Today in Aviation History - September

ausrere

ausrere

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September 1

In 1914... The 1st U.S. tactical air unit, the First Aero Squadron, is organized because of the August outbreak of war in Europe. Based in San Diego, California, the unit has 16 officers, 77 enlisted men, and 8 airplanes.

In 1921... President Warren Harding authorizes the creation of the Navy Bureau of Aeronautics, with Rear Admiral Moffet as its chief.

In 1923... The Royal Australian Air Force is formed.

In 1937... Douglas Aircraft Co. acquires the remaining 49 percent of the shares of its Northrop Corp. subsidiary and begins operating the facility in August 1938 as the Douglas El Segundo (Calif.) Division.

In 1953... The 1st scheduled international helicopter service begins between Belgium and France. The service is operated by Belgian airline Sabena.

In 1953... The 1st aerial refueling of a jet aircraft by a jet tanker is made with a B-47 Stratojet by a KB-47B tanker.

In 1974... The SR-71 Blackbird sets (and holds) the record for flying from New York to London: 1 hour 54 minutes and 56.4 seconds.

In 1983... Korean Air Flight 007 is shot down by a Soviet Union jet fighter when the commercial aircraft enters Soviet airspace. All 269 on board are killed, including US Congressmen Lawrence McDonald.


*Sorry this is late today....had a busy day :)
 
September 2

In 1858... Samuel King introduces the 1st dragline in America. It is a long rope attached to the basket, which helps to stabilize altitude by dragging on the ground when the balloon is flying very low.

In 1891... The 1st parachute descent by a Canadian woman is made when Nellie Lamount jumps from a hot-air balloon during a fair in Quebec.

In 1910... Blanche Scott, the 1st woman pilot in the United States, makes a solo flight at Lake Keuka, Hammondsport.

In 1925... The U.S. Zeppelin the USS Shenandoah crashes, killing 14.

In 1930... The first nonstop airplane flight from Europe to the United States was completed in 37 hours as Capt. Dieudonne Costes and Maurice Bellonte of France arrived in Valley Stream, N.Y., aboard a Breguet biplane. (The plane was known as "The Question Mark" because it bore the image of the punctuation sign on its side.)

In 1958... U.S. Air Force C-130A-II is shot down by fighters over Yerevan, Armenia when it strays into Soviet airspace while conducting a sigint (SIGnals INTelligence) mission. All crew lost.

In 1998... In 1998, Swissair Flight 111, a MD-11 jetliner, crashed off Nova Scotia, killing all 229 people aboard.
 
ausrere said:
September 2
<SNIP>
In 1930... The first nonstop airplane flight from Europe to the United States was completed in 37 hours as Capt. Dieudonne Costes and Maurice Bellonte of France arrived in Valley Stream, N.Y., aboard a Breguet biplane. (The plane was known as "The Question Mark" because it bore the image of the punctuation sign on its side.) <SNIP>
Click to expand...

This aircraft name seems to be used several times. The Question Mark (different plane) was the name of the first plane that performed aerial refueling. Carl Spaatz was one of the pilots involved.
 
September 3

In 1908... Orville Wright makes his 1st flight at Fort Meyer, Virginia, circling the field one-and-one-half times. During the next two weeks, he conducts a series of 14 long, high, and impressive flights, many of which set new records and are witnessed by government officials.

In 1924... Regular airmail service in Canada begins with flights between Ontario and Quebec.

In 1955... British Squadron Leader J.S. Fifield in England makes the 1st successful demonstration of the use of an ejection seat from a moving aircraft while still on the ground. He ejects from a modified Gloster Meteor 7 that is traveling 120-mph.

In 1997... A Vietnam Airlines Tupolev TU-134 crashes on approach into Phnom Penh airport, killing 64.
 
September 4

In 1888... Edward Hogan in Quebec makes the 1st parachute descents in Canada from a hot-air balloon.

In 1923... Maiden flight of the first U.S. airship, the USS Shenandoah.

In 1936... Louise Thaden becomes the 1st woman to win the prestigious coast-to-coast Bendix trophy race.

In 1963... Swissair Flight 306 crashes near Dürrenäsch, Switzerland, killing all on board.

In 1971... A Boeing 727 carrying Alaska Airlines Flight 1866 crashes near Juneau, Alaska, killing all 111 people on board.
 
September 5

In 1908... The 1st flight of a full-size triplane, the French Goupy, is made. Built by Ambroise Goupy, it has three sets of wings; each stacked above the others and is powered by 50-hp Renault engine.

In 1945... The Douglas C-74 Globemaster made its first flight

In 1982... Douglas Bader, RAF fighter pilot in World War II, died. Bader was a successful fighter pilot, claiming 22 German planes shot down in WWII. He claimed the fifth highest total in the RAF, despite having lost both legs in a pre-war flying accident. He was shot down in 1941 and spent the rest of the war in a German prison camp. He made so many escape attempts that the Germans threatened to take his prosthetic legs away from him.

In 1984... STS-41-D: The Space Shuttle Discovery lands after its maiden voyage.

In 1986... Pan Am Flight 73 with 358 people on board is hijacked at Karachi International Airport.

In 1994... The first production version of the advanced McDonnell Douglas Explorer twin-turbine, eight-place helicopter makes its maiden flight at Mesa, Ariz.

In 2005... Mandala Airlines Flight 091 crashes into a heavily-populated residential of Sumatra, Indonesia, killing 104 people on board and at least 39 persons on ground.
 
September 6

In 1893... Claire Chennault, American pilot famous for commanding the "Flying Tigers" during World War II, was born.

In 1940... The first production Douglas scout bomber (SBD) is delivered to the U.S. Navy. The aircraft is given the name "Dauntless."

In 1970... Two passenger jets bound from Europe to New York are simultaneously hijacked by Palestinian terrorist members of PFLP and taken to Dawson's Field in Jordan.

In 1976... Soviet air force pilot Lt. Viktor Belenko lands a MiG-25 jet fighter at Hakodate on the island of Hokkaidō in Japan and requests political asylum in the United States.

In 1983... The Soviet Union admits to shooting down Korean Air Flight KAL-007, stating that the pilots did not know it was a civilian aircraft when it violated Soviet airspace.

In 1985... Midwest Express Airlines Flight 105, a Douglas DC-9 crashes just after takeoff from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, killing 31.
 
September 7

In 1904... The Wright brothers 1st use their weight-and-derrick-assisted take-off device in order to make themselves independent of the wind and weather. When the heavy weight is released, the rope pulls the aircraft, which sits on a flatbed truck, over the launching track, thus assisting its take-off.

In 1909... The U.S. Army’s 1st “aerodrome”, an airfield or airport, is established in College Park, Maryland.

In 1909... Eugene Lefebvre (1878-1909), while test piloting a new French-built Wright biplane, crashes at Juvisy France when his controls jam. Lefebvre dies, becoming the first 'pilot' in the world to lose his life in a powered-heavier-than-air-craft.

In 1942... First flight of the Consolidated B-32 Dominator.

In 1988... The McDonnell Douglas F-15 S/MTD (short takeoff and landing/maneuvering technology demonstrator) flies for the first time.

In 1997... The Boeing F/A-22 Raptor makes its first flight. It reaches an altitude of 15,000 feet in less than three minutes.
 
September 8


In 1856... The 1st Canadians to fly are A.E. Kierzkowski and A.X. Rambau, who fly in Eugene Godard’s balloon.

In 1994... A USAir Boeing 737 crashes in Hopewell Township, Pennsylvania, near the city of Aliquippa.

In 1999... The Helios Prototype flew for the first time at Dryden. The Helios is a research aircraft developed to demonstrate the ability to reach and sustain horizontal flight at 100,000 feet altitude on a single-day flight, and to maintain flight above 50,000 feet altitude for at least four days, both on electrical power derived from non-polluting solar energy. The flight concluded prematurely after a small parachute, designed to keep the aircraft within a restricted airspace zone over the lakebed in case of a loss of control, unexpectedly deployed after an apparent electrical system failure.

In 2005... Two (2) EMERCOM Il-76 aircraft landed at a disaster aid staging area at Little Rock, Arkansas. This marks the first time Russia has flown such a mission to North America.
 
ausrere said:
September 8
....snip....
In 2005... Two (2) EMERCOM Il-76 aircraft landed at a disaster aid staging area at Little Rock, Arkansas. This marks the first time Russia has flown such a mission to North America.
Click to expand...
Many missions planned, just never flown.
 
September 9

In 1830... Charles Durant, America’s 1st great balloonist, makes his 1st U.S. ascent at Castle Garden, New York. He stays in the air for two hours, landing at South Amboy, New Jersey. His skill and enthusiasm inspire a passion for ballooning in America.

In 1911... The 1st mail carried by air in the United Kingdom is delivered. The mail contains messages for King George V and other members of the British royal family.

In 1942... A Japanese floatplane drops an incendiary bomb on Oregon.

In 1969... Allegheny Airlines Flight 853 DC-9 collided in flight with a Piper PA-28 and crashed near Fairland, Indiana.

In 1970... A British airliner is hijacked by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and flown to Dawson's Field in Jordan.
 
September 10

In 1993... Boeing finishes production of their 1,000th 747 airplane, 26 years after the 747 program was launched.

In 1959... North American YF-107A makes first flight. The YF-107A was the last fighter North American Aviation built for the USAF, and it flew Mach 2 in its first all-out test flights during 1957.

In 1976... A British Airways Hawker Siddeley Trident and an Inex-Adria DC-9 collide near Zagreb, Yugoslavia, killing 176.
 
September 11

In 1920... Edison Mouton flies into Marina Field, San Francisco, to complete the 1st US transcontinental airmail flight. Having left from New York, it took Mouton and his crew over 75 hours to complete the feat.

In 1929... The Fokker F-32 four-engined luxury airliner makes its 1st US flight at Teterboro Airport.

In 1932... Franciszek Żwirko and Stanisław Wigura, Polish Challenge 1932 winners, killed in a plane crash as their RWD 6 crashed into the ground during a storm.

In 1937... Robert Crippen, American astronaut was born. Crippen (Captain, USN retired )flew on four Space Shuttle missions, including three as commander. On April 6th, 2006, he received the Congressional Space Medal of Honor, the highest award for spaceflight achievement, for piloting the first Space Shuttle flight (STS-1) in the Space Shuttle Columbia.

In 1946... The North American FJ-1 Fury jet fighter makes its first flight.

In 1956... Billy Bishop, Canadian pilot in World War I, died (Born 1894). Air Marshall William Avery "Billy" Bishop was a Canadian First World War flying ace, officially credited with 72 victories, the highest number for a British Empire pilot.

In 1974... Eastern Air Lines Flight 212 crashes in Charlotte, North Carolina, killing 69 passengers and two crew.

In 2001... Terrorists affiliated with al-Qaeda hijacked four commercial passenger jet airliners in the United States. United Airlines Flight 175 and American Airlines Flight 11 were intentionally crashed in the the World Trade Center towers in New York City. American Airlines Flight 77 was flown into the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia, near Washington, D.C., and passengers and members of the flight crew on the fourth aircraft, United Airlines Flight 93, attempted to retake control of their plane from the hijackers; that plane crashed into a field near the town of Shanksville in rural Somerset County, Pennsylvania. Approximately 3,000 people died as a result of the attacks.

In 2004... All passengers are killed when a helicopter crashes in the Aegean Sea. Passengers include Patriarch Peter VII of Alexandria and 16 others (including journalists and bishops of the Greek Orthodox Church of Alexandria).
 
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ausrere said:
September 11


In 1956... Billy Bishop, Canadian pilot in World War I, was born. Air Marshall William Avery "Billy" Bishop was a Canadian First World War flying ace, officially credited with 72 victories, the highest number for a British Empire pilot.
Click to expand...

Born in 1956 and flew in WW I? Methinks the website editors have screwed the pooch on this one. :D
 
Ghery said:
Born in 1956 and flew in WW I? Methinks the website editors have screwed the pooch on this one. :D
Click to expand...

Nope..that was pure my fault. It should have been died 1956..I screwed it up somehow in the transfer. Fixed now though. Thanks.
 
September 12

In 1916... The 1st pilotless radio-controlled aerial bomb is tested in the United States. It is actually a small biplane that can fly radio-guided for 50 miles with 308 pounds of bombs aboard.

In 1992... NASA launches Space Shuttle Endeavour on STS-47 which marked the 50th shuttle mission. On board is Mae Carol Jemison, the first African-American woman in space.

In 1994... Frank Eugene Corder crashes a Cessna 150 into the White House's south lawn, striking the West wing and killing himself.
 
September 13

In 1886... Amelie Beese, First female German aviator and sculptor was born.

In 1906... Traian Vuia flies a self-propelled, heavier-than-air aircraft becoming the first fixed wing aircraft to fly in Europe.

In 1906... Oleg Antonov, Soviet aircraft designer is born. (d. 1984)

In 1928... In an effort to speed up the time it takes for mail to reach the United States via Europe, a single-engined Liore et Oliver LeO 198 airplane is catapulted off the Ile de France ocean liner, reducing the time it takes mail to reach the United States by one whole day.

In 1935... Millionaire film producer and amateur air racer Howard Hughes shatters the world land plane speed record in his home built Hughes Racer airplane.

In 2001... Civilian aircraft traffic resumes in the U.S. after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
 
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September 14

In 1938... Graf Zeppelin II, world's largest airship, makes maiden flight

In 1944... The 1st successful flight into the eye of a hurricane is made by a three-man American crew flying a Douglas A-20 Havoc. They demonstrate that valuable scientific information can be obtained in this manner, which is still done today.

In 1984... Joe Kittinger becomes the first person to fly a hot air balloon alone across the Atlantic Ocean.
 
September 15th

In 1784... Italian diplomat, Vincenzo Lunardi, makes the 1st ascent in a hydrogen balloon in Britain.

In 1904... Wilbur Wright in the airplane Flyer II makes his 1st controlled half-circle while in flight.

In 1941... Mirosław Hermaszewski, First Polish Cosmonaut in Space, is born.

In 1947... The U.S. Air Force is separated from the US Army to become a separate branch.

In 1948... The F-86 Sabre sets the world aircraft speed record at 1080 km/h.

In 1965... The Soviet Zond 5 spaceship is launched, becoming the first spacecraft to fly around the Moon and re-enter the Earth's atmosphere.

In 1972... An SAS domestic flight from Gothenburg to Stockholm was hijacked and flown to Malmö-Bulltofta Airport.

In 1974... Air Vietnam flight 727 is hijacked, then crashes while attempting to land with 75 on board.

In 1978... Willy Messerschmitt, German aircraft designer, dies. (b. 1898)

In 1982... The Douglas Aircraft division of McDonnell Douglas delivers its 2,000th jet airliner, a DC-10 built for United Airlines.

In 1991... The McDonnell Douglas C-17 Globemaster III makes its first flight.
 
September 16th

In 1914... The Canadian Aviation Corps is authorized by the Minister of Militia and Defense to be formed. This is the beginning of Canada’s military air force.

In 1975... The first prototype of the MiG-31 interceptor makes its maiden flight.
 
September 17th


In 1908... The 1st fatality in a powered airplane occurs when Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge is killed while flying with Orville Wright at Fort Meyer, Virginia.

In 1916... World War I: Manfred von Richthofen ("The Red Baron"), a flying ace of the German Luftstreitkräfte, won his first aerial combat near Cambrai, France.

In 1930... Edgar Mitchell, American astronaut and the sixth man to walk on the Moon, was born.

In 1930... Thomas Stafford, American astronaut and commander of Apollo 10 , was born.

In 1959... The North American X-15 rocket plane makes its 1st powered flight at Edwards Air Force Base in California.

In 1976... The prototype Space Shuttle Enterprise, built by Rockwell International (North American), rolls out. Its 9-month approach and landing test program lasts from Jan. 31 to Oct. 26, 1977.
 
September 18th

In 1928... The 1st rotating-wing aircraft to fly the English Channel is the Cierva C-8L Autogyro flown by its designer, Spaniard, Juan de la Cierva.

In 1928... The 1st 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 in 1940.

In 1947... The U.S. Air Force becomes an independent service within the unified U.S. armed forces. This change recognizes the fact that air power is to be the nation’s 1st line of defense.

In 1948... The 1st flight of a delta-wing jet airplane is made with the Convair XF-92A.

In 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.

In 1984... Joe Kittinger completes first solo balloon crossing of the Atlantic.
 
September 20th

In 1902... The Wright brothers make the 1st of nearly 1,000 glides on their modified No. 3 glider in Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina. It is this glider, made of spruce wood and cloth, which incorporates for the 1st time the flight controls of the modern airplane.

In 1904... Wilbur Wright on the Flyer II in Huffman Prairie, Ohio makes the 1st circular flight.

In 1939... A German Messerschmitt Bf 109 is shot down by Fairey Battle gunner Sgt. F. Letchard during a patrol near Aachen. This is the RAF's first aerial victory of the Second World War.

In 1945... A British Gloster Meteor F.1 makes the 1st flight of an aircraft powered completely by turboprop engines. A turboprop or propjet is an aircraft with a propeller that is driven by a gas turbine engine.

In 1952... First flight of the Douglas X-3, called the Stilletto because of its knife-like shape. The X-3 was built to test the effects of high temperatures induced by high speeds on an aircraft.

In 1993... Erich Alfred "Bubi" Hartmann , German pilot died (b. 1922) Nicknamed "The Blond Knight Of Germany" by friends and "The Black Devil" by his enemies, Hartmann is the most successful fighter ace in the history of aerial combat. He scored 352 aerial victories (of which 345 were flown by the Soviet Air Force, and 260 of which were fighters) in 1,404 combat missions and engaging in aerial combat 825 times while serving with the Luftwaffe in World War II.
 
September 21st

In 1802... Frenchman Andre-Jacques Garnerin makes the 1st parachute descent in England, jumping from a balloon over London.

In 1942... The Boeing B-29 Superfortress (Boeing Model Model 345) makes its maiden flight.

In 1961... Boeing's Vertol Division's CH-47A Chinook helicopter makes its first flight.

In 1964... The North American XB-70 Valkyrie, the world's first Mach 3 bomber, made its maiden flight from Palmdale, California.

In 1979.. Two RAF Hawker Siddeley Harrier jump-jets from RAF Wittering collide over the UK. Both pilots ejected safely. One of the jets broke up in midair and fell harmlessly into a field but the other dropped onto the center of Wisbech in Cambridgeshire, destroying two houses and a bungalow. Several people were injured in the accident and three people were killed.
 
On 21 September 1956, an F-11 Tiger piloted by Tom Attridge shot itself down after passing through a stream of 20mm projectiles it had just fired during a shallow dive. Aircraft destroyed, pilot survived.
 
September 22nd


In 1902... Stanley Spencer becomes the 1st Englishman to fly in a powered airship over England. The 75-foot-long dirigible is powered by a 3-hp water-cooled engine and makes a flight of 30 miles.

In 1992... The McDonnell Douglas AV-8B Harrier II Plus makes its first flight.

In 1993... A Transair Georgian Airlines Tu-154 is shot down by a missile in Sukhumi, Georgia.

In 1995... E-3B AWACS crashed outside of Elmendorf AFB, Alaska after multiple bird strikes to two of the four engines soon after takeoff; all 24 on board killed.

In 2006... The F-14 Tomcat retires from the United States Navy.

In 2006... Boeing delivers the first EA-18G Growler airborne electronic attack aircraft to the U.S. Navy test site at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md.
 
September 23rd


In 1910... Peruvian Georges Chavez, who flies over the Simplon Pass between Italy and Switzerland, makes the 1st airplane flight over the Alps.

In 1911... Earl Ovington carries the 1st airmail in the United States in a Blériot monoplane from Nassau Boulevard Aerodome, Long Island to Mineola, Long Island.

In 1913... French pilot, Roland Garros, becomes the 1st person to fly across the Mediterranean, a distance of 470 miles. He lands in Tunisia 7 hours and 53 minutes after taking off from France, which is of particular note because he only had enough fuel for 8 hours of flight.

In 1917... Werner Voss, German World War I ace fighter pilot, dies (b. 1897)

In 1950... First flight of the F86E Sabre Jet.

In 1999... Qantas Flight 1 overruns the runway in Bangkok during a storm. While some passengers only received minor injuries, it is still the worst crash in Qantas's history to date.
 
September 24th

In 1852... French engineer, Henri Giffard, flies the 1st powered, manned airship. Powered by a steam engine and propeller, the airship flies at about 5-mph and covers 17 miles from Paris to Trappes, France. The craft marks the beginning of the practical airship.

In 1930... John W. Young, American astronaut who walked on the Moon on April 21, 1972 during the Apollo 16 mission, was born. Young enjoyed one of the longest and busiest careers of any astronaut in the American space program. He was the first person to fly into space six times, twice journeyed to the Moon, and as of 2007, is the only person to have piloted four different classes of spacecraft.

In 1949... North American's T-28 Trojan trainer makes its first flight.
 
September 25th

In 1903... The Wright brothers arrive at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina to begin tests of their 1st powered aircraft.

In 1978... PSA Flight 182, a Boeing 727-214, collides in mid-air with a Cessna 172 and crashes in San Diego, California, resulting in the deaths of 144 people.
 
September 26th

In 1897... Arthur Rhys Davids, English pilot, is born (d. 1917). Davids was credited with having brought down Germany's Werner Voss on 23 September 1917, in one of the most famous dogfights of World War I.

In 1967... The governments of France, West Germany, and Britain sign a memorandum that calls for the development of the Airbus A300 wide-bodied jet airliner.

In 1981... The Boeing 767-200 makes its first flight.

In 1997... An Indonesian Airbus A-300 crashed while approaching Medan Airport in north Sumatra, killing all 234 people aboard.
 
September 27th

In 1894... Lothar von Richthofen German pilot was born. (d. 1922) Richtofen was a German First World War fighter ace credited with 40 victories during the war. He was younger brother of top-scoring ace Manfred von Richthofen (the Red Baron) and a cousin of the Luftwaffe field marshal Wolfram von Richthofen.

In 1913... Katherine Stinson becomes the 1st woman in the United States to make an official airmail flight.

In 1922... Dr. Albert Taylor and Leo Young, scientists at the US Naval Aircraft Radio Laboratory, make the 1st successful detections of objects by “radio observation”. They use wireless waves to detect objects not visible due to weather or darkness. This insight leads to the advent of radar.

In 1956... The 1st piloted airplane to exceed Mach 3 (three times the speed of sound) is the rocket-powered Bell X-2 piloted by USAF Captain Milburn G. Apt. Shortly thereafter, the craft goes out of control and Captain Apt is killed.
 
September 28th

In 1920... American pilot Howard Rinehart, flying a Dayton-Wright R.B Racer, becomes the 1st person to fly an airplane fitted with retractable landing gear.

In 1924... two U.S. Army Douglas World Cruisers (modified version of the DT-2torpedo bomber) landed in Seattle, Wash., having completed the first round-the-world flight in 175 days. The flight was the greatest feat in aviation up to that time and earned the Douglas Aircraft Co. its motto, "First Around the World."

In 1934... Lufthansa, Germany’s national airline flies its millionth customer.

In 1938... First flight of the North American T-6 Texan.
 
September 29th

In 1895... Roscoe Turner, American aviator and racer was born (d. 1970) .

In 1954... The McDonnell F-101 Voodoo jet fighter makes its first flight. An advanced design of the XF-88, the Voodoo goes supersonic on its first flight.

In 1964... The 1st take-off and landing of the XC-142A vertical take-off transport is made in Dallas, Texas. The aircraft has four 2,850-hp General Electric turboprops mounted on the wings that can pivot 90 degrees to allow for a vertical take-off.

In 1988... NASA resumes space shuttle flights, grounded after the Challenger disaster, with STS-26.

In 1990... First flight of the Boeing/Lockheed Martin YF-22, prototype of the F/A-22.

In 1995... The United States Navy disestablishes Fighter Squadron #84 (VF-84), the celebrated Jolly Rogers.

In 1995... McDonnell Douglas AH-64D Apache Longbow makes successful first flight at Mesa, Ariz.

In 2004... The Burt Rutan Ansari X Prize entry SpaceShipOne performed a successful spaceflight, the first of two needed to win the prize.
 
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ausrere said:
September 29th

In 1895... Roscoe Turner, American aviator and racer was born (d. 1970) .
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Last year, a group was meeting at the Downwind at PDK. One fellow pilot, John, brought in a man who was retiring from Hertz Rental. Unfortunately, I came in late on hearing much of what he was sharing. He was an old timer, at least late 60s but gosh, what stories he must have held. He used to fly but had long since lost his medical. The grandest of his stories was being taught to fly by none other than Roscoe Turner.

I believe Wayne was there that night so he may be able to contribute more. If things ever mellow out for me, something I want to do is go look up groups of some of these old pilots; WWII and Korean veteran pilots as well. I'd love to listen to their stories and perhaps honor their history and accomplishments by passing on those stories to many who will never be fortunate enough to have met such men.
 
September 30th

In 1949... The Berlin Airlift came to an end.

In 1975... The Hughes (later McDonnell-Douglas, now Boeing) AH-64 Apache makes its first flight.

In 1982... The 1st round-the-world flight in a helicopter is completed as the Bell Long Ranger II, flown by Americans H. Ross Perot Jr. and Jay Coburn, lands safely.
 
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ausrere said:
In 1982... The 1st round-the-world flight in a helicopter is completed as the Bell Long Ranger II, flown by Americans H. Ross Perot Jr. and Jay Coburn, lands safely.
Click to expand...
Related to the politician/businessman Ross Perot?
 
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