Portal:Aviation

Assigned as a P-40 pilot with the 45th Fighter Squadron of the 15th Fighter Group at Wheeler Field, Hawaii, 2nd Lt. Gabreski witnessed the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, but did not become airborne in time to engage the attackers.

In March 1943 Gabreski became part of the 56th Fighter Group, flying the P-47 Thunderbolt, and in May was promoted to Major and named commander of the 61st Fighter Squadron, which included six Polish nationals as pilots in 1944. He made his 28th kill on July 5, 1944, passing Eddie Rickenbacker's record from World War I to become America's top ace (although several pilots passed him by the end of the war).

Col. Gabreski flew combat again during the Korean War, as commander of the 51st Fighter-Interceptor Wing, piloting an F-86 Sabre. He was credited with 6.5 MiG-15 kills, making him one of seven U.S. pilots to be aces in more than one war (the others are Col. Harrison Thyng, Col. James P. Hagerstrom, Major William T. Whisner, Col. Vermont Garrison, Major George A. Davis, Jr., and Lt.Col. John F. Bolt, USMC).

He ended his career as a commander of several tactical and air defense wings, his last assignment being commander of the 52d Fighter Wing at Suffolk County Air Force Base in Westhampton Beach, New York.

The VZ-9 Avrocar (full military designation VZ-9-AV) was a Canadian VTOL aircraft developed by Avro Aircraft Ltd. as part of a secret U.S. military project carried out in the early years of the Cold War.^[1] The Avrocar intended to exploit the Coandă effect to provide lift and thrust from a single "turborotor" blowing exhaust out the rim of the disk-shaped aircraft to provide anticipated VTOL-like performance. In the air, it would have resembled a flying saucer. Two prototypes were built as "proof-of-concept" test vehicles for a more advanced USAF fighter and also for a U.S. Army tactical combat aircraft requirement.^[2] In flight testing, the Avrocar proved to have unresolved thrust and stability problems that limited it to a degraded, low-performance flight envelope; subsequently, the project was cancelled in 1961.

• Diameter:18 ft (5.486 m)
• Height: 3 ft 6 in (1.1 m)
• Engines: 3 x Turbomeca Marboré Continental J69-T-9
• Max Speed: 300 mph (482 km/h)
• First Flight: 12 November 1959
• Number built: 2

September 19

• 2009 – Maltese airline Efly commences operations.

• 2009 – A United States Army Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk crashed at Joint Base Balad, (formerly Al-Bakr Air Base), Balad, Iraq. The accident occurred during a storm including high winds and a sandstorm resulting in 12 crew injured and 1 fatality.

• 2008 – A Learjet 60 crashed near West Columbia, South Carolina. Travis Barker and DJ AM survived while four others died.

• 1995 – Kish Air hijacking was the hijacking of an Iranian plane by a flight attendant Reza Jabari. Flying from Tehran to the Iranian resort Kish Island, Kish Air Flight 707 was hijacked by Reza Jabari, a flight attendant. The jet had 174 passengers on board. The hijacker tried to divert the aircraft to Europe, but there was not enough fuel. Instead, the plane landed in Israel after Jordan and Saudi Arabia refused its request to land. The plane was directed to the Ovda military air base near Eilat. The passengers were flown home 24 hours later.

• 1989 – UTA Flight 772, a McDonnell Douglas DC-10, explodes in mid-air over the Sahara desert when a bomb hidden in its forward cargo hold detonates. All 170 people on board are killed. Responsibility for the bombing is later traced back to Abdullah Sanussi, the brother-in-law of Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi, whose government in 2003 agrees to pay compensation to the victims.

• 1988 – Israel launches its first satellite, the Ofeq-1 from Palmachim Airbase in Israel for secret military reconnaissance.

• 1980 – While performing routine maintenance in a LGM-25C Titan II silo at Damascus, Arkansas, a repairman dropped a heavy socket wrench, which rolled off of a work platform, bounced, and struck the missile, 62-0006, holing a pressurized fuel tank. The launch complex was evacuated and a specialist team called in from Little Rock Air Force Base. Approximately 8½ hours after the initial puncture, fuel vapours exploded, fatally injuring one team member and injuring 21 others. The missile re-entry vehicle, which contained a nuclear warhead, was recovered intact. There was no radioactive contamination.

• 1976 – Turkish Airlines Flight 452, a Boeing 727, crashes into a hillside near Karatepe, Turkey, while on approach to Antalya Airport; all 154 passengers and crew die.

• 1973 – A U.S. Navy Grumman A-6A Intruder, BuNo 155721, 'NJ', of VA-128, out of NAS Whidbey Island, Washington, crashes in the Oregon desert, ~25 miles SE of Christmas Valley, Oregon, during a low level night training mission. The pilot Lt. Alan G. Koehler, 27, and navigator Lt. Cdr. Philip D. duHamel, 33, are KWF. On 14 June 2007, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) officially declares the crash scene a historic Federal government site at a Flag Day ceremony. An interpretive plaques was unveiled during this event reflecting this designation and depicting the historical significance of the location.

• 1969 – First flight of the Mil Mi-24, the most widely exported helicopter gunship ,flown by Mil test pilot German Alferov .

• 1968 – A U. S. Navy F-8 C Crusader fighter of Fighter Squadron 111 (VF-111) shoots down a North Vietnamese MiG fighter. It is believed to be the last American air-to-air victory in the Vietnam War until March 1970.

• 1966 – Using UH-1Bs borrowed from the U. S. Army, the U. S. Navy’s first attack helicopter unit begins operations, supporting U. S. Navy riverine forces operating in South Vietnam’s Mekong Delta.

• 1962 – First flight of the Aero Spacelines Pregnant Guppy

• 1958 – The first Thor Ballistic Missile (IRBM) was handed over to No. 77 Sqn, Bomber Command at RAF Feltwell. The first RAF-controlled launch of Thor took place at Vandenberg Air Base, USA, on 16 April 1959.

• 1958 – Lockheed C-130A Hercules 56-0526, c/n 3134, of the 314th Troop Carrier Wing, has a mid-air collision with a French Armée de l'Air Dassault Super Mystère over France.

• 1949 – First flight of the Fairey Gannet

• 1946 – The Portuguese airline Transportes Aéreos Portugueses (TAP) began commercial services with an inaugural flight from Lisbon to Madrid using a Douglas DC-3.

• 1944 – Consolidated B-32-1-CF Dominator, 42-108472, first B-32 delivered, on this date, written off the very same day when nosewheel collapsed on landing.

• 1944 – RAF Douglas Dakota Mk. III, KG374, c/n 12383, (ex-USAAF C-47A-DK, 42-92568), 'YS-DM', of 271 Squadron, RAF Down Ampney, Gloucester, piloted by F/Lt. David S. Lord, is hit by AAA in starboard engine while on resupply mission for beleaguered troops at Arnhem during Operation Market Garden. Despite fire spreading to whole of starboard wing, pilot spends ten minutes making two passes over very small dropzone (which, unbeknownst to the crew, had been overrun by German forces) to drop eight ammunition panniers. Just after last one has been dropped, fuel tank explodes, tearing off wing, only navigator F/O Harry A. King escaping from stricken aircraft and descending by parachute to be captured as a POW the following morning, spending the rest of the war in Stalag Luft I at Barth. KWF are pilot Lord, second pilot P/O R. E. H. "Dickie" Medhurst (son of Air Chief Marshal Sir Charles Medhurst), wireless operator F/O Alec F. Ballantyne, and four air despatchers of 223 Company RASC, Cpl. P. Nixon, Dvr. A. Rowbotham, Dvr. J. Ricketts and Dvr. L. Harper. Following release of King from prison camp, full details of the action become known and pilot Lord receives posthumous Victoria Cross on 13 November 1945, the only VC awarded to any member of Transport Command during the Second World War. In May 1949 the Dutch Government awards Harry King the Netherlands Bronze Cross.

• 1943 – F/L RF Fisher and crew in a Consolidated Liberator of No. 10 Squadron sank the German submarine U-341 in the North Atlantic.

• 1939 – Germany halts construction of its second Graf Zeppelin-class aircraft carrier, Flugzeugträger B, while she still is on the building ways. Work on the ship never will be resumed.

• 1937 – (19-22) Imperial Japanese Navy Mitsubishi A5 M (“Claude”) fighters conduct a successful campaign to eliminate Chinese air resistance over Nanking.

• 1937 – Junkers EF 61 V1, first prototype of pressurized bomber, suffered control surface flutter, crashed at Dessau, Germany, killing both crew.

• 1921 – The first regular scheduled airline service in Latin America commences, with Colombian airline SCADTA operating float-equipped Junkers F.13s between Barranquilla and Girandot.

• 1919 – CMA (Compagnie des Messageries Aériennes) commences a regular service between Paris and London, using ex-military Breguet 14 s.

• 1918 – First flight of the Sopwith Buffalo

• 1907 – The first piloted helicopter flight takes place, reaching an impressive altitude of two feet above Douai, France while being steadied by several men.

• 1902 – The Wright Brothers begin testing their third glider at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

• 1784 The brothers Robert and Colin Hullin take a balloon ride over 186 km from Paris to Beuvry.

• 1783, The Montgolfiers launch a sheep, duck, and rooster in a hot-air balloon in a demonstration for King Louis XVI of France. The balloon rises some 500 m (1,700 ft) and returns the animals unharmed to the ground.