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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 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

British Airways Boeing 747-400 taking off at Heathrow Airport in October 2007
British Airways Boeing 747-400 taking off at Heathrow Airport in October 2007
British Airways is the flag carrier airline of the United Kingdom and its largest airline based on fleet size, international flights and international destinations. When measured by passengers carried it is second-largest, behind easyJet. The airline is based in Waterside near its main hub at London Heathrow Airport. A British Airways Board was established by the United Kingdom government in 1972 to manage the two nationalised airline corporations, British Overseas Airways Corporation and British European Airways, and two smaller, regional airlines, Cambrian Airways, from Cardiff, and Northeast Airlines, from Newcastle upon Tyne. On 31 March 1974, all four companies were merged to form British Airways. After almost 13 years as a state company, British Airways was privatised in February 1987 as part of a wider privatisation plan by the Conservative government. The carrier soon expanded with the acquisition of British Caledonian in 1987, Dan-Air in 1992 and British Midland International in 2012. British Airways is a founding member of the Oneworld airline alliance, along with American Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Qantas, and the now defunct Canadian Airlines. The alliance has since grown to become the third-largest, after SkyTeam and Star Alliance. British Airways merged with Iberia on 21 January 2011, formally creating the International Airlines Group (IAG), the world's third-largest airline group in terms of annual revenue and the second-largest in Europe. (Full article...)

Selected image

The inverted Jenny (or Jenny Invert) is a United States postage stamp of 1918 in which the image of the Curtiss JN-4 airplane in the center of the design was accidentally printed upside-down; it is probably the most famous error in American philately. Only 100 of the inverts were ever found, making this error one of the most prized in all philately; an inverted Jenny was sold at a Robert A. Siegel auction in June 2005 for US$525,000.

Did you know

...that among the earliest accounts of the use of a man-lifting kite is in the story of Ishikawa Goemon's robbery from Nagoya Castle? ... that the Air Zoo in Kalamazoo, Michigan houses the only SR-71B Blackbird in existence? ... that the PZL SM-4 Łątka never flew, because its engine was not approved for use in flight?

More Did you know facts

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

In the news

Wikinews Aviation portal
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Associated Wikimedia

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Selected biography

Erich Alfred "Bubi" Hartmann (19 April 1922 – 20 September 1993), also nicknamed "The Blond Knight of Germany" by friends and "The Black Devil" by his enemies, was a German fighter pilot and still is the highest scoring fighter ace in the history of aerial combat. He scored 352 aerial victories (of which 345 were won against 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. During the course of his career Hartmann was forced to crash land his damaged fighter 14 times. This was due to damage received from parts of enemy aircraft he had just shot down, or mechanical failure. Hartmann was never shot down or forced to land due to enemy fire.[1]

Hartmann, a pre-war glider pilot, joined the Luftwaffe in 1940 and completed his fighter pilot training in 1942. He was posted to Jagdgeschwader 52 (JG 52) on the Eastern front and was fortunate to be placed under the supervision of some of the Luftwaffe's most experienced fighter pilots. Under their guidance Hartmann steadily developed his tactics which would earn him the coveted Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds on 25 August 1944 for claiming 301 aerial victories.

He scored his 352nd and last aerial victory on 8 May 1945. He and the remainder of JG 52 surrendered to United States Army forces and were turned over to the Red Army. Convicted of false "War Crimes" and sentenced to 25 years of hard labour, Hartmann would spend 10 years in various Soviet prison camps and gulags until he was released in 1955. In 1956, Hartmann joined the newly established West German Luftwaffe and became the first Geschwaderkommodore of Jagdgeschwader 71 "Richthofen". Hartmann resigned early from the Bundeswehr in 1970, largely due to his opposition of the F-104 Starfighter deployment in the Bundesluftwaffe and the resulting clashes with his superiors over this issue. Erich Hartmann died in 1993.

Selected Aircraft

The Boeing 777 is a long-range, wide-body twin-engine jet airliner manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. It is the world's largest twinjet and is commonly referred to as the "Triple Seven". The aircraft has seating for over 300 passengers and has a range from 5,235 to 9,380 nautical miles (9,695 to 17,372 km) depending on model. Its distinguishing features include the largest diameter turbofan engines of any aircraft, six wheels on each main landing gear, a circular fuselage cross-section, and blade-shaped tail cone. Developed in consultation with eight major airlines, the 777 was designed to replace older wide-body airliners and bridge the capacity difference between the 767 and 747. As Boeing's first fly-by-wire airliner, it has computer mediated controls; it is also the first entirely computer-designed commercial aircraft.

The 777 is produced in two fuselage lengths. The original 777-200 model first entered service in 1995, followed by the extended range 777-200ER in 1997; the stretched 777-300, which is 33.3 ft (10.1 m) longer, began service in 1998. The longer-range 777-300ER and 777-200LR variants entered service in 2004 and 2006, respectively, while a freighter version, the 777F, debuted in 2008. Both longer-range versions and the freighter feature General Electric GE90 engines, as well as extended and raked wingtips. Other models are equipped with either the GE90, Pratt & Whitney PW4000, or Rolls-Royce Trent 800 engines. The 777-200LR ranks as the world's longest-range airliner and holds the record for longest distance flown by an unrefuelled commercial aircraft, with the demonstrated capability to fly more than halfway around the world.

United Airlines first placed the 777 into commercial airline service in 1995. As of August 2023, 1,716 777s have been delivered. The most common variant used worldwide is the 777-300ER, with 832 aircraft delivered, and Emirates operates the largest 777 fleet, with 134 aircraft (as of May 2019). The airliner has had 8 hull-loss accidents, with 541 fatalities. The most deadly incident was Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, in which a 777-200ER carrying 298 people was shot down by a missile over Ukraine on 17 July 2014.

Through the 21st century, the 777 has emerged as one of its manufacturer's best-selling models. Because of rising fuel costs, airlines have acquired the type as a comparatively fuel-efficient alternative to other wide-body jets and have increasingly used the aircraft on long-haul, transoceanic routes. Direct market competitors include the Airbus A330-300, the A340 and A350 XWB.

  • Span: 212 ft 7 in (64.8 m)
  • Length: 242 ft 4 in (73.9 m)
  • Height: 61 ft 5 in (18.7 m)
  • Engines: 2 X GE 90-115B
  • Cruising speed: 0.84 Mach (555 mph, 892 km/h, 481 kn) at 35,000 ft (11,000 m) cruise altitude
  • First flight: 12 June 1994
  • Number built: 1,716 as of August 2023 (based on deliveries)
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Today in Aviation

November 1

  • 2009 – 2009 Yakutia Ilyushin Il-76 crash: An Ilyushin Il-76 operated by the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs crashed shortly after take-off from Mirny Airport. All eleven crew are killed.
  • 1989 – Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) bans smoking on many flights.
  • 1968 – Força Aérea Brasileira Aerotec A-122 Uirapuru pre-production two-place trainer crashes, killing Centro Técnico Aeroespacial test pilot José Mariotto Ferreira, one of the Centre's most experienced pilots.
  • 1964 – Viet Cong infiltrators stage a mortar attack on Bien Hoa Air Base in South Vietnam, destroying five U. S. Air Force B-57 Canberra bombers, a U. S. Air Force HH-43 F helicopter, and four South Vietnamese Air Force A-1 Skyraider attack aircraft, and damaging 15 B-57 s and some HH-43Fs.
  • 1957 – The Comets returned to RCAF service after being grounded for modifications since January 1954.
  • 1956 – No. 445 Squadron flew from Uplands, Ontario to Marville, France. It was the first Avro Canada CF-100 equipped squadron to join No. 1 Air Division.
  • 1956 – During the day, British Fleet Air Arm de Havilland Sea Venoms, Chance Vought Corsairs, and Hawker Sea Hawks from the aircraft carriers HMS Eagle, HMS Albion, and HMS Bulwark conduct a series of daylight strikes against Egyptian airbases, destroying 200 aircraft by nightfall and knocking the Egyptian Air Force out of action. It begins the first large-scale action by the Fleet Air Arm since the end of World War II in 1945 The Egyptian President Abdel Nasser orders Egyptian pilots to fly all surviving aircraft to southern Egypt and avoid further action against British, French, and Israeli forces.
  • 1954 – No. 409 Squadron was reformed at Comox and equipped with Avro Canada CF-100 fighters.
  • 1952 – No. 414 Squadron was reformed at Bagotville, Quebec.
  • 1951 – No. 1 Fighter Wing was formed in England; on 15 Nov was established at North Luffenham.
  • 1949 – Eastern Air Lines Flight 537, a Douglas DC-4, on approach to Washington National Airport, suffers a mid-air collision with a Lockheed P-38; all 55 people on board the DC-4 died, including Congressman George J. Bates, New Yorker cartoonist Helen E. Hokinson, and former Congressman Michael J. Kennedy; the pilot and sole occupant of the P-38 is seriously injured.
  • 1949 – A Lockheed P-38L Lightning, NX26297 flown by a Bolivian Air Force pilot, collides in midair with Eastern Airlines Flight 537, a Douglas DC-4 airliner, N88727, on its final approach to National Airport. All 55 people on board the Douglas DC-4 die; the P-38 pilot survived with injuries. Bridaux was considered one of Bolivia's most experienced pilots. Among the dead were Congressman George J. Bates and former Congressman Michael J. Kennedy. DC-4 wreckage comes down on Virginia shoreline of the Potomac River, north of Mount Vernon. It was (at the time) the worst plane crash in the history of civil aviation. The P-38 pilot was accused of causing the accident, later tried and cleared of the charges, which now is believed to have been an ATC error.
  • 1945 – First prototype McDonnell XFD-1 Phantom, BuNo 48235 crashes as a result of aileron failure[66] killing McDonnell's chief test pilot Woodward Burke.
  • 1944 – The International Civil Aviation Conference opens in Chicago.
  • 1944 – A Boeing F-13 Superfortress photographic reconnaissance aircraft conducts a mission over Tokyo. It is the first Allied aircraft to fly over Tokyo since the April 1942 Doolittle Raid.
  • 1944 – Japanese kamikazes attack the United States Seventh Fleet in Leyte Gulf, sinking one and damaging five destroyers.
  • 1944 – (1–11) U. S. Army Air Forces aircraft attack Japanese convoys landing troops and supplies at Ormoc Bay on Leyte with limited success.
  • 1943 – U. S. Marines land at Cape Torokina on Bougainville Island. Two Japanese air raids on the ships offshore – The first by 53 and the second by approximately 100 Japanese planes – Are ineffective.
  • 1943 – The U. S. Army Air Forces activate the Fifteenth Air Force in the Mediterranean as a strategic air force.
  • 1943 – (1-2) Carrier aircraft from USS Saratoga (CV-3) and USS Princeton (CVL-23) raid two Japanese airfields adjacent to the Buka Passage between Buka Island and Bougainville.
  • 1943 – 173 Japanese carrier aircraft land at shore bases at Rabaul to reinforce about 200 Imperial Japanese Navy 11th Air Fleet aircraft already there.
  • 1940 – Entered Service: Avro Manchester with the Royal Air Force’s No. 207 Squadron
  • 1939 – The first jet-powered plane, the Heinkel He 178, is demonstrated to officials of the Reich Air Ministry for their consideration as a warplane. The Nazi bigwigs pass on the design despite its superior speed, preferring to continue using proven piston-driven aircraft rather than investing in the new jet technology.
  • 1926 – The Air Commerce Act is passed into law. Created at the urging of aviation industry leaders and President Calvin Coolidge, the act mandates for the first time such fundamentals as pilot licenses, aircraft airworthiness certificates, airways and investigation of accidents.
  • 1919 – West Indies Airways begins exploitation of a route between Key West in Florida and La Havana, in Cuba.
  • 1918 – The French fighter pilot René Fonck scores his 75th and final aerial victory. He ends the war as the highest-scoring Allied ace of World War I.
  • 1914 – The Ottoman Empire enters World War I when Russia declares war.
  • 1911 – 2nd Lieutenant Giulio Gavotti of the Italian Air Flotilla drops several small bombs on Turkish troops during the Italo-Turkish War. This was the first time bombs had been dropped from an aeroplane in war.

References

  1. ^ Toliver & Constable 1986, p. 12.
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