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Today in Aviation

2009 – N349 TA, a Casa 212 Aviocar 200 operated by Bering Air, departs the runway at Savoonga, Alaska, and is substantially damaged when the undercarriage collapses.

2008 – A CH-47 Chinook en route to Balad from Kuwait crashes 62 miles (100 km) west of Basrah International Airport, killing seven U.S. soldiers.^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]

2003 – A Tupolev Tu-160, bort number '01', of the 121st regiment, 22 heavy bombers division, on a proving flight out of Engels Air Base after the replacement of one of its four engines, crashes near Stepnoye settlement, Sovetskoye, Saratov oblast, killing the four crew. There were no armaments aboard. Just before the crash the crew reported an engine fire to ground control, after which contact with the pilots was lost. The wreckage of the bomber was found 35 km from its base. No injuries on the ground. The main staff of the air force identified the dead as crew commander, Lt. Col. Yuriy Deyneko, co-pilot Maj. Oleg Fedusenko [the Russian TV channel gave this name as Fedunenko in its 1000 GMT newscast], and the navigators as Maj. Grigoriy Kolchin and Maj. Sergey Sukhorukov. This was the first Blackjack loss in 17 years of operations.

1977 – The “Voyager I” spacecraft snapped the first photograph showing the earth and moon together.

1962 – By order of the United States Defense Department, the United States Armed Forces begin use of a unified designation system, the 1962 United States Tri-Service aircraft designation system, for their aircraft. The biggest change is that the Department of the Navy’s designation system employed by the U. S. Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard is abandoned, with all aircraft brought under the system employed by the U. S. Air Force and U. S. Army.

1962 – U. S. Marine Corps helicopters fly a combat mission from Da Nang, South Vietnam, for the first time, airlifting South Vietnamese troops into the hills south of Da Nang.

1961 – U. N. Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld dies in a plane crash while attempting to negotiate peace in the war-torn Katanga region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

1955 – Argentine Naval Aviation aircraft attack an Argentine Army column during the Revolución Libertadora against Juan Perón, halting the column before it can capture a naval air base.

1948 – A RAF de Havilland Mosquito crashes during an air show at RAF Manston, killing both crew and ten members of the public.

1947 – The United States Air Force becomes its own fully independent military command.

1947 – W. Stuart Symington becomes the first United States Secretary of the Air Force.

1945 – A USAAF Lockheed C-69 Constellation, 42-94551, [73] belly lands at Topeka Army Air Field, Kansas, after suffering engine problems.

1944 – Second Folland Fo.108, P1775, 'P', one of only twelve built by newly founded Folland company, as dedicated engine-testbed type, specification 43/37, crashes this date. Of the twelve, five were lost in accidents, including three in a 21 day period in August and September 1944, giving rise to the nickname, the Folland "Frightener".

1944 – Aircraft from the British aircraft carriers HMS Indomitable and HMS Victorious strike targets on Sumatra.

1943 – (18-19) U. S. Navy aircraft from the carriers USS Lexington (CV-16), USS Princeton (CVL-23), and USS Belleau Wood (CVL-24) make seven strikes against Tarawa Atoll, destroying nine Japanese aircraft on the ground, sinking a merchant ship in the lagoon, and leaving facilities on the atoll ablaze and many Japanese dead. They also photograph potential landing beaches on the island of Betio. Four American aircraft are lost.

1939 – RCAF Manning Pool (later No. 1 Manning Depot) was formed at Toronto, Ontario.

1930 – Ruth Alexander died when her NB-3 Barling struck a hillside shortly after takeoff on 1930 from Lindbergh Field, San Diego on a scheduled cross-country flight to New York City via Wichita, Kansas. She was eulogized as a “pioneer of the airways of this epic age. ”

1928 – Don Juan de la Cierva flies a Cierva C.8 autogiro from Croydon, England, to Le Bourget, France, making the first crossing of the English Channel in a rotorcraft.

1928 – The first flight of the Zeppelin LZ-127 Graf Zeppelin is made. It is the most successful rigid airship ever built, flown commercially on a regular basis from Europe to South America. It flies over a million miles and carries some 13,100 passengers before its demise 1940.

1919 – Over Curtiss Field, Long Island, a U. S. Navy Curtiss 18-T-1 triplane piloted by Roland Rholfs, a Curtiss test pilot, sets a world altitude record recognized by Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) World Record for Altitude as 31,420 feet, [FAI Record File Number 15676] although contemporary reports claimed a higher altitude of 34,910 feet (10,640 m), which would have made him the first person to reach 35,000 feet in an open cockpit. Oxygen was provided in a bottle connected to a tube that Rohls sucked on at altitude.

^ "U.S.: Copter crash in Iraq kills seven". CNN.com. 2008-09-17. Retrieved 2008-09-18.
^ "Seven U.S. troops killed in Iraq helicopter crash". Reuters. 2008-09-17. Retrieved 2008-09-18.
^ "US deaths in Iraq helicopter crash". Al Jazeera. 2008-09-17. Retrieved 2008-09-18.
^ Stephen Farrell (2008-09-18). "7 U.S. soldiers killed in helicopter crash in Iraq". The New York Times. Retrieved 2010-02-16.

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