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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

PanAm Airbus A310-222

Pan American World Airways, most commonly known as "Pan Am", was the principal international airline of the United States from the 1930s until its collapse in 1991. Originally founded as a seaplane service out of Key West, Florida, the airline became a major company; it was credited with many innovations that shaped the international airline industry, including the widespread use of jet aircraft, jumbo jets, and computerized reservation systems. Identified by its blue globe logo and the use of "Clipper" in aircraft names and call signs, the airline was a cultural icon of the 20th century, and the unofficial flag carrier of the United States. Pan Am went through two incarnations after 1991. The second Pan Am operated from 1996 to 1998 with a focus on low-cost, long-distance flights between the U.S. and the Caribbean. The current incarnation, based in Portsmouth, New Hampshire and known as the Pan Am "Clipper Connection", is operated by Boston-Maine Airways. The airline currently flies to destinations in the northeastern United States, Florida, Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico. (Full article...)

More selected articles

Selected image

C-17 Globemaster III releasing a flare

Flare (countermeasure)

C-17 Globemaster III releasing a flare.

Did you know

...that in the late 1940s the USAF Northrop YB-49 set both an unofficial endurance record and a transcontinental speed record? ...that No. 112 Squadron RAF was the first unit from any air force to use the "Shark Mouth" logo on P-40 fighter planes? ... that the Tony Jannus Award for distinguished achievement in commercial aviation is named for the pilot of the first scheduled commercial airline flight?

General images -

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

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  French reconnaissance balloon L'Intrépide of 1796, the oldest existing flying device, in the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum, Vienna (from History of aviation)
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  Robinson R22, a light piston-engine helicopter (from General aviation)
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  The Wright Flyer: the first sustained flight with a powered, controlled aircraft (from History of aviation)
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  Planophore model aeroplane by Alphonse Pénaud, 1871 (from History of aviation)
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  First female combat pilot, Sabiha Gökçen, reviews her Breguet 19 (from History of aviation)
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  Sailplane, a Rolladen-Schneider LS4 (from General aviation)
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  1843 artist's impression of John Stringfellow's plane Ariel flying over the Nile (from History of aviation)
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  German Taube monoplane, illustration from 1917 (from History of aviation)
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  The Wright Military Flyer aboard a wagon in 1908 (from History of aviation)
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  General aviation aircraft at Cheb Airport in Czech Republic (from General aviation)
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  Early Voisin biplane (from History of aviation)
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  First failure of Langley's manned Aerodrome on the Potomac River, 7 October 1903 (from History of aviation)
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  Cathay Pacific's first class cabin on board a Boeing 747-400 (from Wide-body aircraft)
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  La France flying in 1885 (from History of aviation)
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  Jean-Marie Le Bris and his flying machine, Albatros II, 1868 (from History of aviation)
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  Santos-Dumont's "Number 6" rounding the Eiffel Tower in the process of winning the Deutsch de la Meurthe Prize, October 1901 (from History of aviation)
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  Qantas De Havilland biplane, c. 1930 (from History of aviation)
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  The economy class cabin of an Airbus A350 (from Wide-body aircraft)
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  Flagg biplane from 1933 (from History of aviation)
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  Otto Lilienthal, 29 May 1895 (from History of aviation)
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  Apollo 11 lifts off on its mission to land a man on the Moon (from History of aviation)
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  Clément Ader Avion III (1897 photograph) (from History of aviation)
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  One of Leonardo's sketches (from History of aviation)
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  The business class cabin on an A350 (from Wide-body aircraft)
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  The Aeroplane of Victor Tatin, 1879. (from History of aviation)
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  Félix du Temple's 1874 Monoplane (from History of aviation)
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  "Governable parachute" design of 1852 (from History of aviation)
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  Leonardo da Vinci's ornithopter design (from History of aviation)
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  Alberto Santos-Dumont flying the Demoiselle over Paris (from History of aviation)
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  Me 262, world first operational jet fighter (from History of aviation)
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  1928 issue of Popular Aviation (now Flying magazine), which became the largest aviation magazine with a circulation of 100,000. (from History of aviation)
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  Daedalus working on Icarus' wings (from History of aviation)
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  Woodcut print of a kite from John Bate's 1635 book The Mysteryes of Nature and Art (from History of aviation)
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  Map of record breaking flights of the 1920s (from History of aviation)
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  D.H. Comet, the world's first jet airliner. As in this picture, it also saw RAF service (from History of aviation)
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  Experimental helicopter by Enrico Forlanini (1877), exposed at the Museo nazionale della scienza e della tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci of Milan, Italy (from History of aviation)
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  Cessna CitationJet/M2, part of the Citation family of business jets (from General aviation)
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  "Map of Air Routes and Landing Places in Great Britain, as temporarily arranged by the Air Ministry for civilian flying", published in 1919, showing Hounslow, near London, as the hub (from History of aviation)
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  Maxim's flying machine (from History of aviation)
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  The 14-bis, or Oiseau de proie (from History of aviation)
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  The Biot-Massia glider, restored and on display in the Musee de l'Air (from History of aviation)
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  Concorde, G-BOAB, in storage at London Heathrow Airport following the end of all Concorde flying. This aircraft flew for 22,296 hours between its first flight in 1976 and final flight in 2000 (from History of aviation)
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  Nieuport IV, operated by most of the world's air forces before WW1 for reconnaissance and bombing, including during the Italian-Turkish war (from History of aviation)

In the news

Wikinews Aviation portal

• May 29: Austrian Airlines cancels Moscow-bound flight after Russia refuses a reroute outside Belarusian airspace
• August 8: Passenger flight crashes upon landing at Calicut airport in India
• June 4: Power firm helicopter strikes cables, crashes near Fairfield, California
• January 29: Former basketball player Kobe Bryant dies in helicopter crash, aged 41
• January 13: Iran admits downing Ukrainian jet, cites 'human error'
• January 10: Fire erupts in parking structure at Sola Airport, Norway
• October 27: US announces restrictions on flying to Cuba
• October 3: World War II era plane crashes in Connecticut, US, killing at least seven
• September 10: Nevada prop plane crash near Las Vegas leaves two dead, three injured
• August 6: French inventor Franky Zapata successfully crosses English Channel on jet-powered hoverboard

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Selected biography

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

The Airbus A340 is a long-range four-engined widebody commercial passenger airplane manufactured by Airbus. The latest variants (-600 & A340E) competed with Boeing's 777 series of aircraft on long-haul and ultra long-haul routes, but it has since been succeeded by the Airbus A350.

The A340-600 flies 380 passengers in a three-class cabin layout (419 in 2 class) over 7,500 nautical miles (13,900 km). It provides similar passenger capacity to a 747 but with twice the cargo volume, and at lower trip and seat costs.

The A340-600 is more than 10 m longer than a basic -300, making it the second longest airliner in the world, more than four meters longer than a Boeing 747-400.

• Span: 63.45 m (208 ft 2 in)
• Length: 75.30 m n(246 ft 11 in)
• Height: 17.30 m (56 ft 9 in)
• Engines: four 56,000 lbf (249 kN) thrust Rolls-Royce Trent 556 turbofans
• Cruising Speed: Mach 0.83 (885 km/h, 550 mph)
• First Flight: October 25, 1991

Today in Aviation

May 12

• 2011 – A Eurocopter X3 (X-Cube), French experimental compound helicopter, flew at a speed of 430 km/h (267 mph).

• 2011 – An EMBRAER Super Tucano from Brazilian Air Force crashed close to Manibu countryside, near the cities of Ceará-Mirim and Pureza, 50 km north of Natal. The pilot, Danilo Bello Seixas, died during his first solo flight.

• 2010 – Afriqiyah Airways Flight 771 operated by Airbus A330-202 5A-ONG crashed on approach to Tripoli International Airport, Libya, killing 103 people.
• 2011 – Judy Wexler becomes the first woman to pilot a human-powered helicopter, remaining airborne for 4 seconds and achieving an altitude of a few inches in the University of Maryland's Gamera I.

• 2010 – After taking off from the base at Rimini, an Italian Air Force NH 500 helicopter of 15º Stormo (83º Centro CSAR) flew about fifty feet above the ground when the engine suddenly quit. The helicopter autorotated to impact. Both occupants escaped unhurt.

• 2009 – A South African Air Force Agusta Westland AW109E, helicopter, 4022, crashes at the Woodstock Dam, near Bergville, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The aircraft from No. 17 Squadron SAAF was travelling from Durban International Airport to a satellite base of the 87 Helicopter Flying School SAAF at Dragon's Peak, Drakensberg for a week long training exercise. Flying with two another aircraft at low level and at high speed over the surface of the Dam, the helicopter stuck the water and crashed, then sinking into the lake killing the 3 crew.

• 2004 – The last F-4 Phantom fighters are withdrawn from service with the Israeli Air Force.

• 2002 – Death of Alfred Vogt, German glider designer.

• 2002 – The hangar housing Buran OK-1K1 in Kazakhstan collapses, due to poor maintenance. The collapse kills eight workers and destroys the orbiter as well as a mock-up of an Energia carrier rocket.

• 2001 – Death of Alexei Andreyevich Tupolev, Soviet aircraft designer who led the development of the first supersonic passenger jet, the Tupolev Tu-144. He also helped design the Buran space shuttle and the Tu-2000.

• 1998 – A Mauritanian Air Force Antonov An-24B, RA-12973, c/n 9346505, crashes near Néma, Mauritania during a sandstorm killing 39 of the 42 people on board.

• 1987 – Grumman A-6E Intruder, BuNo 155657, of VA-142, misses trap on the USS Lexington, both crew eject as jet leaves deck, lightened airframe climbs away, even on reduced power, to crash in the Gulf of Mexico ~50 miles S of NAS Pensacola, Florida. Footage of this accident: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czvEDNdyFBU&feature=related.

• 1984 – Entered Service: Airbus A310 with Air France.

• 1982 – Braniff Airways ceased all operations, thus ending 54 years of service in the American airline industry. Braniff flights at DFW that morning were suddenly grounded, and passengers on the jets were forced to disembark, being told that Braniff now ceased to exist.

• 1975 – The Mayaguez incident begins. U. S. Air Force and U. S. Navy aircraft begin searching for the American container ship SS Mayaguez, which Cambodian Khmer Rouge forces seized earlier in the day in the Gulf of Thailand.

• 1972 – SA-7 Grail surface-to-air missiles shoot down five American AH-1 Cobra attack helicopters in five minutes near An Loc, South Vietnam.

• 1970 – Indian Air Force prototype HAL HF-24 Marut HF 001, BR 461, is lost due to unknown circumstances in the sea off of Goa while on routine ferry flight. Squadron Leader K. L. Narayan is lost with aircraft.

• 1967 – First flight of the Aermacchi AM.3, Italian single engine high wing observation aircraft, joint venture between Aermacchi and Aeritalia, initially designated the MB-335.

• 1965 – After loss of control as a result of a gyroscope problem, Luna 5 crashed. It was the second Soviet spacecraft to reach the surface of the Moon.

• 1965 – The prototype HFB-320 Hansa Jet crashes due to a tail design problem; killed was manufacturer Hamburger Flugzeugbau’s chief test pilot.

• 1964 – American flyer Joan Merriam Smith lands her Piper Apache to complete the second round-the-world flight by a woman. she took 56 days.

• 1962 – Birth of Gregory Harold "Box" Johnson, former colonel in the United States Air Force and a NASA astronaut.

• 1960 – A USAF C-130 Hercules drops a record 35,000 lb (15,876 kg) by parachute.

• 1959 – Capital Airlines Flight 75, a Vickers Viscount 745D flying from New York City to Atlanta, breaks up in flight over Chase, Maryland, due to loss of control in severe turbulence; all 31 on board are killed.

• 1958 – First flight of the Morane-Saulnier Epervier MS.1500 (en: Sparrowhawk), French two-seat ground attack and reconnaissance aircraft.

• 1958 – A formal North American Aerospace Defense Command NORAD agreement is signed between the United States and Canada.

• 1954 – Operational introduction of the Republic F-84F Thunderstreak, which first flew 3 Jun 1950.

• 1953 – Bell X-2, 46-675, exploded in belly of Boeing EB-50D Superfortress mothership during captive LOX topping-off test and was dropped into Lake Ontario. Bell test pilot Jean "Skip" Ziegler's body dropped with airframe and Bell flight engineer Frank Wolko is also apparently carried over the side in the explosion. Neither body recovered. The EB-50D, 48-096, limps into Niagara Falls Airport, New York – never flies again. Death of Jean "Skip" Ziegler, American test pilot, killed in the explosion of the Bell X-2 during a captive-carry flight test.

• 1952 – Death of Elia Antonio Liut, Italian Aviation pioneer, first pilot to fly over the Andes.

• 1952 – Squadron Leader P. G. Fisher makes the first non-stop, unrefuelled flight from England to Australia in an English Electric Canberra bomber in a record 23 hours 5 min.

• 1950 – AAfter the United States Air Force gives Convair a contract to install an Allison J33-A-29 jet engine with afterburner in place of the Allison J33-A-23 in the Convair XF-92A, 46-0682, test pilot Chuck Yeager attempts ferry flight from Edwards AFB, California to the Convair plant at San Diego but engine fails immediately after take off, forcing an emergency landing on the dry lakebed. Airframe is subsequently trucked to San Diego.

• 1949 – Berlin Blockade by the Soviets is lifted at one minute after midnight.

• 1945 – A kamikaze hits the battleship USS New Mexico (BB-40) at Hagushi anchorage, Okinawa.

• 1945 – 12-13 – Aircraft carrier's of Task Force 58 strike targets on Kyushu and Shikoku. The British Pacific Fleet’s carriers strike the Sakishima Gunto.

• 1941 – First flight of the Platt-LePage XR-1, also known by the company designation PL-3, early American twin-rotor helicopter.

• 1940 – First bombing over Germany by the Royal Air Force.

• 1940 – First operational sortie of the Boulton Paul Defiant. Defiants flew with six Spitfires of 66 Squadron, and a Ju 88 was shot down over the Netherlands.

• 1938 – The US Navy commissions its sixth aircraft carrier, USS Enterprise.

• 1938 – Three B-17 Flying Fortresses use dead reckoning navigation to intercept the ocean liner SS Rex more than 600 miles at sea.

• 1936 – First flight of the Loire 102, French flying boat designed as a mail plane by Loire.

• 1936 – First flight of the Messerschmitt Bf 110, often called Me 110, twin-engine heavy fighter (Zerstörer – German for "Destroyer").

• 1930 – With the Latécoère 28 "Comte-de-la-Vaulx", Jean Mermoz takes off from Saint-Louis, Senegal, to Natal, Brazil for the first south Transatlantic Postal flight.

• 1927 – First flight of the Armstrong Whitworth Starling A. W.14, British single-engine biplane fighter.

• 1927 – First flight of the Yakovlev AIR-1 was a 1920s Soviet two-seat light biplane the first aircraft designed and built by Aleksandr Sergeyevich Yakovlev.

• 1926 – The Norge (semi-rigid Italian-built airship) reached the North Pole, at which point the Norwegian, American and Italian flags were dropped from the airship onto the ice. The expedition was the brainchild of polar explorer and expedition leader Roald Amundsen, the airship's designer and pilot Umberto Nobile and American explorer Lincoln Ellsworth, who along with the Aero Club of Norway financed the trip.

• 1912 – Guido Nardini is the first Italian to cross the English Channel.

• 1912 – The Central Flying School (CFS), Royal Air Force's primary institution for the training of military flying instructors is established.

• 1902 – Brazilian Augusto Severo and French engineer Georges Saché fly the semi-rigid airship Pax, which Severo designed, over Paris for its maiden flight. When they begin to lose control of the airship, it catches fire and explodes 1,200 feet (366 m) above Montparnasse Cemetery, killing both men instantly.

• 1893 – Birth of Tenente Silvio Scaroni, Italian World War I fighter pilot credited with 26 victories. He was the second ranking Italian ace of the war.

• 1890 – Birth of Kurt Student, German Luftwaffe general who fought as a fighter pilot during WWI and as the commander of German Fallschirmjäger (Paratroopers) during the Second World War.

References

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