Portal:Aviation

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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 include 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. A major leap followed with the construction of the Wright Flyer, 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 engine which enabled aviation to become a major form of transport throughout the world. In 2024, there were 9.5 billion passengers worldwide according to the ICAO. As of 2018, estimates suggest that 11% of the world's population traveled by air, with up to 4% taking international flights. (Full article...)

Selected article

CG render of McDonnell Douglas MD-11 HB-IWF

Swissair Flight 111 was a Swissair McDonnell Douglas MD-11 on a scheduled airline flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, United States to Cointrin International Airport in Geneva, Switzerland. This flight was also a codeshare flight with Delta Air Lines. On Wednesday, 2 September 1998, the aircraft used for the flight, registered HB-IWF, crashed into the Atlantic Ocean southwest of Halifax International Airport at the entrance to St. Margarets Bay, Nova Scotia. The crash site was 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) from shore, roughly equidistant from the tiny fishing and tourist communities of Peggys Cove and Bayswater. All 229 people on board died—the highest death toll of any aviation accident involving a McDonnell Douglas MD-11 and the second-highest of any air disaster in the history of Canada, after Arrow Air Flight 1285. The Transportation Safety Board of Canada's (TSB) official report of their investigation stated that flammable material used in the aircraft's structure allowed a fire to spread beyond the control of the crew, resulting in a loss of control and the crash of the aircraft. Swissair Flight 111 was known as the "U.N. shuttle" due to its popularity with United Nations officials; the flight often carried business executives, scientists, and researchers. (Full article...)

More selected articles

Selected image

The Wright flyer

Wright Flyer

Credit: John T. Daniels (1903)

The Wright Flyer was the first powered aircraft designed and built by the Wright Brothers in 1903. It is generally considered to be the first successful powered, piloted aircraft. In this photograph of the first flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Orville Wright is at the controls, lying prone on the lower wing with hips in the cradle that operated the wing warping mechanism. Wilbur Wright running alongside, has just released his hold to balance the machine.

Did you know

...that after the Red Baron, French ace René Fonck had the most confirmed World War I aerial victories? ...that Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney was only twenty-eight years old when he helped found Pan American World Airways? ... that the PZL SM-4 Łątka never flew, because its engine was not approved for use in flight?

General images -

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

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  The 14-bis, or Oiseau de proie (from History of 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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  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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  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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  1843 artist's impression of John Stringfellow's plane Ariel flying over the Nile (from History of aviation)
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  Félix du Temple's 1874 Monoplane (from History of aviation)
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  La France flying in 1885 (from History of aviation)
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  An Airbus A380 of Qantas. The A380 is the world's largest passenger airliner. (from Wide-body aircraft)
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  Flagg biplane from 1933 (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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  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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  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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  The Wright Military Flyer aboard a wagon in 1908 (from History of aviation)
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  Planophore model aeroplane by Alphonse Pénaud, 1871 (from History of aviation)
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  Maxim's flying machine (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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  An Airbus A321 of Vietravel Airlines parking next to a Vietnam Airlines Airbus A350-900 and a Cargolux Boeing 747-400 widebodies, highlighting their size differences. (from Wide-body aircraft)
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  First female combat pilot, Sabiha Gökçen, reviews her Breguet 19 (from History of aviation)
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  Clément Ader Avion III (1897 photograph) (from History of aviation)
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  Qantas De Havilland biplane, c. 1930 (from History of aviation)
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  "Governable parachute" design of 1852 (from History of aviation)
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  Me 262, world first operational jet fighter (from History of aviation)
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  Swiss International Air Lines' business class cabin on an Airbus A340 (from Wide-body aircraft)
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  The General Electric GE90 was the most powerful turbofan engine. (from Wide-body aircraft)
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  Cathay Pacific's first class cabin on board a Boeing 747-400 (from Wide-body aircraft)
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  Delta Air Lines' economy class cabin on a Boeing 767 (from Wide-body aircraft)
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  German Taube monoplane, illustration from 1917 (from History of aviation)
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  A Boeing 777X. It is under testing and will be the largest twinjet, with the widest and longest fuselage to enter production. (from Wide-body aircraft)
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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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  Early Voisin biplane (from History of 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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  Sailplane, a Rolladen-Schneider LS4 (from General aviation)
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  Leonardo da Vinci's ornithopter design (from History of aviation)
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  Robinson R22, a light piston-engine helicopter (from General aviation)
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  One of Leonardo's sketches (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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  Cessna CitationJet/M2, part of the Citation family of business jets (from General aviation)
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  The Aeroplane of Victor Tatin, 1879. (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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  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)
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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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  Daedalus working on Icarus' wings (from History of aviation)
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  Often published as a photo of Santos-Dumont during the prize-winning flight, this is actually an earlier attempt using his "Number 5" (from History of aviation)
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  General aviation aircraft at Cheb Airfield in Czech Republic (from General aviation)
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  Map of record breaking flights of the 1920s (from History of aviation)
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  Alberto Santos-Dumont flying the Demoiselle over Paris (from History of aviation)

Aviation news

25 July 2026 –

Two people are killed when a Tecnam P2010 aircraft crashes into a home in Ganderkesee, Lower Saxony, Germany. (DPA via South China Morning Post)

24 July 2026 –

The SpaceX Starship test flight 13, the first to successfully deploy operational Starlink satellites, successfully lands in the Indian Ocean intact. (CNN)

23 July 2026 – Middle Eastern crisis

Reuters reports that Iran sent Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps officers, along with drone- and missile-related equipment, on a Mahan Air flight to Houthi-controlled Yemen on July 13, in preparation for the blockade on Saudi Arabia. (Reuters)

21 July 2026 – Lebanon–United States relations

U.S. president Donald Trump authorizes U.S. airlines to resume direct flights to Lebanon, ending a suspension imposed after the 1985 hijacking of TWA Flight 847. (The Independent)

21 July 2026 –

The wreckage of Pan Am Flight 526A, a Douglas DC-4 that crashed into the sea off Puerto Rico in 1952, killing 52 people, is located by a veteran aviation search team. (The Dallas Express via Yahoo News)

Related portals

Associated Wikimedia

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

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  Commons
  Free media repository
• 
  Wikidata
  Free knowledge base
• 
  Wikiquote
  Collection of quotations
• 
  Wikisource
  Free-content library
• 
  Wikiversity
  Free learning tools
• 
  Wikivoyage
  Free travel guide
• 
  Wiktionary
  Dictionary and thesaurus

Selected biography

Charles Augustus Lindbergh, Jr. (February 4, 1902 – August 26, 1974), known as "Lucky Lindy" and "The Lone Eagle", was a pioneering United States aviator famous for piloting the first solo non-stop flight across the Atlantic Ocean in 1927, flying from Roosevelt Airfield (Nassau County, Long Island), New York to Paris on May 20-May 21, 1927 in his single-engine aircraft The Spirit of St. Louis.

He grew up in Little Falls, Minnesota. Early on he showed an interest in machinery, especially aircraft. After training as a pilot with the Army Air Service Lindbergh took a job as lead pilot of an airmail route in a DeHavilland DH-4 biplane. He was renowned for delivering the mail under any circumstances.

Lindbergh is recognized in aviation for demonstrating and charting polar air-routes, high altitude flying techniques, and increasing aircraft flying range by decreasing fuel consumption. These innovations are the basis of modern intercontinental air travel.

Selected Aircraft

Avro Arrow replica at CASM Arrow rollout in 2006

The Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow was a delta-winged interceptor aircraft, designed and built by Avro Aircraft Limited (Canada) in Malton, Ontario, Canada, as the culmination of a design study that began in 1953. Considered to be both an advanced technical and aerodynamic achievement for the Canadian aviation industry, the CF-105 held the promise of Mach 2 speeds at altitudes exceeding 50,000 ft (15,000 m), and was intended to serve as the Royal Canadian Air Force's primary interceptor in the 1960s and beyond. Not long after the 1958 start of its flight test program, the development of the Arrow (including its Orenda Iroquois jet engines) was abruptly and controversially halted before the project review had taken place, sparking a long and bitter political debate. The controversy engendered by the cancellation and subsequent destruction of the aircraft in production, remains a topic for debate among historians, political observers and industry pundits. "This action effectively put Avro out of business and its highly skilled engineering and production personnel scattered... The incident was a traumatic one... and to this day, many mourn the loss of the Arrow."

• Span: 50 ft 0 in (15.24 m)
• Length: 77 ft 9 in (23.71 m)
• Height: 20 ft 6 in (6.25 m)
• Engines: 2×Pratt & Whitney J75-P-3
• Cruising Speed: Mach 0.91 (607 mph, 977 km/h) at 36,000 ft (11,000 m)
• First Flight: 25 March 1958
• Number built: 5

Today in Aviation

July 28

• 2012 – Attack helicopters support a Syrian government tank attack against Free Syrian Army positions in Aleppo.

• 2011 – Asiana Airlines Flight 991, a Boeing 747-400F, crashes 112 kilometers (70 mi) west of Jeju Island, South Korea, killing the two crew.

• 2011 – A General Dynamics F-16C Block 30H Fighting Falcon, 87-296, c/n 5C-557, of the 187th Fighter Wing, Alabama Air National Guard, flying out of Montgomery Air National Guard Base, overruns the runway at the EAA AirVenture Oshkosh air show at Wittman Regional Airport, Oshkosh, Wisconsin. The nose gear collapsed, the nose radome broke and the air-frame skidded to a stop. Pilot was uninjured.

• 2010 – The 2010 Alaska C-17 crash occurred when a United States Air Force military transport plane crashed on Elmendorf Air Force Base in Alaska with the loss of all four crew aboard. The aircraft involved was a Boeing C-17 Globemaster III (tail number 00-0173) and the crash is believed to be the first fatal accident involving a C-17. The crew were preparing for Elmendorf’s Arctic Thunder Air Show, which went ahead three days later as a tribute.

• 2010 – Airblue Flight 202, an Airbus A321, crashes into a hill in the Margalla Hills north-east of Islamabad apparently due to bad weather resulting in 146 passengers and 6 crew members perished. It is the first fatal accident involving an Airbus A321 and Pakistan's worst air disaster.

• 2010 – A United States Air Force Boeing C-17A Lot XII Globemaster III, 00-0173, c/n P-73, "Spirit of the Aleutians", callsign Sitka 43, of the 3d Wing, on a training mission, crashed at ~1822 hrs. into a wooded area on Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage, Alaska killing 3 members of the Alaska Air National Guard and 1 member of the US Air Force.

• 2010 – An Iraqi military Mil Mi-17 helicopter crashes in a sandstorm. Five-member crew is killed.

• 2009 – Cambodian airline Cambodia Angkor Air commences operations.

• 2008 – Deceased: Margaret Ringenberg, 87, an American aviator, who had logged more than 40,000 hours, natural causes.

• 2003 – First flight of the Adam A700 AdamJet

• 1982 – The first McDonnell Douglas CF-18 Hornet is delivered to the Canadian Forces Air Command.

• 1976 – Czechoslovakia Airlines Flight 001, an Ilyushin Il-18, crashes near Bratislava in Czechoslovakia, killing 76 of 78 people on board.

• 1976 – Speed Records set. Two records set; USAF Capt Eldon W Joersz, 2193.16 mph over a straight course, and USAF Maj Adolphus H Bledsoe, 2092.29 mph over a closed circuit, both in Lockheed SR-71As at Beale AFB CA.

• 1976 – Altitude record of 85,069′ attained in horizontal flight set in a Lockheed SR-71 A at Beale AFB CA by USAF Capt Robert C. Helt.

• 1958 – Two B-47 Stratojet bombers of the U.S. Air Force's 305th Bombardment Wing set speed records, when one flies from RCAF Goose Bay, Labrador, to RAF Fairford, England, in 4 hours 14 minutes and the other flies from Limestone Air Force Base, Maine, to RAF Fairford in 4 hours 45 minutes.

• 1957 – Two Mark 5 nuclear bombs without nuclear capsules installed were jettisoned from a Douglas C-124 Globemaster II in the Atlantic Ocean ~100 miles (160 km) SE of Naval Air Station Pomona, New Jersey, just outside Delaware Bay E of Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, and S of Wildwood and Cape May, New Jersey. The aircraft was carrying three weapons and one nuclear capsule; the weapons were in Complete Assembly for Ferry (CAF) condition. Nuclear components were not installed; power supplies were installed but not connected. The C-124 was en route from Dover AFB, Delaware, to Europe via the Azores islands when its two port engines lost power. Maximum power was applied to the two starboard engines, however, level flight could not be maintained. The crew decided to jettison one weapon at an altitude of 4,500 feet (1,400 m) ~75 miles (121 km) off the coast of New Jersey. The second weapon was jettisoned soon afterwards at an altitude of 2,500 feet (760 m) at a distance of 50 miles (80 km) from the New Jersey coast. No detonation was seen to occur from either weapon, and both bombs were presumed to have been damaged or destroyed on impact with the sea and to have sunk almost instantly. The C-124 landed at an airfield in the vicinity of Atlantic City, New Jersey, with the remaining weapon and the nuclear capsule aboard. After a three-month long search, neither the weapons nor any debris were located. By November 1957, the AEC was taking action to issue replacement weapons to the DOD. No public announcement of this incident was made at the time it happened.

• 1950 – The first scheduled passenger service flown by a gas-turbine powered airliner (turboprop) is British European Airway’s (British European Airways) Vickers V. 630 Viscount.

• 1950 – A U. S. Air Force B-29 Superfortress mistakenly shoots down a British Seafire of No. 800 Squadron from HMS Triumph off Korea, apparently mistaking it for a Yak-9

• 1945 – Task Force 38 carrier aircraft again carry out heavy airstrikes against targets in the Inland Sea without meeting aerial opposition. They sink the aircraft carrier Amagi, the battleships Haruna and Ise, and the obsolete armored cruiser Izumo and damage the aircraft carriers Katsuragi and Kaiyo. In addition, 548 U. S. Army Air Forces B-29 s drop 4,427 tons (4,016,148 kg) of bombs on Tsu and other cities in Japan.

• 1945 – B-25 Empire State Building crash: A US Army Air Forces North American B-25D Mitchell bomber, 41-30577, named "Old John Feather Merchant", crashes into the 79th floor of the Empire State Building in fog at 0949 hrs., killing 3 on aircraft plus 11 on ground and causing over US$1 million in damage.

• 1943 – For first time the No. 6 Group was able to send over 200 heavies to a single target as 234 aircraft visited Hamburg. It turned out to be a costly night as 22 aircraft failed to return.

• 1943 – American Airlines Flight 63 (Flagship Ohio), a Douglas DC-3, loses control due to severe turbulence and violent downdrafts and crashes near Trammel, Kentucky, killing twenty out of twenty-two people on board.

• 1942 – (Overnight) 256 British bombers attack Hamburg, Germany, with the loss of 30 aircraft, an unacceptably high 11.7 percent loss rate.

• 1941 – The Vichy government agrees to build German aircraft in France

• 1938 – Pan American World Airways Flight 229, a Martin M-130 flying boat named the Hawaii Clipper, disappears westbound from Guam to Manila with 6 passengers and 9 crew

• 1935 – The Boeing Model 299 (XB-17), prototype of the B-17, makes its first flight at Boeing Field in Seattle. Newspaper reporters nickname it “The Flying Fortress. ”

• 1934 – Nelly Diener becomes Europe’s first air stewardess.

• 1933 – Dr. Albert Forsythe and Charles Alfred “Chief” Anderson land at Atlantic City to complete the first return flight to the West Coast by African-American pilots.

• 1926 – During United States Navy experiments with the operation of seaplanes from a submarine equipped with an aircraft hangar, the submarine USS S-1 (SS-105) carries out for the first time a full cycle of surfacing, removing the disassembled seaplane from its hangar, assembling it, launching it, retrieving it, disassembling it, stowing in its hangar, and submerging, on the Thames River at New London, Connecticut.

• 1918 – Royal Air Force Sopwith Dolphin E4449 flown by Tone Bayetto crashed in Hampshire, England when the wings folded back and it dived into the ground from 200 feet.

• 1913 – A Caudron G.3 amphibian takes off from a platform aboard the Hermes while she is underway and lands at Great Yarmouth.

• 1914 – Royal Naval Air Service Squadron Commander Arthur M. Longmore successfully releases a 14-inch (356-mm) torpedo from a Short Admiralty Type 81 floatplane. It may be the first successful aerial launch of a torpedo, although Captain Alessandro Guidoni of Italy’s drop of a dummy torpedo from the experimental Pateras Pescara monoplane in “mid-1914″ may have been ëarlier.

• 1914 – outbreak of World War I Aviation changes war in a twofold way. The aeroplane turns the sky into a new battle field where about 20,000 flyers, most of them trained pilots die. Aircraft eliminate the distinction between frontline and hinterland, with the civilian population far behind the frontline also becoming a target.

• 1858 – Nadar takes first airborne photo (in a balloon).

References

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