, the defence electronics and naval shipbuilding subsidiary of the General Electric Company plc (GEC) and aircraft, munitions and naval systems manufacturer British Aerospace (BAe). It has increasingly disengaged from its businesses in continental Europe in favour of investing in the United States. Since its formation it has sold its shares of Airbus, EADS Astrium, AMS and Atlas Elektronik. BAE Systems is involved in several major defence projects, including the F-35 Lightning II, the Eurofighter Typhoon and the Royal Navy Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers. The company has been the subject of criticism, both general opposition to the arms trade and also specific allegations of unethical and corrupt practices, including the Al-Yamama contracts with Saudi Arabia that have earned BAE and its predecessor £43 billion in twenty years. (Full article...)

Selected image

Capt. Lowell H. Smith and Lt. John P. Richter performing the first aerial refueling on 27 June 1923. The Airco DH.4 biplane remained aloft over the skies of Rockwell Field in San Diego, California, for 37 hours. The airfield's logo is visible on the aircraft.

Did you know

...that BŻ-1 GIL was the first Polish experimental helicopter? ... that the Air Zoo in Kalamazoo, Michigan houses the only SR-71B Blackbird in existence? ... that the airline Vildanden started its first route with wet leased aircraft from Coast Air?

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The following are images from various aviation-related articles on Wikipedia.

In the news

Wikinews Aviation portal
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Selected biography

Howard Hughes
Howard Hughes (December 24, 1905 – April 5, 1976) was a pioneering aviator, engineer, industrialist and film producer. He was widely known as a playboy and one of the wealthiest people in the world. He is famous for setting multiple world air-speed records; building the Hughes H-1 Racer and H-4 Hercules airplanes; producing Hell's Angels and The Outlaw; and, for his debilitating and eccentric behavior later in life. Hughes was born in Houston, Texas on December 24, 1905, although his exact birthdate is debated by some biographers. His parents were Allene Gano Hughes and Howard R. Hughes Sr., who patented the tri-cone roller bit, which allowed rotary drilling for oil in previously inaccessible places. Howard R. Hughes Sr. founded Hughes Tool Company in 1909 to commercialize this invention.

Selected Aircraft

The Avro Lancaster was a British four-engine Second World War bomber aircraft made initially by Avro for the British Royal Air Force (RAF). It first saw active service in 1942, and together with the Handley-Page Halifax it was one of the main heavy bombers of the RAF, the RCAF and squadrons from other Commonwealth and European countries serving within RAF Bomber Command. The "Lanc" or "Lankie," as it became affectionately known, became the most famous and most successful of the Second World War night bombers, "delivering 608,612 tons of bombs in 156,000 sorties." Although the Lancaster was primarily a night bomber, it excelled in many other roles including daylight precision bombing, and gained worldwide renown as the "Dam Buster" used in the 1943 Operation Chastise raids on Germany's Ruhr Valley dams.

  • Span: 102 ft (31.09 m)
  • Length: 69 ft 5 in (21.18 m)
  • Height: 19 ft 7 in (5.97 m)
  • Engines: 4× Rolls-Royce Merlin XX V12 engines, 1,280 hp (954 kW) each
  • Maximum Speed: 240 knots (280 mph, 450 km/h) at 15,000 ft (5,600 m)
  • First Flight: 8 January 1941
  • Number built: 7,377
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Today in Aviation

June 5

  • 2002 – Launch of Space Shuttle Endeavour STS-111 at 21:22:49 UTC. Mission highlights: ISS supply, crew rotation, Mobile Base System.
  • 1991 – Launch of Space Shuttle Columbia STS-40 at 9:24:51 am EDT. Mission highlights: Spacelab mission.
  • 1991 – A Royal Australian Air Force McDonnell Douglas F/A-18A Hornet, A21-041, of 75 Squadron, crashes 100 kilometres NE of Weipa, Queensland. The pilot was killed. The wreckage was found in July 1994.
  • 1989 – The massive Antonov An-225 Mriya flies in to Paris-Le Bourget for the 1989 Paris Air Show, carrying the Soviet Shuttle Buran on its back. When it takes of from Kiev to fly to Paris, the combination has a takeoff weight of 1,234,600 lb, the greatest weight ever lifted into the air.
  • 1969 – The Tupolev Tu-144 supersonic airliner becomes the first aircraft of its class to fly through the sound barrier when it exceeds Mach 1 at an altitude of 36,000 ft.
  • 1969 – Rivet Amber, an RC-135E, 62-4137, operating out of Shemya AFB, went down in the Bering Sea. Despite a thorough search of the area, no wreckage and no survivors were ever found. The best theory is that the plane suffered some sort of catastrophic mechanical failure, as the last radio contact from the aircraft mentioned “vibration in flight”. Rivet Amber was returning to Eielson AFB for maintenance with a crew of 19 on board.
  • 1969 – The American bombing of North Vietnam resumes after a seven-month pause.
  • 1968 – North Vietnam demands an unconditional end to American bombing of its territory.
  • 1965 – The 1965 Fort Benning Mid-Air Helicopter Collision was a helicopter collision over Fort Benning, Georgia that left eighteen people dead. It occurred around 9:50 am.
  • 1965 – The U.S. Navy begins full-time staffing of Dixie Station off South Vietnam by one aircraft carrier.
  • 1965 – The U.S. Navy’s aircraft carrier presence in the Gulf of Tonkin off Vietnam reaches five ships.
  • 1963 – President Kennedy announces that his administration would seek funds for the sponsored development of a supersonic transport aircraft.
  • 1962 – A number three following RAF Hawker Hunter T.7 trainer (XL610) from No. 111 Squadron based at RAF Wattisham on a routine training flight flying in formation with two other aircraft crashes near Silk Willoughby, Lincolnshire, UK killing two crew members.
  • 1958 – Second prototype Saunders-Roe SR.53, XD151, crashed during an abandoned take-off whilst testing at RAE Boscombe Down, killing its pilot, Squadron Leader John S. Booth, DFC. Project cancelled.
  • 1956 – A USAF Northrop F-89 Scorpion fighter jet of the 18th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron armed with 104 live rockets, strikes an automobile during an aborted take-off at Wold-Chamberlain Field, Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, killing three of the five occupants of the vehicle; both F-89 crew members survive.
  • 1952 – Exercise Bluebird: a Royal Netherlands Air Force Republic F-84 Thunderjet collided with the mast of the British Royal Navy motor launch HMML 2582 and crashed onto the deck in flames. The launch sank with the loss of fifteen crew and the pilot of the Thunderjet. The accident occurred in the Marsdiep, Netherlands.
  • 1951 – The U.S. Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps begin Operation Strangle, a day-and-night air interdiction campaign against enemy roads, bridges, and tunnels across the width of the Korean Peninsula between 38 degrees 15 min North and 39 degrees 15 min North. It will continue until February 1952, but without the success hoped for it.
  • 1950 – RCAF Colours were presented to the Force by the Governor-General, Field Marshal Earl Alexander of Tunis, at Ottawa, Ontario.
  • 1948 – Northrop YB-49-NO, 42-102368, c/n 1488, crashes in desert near Muroc Air Force Base, California after both outer wings become detached from center section during spin recovery, killing pilot Maj. Daniel Forbes, co-pilot Capt. Glen Edwards, and three crew. Forbes Air Force Base, Kansas, is named for the pilot, and Muroc is renamed Edwards Air Force Base for the co-pilot on 5 December 1949. Flying wing bomber design will be revived in the 1980s as the B-2 Spirit.
  • 1945 – A typhoon strikes U.S. Navy Task Force 38 southeast of Okinawa. The aircraft carriers USS Hornet (CV-12), USS Bennington (CV-20), USS Belleau Wood (CVL-24), USS San Jacinto (CVL-30), USS Windham Bay (CVE-92), and USS Salamaua (CVE-96) are damaged and the task force loses 76 aircraft.
  • 1944 – Two Japanese bombers make a destructive strike against about 100 Allied aircraft paired wingtip-to-wingtip at Wakde, putting the base out of action for several days.
  • 1944 – The B-29 Superfortress flies its first combat mission; 98 B-29s take off from bases in India and attack railroad shops in Bangkok, Thailand. Five are lost, none to enemy action.
  • 1943 – In a battle over the Russell Islands between 81 Japanese Mitsubishi A6 M Zero fighters and 110 Allied aircraft, the Japanese lose 24 aircraft in exchange for seven U.S. fighters.
  • 1931 – C.W.A. Scott breaks the record for the fastest solo flight from Australia to England, flying the 10,660 miles (17,160 km) from Wyndham, Australia to Lympne, England from May 26 to in 10 days 23 hours piloting a DH.60 Moth (Gipsy II).
  • 1918 – Douglas Campbell, the first American to become an ace while flying for an American unit, scores his sixth and final victory. Badly wounded during the flight, he sees no further combat.
  • 1917 – The United States Navy’s First Aeronautical Detachment disembarks from the collier USS Jupiter in France under the command of Kenneth Whiting. It is the first U.S. military unit to arrive in Europe.
  • 1909 – The first monoplane flight of over one hour is made by Englishman Hubert Latham on the Antoinette IV for one hour, seven minutes, 37 seconds.
  • 1909 – John Berry and Paul McCullough win the U.S.’s first National Balloon Race, covering 377.9 miles – from Indianapolis, Indiana to Fort Payne, Alabama – in 25 hours 35 minutes.
  • 1783 – Unmanned flight of the Montgolfier brothers hot-air-balloon (Montgolfière) in Vivarais, France. The Montgolfiers demonstrate a hot air balloon in public, at Annonay.

References

  1. ^ Solar Impulse: What Happened in 2012?
  2. ^ Abdennebi, Zakia, "Solar Plane Completes Maiden Intercontinental Trip," Reuters, 5 June 2012, 7:22 p.m. EDT.
  3. ^ "Libyan Live Blog: June 6, 2011 – 21:45". Al Jazeera. 6 June 2011. Retrieved 6 June 2011.
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