Today in Military Aviation History (Now includes first flights)

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All courtesy of Wikipedia(unless otherwise stated)

First Flights as researched by myself and other FC members. See the database on the Website for contributor information.

25 November

1961 - the US Navy's first nuclear powered aircraft carrier, USS Enterprise (CVN-65) is commissioned.

1940 - First flight of the prototype de Havilland dh 98 Mosquito E-0234/W4050.

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26 November

1964 - Belgian paratroops are dropped into Congo by the US Air Force

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28 November

1956 - the Ryan X-13 Vertijet makes its first transition from vertical to horizontal flight

1942 - Australian pilot F/Sgt Ron Middleton earns a posthumous VC for valour in bringing his crew and crippled bomber home after a raid on Turin, Italy.

1938 - 28-30 - a Lufthansa Fw 200 (right) makes the airline's first flight to Japan, flying non-stop from Berlin to Tokyo via Basra, Karachi, and Hanoi. The 14,228 km (8,841 mile) flight breaks the distance record and takes 46 hours 18 minutes.

1916 - Central London is bombed by an LVG C.II flown by R. Brandt

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30 November

1939 - Soviet air raids on Helsinki and Viipuri mark the outbreak of the Winter War.

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December 6

1966 - the West German Luftwaffe grounds its fleet of F-104s to investigate continuing accidents with the type.

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7 December.

And today is the anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour in 1941.

"A date which will live in infamy"

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December 8

1962 - British troops are airlifted to Borneo to quell uprisings in the region

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December 9

1950 - RAAF Gloster Meteors replace the P-51s of 77 Sqn. in Korea
1946 - The Bell X-1 makes its first powered flight at Muroc Army Air Field.
1970 - Artem Mikoyan dies, aged 65

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A very bad historical day for the Canadian Snowbird Team!

December 10

2004 - Two CT-114 Tutors from Canada's Snowbirds aerobatic team collide while training near Mossbank, Saskatchewan. Captain Miles Selby is killed and Captain Chuck Mallet is injured.

2004 - The United States Federal Aviation Administration issues an Emergency Airworthiness Directive effectively grounding the entire U.S. fleet of Beechcraft T-34 Mentor aircraft. The AD is in response to fatal in-flight structural failure accidents during simulated aerial combat flights.

1998 - Captain Michael VandenBos of the Snowbirds aerobatic team dies in a midair collision between two CT-114 Tutors during training near Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.

1955 - The Ryan X-13 Vertijet makes its first flight at Edwards Air Force Base.

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December 11

1941 - The first landing attempt by Japanese pilots is made in their attempted attack on Wake Island in the Battle of Wake Island; it is to become the only failed World War II landing.

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December 12

1985 - Arrow Air Flight 1285, a McDonnell Douglas DC-8 of charter airline Arrow Air crashes while taking 250 soldiers back to the United States for Christmas, killing everyone on board.

1957 - Maj Adrian Drew sets a new world speed record, in a modified F-101 Voodoo, of 1,207 mph (1,943 km/h)

1955 - The Bell X-1E rocketplane makes its first glide flight at Edwards Air Force Base.

1928 - Royal Air Force Vickers Victorias evacuate British civilians from Kabul.

1918 - Cpt R.M. Smith, Brig Gen A.E. Borton and Maj Gen W. Salmond set out in a Handley Page O/400 from Heliopolis to Karachi, to survey a route for airmail to India.

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December 13

1951 - Maj George Davis of the 334th Fighter Interceptor Squadron shoots down four MiG-15s in a single day

1924 - in an early parasite fighter experiment, Lt Clyde Flinter unsuccessfully attempts to dock his Sperry Messenger with the US Army airship TC-3.

1918 - Maj A.S.C. MacLaren and Cpt Robert Halley set out on the first England-India flight, in a Handley Page V/1500

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December 14

1984 - the Grumman X-29A makes its first flight at Edwards Air Force Base.

1964 - The US Air Force launches Operation Barrel Roll, attacking the Ho Chi Minh trail in Laos

1959 - Cdr L Flint sets a new altitude record of 103,389 ft (31,513 m) in a F-104 Starfighter

1927 - US aircraft carrier USS Lexington is commissioned.

1924 - a Martin MO-1 is launched using an explosive-driven catapult fitted to a turret on USS Mississippi requiring less distance than ever for the take-off.

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December 15

1996 - the merger of McDonnell Douglas and Boeing is announced

1959 - Maj J W Roberts sets a new airspeed record of 1,526 mph (2,456 km/h) in a F-106 Delta Dart

1955 - the de Havilland Mosquito flies its final operational sortie with the Royal Air Force

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December 16

2000 - Lockheed-Martin X-35C, the Navy version of the Joint Strike Fighter, makes its first flight at Edwards Air Force Base.

1948 - The Northrop X-4 Bantam makes its first flight at Muroc Army Air Field.

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December 17

2003 - SpaceShipOne becomes the first privately built and manned aircraft to fly faster than the speed of sound

1984 - C-5 Galaxy of the USAF becomes airborne with 920,836 pounds (417,684 kg) aboard, setting a U.S. national record

1950 - the F-86 Sabre begins operations in Korea

1935 - the Douglas DC-3, one of the most successful airliners of all time, makes its first flight

1903 - The Wright Brothers make four flights in their Flyer at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. After years of dedicated research and development, the brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright fly 120 ft (37 m) in the first practical aeroplane. This may be the first controlled powered heavier-than-air flight and the first photographed powered heavier-than-air flight. On their fourth flight they manage 850 ft (260 m)

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December 18

1941 - Lt Buzz Wagner becomes the first US ace of the war.

1939 - the Royal Air Force abandons daylight raids on Germany after a raid by Vickers Wellingtons takes heavy losses.

1919 - Sir John Alcock is killed in a crash at Rouen.

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December 20

1954 - The Convair YF-102A Delta Dagger makes its first flight at Edwards Air Force Base.

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December 21

1990 - Kelly Johnson dies, aged 80.

1979 - The NASA AD-1 oblique-wing concept demonstrator makes its first flight at Edwards Air Force Base.

1914 - The UK is bombed by a German aircraft for the first time - a Taube drops two bombs near the Admiralty Pier, Kent.

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December 22

1966 - The Northrop HL-10 lifting body makes its first glide flight at Edwards Air Force Base.

1941 - a radar-equipped Fairey Firefly sinks a German submarine (U-451) at night, the first such victory

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December 23

1974 - The Rockwell B-1A Lancer makes its first flight at Edwards Air Force Base

1972 - Andrei Tupolev dies, aged 86

1939 - Anthony Fokker, pioneer in aviation and a Dutch-American aircraft manufacturer dies in New York, aged 49

1910 - Lt Theodore Ellyson of the United States Navy is assigned to flight training with the Curtiss company, making him the first naval aviator.

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December 25

1981 - USAF lieutenant Thomas Tiller is rescued from the Atlantic Ocean by a boat after his plane, a F-4 Phantom had an accident seven days before.

1979 - Antonov An-12s and An-22s airlift the first Soviet troops into Afghanistan. 5,000 arrive in the first 24 hours.

1914 - HMS Empress, HMS Engadine and HMS Riviera launch a seaplane attack on the Zeppelin sheds at Cuxhaven. Fog prevents the aircraft from reaching their target, and only three of the nine aircraft find their way back to their mother ships.

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December 26

1972 - 117 B-52 Stratofortresses attack Hanoi in Operation Linebacker II, the largest air assault in the Vietnam War to this time.

1939 - the first RAAF squadrons to join the war arrive in Britain

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December 27

1992 - USAF F-16 Fighting Falcons shoot down an Iraqi Air Force Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25 in Southern Iraq's "no fly zone"

1935 - the USAAC uses aerial bombardment to divert a flow of lava from Mauna Loa, Hawaii that is threatening Hilo's waterworks.

1922 - the Hosho, Japan's first aircraft carrier is commissioned.

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December 28

1968 - Israeli commandos mount a surprise raid on Beirut Airport, destroying 13 aircraft and jeopardising the Lebanese aviation industry.