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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 aircraft 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. Clément Ader built the "Ader Éole" in France and made an uncontrolled, powered hop in 1890. This was the first powered aircraft, although it did not achieve controlled flight. 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 feathered propellers of an RAF Hercules C.4
The feathered propellers of an RAF Hercules C.4
A propeller is essentially a type of fan which transmits power by converting rotational motion into thrust for propulsion of an aircraft through the air, by rotating two or more twisted blades about a central shaft, in a manner analogous to rotating a screw through a solid. The blades of a propeller act as rotating wings (the blades of a propeller are in fact wings or airfoils), and produce force through application of both Bernoulli's principle and Newton's third law, generating a difference in pressure between the forward and rear surfaces of the airfoil-shaped blades and by accelerating a mass of air rearward. (Full article...)

Selected image

Controlled Impact Demonstration
Controlled Impact Demonstration
The Controlled Impact Demonstration was a joint project between NASA and the FAA in which a Boeing 720 was deliberately crashed in order to test the ability of the fuel additive FM-9, to inhibit the ignition and flame propagation of Jet-A fuel.

Did you know

...that British Airways unveiled a new corporate identity in 1997 which involved repainting its fleet with around 20 daring tailfin designs by world artists? ...that on May 3, 2002 a military MiG-21bis aircraft crashed into the Bank of Rajasthan in India, killing eight? ...that a Cambridge University society has launched high altitude balloons that have taken a picture of the earth's curvature from a height of 32 km?

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
Read and edit Wikinews

Associated Wikimedia

The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:

Selected biography

Amy Johnson (1 July 1903 – 5 January 1941) C.B.E. was a pioneering British aviatrix.

Born in Kingston upon Hull, Johnson graduated from University of Sheffield with a Bachelor of Arts in economics. She was introduced to flying as a hobby, gaining a pilot's A Licence No. 1979 on 6 July 1929 at the London Aeroplane Club. In that same year, she became the first British woman to gain a ground engineer's C License.

Johnson achieved worldwide recognition when, in 1930, she became the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia. She left Croydon on 5 May of that year and landed in Darwin, Australia on 24 May after flying 11,000 miles. Her aircraft for this flight, a De Havilland Gipsy Moth (registration G-AAAH) named Jason, can still be seen in the Science Museum in London. She received the Harmon Trophy as well as a CBE in homage to this achievement, and was also honoured with the No. 1 civil pilot's licence under Australia's 1921 Air Navigation Regulations.

In July 1931, Johnson and her co-pilot Jack Humphreys became the first pilots to fly from London to Moscow in one day, completing the 1,760-mile journey in approximately 21 hours. From there, they continued across Siberia and on to Tokyo, setting a record time for flying from England to Japan. The flight was completed in a De Havilland Puss Moth.

Selected Aircraft

Airbus A380
Airbus A380

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...

Today in Aviation

April 25

  • 2010 – A Royal New Zealand Air Force Bell UH-1H Iroquois crashed in heavy fog about 40 km north east of Wellington. Three persons were killed and a fourth seriously injured.
  • 2009 – Lockheed P-2 V Neptune N442NA of Neptune Aviation Services crashes into a hill at Stockton, Utah, while on a ferry flight. The aircraft is destroyed and all three crew were killed.
  • 1992 – Second prototype Lockheed YF-22A, N22YX, suffers severe damage during start of a go-around when it belly-flops at Edwards AFB, California, following eight seconds of pilot-induced oscillation at an altitude of 40 feet when test pilot Tom Morgenfeld ignored a test-card requiring the 2-D convergent-divergent thrust nozzles to be locked in position during this stage of the PIO tests. Control surface actuators hit rate limiters causing commands to get out of synchronization with their execution, and the test fighter hit the ground, skidded several thousand feet, inducing fire that destroyed 25 percent of the airframe. Crash footage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdfIiZnVhTI Aircraft never flew again, being rebuilt as a shell and subsequently used to test antennae at the Rome Air Development Center, Griffiss AFB, New York.
  • 1990 – McDonnell-Douglas F-15 Eagle s/n 81-0049 flown by the 32nd TFS based at Soesterberg AB, Netherlands suffered an engine fire while flying in a three ship formation during Exercise Elder Forest and subsequently lost all hydraulic power. Pilot major George D. Hulsey ejected safely and was picked up by an oil-rig supply vessel. Aircraft crashed into the North Sea, 9 miles off Spurn Point Humberside, United Kingdom.
  • 1983 – NASA exploration spacecraft Pioneer 10 flies past the orbit of Pluto.
  • 1980 – Dan-Air Flight 1008, a Boeing 727, crashes into a mountain near Tenerife, Spain; all 138 passengers and eight crew die.
  • 1968 – Apollo 6's SIV-B staqe re-enters the Earth's atmosphere and the Apollo 6 command module is recovered.
  • 1967 – A USAF Lockheed EC-121H-LO Warning Star, 53-549, of the 551st AEWCW, out of Otis AFB, Massachusetts, ditches in the North Atlantic ~one mile off of Nantucket, Massachusetts, just after having taken off from that base. One survivor, 15 crew KWF. Five bodies were not recovered. Col. James P. Lyle, the Commander of the 551st AEW&C Wing to which all the aircraft and crew members were assigned, was the pilot. Colonel Lyle had been assigned to take over that command nine months earlier. It was he who presented each of the next of kin of 11 November 1966 crash victims with the United States Flag during that memorial service.
  • 1962 – The United States Department of Defense announces its choice of the Northrop F-5 Freedom Fighter for its Military Assistance Program.
  • 1957 – Northrop SM-64 Navaho, 53-8272, falls back onto launchpad at Cape Canaveral, Florida, a few seconds after liftoff and explodes.
  • 1956 – First flight of the Bensen B-8 Gyro-Boat with a basic free-turning rotor system, known as the Roto-sail
  • 1952 – John Jay Hopkins founds General Dynamics Corporation.
  • 1951 – Cubana de Aviación Flight 493: Douglas DC-4, registration CU-T188, (ex-C-54A-15-DC, 42-72263) c/n 10368, en route from Miami, Florida, United States, to Havana, Cuba, has a mid-air collision with US Navy Beechcraft SNB-1 Kansan, BuNo 39939, which was on an instrument training flight in the vicinity of Naval Air Station Key West at the same time. All 43 aboard the airliner and four on the SNB were killed. Flight 493 departed Miami at 1109 hrs. and was cleared to climb to 4,000 feet (1,200 m) on a direct heading to Key West. Approximately ten minutes later, the SNB-1 took off from NAS Key West for simulated instrument training. Although the flight was not cleared to a specific altitude or heading, standard instrument training procedures were in place. At 1149 hrs. Flight 493, heading south, and the SNB-1, heading west, collided over NAS Key West at an estimated altitude of 4,000 feet (1,200 m).
  • 1945 – 275 B-17 s escorted by four groups of P-51 Mustangs attack the Pilzen-Škoda armament factory in Czechoslovakia. It is the last heavy bomber mission by the United States Army Air Forces’ 8th Air Force against an industrial target.
  • 1945 – The incomplete German aircraft carrier Graf Zeppelin is scuttled at Stettin to prevent her capture by the Soviet Union.
  • 1945 – The last bombing attack was carried out by No. 6 (RCAF) Group with 192 aircraft dropping over 902 tons of bombs on Wangerooge Island.
  • 1940 – McGee Airways pioneers the transportation of fresh meat and milk to the Alaskan interior.
  • 1940 – Swordfish and Skuas from the British aircraft carriers HMS Ark Royal and HMS Glorious raid targets in the Trondheim area in Norway.
  • 1940 – Oberfeldwebel Hermann Förster is the first German night fighter pilot to shoot down a British bomber during World War II. Flying a Messerschmitt Bf 109D-1, he downs a Handley Page Hampden laying naval mines off the coast of Schleswig-Holstein.
  • 1928 – Charles A. Lindbergh landed on the Plains of Abraham, Quebec City, in a Curtiss Falcon carrying pneumonia serum for Floyd Bennett.
  • 1922 – Known as the Stout ST-1, the first all-metal airplane designed for the U. S. Navy makes its first flight piloted by Eddie Stinson.
  • 1914 – The first combat flight by a U. S. Navy aircraft takes place. It is a flight to observe Mexican positions during the Veracruz Incident.
  • 1868 – John Bevins Moisant, designer, builder and pilot of the first aluminum airplane, is born in Kanakee, Illinois.

References

  1. ^ Booth, William, "Israel Downs Drone Flying From Lebanon," The Washington Post, April 25, 2013.
  2. ^ Staff (25 April 2011). "Libya: Berlusconi Backs Nato Strikes by Italy Jets". BBC News. Retrieved 27 April 2011.
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