| Main page | Categories & Main topics |
|
Tasks and Projects |
The Aviation Portal
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
Selected image
Did you know
...that a Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcar was used in the 2004 film Flight of the Phoenix? ... that the Air Zoo in Kalamazoo, Michigan houses the only SR-71B Blackbird in existence? ... that the Tony Jannus Award for distinguished achievement in commercial aviation is named for the pilot of the first scheduled commercial airline flight?
General images -
-
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) -
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) -
D.H. Comet, the world's first jet airliner. As in this picture, it also saw RAF service (from History of aviation) -
The Wright Flyer: the first sustained flight with a powered, controlled aircraft (from History of aviation) -
La France flying in 1885 (from History of aviation) -
-
Otto Lilienthal, 29 May 1895 (from History of aviation) -
-
"Governable parachute" design of 1852 (from History of aviation) -
The Biot-Massia glider, restored and on display in the Musee de l'Air (from History of aviation) -
-
-
1928 issue of Popular Aviation (now Flying magazine), which became the largest aviation magazine with a circulation of 100,000. (from History of aviation) -
-
-
Flagg biplane from 1933 (from History of aviation) -
The Aeroplane of Victor Tatin, 1879. (from History of aviation) -
First failure of Langley's manned Aerodrome on the Potomac River, 7 October 1903 (from History of aviation) -
Jean-Marie Le Bris and his flying machine, Albatros II, 1868 (from History of aviation) -
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) -
Qantas De Havilland biplane, c. 1930 (from History of aviation) -
French reconnaissance balloon L'Intrépide of 1796, the oldest existing flying device, in the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum, Vienna (from History of aviation) -
Apollo 11 lifts off on its mission to land a man on the Moon (from History of aviation) -
Map of record breaking flights of the 1920s (from History of aviation) -
"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) -
The 14-bis, or Oiseau de proie (from History of aviation) -
The economy class cabin of an Airbus A350 (from Wide-body aircraft) -
One of Leonardo's sketches (from History of aviation) -
The business class cabin on an A350 (from Wide-body aircraft) -
1843 artist's impression of John Stringfellow's plane Ariel flying over the Nile (from History of aviation) -
Alberto Santos-Dumont flying the Demoiselle over Paris (from History of aviation) -
Planophore model aeroplane by Alphonse Pénaud, 1871 (from History of aviation) -
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) -
-
-
Maxim's flying machine (from History of aviation) -
The Wright Military Flyer aboard a wagon in 1908 (from History of aviation) -
Clément Ader Avion III (1897 photograph) (from History of aviation) -
-
Woodcut print of a kite from John Bate's 1635 book The Mysteryes of Nature and Art (from History of aviation) -
Me 262, world first operational jet fighter (from History of aviation) -
Early Voisin biplane (from History of aviation) -
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg){kind=small}
.png)
.jpg)
In the news
- 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
Related portals
Associated Wikimedia
The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:
-
Commons
Free media repository -
Wikibooks
Free textbooks and manuals -
Wikidata
Free knowledge base -
Wikinews
Free-content news -
Wikiquote
Collection of quotations -
Wikisource
Free-content library -
Wikiversity
Free learning tools -
Wikivoyage
Free travel guide -
Wiktionary
Dictionary and thesaurus
Selected biography
Amy Johnson (1 July 1903 – 5 January 1941) C.B.E. was a pioneering British aviatrix.
Born in Kingston upon Hull, Johnson graduated from University of Sheffield with a Bachelor of Arts in economics. She was introduced to flying as a hobby, gaining a pilot's A Licence No. 1979 on 6 July 1929 at the London Aeroplane Club. In that same year, she became the first British woman to gain a ground engineer's C License.
Johnson achieved worldwide recognition when, in 1930, she became the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia. She left Croydon on 5 May of that year and landed in Darwin, Australia on 24 May after flying 11,000 miles. Her aircraft for this flight, a De Havilland Gipsy Moth (registration G-AAAH) named Jason, can still be seen in the Science Museum in London. She received the Harmon Trophy as well as a CBE in homage to this achievement, and was also honoured with the No. 1 civil pilot's licence under Australia's 1921 Air Navigation Regulations.
In July 1931, Johnson and her co-pilot Jack Humphreys became the first pilots to fly from London to Moscow in one day, completing the 1,760-mile journey in approximately 21 hours. From there, they continued across Siberia and on to Tokyo, setting a record time for flying from England to Japan. The flight was completed in a De Havilland Puss Moth.
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
Today in Aviation
- 2011 – The Government of Canada announces that the name of the Canadian Armed Forces Air Command will revert to "Royal Canadian Air Force," the name it had held as an independent armed service until 1968.[1]
- 2010 – AIRES Flight 8250, a Boeing 737-700 splits in three after a hard landing due to pilot error at Gustavo Rojas Pinilla Airport, San Andrés, Colombia. Out of the 125 passengers and 6 crew members on board, two passengers died and 113 were injured.
- 2010 – The Government of Canada announces that the name of the Canadian Armed Forces Air Command will revert to “Royal Canadian Air Force, ” the name it held as an independent armed service until 1968.
- 2009 – YV-212 T, a Britten-Norman Islander, ditches into the sea short of Simón Bolívar International Airport, Venezuela. The aircraft is written off but all nine people on board are rescued.
- 2009 – First flight of the AVCEN Jetpod, it crashed shortly after take-off from Taiping Airport, Malaysia, killing the pilot.
- 2009 – Two Russian Knights air display Sukhoi Su-27 jets collided whilst training, killing one pilot, Igor Tkachenko, and injuring several civilians on the ground. The accident occurred near Zhukovsky Airfield, outside of Moscow.
- 2009 – An Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force Bell 214ST crashed on a training flight near Karaj, Iran, four killed.
- 2006 – Colonel Herschel H. Green, U.S. Air Force (Ret.) American pilot and World War II Ace, died. Green was the leading ace of the Fifteenth Air Force downing 18 enemy aircraft and destroying 10 more on the ground. (b. 1920)
- 2005 – West Caribbean Airways Flight 708, a McDonnell Douglas MD-82, crashes in western Venezuela. All on board, 152 passengers and 8 crew members, die.
- 2002 – The 2002 Khankala Mi-26 crash occurred when Chechen rebels with a shoulder-fired surface-to-air missile brought down a Mil Mi-26 helicopter in a minefield and resulted in the death of 127 Russian troops and air crew. This is the greatest loss of life in the history of helicopter aviation and one of the deadliest disasters in Russian military history.
- 1995 – Concorde sets a new speed record for a round-the-world flight. It returns to JFK International Airport in New York after a journey lasting 31 hours 27 min, passing through Toulouse, Dubai, Bangkok, Guam, Honolulu and Acapulco.
- 1991 – Indian Airlines Flight 257, a Boeing 737, hits high ground during descent about 30 km from the Imphal airport. All six crew members and 63 passengers were killed.
- 1987 – Northwest Airlines Flight 255, an McDonnell Douglas MD-82, crashes on takeoff from Detroit as a result of pilot error. Of 155 on board, 4-year-old Cecelia Cichan is the only survivor.
- 1986 – Using a Strela 2 (SAM-7 GRAIL) surface-to-air missile, the Sudan People’s Liberation Army shoots down a Sudan Airways Fokker F-27 Friendship 400 M taking off from Malakai, Sudan, killing all 60 people on board.
- 1980 – First flight of the Embraer EMB 312 Tucano
- 1972 – A Burma Airways Douglas C-47 crashes into the sea off Thandwe, Burma, killing 25 of 28 on board.
- 1969 – Darryl Greenamayer sets a new piston-engine airspeed record in a heavily modified Grumman F8F-2 Bearcat named Conquest I. His record speed of 776.45 km/h (482.46 mph) topples a record that had stood for 30 years. (FAI Record File Number 10366)
- 1965 – United Airlines Flight 389, a Boeing 727, crashes into Lake Michigan at night, after the pilots apparently misread their altimeters; all 24 passengers and six crew perish in the first fatal crash of the Boeing 727.
- 1960 – Captain (later Colonel) Joseph Kittinger (USAF) sets a world record for highest parachute jump (102,800 ft or 31,333 m) and longest parachute freefall (85,300 ft or 25,999 m) while testing high altitude parachute escape systems in Project Excelsior.
- 1952 – First flight of the Bristol Britannia from Filton, Bristol, England.
- 1948 – First flight of the Northrop F-89 Scorpion
- 1947 – The first flight of the de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver. The first production aircraft was delivered to the Ontario Department of Lands and Forests, a design partner, in April 1948.
- 1944 – The Messerschmitt Me 163 rocket-powered interceptor is used against enemy bombers for the first time no earlier than 17 Aug 1944. Their base was bombed on 16 Aug forcing them to flush.
- 1943 – Royal Navy Grumman Avenger I, out of Naval Auxiliary Air Facility Lewiston, Maine, ditches in Sebago Lake near Raymond, Maine and sinks. Crew uninjured. Plane listed as missing, so it’s still out there.
- 1942 – U.S. Navy airship L-8, a former Goodyear advertising blimp, of ZP-32, departed Treasure Island, San Francisco, California, with crew of two officer-pilots. Five hours later the partially deflated L-8 is sighted drifting over Daly City, California where it touches down sans crew. Nothing is ever found of Lt. Ernest D. Cody and Ensign Charles E. Adams. It is assumed that they were lost over water but were never found. The control car from this blimp is now in the National Museum of Naval Aviation, NAS Pensacola, Florida.
- 1942 – The 82nd Airborne (All American) paratroop division is formed.
- 1936 – Seaplanes from Barcelona support a Republican landing on Majorca. In reaction, three Italian Savoia-Marchetti SM.81 bombers, three Italian Fiat CR.32 fighters, and various Spanish Nationalist aircraft are sent to be based on the island. The presence of the CR.32 s precludes any further Republican air attacks on Majorca.
- 1918 – Royal Navy Air Service airship, R27, destroyed in a hangar fire at RNAS Howden along with a makeshift SSZ class blimp and two SSZ class blimps, SSZ.38 and SSZ.54. One airman dies.
References
- Shortcuts to this page: Portal:Airplanes • P:AVIA