Portal:Aviation

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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

The air flow from the wing of this agricultural plane is made visible by a technique that uses colored smoke rising from the ground. The swirl at the wingtip traces the aircraft's wake vortex, which exerts a powerful influence on the flow field behind the plane.
The air flow from the wing of this agricultural plane is made visible by a technique that uses colored smoke rising from the ground. The swirl at the wingtip traces the aircraft's wake vortex, which exerts a powerful influence on the flow field behind the plane.
Aerodynamics is a branch of dynamics concerned with studying the motion of air, particularly when it interacts with a moving object. Understanding the motion of air (often called a flow field) around an object enables the calculation of forces and moments acting on the object. Typical properties calculated for a flow field include velocity, pressure, density and temperature as a function of position and time. By defining a control volume around the flow field, equations for the conservation of mass, momentum, and energy can be defined and used to solve for the properties. The use of aerodynamics through mathematical analysis, empirical approximation and wind tunnel experimentation form the scientific basis for heavier-than-air flight.

External aerodynamics is the study of flow around solid objects of various shapes. Evaluating the lift and drag on an airplane, the shock waves that form in front of the nose of a rocket is an example of external aerodynamics. Internal aerodynamics is the study of flow through passages in solid objects. For instance, internal aerodynamics encompasses the study of the airflow through a jet engine.

The ratio of the problem's characteristic flow speed to the speed of sound comprises a second classification of aerodynamic problems. A problem is called subsonic if all the speeds in the problem are less than the speed of sound, transonic if speeds both below and above the speed of sound are present (normally when the characteristic speed is approximately the speed of sound), supersonic when the characteristic flow speed is greater than the speed of sound, and hypersonic when the flow speed is much greater than the speed of sound. Aerodynamicists disagree over the precise definition of hypersonic flow; minimum Mach numbers for hypersonic flow range from 3 to 12. Most aerodynamicists use numbers between 5 and 8. (Full article...)

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RAAF General Dynamics F-111 aircraft performing a dump-and-burn fuel dump. Avalon, Victoria, Australia.

Did you know

...that Luftwaffe ace Erich Rudorffer flew more than 1000 missions during World War II, and was shot down sixteen times by enemy flak and fighters? ...that the Ryan X-13 Vertijet aircraft landed by using a hook on its nose to hang itself on a wire? ... that former USAF officer David P. Cooley who was the chief test pilot for the F-117 Nighthawk died in March 2009 while testing the F-22 Raptor?

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Selected biography

Charles Yeager
Charles Elwood "Chuck" Yeager (born February 13, 1923) is a retired Brigadier-General in the United States Air Force and a noted test pilot. In 1947, he became the first pilot (at age 24) to travel faster than sound in level flight and ascent.

His career began in World War II as a private in the U.S. Army Air Forces. After serving as an aircraft mechanic, in September 1942 he entered enlisted pilot training and upon graduation was promoted to the rank of Flight Officer (WW 2 U.S. Army Air Forces rank equivalent to Warrant Officer) and became a P-51 Mustang fighter pilot. After the war he became a test pilot of many kinds of aircraft and rocket planes. Yeager was the first man to break the sound barrier on October 14, 1947, flying the experimental Bell X-1 at Mach 1 at an altitude of 45,000 ft (13,700 m). Although Scott Crossfield was the first man to fly faster than Mach 2 in 1953, Yeager shortly thereafter exceeded Mach 2.4.[1] He later commanded fighter squadrons and wings in Germany and in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War, and in recognition of the outstanding performance ratings of those units he then was promoted to Brigadier-General. Yeager's flying career spans more than sixty years and has taken him to every corner of the globe, even into the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War.

Selected Aircraft

The Messerschmitt Bf 109 was a German World War II fighter aircraft designed by Willy Messerschmitt in the early 1930s. It was one of the first true modern fighters of the era, including such features as an all-metal monocoque construction, a closed canopy, and retractable landing gear. The Bf 109 was produced in greater quantities than any other fighter aircraft in history, with a total of 33,984 units produced up to April 1945. Fighter production totalled 47% of all German aircraft production, and the Bf 109 accounted for 57% of all German fighter types produced.

The Bf 109 was the backbone of the Luftwaffe fighter force in World War II, although it began to be partially replaced by the Focke-Wulf Fw 190 from 1941. The Bf 109 was the most successful fighter of World War II, shooting down more aircraft than any of its contemporaries. Originally conceived as an interceptor, it was later developed to fulfill multiple tasks, serving as bomber escort, fighter bomber, day-, night- all-weather fighter, bomber destroyer, ground-attack aircraft, and as reconnaissance aircraft.

The Bf 109 was flown by the three top-scoring fighter aces of World War II: Erich Hartmann, the top scoring fighter pilot of all time with 352 victories, Gerhard Barkhorn with 301 victories, and Günther Rall with 275 victories. All of them flew with Jagdgeschwader 52, a unit which exclusively flew the Bf 109 and was credited with over 10,000 victories, chiefly on the Eastern Front. Hartmann chose to fly the Bf 109 in combat throughout the war, despite being offered the use of the Me 262. Hans-Joachim Marseille, the highest scoring German ace in the North African Campaign, also scored all of his 158 victories flying the Bf 109, against Western Allied pilots.

  • Span: 9.925 m (32 ft 6 in)
  • Length: 8.95 m (29 ft 7 in)
  • Height: 2.60 m (8 ft 2 in)
  • Engine: 1× Daimler-Benz DB 605A-1 liquid-cooled inverted V12, 1,475 PS (1,455 hp, 1,085 kW)
  • Cruising Speed: 590 km/h (365 mph) at 6,000 m (19,680 ft)
  • First Flight: 28 May 1935
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Today in Aviation

April 20

  • 2011 – Launch of Elektro-L No.1, also known as Geostationary Operational Meteorological Satellite No.2 or GOMS No.2, Russian geostationary weather satellite.
  • 2011 – Launch of SA-224, also known as NRO Launch 49 (NRO L-49), American reconnaissance satellite.
  • 2010 – A Eurocopter HH-65 Dolphin of the US Coast Guard crashed into Lake Huron nine miles (14 km) north of Port Huron, Michigan.
  • 2010 – While performing maneuvers, a Vertical de Aviación Bell 222UT helicopter, registered HK-3262, and a Fuerza Aérea de Colombia (Colombian Air Force) MD Helicopters MD530 crashed on a military garrison near Chaparral, Tolima, Colombia.
  • 2009 – Royal Air Maroc Flight 200, operated by Boeing 767-36NER CN-RNT is substantially damaged in a heavy landing at John F. Kennedy International Airport. Cracks are discovered in the forward fuselage on inspection.
  • 2008 – In an effort to raise money for a spiritual rest stop for truckers in Paranagua, Brazil, and to break the existing 19-hour record for a flight suspended by helium balloons, Brazilian priest Adelir Antonio de Carli lifts off from Paranagua for a flight inland to Dourados, over 725 km (450 mi) to the northwest, suspended under 1,000 brightly colored party balloons. Rising to as high as 20,000 feet (6,096 m), he is swept backward out over the Atlantic Ocean and disappears about eight hours after takeoff. Some of his balloons are found floating intact in the sea two days later, and his body will be found floating in the Atlantic 700 km (435 mi) northeast of Paranagua near Maricá, Brazil, on 4 July.
  • 2002 – During the NAS Point Mugu air show (Point Mugu, California), the pilot and radar intercept officer are killed when their United States Navy McDonnell-Douglas QF-4S+ Phantom II, BuNo 155749, stalls and crashes after pulling away from a diamond formation. Both eject but chutes do not have time to deploy. The Navy report states in part: "The cause of this tragic accident was the failure of the pilot to manage the energy state of the aircraft, and then to recognize a departure from controlled flight at low altitude, and apply the NATOPS recovery techniques." This Phantom II was credited with a MiG-17 kill 10 May 1972 with VF-96.
  • 1998 – Air France Flight 422, a Boeing 727 leased from TAME Airlines, crashed into the mountains east of Bogotá, Colombia on takeoff from El Dorado International Airport of Bogotá in foggy weather. All 53 passengers and crew perish.
  • 1997 – A new balloon absolute distance record of 16,722 km (10,363 miles) is set by Steve Fossett, during his unsuccessful non-stop, round the world flight, which he is forced to abandon in India.
  • 1996 – STS-72, Space shuttle mission, recovers in space the Japanese spacecraft 'Space Flyer Unit' and lands back on earth.
  • 1989 – Doru Davidovici, Romanian poet and pilot, loses his life, together with Dumitru Petra, this date, when their MiG-21UM trainer crashes during landing procedures while returning home to RoAF 86th Air Base, Borcea-Fetesti AFB, from a training flight.
  • 1988 – Death of Robert Miles Todd, American WWI flying ace.
  • 1985 – USAF North American CT-39 Sabreliner suffering from defective brakes, runs off runway at Wilkes-Barre-Scranton International Airport, Pennsylvania, goes down 125-foot embankment, burns, killing all five on board.
  • 1982 – Lockheed F-117A, 80-785, crashes on take-off on its first test flight at Groom Lake, Nevada, due to crossed wiring of the yaw controls, coming to rest inverted adjacent to the runway. Lockheed test pilot Bob Ridenhauer survives with serious injuries and retires from test flying. He has to be cut out of the overturned cockpit section. This was the first loss of a production Nighthawk and occurred prior to Air Force acceptance. This was almost exactly the same wiring mistake that caused the loss of a Lockheed A-12 on 28 December 1965.
  • 1980 – Death of André Dubonnet, French WWI flying ace, WWII fighter pilot, athlete, racecar driver, and inventor.
  • 1979 – Two USAF General Dynamics F-111F-CFs of the 48th Tactical Fighter Wing, 70-2367, c/n E2-06 / F-06, and 73-0714, c/n E2-90 / F-90, based at RAF Lakenheath, suffer mid-air off the Scottish coast while on a training mission over the Dornoch Firth's Tain bombing range, all four crew surviving in what was described as a double "miracle" escape. Both crews escape in each plane's two-seat crew ejection modules. Flotation bags on the Peluso/Schlitt module became partially dislodged soon after landing and the module submerged under several feet of water. The other crew module became inverted immediately after hitting the water and remained inverted on the water's surface until the arrival of a fishing vessel. At that time the crew activated self-righting bags that partially righted the module. The crew then exited the module and, assisted by a RAF rescue parajumper, climbed aboard the fishing vessel before being hoisted to a RAF rescue helicopter. The fishing vessel arrived in the area of the crew modules approximately 40 minutes after the collision, with the rescue helicopter from RAF Lossiemouth arriving several minutes later. A Nimrod maritime patrol plane monitored from overhead. All four crew were flown by helicopter to RAF Lossiemouth, 40 miles NE of Inverness. All four returned to Lakenheath later that day. They were identified as Capt. Stephen R. Ruttman, of Norman, Oklahoma, Capt. Timothy A. Schlitt, of Afton, Missouri, Capt. Roger L. Webb, of Staunton, Virginia, and Capt. Joseph Peluso, of Rosedale, New York, all of them 28.
  • 1978 – Korean Air Lines Flight 902, a Boeing 707, is shot down by Soviet fighter planes; the plane crash-lands near the Soviet Union's border with Finland; two of the 109 people on board are killed, the rest were subsequently released.
  • 1977 – Death of Ernest Archibald "Ernie" McNab, Canadian WWII fighter pilot, first scoring pilot for the RCAF in WWII.
  • 1975 – Death of Howard Burdick, American WWI flying ace.
  • 1975 – A Boeing 707, commandeered by three terrorists and flown by a crew of Air France volunteers, lands in Baghdad, Iraq. The terrorists forced the French airline to fly them out of Paris by taking ten travelers hostage yesterday, at Orly airport.
  • 1969 – Death of Arthur Eyguem De Montaigne 'Jacko' Jarvis, Canadian WWI flying ace.
  • 1968 – South African Airways Flight 228, a Boeing 707-344C, crashes just after takeoff from JG Strijdom International Airport, Windhoek, South West Africa (now Namibia) due to pilot error; of the 128 on board, only 5 survive.
  • 1967 – American aircraft attack powerplants in Haiphong, North Vietnam, for the first time.
  • 1965 – Death of Ludwig "Lutz" Beckmann, German WWI flying ace.
  • 1965 – Death of Friedrich Hefty, Austro-Hungarian WWI flying ace.
  • 1959 – Aeroflot puts the 84 to 110-seater Ilyushin IL-18, its first turboprop, into service from Moscow to Alma Ata, Kazakhstan, and Adler, now Sochi, on the Black Sea.
  • 1952 – Death of Ronald Malcolm Fletcher, British WWI observer/gunner ace in two-seater fighters in conjunction with his pilot, Lt. S. F. H. Thompson.
  • 1949 – Crash of a Lockheed F-80A Shooting Star kills Col. Robert Lewis Coffey, Jr., USAF Reserve, while on take-off from Kirtland AFB, New Mexico, at 1640 hrs. during cross-country proficiency flight. Coffey, a World War II ace (six victories) during 97 missions in the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt, and deputy group commander of the 365th Fighter Group, 9th Air Force, who had been shot down and evaded capture, had resigned his regular commission to enter politics. He was elected to the 81st United States Congress (D-Pa.) and was on an Air Force training flight while the House was in recess when he died at age 30. He and fellow Hell Hawks pilot William D. Ritchie had departed Kirtland after refuelling for March AFB, California, but due to apparent engine failure on take-off, the fighter never rose above 25 feet, skidded off end of runway, cartwheeled across an arroyo, and broke apart but did not burn. Coffey was killed instantly. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. The House of Representatives recesses for one day in his honor.
  • 1948 – Birth of Jerry Lynn Ross, USAF pilot and NASA astronaut.
  • 1945 – A Swordfish from the Merchant Aircraft Carrier (or “MAC-ship”) MV Empire MacAndrew drops two depth charges on a periscope sighting position in the last attack on a submarine by a MAC-ship’s aircraft. During World War II, no submarine makes a successful attack against a convoy containing a MAC-ship. MAC-ship aircraft have attacked 12 German submarines; although they never sink one, their activities have proven very effective in convoy defense.
  • 1943 – Led personally by the commander of the Seventh Air Force, Major General Willis H. Hale, 22 U. S. Army Air Forces B-24 Liberators from Funafuti bomb and photograph Nauru. Japanese aircraft follow them home and attack Funafuti early on April 21, destroying two B-24 s and killing six men.
  • 1942 – In Operation Calendar, the U. S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Wasp (CV-7) flies off 46 Spitfires to Malta. Detecting their arrival with radar, Fligerkorps II immediately attacks their airfields, destroying almost all of them within three days.
  • 1942 – First official demonstration of the helicopter in the United States.
  • 1941 – Death of Frederick Erastus Humphreys, American aviator, one of the original three military pilots trained by the Wright brothers and the first to fly solo.
  • 1940 – The Brazilian Air Force, originally founded in 1908 as the Brazilian Army Balloon Corp, adopts its current title, Fôrça Aeréa Brasileira.
  • 1938 – A Flight Refueling Ltd Armstrong Whitworth AW.23 refuels an Imperial Airways Short Empire over Southampton Water.
  • 1937 – A new Nationalist advance begins in Vizcaya province in northern Spain, supported by a preliminary aerial bombardment.
  • 1935 – The first passengers leave for Australia on a new Imperial Airways/QANTAS service; the first Australian departures were made from Brisbane on April 17.
  • 1934 – First flight of the Boeing P-29 (originated as the Model 264), US Fighter prototype, fully-cantilever wings, wing flaps, enclosed "greenhouse" canopy, and retractable undercarriage took place on 20 January 1934.[3][better source needed]
  • 1933 – Consolidated P-30 prototype XA-11 attack version crashed on 20 January 1933,[4] [5] during flight testing killing Lieut. Irvin A. Woodring.
  • 1932 – Imperial Airways' Handley Page H. P.42 'Helena' leaves Croydon, England, for Paris on the first leg of the company's new mail service to Cape Town.
  • 1932 – Charles Scott takes off for a new solo speed record between the UK and Darwin, in a de Havilland Gipsy Moth
  • 1928 – Death of George Augustine Taylor, Australian artist, journalist, and aviation pioneer, first person in Australia to fly in a heavier-than-air craft.
  • 1920 – The first civilian aircraft to be registered in Canada was (G-CAAA) registered in Sask. to Aerial Service Company of Regina.
  • 1920 – Birth of Ferruccio Serafini, WWII Italian fighter ace.
  • 1919 – Richard Hillary, Australian Spitfire pilot and author, was born (d. 1943). Hillary was a Battle of Britain pilot who died during World War II. He is best known for his book The Last Enemy, based upon his experiences during the Battle of Britain.
  • 1918 – Manfred von Richthofen, aka The Red Baron, shoots down his 79th and 80th victims marking his final victories before his death the following day.
  • 1913 – Attempting to establish a new women's altitude record, Bernetta Miller is covered with oil and temporarily blinded when her oil flow indicator smashes. She makes a safe emergency landing in New York.
  • 1913 – Birth of Gheorghe Popescu-Ciocanel, Romanian WWII fighter ace.
  • 1896 – Birth of James Dudley Beane, American WWI flying ace.
  • 1893 – Birth of Howard John Thomas Saint, Welsh WWI flying ace.
  • 1892 – Birth of Ludwig Hanstein, German WWI fighter ace.
  • 1890 – Birth of Pierre Henri Edmond Dufaur de Gavardie, French WWI flying ace.
  • 1889 – Birth of Allan Haines Loughead, later changed to Allan Haines Lockheed, American aviation pioneer and engineer. He formed the Alco Hydro-Aeroplane Company along with his brother, Malcolm Loughead that became Lockheed Corporation.
  • 1889 – Birth of Alfred Mohr, German WWI flying ace.
  • 1888 – Birth of Jens Tryggve Herman Gran DSC, MC, Norwegian aviator, explorer and author, first pilot to cross the North Sea.
  • 1861 – Thaddeus S. C. Lowe, American inventor and balloonist, makes a balloon trip from Cincinnati, Ohio to the South Carolina coast in 9 hours.

References

  1. ^ Yeager, Chuck and Janos, Leo. Yeager: An Autobiography. p. 252 (paperback). New York: Bantam Books, 1986. ISBN 0-553-25674-2.
  2. ^ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vickers_Vanguard. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  3. ^ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_P-29. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  4. ^ "Consolidated YA-11".
  5. ^ "January 20th in Aviation History: Air Inter 148 Crashes, North American Airlines Born". 20 January 2014.
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