Billy Mitchell (1879–1936) was an early aviation pioneer who rose to become a chief of the U.S. Army Air Service. Mitchell was born in Nice, France and raised on his family estate near Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He attended George Washington University before enlisting in the Army at age 18 during the Spanish–American War. Due to his family connection he quickly received a commission Signal Corps where he had the opportunity to witness a flight demonstration by the Wright brothers in 1908. In 1916 he took private flight lessons and was transferred to the Aeronautical Division.

Mitchell deployed to France in 1917 when the United States entered World War I. While there he was promoted to brigadier general and placed in command American combat air units in France. After the war Mitchell was appointed the deputy director of the Air Service became a passionate advocate of air power. In 1921 he set up a demonstration to show the capability of airpower against naval vessels. During the course of the demonstrations aircraft successfully sank a captured German destroyer, the light crusier Frankfurt, and the battleship Ostfriesland.

Mitchell regularly sparred with his superiors over the role of airpower in the military. In 1925 he was reverted to his permanent rank of colonel and was transferred to San Antonio, Texas. Later that year, after a series of aviation accidents he accused Army and Navy leadership of incompetence and "almost treasonable administration of the national defense." In response he was court-martialed for insubordination, found guilty, and sentenced to a five-year suspension from active duty. Mitchell resigned on 1 February 1926 in lieu of serving the sentence. He continued to advocate airpower as a civilian until his death in 1936. In 1942 President Franklin Roosevelt posthumously promoted Mitchell to major general in recognition of his contributions to air power.

More selected biographies

Read more...

The Airbus A380 is a double-deck, four-engined airliner manufactured by Airbus S.A.S. It first flew on 27 April 2005 from Toulouse–Blagnac Airport. Commercial flights began in late 2007 after months of testing, with the delivery of the first aircraft to launch customer Singapore Airlines. During much of its development phase, the aircraft was known as the Airbus A3XX, and the nickname Superjumbo has also become associated with the A380.

The A380 is double decked, with the upper deck extending along the entire length of the fuselage. This allows for a spacious cabin, with the A380 in standard three-class configuration to seat 555 people, up to maximum of 853 in full economy class configuration. Only one model of the A380 was available: The A380-800, the passenger model. It is the largest passenger airliner in the world superseding the Boeing 747. The other launch model, the A380-800F freighter, was canceled and did not join the ranks of the largest freight aircraft such as the Antonov An-225, An-124, and the C-5 Galaxy.

• Span: 79.8 m (261 ft 10 in)
• Length: 73 m (239 ft 6 in)
• Height: 24.1 m (79 ft 1 in)
• Engines: 4 * Rolls-Royce Trent 900 or Engine Alliance GP7200 (311 kN or 69,916 lbf)
• Cruising Speed: 0.85 Mach (approx 1,050 km/h or 652 mph or 567 kn)
• First Flight: 27 April 2005
• Number built: 254 (including 3 prototypes)

More selected aircraft

Read more...

February 19

• 2003 – 2003 Iran Ilyushin Il-76 crash; an Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Ilyushin Il-76MD, 15-2280, c/n 0063471155, formerly registered YI-AND, crashes into a mountain in poor weather near Shahdad, Iran. All 18 crew and 284 passengers on board were killed.

• 2002 – First flight of the Embraer E-170, a Brazilian narrow-body, twin-engine, medium-range, jet airliner.

• 2002 – NASA’s Mars Odyssey space probe begins to map the surface of Mars using its thermal emission imaging system.

• 1991 – Iraqi antiaircraft artillery shoots down a U. S. Air Force OA-10 A Thunderbolt II airborne forward air control aircraft over Kuwait.

• 1990 – First flight of the Scaled Composites ARES, an American demonstrator aircraft built by the company Scaled Composites. ARES is an acronym for Agile Responsive Effective Support.

• 1989 – Flying Tiger Line Flight 66, a Boeing 747-247 F cargo aircraft, crashes near Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, killing the entire crew of four.

• 1988 – First flight of the Boeing 737-400

• 1986 – Launch: Mir, a Soviet and later Russian space station.

• 1985 – China Airlines Flight 006, a Boeing 747SP, suffers an engine flameout off the coast of California and dives 30,000 feet (9,100 m) before regaining control and landing safely in San Francisco.

• 1985 – Iberia Airlines Flight 610, a Boeing 727, crashed into a television antenna installed on the summit of Monte Oiz while landing in Bilbao, Spain. All 141 passengers and 7 crew died in the crash.

• 1982 – First flight of the Boeing 757

• 1978 – Egyptian forces raid Larnaca International Airport in an attempt to intervene in a hijacking, without authorization from the Republic of Cyprus authorities. The Cypriot National Guard and Police forces kill 15 Egyptian commandos and destroy the Egyptian C-130 transport plane in open combat.

• 1977 – Death of George Montague Cox, British WWI flying ace.

• 1972 – Lockheed C-130E Hercules 62-1813, c.n. 3775, of the 16th Tactical Airlift Training Squadron, mid-air collision with Cessna T-37 from Biggs AFB, Texas, 6 km NE of Little Rock, Arkansas – four killed on Hercules. Two Tweet pilots eject safely.

• 1965 – Lufthansa signs up as the first customer for the forthcoming Boeing 737

• 1965 – U. S. Air Force B-57 Canberra bombers become the first American aircraft to provide direct support to South Vietnamese Army ground units in combat.

• 1965 – First flight of the Cessna 188, an American light agricultural aircraft.

• 1964 – French troops are airlifted to Gabon to put down a coup by the army.

• 1959 – Last flight of Arrow 201 and the end of the Arrow Program which was ended the next day.

• 1957 – First Flights: Bell X-14

• 1956 – Birth of George David Low, American aerospace executive and NASA astronaut.

• 1955 – TWA Flight 260, a Martin 4-0-4, crashes into the Sandia Mountains near Albuquerque, New Mexico, killing all 16 on board.

• 1952 – Rodolfo Neri Vela, Mexican astronaut, was born. Vela became the first Mexican to fly in space when he was a Payload Specialist aboard the STS-61-B Atlantis mission, from November 26 to December 3, 1985.

• 1952 – A Fairey Firefly of 816 Squadron RAN goes missing, and is believed to have crashed into the sea near Moruya, New South Wales. Lieutenant Brian Wall and Sub Lieutenant Douglas Saunders are both lost.

• 1949 – A British European Airways Douglas Dakota collides with a RAF Avro Anson over Exhall, Warwickshire, killing all 14 on board both aircraft.

• 1948 – Birth of Byron Kurt Lichtenberg, Sc. D., American engineer, fighter pilot and Nasa Astronaut.

• 1945 – U. S. Marine Corps forces invade Iwo Jima, beginning the Iwo Jima campaign

• 1944 – (19–20) In support of a U. S. Army offensive at the Anzio beachhead, Allied tactical aircraft drop 972 tons (881,793 kg) of bombs, and Allied strategic bombers attack Grottaferrata, Albano Laziale, Genzano di Roma, and Velletri, Italy.

• 1943 – Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Ernest J. King places the responsibility for the development of the helicopter in the United States Department of the Navy under the United States Coast Guard.

• 1942 – “Pearl Harbor of Australia”, largest attack ever mounted by a foreign power against Australia. Nearly 250 Japanese warplanes attack the northern Australian city of Darwin killing 243 people.

• 1941 – First flight of the Airspeed Cambridge

• 1936 – Death of William Lendrum “Billy” Mitchell, US Army general who is regarded as the father of the U. S. Air Force.

• 1936 – Death of Malcolm Charles McGregor, New Zealand WWI flying ace, Aviation Pioneer and air racer, director of Union Airlines of New Zealand, Killed in a crash at the Wellington airport whilst trying to land during a gale.

• 1934 – First flight of the Supermarine Type 224, a British prototype fighter, open-cockpit monoplane with bulky gull-wings and a large fixed, spatted undercarriage issued from Supermarine seaplane racers.

• 1934 – The Douglas DC-1 makes record coast-to-coast flight, Los Angeles to Newark, N. J., 13 hours, 4 min.

• 1934 – The United States Army Air Corps begins flying US airmail after the government cancels all existing airmail contracts due to alleged improprieties by the previous administration during the negotiations of those contracts.

• 1933 – First flight of the Vultee V-1.

• 1932 – Birth of Joseph Peter Kerwin, M. D., American physician and former NASA astronaut.

• 1926 – First flight of the Kawasaki Ka 87.

• 1930 – Ralph O’Neil starts the first mail service of America airline New York, Rio and Buenos Aires Line (NYRBA) between Buenos Aires and New York. He takes off for the inaugural flight with a Sikorsky S-38 From Buenos Aires to Miami.

• 1919 – Death of Arthur Frederick Britton, British WWI flying ace.

• 1918 – The Dornier Rs.III, German large four-engined monoplane flying boat set off for 7-hour non-stop delivery flight from Friedrichshafen to Norderney.

• 1917 – First recorded casualty evacuation flight is carried out by the Royal Flying Corps (RFC), when a wounded trooper of the Imperial Camel Corps is flown from Bir-el-Hassana in the Sinai Desert to the airfield at Kilo 143 in an Royal Flying Corps aircraft. This would have been a three-day journey by the available surface transport, but the flight took 45 min.

• 1916 – Death of Ernst Mach, Austrian physicist and philosopher, noted for his contributions to physics such as the Mach number and the study of shock waves.

• 1916 – First flight of the Mann & Grimmer M.1, a British two-seat biplane fighter.

• 1912 – One of the most successful pre-World War I airship operations begins with the first flight of the Zeppelin LZ II, Victoria Louise, and its introduction into service with the German airship company DELAG.

• 1906 – Birth of Louis Massotte, French aviator, Blériot chief pilot and record setter.

• 1901 – Birth of John Nelson Boothman KCB KBE DFC AFC RAF, WWII Royal Air Force officer and Schneider trophy winner.

• 1899 – Birth of Cecil Frederick King, British WWI fighter ace.

• 1897 – Birth of John Geoffrey Sadler Candy, British WWI flying ace who also served during WWII.

• 1891 – Birth of Auguste Joseph Marie Lahoulle, French WWI flying ace, WWII French Air force high-ranking officer.