Today in Military Aviation History (Now includes first flights)

Moderator Location : UK Spotter Watch Member : No

December 29

1940 - 29-30 - the Luftwaffe makes a devastating attack on London, making extensive use of incendiary weapons.

1927 - Georg Wulf, co-founded of Focke-Wulf is killed in the crash of the Focke-Wulf Fw 19

Moderator Location : UK Spotter Watch Member : No

December 30

1935 - Italian bombers destroy Swedish Red Cross unit in Ethiopia.

1972 - President Richard Nixon halts aerial bombing of North Vietnam and announces peace talks.

Moderator Location : UK Spotter Watch Member : No

December 31

1970 - Jeanne Holm becomes the USAF's first female General.

1967 - the Royal Air Force's V-bomber force begins to be dismantled, pending the deployment of the Polaris missile aboard Royal Navy submarines to act as Britain's nuclear deterrent.

1967 - NASA begins initial talks to develop guidelines for a re-usable spaceplane.

1922 - the first German aircraft flies over Britain since the end of World War I, a Deutsche Luft-Reederei Dornier Komet

Moderator Location : UK Spotter Watch Member : No

January 1

1987 - US Coast Guard HH-65 Dolphins and US Navy H-3 Sea Kings help rescue people trapped inside the Dupont Plaza hotel Puerto Rico after a fire there on New Year's Eve

1978 - British Aircraft Corporation, Hawker Siddeley, and Scottish Aviation are absorbed into British Aerospace

Moderator Location : UK Spotter Watch Member : No

January 2

1967 - Seven North Vietnamese Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21s are destroyed by F-4 Phantoms of the 8th Tactical Fighter Wing USAF in Operation Bolo

1965 - Denis Healey, the UK's Secretary of Defence cancels the nation's fighter and military transport programmes and orders the purchase of the US-built F-4 Phantom and C-130 Hercules in their place.

Moderator Location : UK Spotter Watch Member : No

January 3

Nothing of military interest

Moderator Location : UK Spotter Watch Member : No

January 4

1989 - US Navy F-14 Tomcats shoot down two Libyan Air Force Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23s

Moderator Location : UK Spotter Watch Member : No

January 5

1972 - US President Richard Nixon announces $US 5.5 billion in funding for the Space Shuttle program

Moderator Location : UK Spotter Watch Member : No

January 6

1971 - the United States Marine Corps takes delivery of its first AV-8 Harriers

1931 - Gen Italo Balbo leads the first formation flight across the South Atlantic. Twelve Savoia-Marchetti S.55s fly from Portuguese Guinea to Brazil.

1928 - 6-8 - Lt Christian Schilt makes ten flights in an O2U Corsair to evacuate wounded marines from the besieged village of Quilali, Nicaragua. He is awarded the Medal of Honor.

Moderator Location : UK Spotter Watch Member : No

January 7

1987 - French Air Force jets attack the Libyan Air Force base in Ouadi Doum to avenge a raid by Libya against the French military 3 days before.

1949 - No. 208 Squadron RAF loses four Supermarine Spitfires and a Hawker Tempest to Israeli Air Force fighters

Moderator Location : UK Spotter Watch Member : No

January 8

Nothing of military interest

Moderator Location : UK Spotter Watch Member : No

January 9

1986 - the UK Defence Secretary, Michael Heseltine, resigns amidst a political furore over the future of Westland Helicopters. Two weeks later, Leon Brittan, the Trade and Industry Secretary, will also resign.

Moderator Location : UK Spotter Watch Member : No

January 10

1962 - 10-11 - a B-52 Stratofortress is flown from Okinawa to Madrid, establishing a new distance record of 12,532 miles (20,168 km)

1946 - a Sikorsky R5 sets an unofficial helicopter altitude record of 6,400 m (21,000 ft) at Stratford, Connecticut.

1934 - 10-11 - A flight of six US Navy Consolidated P2Y flying boats set a new distance record for formation flying, 2,400 miles (3,862 km) between San Francisco and Pearl Harbor, also setting a new speed record for this crossing of 24 hours 35 minutes.

1919 - Airco DH.4s of No.2 Squadron, RAF are converted for transporting passengers and mail between London and Paris, in support of the Versailles Peace Conference

1912 - Lieutenant commander Charles Samson flies a Short S.38 from the deck of battleship HMS Africa moored in the River Medway, England, becoming the first British naval aviator.

Moderator Location : UK Spotter Watch Member : No

January 11

1990 - The US Defense Department awards Bell Helicopter a $US 123 million development contract for the V-22 Osprey

1944 - in one of the largest air raids to date, 570 USAAF bombers strike Brunswick, Halberstadt, and Oschersleben.

Moderator Location : UK Spotter Watch Member : No

January 12

1979 - Pilatus Aircraft acquires Britten-Norman

1973 - A US Navy F-4 Phantom scores the 197th and final US air-to-air victory of the Vietnam War

1939 - the RAF Auxiliary Air Force Reserve is formed

1916 - German aces Max Immelmann and Oswald Boelcke, with 8 kills, are the first pilots awarded with Pour le Mérite ("the Blue Max")

Moderator Location : UK Spotter Watch Member : No

January 13

1913 - Brazilian naval aviation commences with the foundation of a flying school.

Moderator Location : UK Spotter Watch Member : No

January 14

1975 - the F-16 Fighting Falcon is announced as the winner of the LWF (Light Weight Fighter) competition

Today in Military Aviation History (Now includes first flights) - Page 2 071202-F-9999j-029

picture copyright GD / Lockheed

Moderator Location : UK Spotter Watch Member : No

January 15

1992 - the USAF loses a Lockheed U-2 in the Sea of Japan

1973 - final B-52 Stratofortress mission of the Vietnam War

1935 - Maj James Doolittle establishes a record for a transport flight across the United States, from Los Angeles to Newark, New Jersey in 11 hours 59 minutes.

Moderator Location : UK Spotter Watch Member : No

January 16

1919 - Maj A.S.C. MacLaren and Cpt Robert Halley arrive in Delhi, completing the first England-India flight, in a Handley Page V/1500

Moderator Location : UK Spotter Watch Member : No

January 17

1991 - US-led forces attack Iraq in a massive air assault after a United Nations deadline for the withdrawal of Iraqi troops from occupied Kuwait passes unheeded.

1966 - a B-52 Stratofortress collides with a KC-135 Stratotanker during aerial refueling near Palomares, Spain. Seven crewmembers are killed in the crash, and two of the B-52's four nuclear weapons rupture, scattering radioactive material over the countryside. One bomb lands intact near the town, and another is lost at sea. It is later recovered intact 5 miles (8 km) offshore.

Today in Military Aviation History (Now includes first flights) - Page 2 071009-F-2911S-013Small

picture copyright USAF

Location : n.west Spotter Watch Member : no

The 17th, January, 1975 Ben Rich took over The Skunk Works (Lockheed) from The Legendary Kelly

Johnson. Ben Rich was resonsible for the design and development of the Have Blue Project which

later became The F117. which first flew in August 1979.

Moderator Location : UK Spotter Watch Member : No

January 18

1992 - the United States armed forces retire the last F-4 Phantom II from front-line service

1981 - Bell Helicopter delivers its 25,000th production helicopter.

1973 - Results of the USAF A-X fly-off announced, with the Fairchild YA-10 selected over the Northrop YA-9.

1957 - Three Boeing B-52 Stratofortresses make the world's first round the world, non-stop flight by turbojet-powered aircraft. The flight is completed in 45 hours 19 minutes, with an average speed of 534 mph (859 km/h)

1911 - Eugene Ely lands on the deck of the USS Pennsylvania anchored in San Francisco Bay, marking the first time an aircraft landed on a ship.

Moderator Location : UK Spotter Watch Member : No

January 19

1916 - the second and last Zeppelin raid on Paris inflicts 54 casualties.

1915 - First Zeppelin raid on the UK by the German Navy.

Moderator Location : UK Spotter Watch Member : No

January 20

1938 - A Flight Refuelling Ltd Armstrong Whitworth AW.23 refuels an Imperial Airways Short Empire over Southampton Water

(posted early - long shift tomorrow)

Moderator Location : UK Spotter Watch Member : No

January 21

1968 - a US Air Force B-52 Stratofortress crashes in the sea near Thule AFB Greenland, carrying four nuclear weapons.