Jump to content

Portal:Aviation

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Portal topics
Activities
Culture
Geography
Health
History
Mathematics
Nature
People
Philosophy
Religion
Society
Technology
Random portal
Main page   Categories & Main topics  


Tasks and Projects

The Aviation Portal

A Boeing 747 in 1978 operated by Pan Am

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 aircraft 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

Air Force One
Air Force One
Air Force One (the ATC callsign of any U.S. Air Force aircraft carrying the President) has, since 1990, consisted of two specifically-configured, highly customized Boeing 747-200B series aircraft, known as the VC-25. The planes' three floors (4,000 square feet – 372 m²) include multiple modifications including the president's executive suite which includes a private dressing room, workout room, lavatory, shower, and private office. (Full article...)

Selected image

Second World War Recruiting poster
Second World War Recruiting poster
Second World War Recruiting poster

Did you know

...that sailplane winglets were first successfully implemented by American inventor Peter Masak? ...that the fighter pilot Aleksandr Kazakov destroyed 32 German and Austro-Hungarian planes during WWI, while his formal tally of 17 is explained by the fact that only planes crashed in the Russian-held territory were officially counted? ...that during Operation Deep Freeze II in 1956, US Navy Rear Admiral George J. Dufek commanded the first aircraft to land at the South Pole, the C-47 Skytrain “Que Sera Sera”?

More Did you know facts

General images - load new batch

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

In the news

Wikinews Aviation portal
Read and edit Wikinews

Associated Wikimedia

The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:

Selected biography

AIR VICE-MARSHAL GEORGE JONES
Air Marshal Sir George Jones KBE, CB, DFC (18 October 1896 – 24 August 1992) was a senior commander in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). He rose from being a private soldier in World War I to Air Marshal in 1948. He served as Chief of the Air Staff from 1942 to 1952, the longest continuous tenure of any RAAF chief. Jones was a surprise appointee to the Air Force’s top role, and his achievements in the position were coloured by a divisive relationship during World War II with his head of operations and nominal subordinate, Air Vice Marshal William Bostock.

Jones first saw action as an infantryman in the Gallipoli campaign of 1915, before transferring to the Australian Flying Corps the following year. Initially an air mechanic, he undertook flying training in 1917 and was posted to a fighter squadron in France, achieving seven victories to become an ace. After a short spell in civilian life following World War I, he joined the newly-formed RAAF in 1921, rising steadily through training and personnel commands prior to World War II.

He did not actively seek the position of Chief of the Air Staff before being appointed in 1942, and his conflict with Bostock—with whom he had been friends for 20 years—was partly the result of a divided command structure, which neither man had any direct role in shaping. After World War II Jones had overall responsibility for transforming what was then the world's fourth largest air force into a peacetime service that was also able to meet overseas commitments in Malaya and Korea. Following his retirement from the RAAF he continued to serve in the aircraft industry and later ran unsuccessfully for political office.

Selected Aircraft

Avro Arrow replica at CASM Arrow rollout in 2006
Avro Arrow replica at CASM Arrow rollout in 2006

The Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow was a delta-winged interceptor aircraft, designed and built by Avro Aircraft Limited (Canada) in Malton, Ontario, Canada, as the culmination of a design study that began in 1953. Considered to be both an advanced technical and aerodynamic achievement for the Canadian aviation industry, the CF-105 held the promise of Mach 2 speeds at altitudes exceeding 50,000 ft (15,000 m), and was intended to serve as the Royal Canadian Air Force's primary interceptor in the 1960s and beyond. Not long after the 1958 start of its flight test program, the development of the Arrow (including its Orenda Iroquois jet engines) was abruptly and controversially halted before the project review had taken place, sparking a long and bitter political debate. The controversy engendered by the cancellation and subsequent destruction of the aircraft in production, remains a topic for debate among historians, political observers and industry pundits. "This action effectively put Avro out of business and its highly skilled engineering and production personnel scattered... The incident was a traumatic one... and to this day, many mourn the loss of the Arrow."

  • Span: 50 ft 0 in (15.24 m)
  • Length: 77 ft 9 in (23.71 m)
  • Height: 20 ft 6 in (6.25 m)
  • Engines: 2×Pratt & Whitney J75-P-3
  • Cruising Speed: Mach 0.91 (607 mph, 977 km/h) at 36,000 ft (11,000 m)
  • First Flight: 25 March 1958
  • Number built: 5
More selected aircraft Read more...

Today in Aviation

December 4

  • 2011 – Iran announces its capture of the CIA UAV a Lockheed Martin RQ-170 Sentinel unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), claiming to have shot it down. The United States acknowledges the loss of the UAV for the first time, but denies that it was shot down.[2]
  • 2003 – 2003 Polish Air Force Mi-8 crash: Operated by the 36th Special Aviation Regiment with Poland’s Prime Minister Leszek Miller on board crashed near Piaseczno, just outside of Warsaw.
  • 1998 – Launch: Space Shuttle Endeavour STS-88 at 03:35:34 EST (8:35:34 GMT). Mission highlights: ISS assembly flight 2A: Node 1. First Shuttle ISS assembly flight.
  • 1984 – Kuwait Airways Flight 221, flying from Kuwait City to Karachi, Pakistan, is hijacked by four Lebanese men and diverted to Tehran. Four hostages are killed and dumped on the tarmac, and the remaining passengers, especially Americans, are tortured every 5 min. Iranians eventually raid the aircraft and rescue all, but the hijackers were later released.
  • 1977 – Malaysia Airlines Flight 653, a Boeing 737, is hijacked under mysterious circumstances; minutes later, the airliner crashes into a swamp near Tanjung Kupang, Malaysia at a steep angle, killing all 100 people aboard.
  • 1976 – A fire in a hangar at HMAS Albatross (NAS Nowra), Australia, damages or destroys 12 of 13 Grumman S-2E Trackers of the Royal Australian Navy, assigned to squadrons VC851 and VS816. A 19-year old junior member of the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy later admits to arson, but is found mentally unstable at his court martial.
  • 1974 – Martinair Flight 138, a Douglas DC-8 on a charter flight, crashed into a mountain shortly before landing, on approach to Katunayake, Sri Lanka for a refueling stop; killing all aboard – 182 Indonesian hajj pilgrims bound for Mecca, and 9 crew members.
  • 1969 – A Boeing 707-328B operating the Caracas-Point-à-Pitre sector of Air France Flight 212, crashed into the sea shortly after takeoff from Simón Bolívar International Airport with the loss of all 62 on board.
  • 1967 – The A-7 A Corsair II strike aircraft enters combat for the first time, operating from the aircraft carrier USS Ranger (CVA-61) over Vietnam.
  • 1965 – The 1965 Carmel mid-air collision; Eastern Air Lines Flight 853, a Lockheed Super Constellation, collides with TWA Flight 42, a Boeing 707 over Carmel, New York; Flight 42 makes an emergency landing at John F. Kennedy International Airport; Flight 853 is forced to crash land on Hunt Mountain near Danbury, Connecticut, killing three passengers and one of the pilots on board; no casualties were reported on board Flight 42.
  • 1959 – Ensign Albert Joe Hickman was practising aircraft carrier landings as part of a training mission conducted from Naval Air Station Miramar, California. When his McDonnell F3H Demon suddenly stalled, Hickman was still 2,000 feet (610 m) above ground. He could easily have ejected from the cockpit in time to save his own life. Below him, however, and directly in the path of the crippled plane was Hawthorne Elementary School, where more than 700 children were playing in the schoolyard. Hickman chose to remain in the cockpit. He somehow maneuvered the descending plane away from the school, assuring the safety – and probably saving the lives – of several hundred people. Now at an altitude of only 60 feet (18 m), he no longer had the option to eject. The plane crashed into a nearby canyon, exploding on impact, and Albert J. Hickman was killed. A school in the San Diego community of Mira Mesa was later named after him. American Legion Post 460 in San Diego, Department of California, is named the Albert J. Hickman Post.
  • 1958 – The last Avro CF-100 was rolled from the production line at Malton, Ontario.
  • 1950 – A Pan American World Airways Boeing 307 Strato-Clipper sets a new record time for a commercial flight from Honolulu, Hawaii, to Los Angeles California, making the trip in 7 hours 20 min.
  • 1945 – Roberta Bondar, Canadian astronaut, was born. Roberta Lynn Bondar, PhD, DSc, MD, is Canada’s first woman astronaut and the world’s first neurologist in space.
  • 1945 – A de Havilland Sea Vampire Mk 5 became the first jet aircraft to intentionally take off and land from an aircraft carrier, HMS Ocean.
  • 1943 – U. S. Navy carrier aircraft strike Kwajalein Atoll. Those from USS Essex (CV-9) and USS Lexington (CV-16) concentrate on Roi, where they shoot down 28 Japanese aircraft and destroy 19 on the ground, sink a large cargo ship, and damage the light cruiser Isuzu; those from USS Enterprise (CV-6) and USS Yorktown (CV-10) strike Kwajalein Island, where they destroy 18 float planes, sink three merchant ships, and damage the light cruiser Nagara. A combined total of five American aircraft are lost. Twenty-nine Yorktown aircraft raid Wotje later in the day. Japanese aircraft attack the retiring carrier force during the afternoon and overnight, damaging Lexington with a torpedo in exchange for the loss of 29 Japanese planes.
  • 1943 – The U. S. Navy submarine USS Sailfish (SS-192) torpedoes and sinks the Japanese aircraft carrier Chūyō near Hachijōjima with the loss of over 1,243 lives, including 20 American prisoners-of-war.
  • 1942 – USAAF bombers make their first raid on Italy.
  • 1940 – Operational control of RAF Coastal Command is transferred to the Royal Navy, although Coastal Command remains part of the Royal Air Force. Air protection of British merchant shipping soon begins to improve.
  • 1912 – Pappy Boyington, American pilot, is born (d. 1988). Colonel Gregory “Pappy” Boyington, USMC, was an American fighter ace. He commanded the famous U. S. Marine Corps squadron, VMF-214 (“The Black Sheep Squadron”) during World War II. Boyington became a prisoner of war later in the war. He was awarded the Navy Cross and the Medal of Honor.
  • 1908 – The Englishman John Moore-Brabazon, 1st Baron Brabazon of Tara makes a flight of 1,350 feet (410 m) in a Voisin biplane at Issy-les-Moulineaux in France. He becomes one of the guiding lights of early British aviation and is issued the first British pilot’s license, then called an aviator’s certificate.
  • 1894 – German meteorologist Arthur Berson climbs up with a balloon to 9,155 metres (30,036 ft).

References

  1. ^ Gearan, Anne, "NATO Says Anti-Missile Defense For Turkey Does Not Open Door to Syria Intervention," The Washington Post, December 5, 2012, p. A1.
  2. ^ Miklaszewski, Jim, "Drone That Crashed in Iran Risks Secret U.S. Technology," NBCNews.com, 5 December 2011.
Edit today's anniversaries – December Archive – All anniversaries...


Purge server cache

Retrieved from "http://en.wiki.x.io/w/index.php?title=Portal:Aviation&oldid=1257586536"