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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

CG render of McDonnell Douglas MD-11 HB-IWF

Swissair Flight 111 was a Swissair McDonnell Douglas MD-11 on a scheduled airline flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, United States to Cointrin International Airport in Geneva, Switzerland. This flight was also a codeshare flight with Delta Air Lines. On Wednesday, 2 September 1998, the aircraft used for the flight, registered HB-IWF, crashed into the Atlantic Ocean southwest of Halifax International Airport at the entrance to St. Margarets Bay, Nova Scotia. The crash site was 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) from shore, roughly equidistant from the tiny fishing and tourist communities of Peggys Cove and Bayswater. All 229 people on board died—the highest death toll of any aviation accident involving a McDonnell Douglas MD-11 and the second-highest of any air disaster in the history of Canada, after Arrow Air Flight 1285. The Transportation Safety Board of Canada's (TSB) official report of their investigation stated that flammable material used in the aircraft's structure allowed a fire to spread beyond the control of the crew, resulting in a loss of control and the crash of the aircraft. Swissair Flight 111 was known as the "U.N. shuttle" due to its popularity with United Nations officials; the flight often carried business executives, scientists, and researchers. (Full article...)

More selected articles

Selected image

Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier on October 14, 1947 in the Bell X-1, as shown in this newsreel.

Sound barrier

Credit: United States Air Force

A newsreel showing the breaking of the sound barrier on 14 October 1947 by Chuck Yeager in the rocket-powered Bell X-1. Flying at an altitude of 45,000 ft (13.7 km), Yeager became the first person to break the sound barrier in level flight.

Did you know

...that George H. W. Bush flew a TBF Avenger while he was in the U.S. Navy? ...that Garuda Indonesia flight 152 was the deadliest air disaster of 1997, claiming the lives of over 230 people? ... that No. 7 Elementary Flying Training School RAAF (aircraft of unit pictured) was the only Royal Australian Air Force training unit to be based in Tasmania during World War II?

General images -

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

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  Sailplane, a Rolladen-Schneider LS4 (from General aviation)
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  Robinson R22, a light piston-engine helicopter (from General aviation)
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  German Taube monoplane, illustration from 1917 (from History of aviation)
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  The Wright Military Flyer aboard a wagon in 1908 (from History of aviation)
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  Early Voisin biplane (from History of aviation)
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  Concorde, G-BOAB, in storage at London Heathrow Airport following the end of all Concorde flying. This aircraft flew for 22,296 hours between its first flight in 1976 and final flight in 2000 (from History of aviation)
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  "Map of Air Routes and Landing Places in Great Britain, as temporarily arranged by the Air Ministry for civilian flying", published in 1919, showing Hounslow, near London, as the hub (from History of aviation)
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  Alberto Santos-Dumont flying the Demoiselle over Paris (from History of aviation)
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  Nieuport IV, operated by most of the world's air forces before WW1 for reconnaissance and bombing, including during the Italian-Turkish war (from History of aviation)
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  1843 artist's impression of John Stringfellow's plane Ariel flying over the Nile (from History of aviation)
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  Daedalus working on Icarus' wings (from History of aviation)
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  Félix du Temple's 1874 Monoplane (from History of aviation)
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  Maxim's flying machine (from History of aviation)
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  Flagg biplane from 1933 (from History of aviation)
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  Cathay Pacific's first class cabin on board a Boeing 747-400 (from Wide-body aircraft)
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  Apollo 11 lifts off on its mission to land a man on the Moon (from History of aviation)
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  General aviation aircraft at Cheb Airport in Czech Republic (from General aviation)
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  The Aeroplane of Victor Tatin, 1879. (from History of aviation)
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  First female combat pilot, Sabiha Gökçen, reviews her Breguet 19 (from History of aviation)
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  Woodcut print of a kite from John Bate's 1635 book The Mysteryes of Nature and Art (from History of aviation)
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  D.H. Comet, the world's first jet airliner. As in this picture, it also saw RAF service (from History of aviation)
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  La France flying in 1885 (from History of aviation)
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  1928 issue of Popular Aviation (now Flying magazine), which became the largest aviation magazine with a circulation of 100,000. (from History of aviation)
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  Clément Ader Avion III (1897 photograph) (from History of aviation)
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  The business class cabin on an A350 (from Wide-body aircraft)
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  French reconnaissance balloon L'Intrépide of 1796, the oldest existing flying device, in the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum, Vienna (from History of aviation)
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  Qantas De Havilland biplane, c. 1930 (from History of aviation)
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  Santos-Dumont's "Number 6" rounding the Eiffel Tower in the process of winning the Deutsch de la Meurthe Prize, October 1901 (from History of aviation)
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  Cessna CitationJet/M2, part of the Citation family of business jets (from General aviation)
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  The Biot-Massia glider, restored and on display in the Musee de l'Air (from History of aviation)
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  Me 262, world first operational jet fighter (from History of aviation)
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  Jean-Marie Le Bris and his flying machine, Albatros II, 1868 (from History of aviation)
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  One of Leonardo's sketches (from History of aviation)
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  Map of record breaking flights of the 1920s (from History of aviation)
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  First failure of Langley's manned Aerodrome on the Potomac River, 7 October 1903 (from History of aviation)
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  "Governable parachute" design of 1852 (from History of aviation)
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  Planophore model aeroplane by Alphonse Pénaud, 1871 (from History of aviation)
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  The economy class cabin of an Airbus A350 (from Wide-body aircraft)
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  The 14-bis, or Oiseau de proie (from History of aviation)
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  Experimental helicopter by Enrico Forlanini (1877), exposed at the Museo nazionale della scienza e della tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci of Milan, Italy (from History of aviation)
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  Leonardo da Vinci's ornithopter design (from History of aviation)
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  The Wright Flyer: the first sustained flight with a powered, controlled aircraft (from History of aviation)
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  Otto Lilienthal, 29 May 1895 (from History of aviation)

In the news

Wikinews Aviation portal

• May 29: Austrian Airlines cancels Moscow-bound flight after Russia refuses a reroute outside Belarusian airspace
• August 8: Passenger flight crashes upon landing at Calicut airport in India
• June 4: Power firm helicopter strikes cables, crashes near Fairfield, California
• January 29: Former basketball player Kobe Bryant dies in helicopter crash, aged 41
• January 13: Iran admits downing Ukrainian jet, cites 'human error'
• January 10: Fire erupts in parking structure at Sola Airport, Norway
• October 27: US announces restrictions on flying to Cuba
• October 3: World War II era plane crashes in Connecticut, US, killing at least seven
• September 10: Nevada prop plane crash near Las Vegas leaves two dead, three injured
• August 6: French inventor Franky Zapata successfully crosses English Channel on jet-powered hoverboard

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Selected biography

Elbert Leander "Burt" Rutan (born June 17, 1943 in Estacada, Oregon) is an American aerospace engineer noted for his originality in designing light, strong, unusual-looking, energy-efficient aircraft. He is most famous for his design of the record-breaking Voyager, which was the first plane to fly around the world without stopping or refueling, and the suborbital rocket plane SpaceShipOne, which won the Ansari X-Prize in 2004.

Selected Aircraft

The Airbus A340 is a long-range four-engined widebody commercial passenger airplane manufactured by Airbus. The latest variants (-600 & A340E) competed with Boeing's 777 series of aircraft on long-haul and ultra long-haul routes, but it has since been succeeded by the Airbus A350.

The A340-600 flies 380 passengers in a three-class cabin layout (419 in 2 class) over 7,500 nautical miles (13,900 km). It provides similar passenger capacity to a 747 but with twice the cargo volume, and at lower trip and seat costs.

The A340-600 is more than 10 m longer than a basic -300, making it the second longest airliner in the world, more than four meters longer than a Boeing 747-400.

• Span: 63.45 m (208 ft 2 in)
• Length: 75.30 m n(246 ft 11 in)
• Height: 17.30 m (56 ft 9 in)
• Engines: four 56,000 lbf (249 kN) thrust Rolls-Royce Trent 556 turbofans
• Cruising Speed: Mach 0.83 (885 km/h, 550 mph)
• First Flight: October 25, 1991

Today in Aviation

May 17

• 2011 – A U.S. Air Force MQ-1 Predator unmanned aerial vehicle carrying a live AGM-114 Hellfire air-to-surface missile misses the runway at Djibouti-Ambouli International Airport in Djibouti, Djibouti, by three miles (4.8 km) and crashes near a residential area. Its missile does not explode, and no one is injured.

• 2010 – Pamir Airways Flight 112, operated by Antonov An-24 YA-PIS crashed in the Salang Pass killing all 43 on board.

• 2007 – Three people, the two pilots and a passenger, were killed Thursday in the accident of a small plane of freight, which was crushed little after its takeoff of Walikale, in the East of the democratic Republic of Congo, one learned near the company. A plane bound for Goma was crushed this Thursday morning in Kilambo, in territory of Walikale, with approximately 300 km in the west of the chief town of North-Kivu.

• 2003 – Death of Gerhard Schöpfel, German WWII flying ace.

• 1997 – First flight of the McDonnell Douglas X-36 tailless fighter technology demonstrator, power for which is provided by a 700 lb. s. t. Williams International F112 turbofan. The fighter takes off from Edwards AFB, California.

• 1992 – Flughafen München Franz Josef Strauß (IATA: MUC, ICAO: EDDM), starts operations as new Munich international airport.

• 1987 – An Iraqi Mirage F1 fighter jet fires two Exocet missiles into the U. S. warship USS Stark in the Persian Gulf.

• 1986 – In the USS Stark Incident, an Iraqi Air Force Dassault Mirage F1 jet hits the United States Navy guided-missile frigate USS Stark (FFG-31) with two Exocet antiship cruise missiles, badly damaging her and killing 37 and wounding 21 of her crew.

• 1981 – Death of Jeannette Ridlon Piccard, American high-altitude balloonist, and first woman to fly to the stratosphere.

• 1968 – Operation Delaware in South Vietnam’s A Shau Valley comes to an end. The U. S. Army’s 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) has captured a large amount of North Vietnamese equipment and supplies but has faced the heaviest enemy antiaircraft fire it has encountered thus far in the Vietnam War, losing 21 helicopters shot down during the operation.

• 1967 – Birth of Joseph Michael "Joe" Acaba, educator, hydrogeologist, and NASA astronaut. He became the first person of Puerto Rican heritage to be named as a NASA astronaut.

• 1964 – Death of John Theodore Cuthbert Moore-Brabazon, first Baron Brabazon of Tara, English aviation pioneer, first person to qualify as a pilot in the United Kingdom, awarded Royal Aero Club Aviator's Certificate number 1.

• 1962 – RAF Blackburn Beverly C.1, XL132, c/n 1033, bound for RAF Thorney Island, suffers engine fire while on approach, ditches in Chichester Harbour, UK. Two crew killed.

• 1958 – Four McDonnell F3 H Demon's and four F8U Crusaders make a non-stop crossing of the Atlantic.

• 1954 – Royal Navy Supermarine Attacker FB.1, WA533, of 736 Squadron is damaged upon landing aboard HMS Illustrious when port main gear collapses. Airframe is repaired, but sees no more operational flying.

• 1950 – The air above Muroc Dry Lake, California, exploded in sonic booms as Lockheed test pilot Tony LeVier put the XF-90 (long-range penetration fighter and bomber escort.) through high-speed dive tests, reaching Mach 1.12.

• 1946 – First flight of the Douglas XB-43 Jetmaster, American jet-powered prototype bomber aircraft.

• 1945 – Former Our Gang actor Bobby "Wheezer" Hutchins (Robert E. Hutchins) is killed in a mid-air collision while trying to land a North American AT-6D Texan, serial number 42-86536, of the 3026th Base Unit, when it strikes North American AT-6C Texan, 42-49068, of the same unit, at Merced Army Air Field in Merced, California, during a training exercise. The other pilot, Edward F. Hamel, survives

• 1945 – First flight of the Lockheed P-2 Neptune, an American Maritime patrol and ASW (Air Anti-Submarine Warfare) Aircraft.

• 1944 – 99 B-24 Liberators of the U. S. Army Air Forces‘ Fifth and Thirteenth air forces strike Biak. On every day but one thereafter through the U. S. amphibious landings on Biak on May 27, the two air forces will conduct almost daily raids on Biak and the Vogelkop.

• 1944 – Aircraft from the British aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious and U. S. carrier USS Saratoga (CV-3) strike the oil refinery at Surabaya, Java.

• 1943 – Colonel Frank Gregory made the first helicopter landing aboard ship in Long Island Sound, USA with a Sikorsky XR-4, two-place helicopter.

• 1943 – Boeing B-17 F-10-BO Flying Fortress Serial 41-24485, Memphis Belle (aircraft), 324th Bomb Squadron, makes her 25th Bombing mission. The aircraft and entire crew then returned to the United States to sell war bonds. The aircraft is undergoing extensive restoration at the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton, Ohio.

• 1943 – 17-18 – Specially modified RAF Avro Lancasters of 617 Squadron make the "Dambusters" raids on the Möhne Reservoir, Edersee Dam, and Sorpe Dam.

• 1942 – The Sikorsky XR-4, two-place helicopter, flew a distance of 1224 km.

• 1940 – (Overnight) 72 British bombers attack Bremen, Cologne, and Hamburg, killing at least 47 and injuring 127 in Bremen and Hamburg.

• 1938 – The US Congress passes the Naval Expansion Act, leading to the construction of the Essex class aircraft carriers.

• 1935 – Second of three Grumman XF3F-1 prototypes, BuNo 9727 (2nd), crashes on the first day it arrives at NAS Anacostia. Pilot Lee Gelbach is unable to recover from a flat spin which develops during a ten-turn right-hand spin demonstration - bails out safely. A third Grumman XF3F-1 prototype will be built, using some parts salvaged from second prototype, also with BuNo 9727 (3rd), but pilot Bill H. McAvoy will be luckier than his two fellow test pilots, and NOT have to evacuate the Flying Barrel during testing.

• 1934 – First flight of the Avia 50, French single seat motor glider.

• 1930 – Death of Max Valier, Austrian rocketry pioneer, killed when an alcohol-fuelled rocket exploded on his test bench in Berlin.

• 1929 – Colin Spenser (Jack) Caldwell was testing Canadian Vickers Vedette (single-engine biplane flying boat) G-CYZF (CV 122), when on entering a spin he found he was unable to recover. He abandoned the machine by parachute and landed safely on an island in the St Lawrence and became the first Canadian to save his life by a parachute.

• 1928 – First flight of the Vickers Vellore, British large biplane prototype designed as a freight and mail carrier.

• 1928 – Lady Heath (formerly Mrs. Elliot-Lynn) lands in London, becoming the first woman to fly solo from Cape Town, South Africa to London, England in an Avro Avian 594 Avian III.

• 1927 – First flight of prototype Bristol Bulldog MK1, British single-seat biplane fighter.

• 1927 – Major Harold C. Geiger (7 October 1884 - 17 May 1927), born in East Orange, New Jersey, a pioneer in Army aviation and ballooning, and commander of Phillips Field, Aberdeen, Maryland, is killed in the crash of his Airco DH.4B plane, 25-078. Six mechanics and officers at the Middleton Air Station, at Olmsted Field, Pennsylvania told The New York Times Geiger's plane took a 50-foot nose dive. Geiger managed to jump out just as the plane struck and burst into flames. He made desperate efforts to get clear of the wreckage and, according to the onlookers, half crawled and ran as far as the tail of the machine before he was overcome. There he dropped and the flames prevented the watchers from getting near enough to rescue him. When the U.S. Army Air Corps purchases Sunset Field near Spokane, Washington in 1941, it is named Geiger Field in his honor. The Spokane International Airport is designated with the International Air Transport Association airport code GEG in his memory.

• 1924 – During its first aerial circumnavigation of the world, the westbound United States Army Air Service flight of Douglas World Cruiser arrive in northern Japan, completing the first crossing of the Pacific Ocean by airplane.

• 1923 – Death of Thomas Scott Baldwin, U. S. Army major and pioneer balloonist. He was the first American to descend from a balloon by parachute.

• 1920 – KLM and AT&T begin a joint air service between London and Amsterdam.

• 1919 – The War Department in Washington, D.C. orders the use of the national insignia on all U. S. military aircraft.

• 1918 – Death of Eugene Gilbert, French WWI flying ace, in a crash while testing a plane at Villacoublay, France.

• 1916 – Parasite fighter experiments begin in the UK to launch a Bristol Scout from a Porte Baby airship.

• 1912 – Birth of Alexandru "Alecu" Şerbănescu, Romanian WWII leading fighter ace.

• 1911 – Igor Sikorsky makes what he called the first real flight of four minutes of his Sikorsky S-5, in a circuit of the field.

• 1911 – First flight of the Blackburn Mercury.

• 1900 – French-born gliding pioneer Octave Chanute replies to a letter from the Wright brothers. He recommends they study gliding tests carried out by a number of innovators, including Louis Pierre Mouillard and Percy Pilcher.

• 1895 – Birth of Georg Wulf, German aviation pioneer, test pilot and aircraft designer. He was one of the founder of the Focke-Wulf Flugzeugbau AG company.

• 1879 – Birth of Hans Grade, German aviation pioneer.

References

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