Portal:Aviation
| Main page | Categories & Main topics |
|
Tasks and Projects |
The Aviation Portal
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
Arkia was founded in 1949 as Israel Inland Airlines when it became clear that there was demand for a local airline to connect the north of Israel (especially Tel Aviv) with the southern region of the Negev, as a subsidiary of El Al, Israel's national airline. Flights starting the following year with the airline unsing De Havilland DH.89 aircraft, followed by Douglas DC-3s, to connect Rosh Pina in the north to the port of Eilat in the south. El Al held a 50% stake in the airline at this time with Histadrut, Israel's labour federation, being the other shareholder. The airline later evolved to become Eilata Airlines, Aviron, and then to Arkia Israel Airlines. In its first year of service, Israel Inland carried 13,485 passengers on their twice weekly flight, operated by a Curtis Commando. (Full article...)
Selected image
Did you know
...that a Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcar was used in the 2004 film Flight of the Phoenix? ...that Wing Commander Stanley Goble and Flying Officer Ivor McIntyre, piloting a single-engined seaplane (pictured), became the first men to circumnavigate Australia by air in 1924? ... 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 -
1928 issue of Popular Aviation (now Flying magazine), which became the largest aviation magazine with a circulation of 100,000. (from History of aviation)
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)
Me 262, world first operational jet fighter (from History of aviation)
One of Leonardo's sketches (from History of aviation)
D.H. Comet, the world's first jet airliner. As in this picture, it also saw RAF service (from History of aviation)
First failure of Langley's manned Aerodrome on the Potomac River, 7 October 1903 (from History of aviation)
An Airbus A380 of Qantas. The A380 is the world's largest passenger airliner. (from Wide-body aircraft)
Alberto Santos-Dumont flying the Demoiselle over Paris (from History of aviation)
Map of record breaking flights of the 1920s (from History of aviation)
1843 artist's impression of John Stringfellow's plane Ariel flying over the Nile (from History of aviation)
Qantas De Havilland biplane, c. 1930 (from History of aviation)
Planophore model aeroplane by Alphonse Pénaud, 1871 (from History of aviation)
Flagg biplane from 1933 (from History of aviation)
Woodcut print of a kite from John Bate's 1635 book The Mysteryes of Nature and Art (from History of aviation)
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)
Apollo 11 lifts off on its mission to land a man on the Moon (from History of aviation)
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)
Early Voisin biplane (from History of aviation)
Clément Ader Avion III (1897 photograph) (from History of aviation)
The 14-bis, or Oiseau de proie (from History of aviation)
"Governable parachute" design of 1852 (from History of aviation)
French reconnaissance balloon L'Intrépide of 1796, the oldest existing flying device, in the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum, Vienna (from History of aviation)
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)
The Wright Flyer: the first sustained flight with a powered, controlled aircraft (from History of aviation)
The Aeroplane of Victor Tatin, 1879. (from History of aviation)
Jean-Marie Le Bris and his flying machine, Albatros II, 1868 (from History of aviation)
"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)
The Wright Military Flyer aboard a wagon in 1908 (from History of aviation)
Maxim's flying machine (from History of aviation)
La France flying in 1885 (from History of aviation)
Otto Lilienthal, 29 May 1895 (from History of aviation)
The Biot-Massia glider, restored and on display in the Musee de l'Air (from History of aviation)
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)
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)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.png)
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
Aviation news
- 1 October 2026 – Iraqi conflict
- Ahmad al-Hamidawi, leader of Kata'ib Hezbollah, announces that the group will suspend military activities in Iraq following the withdrawal of U.S. troops, with the exception of targeting hostile aircraft violating the country's airspace. (Middle East Eye)
- 1 October 2026 – Russo-Ukrainian war
- Aviation shootdowns and accidents during the Russo-Ukrainian war
- 30 September 2026 – Flydubai Flight 1073
- A Flydubai flight from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, to Tel Aviv, Israel, is landed safely in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, by a relief crew after the copilot violently attacked the captain in an attempted aircraft hijacking. (BBC News) (CNN)
- 28 September 2026 – Starship flight 14
- SpaceX's Starship Flight 14 launches into orbit from Starbase, Texas, United States. The ship is successfully returned to Earth early out of an abundance of caution. (Al Jazeera) (AP)
- 26 September 2026 – September 2026 nor'easter
- A nor'easter is reported along the East Coast of the United States, forcing the cancellation of 400 flights and leaving more than 68,000 homes without power. One person is killed in New York City. (Reuters) (WABC-TV)
Related portals
Associated Wikimedia
The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:
-
Commons
Free media repository -
Wikibooks
Free textbooks and manuals -
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
Elizabeth Muriel Gregory "Elsie" MacGill (27 March 1905 – 4 November 1980), known as the Queen of the Hurricanes, was the world's first female aircraft designer. She worked as an aeronautical engineer during the Second World War and did much to make Canada a powerhouse of airplane construction during her years at Canada Car and Foundry (CC&F) in Fort William, Ontario. After her work at CC&F she ran a successful consulting business. Between 1967–1970 she was a commissioner on the Royal Commission on the Status of Women in Canada, published in 1970.
Selected Aircraft
The VZ-9 Avrocar (full military designation VZ-9-AV) was a Canadian VTOL aircraft developed by Avro Aircraft Ltd. as part of a secret U.S. military project carried out in the early years of the Cold War.[1] The Avrocar intended to exploit the Coandă effect to provide lift and thrust from a single "turborotor" blowing exhaust out the rim of the disk-shaped aircraft to provide anticipated VTOL-like performance. In the air, it would have resembled a flying saucer. Two prototypes were built as "proof-of-concept" test vehicles for a more advanced USAF fighter and also for a U.S. Army tactical combat aircraft requirement.[2] In flight testing, the Avrocar proved to have unresolved thrust and stability problems that limited it to a degraded, low-performance flight envelope; subsequently, the project was cancelled in 1961.
- Diameter:18 ft (5.486 m)
- Height: 3 ft 6 in (1.1 m)
- Engines: 3 x Turbomeca Marboré Continental J69-T-9
- Max Speed: 300 mph (482 km/h)
- First Flight: 12 November 1959
- Number built: 2
Today in Aviation
- 2013 – Associated Aviation Flight 361 was an Embraer EMB 120 Brasilia on a domestic charter flight operated on 3 October 2013 by Associated Airlines Limited out of the domestic wing of Murtala Mohammed Airport, Lagos, en route to Akure Airport, Ondo State. It crashed shortly after take off, killing 15 persons onboard. 5 survived.[3]
- 2009 – A Fuerza Aérea Boliviano Aérospatiale Aérospatiale SA 315B Lama Helicopter (FAB-730) from the Escuadrón 511 crashes into a building wall on the Pampa near the city of Cochabamba, Bolivia leaving 4 crew dead, 1 crew member injured and 1 civilian on the ground injured.
- 2008 – Deceased: Edsel Dunford, 73, American aerospace engineer, cancer.
- 2006 – Hakan Ekinci hijacks Turkish Airlines Flight 1476, a Boeing 737-400, over Greece, demanding to be flown to Rome, Italy, to speak to Pope Benedict XVI. Greek and Italian F-16 Fighting Falcons escort the plane to a landing in Brindisi, Italy, where Ekinci is arrested. No one is injured in the incident.
- 2002 – nited States Navy Grumman F-14A Tomcat, BuNo 162594, coded AD 136, of VF-101, suffers dual compressor stalls, both engines shut down, during routine training flight, crashing in the Gulf of Mexico on mission out of NAS Key West, Florida. Pilot and instructor eject safely at 5,000 feet (1,500 m) and are rescued with only minor injuries by a Sikorsky UH-3 Sea King helicopter. On 5 May 2006, one of this Tomcat's tailfins is discovered on isolated beach W of Cork, Ireland, having floated 4,900 miles (7,900 km.) across the Atlantic. This was the sixteenth and last Tomcat lost by VF-101 during 30 years of operation.
- 1985 – Launch: Space Shuttle Atlantis STS-51-J at 15:15:30 UTC. Mission highlights: Second classified DoD mission; DSCS satellite deployment; first flight of Atlantis.
- 1967 – William J. Knight sets a new airspeed record in a North American X-15, of Mach 6.72 (4,543 mph, 7,297 km/h). This is the fastest flight that the X-15 will make.
- 1965 – The final elements of the U. S. Army’s 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) to arrive in Vietnam reach its base at An Khe, South Vietnam, bringing the division to full strength there. The division will be the first to place the CH-47 Chinook helicopter in combat; the Chinook’s ability to carry artillery quickly across rough terrain will revolutionize ground warfare.
- 1963 – The DH 106 Comet aircraft were retired from RCAF service.
- 1962 – Project Mercury – Sigma 7 launched from Cape Canaveral, with Astronaut Wally Schirra aboard for a six-orbit, nine-hour flight.
- 1959 – Five ex-RCAF T-33 s were handed over to Athens in Greece.
- 1953 – Flying a Douglas XF4D-1, U. S. Navy Lieutenant Commander James F. Verdin sets a world airpseed record over a 3 km (1.9 mi) course of 752.944 mph (1,211.487 km/hr). It is the first time that a carrier-capable combat aircraft in its normal configuration sets a world speed record.
- 1950 – A U. S. Navy HO3 S-1 helicopter from the light cruiser USS Worcester (CL-144) is assigned to assist minesweepers clearing the harbor at Wonsan, Korea. It is one of the first efforts to use helicopters to assist in naval minesweeping.
- 1949 – The first (of only two) prototypes of the Kellett XR-10 helicopter, 45-22793, crashes due to a control system failure, killing Kellett's chief test pilot, Dave Driskill. The project was abandoned shortly thereafter.
- 1946 – A Berlin-bound 4 engine Douglas C-54 named 'Flagship New England' crashed into a mountainside outside of Stephenville, Newfoundland and Labrador. The flight, operated by American Overseas Airlines was mostly carrying wives and children of US Army personnel serving in post-war Germany. All 39 people on board died. At the time, it was the worst accident of its kind among US civilian airlines.
- 1945 – Captured Focke-Achgelis Fa 223 V14, which on 6 September 1945 became the first helicopter to fly across the English Channel when it was moved from Cherbourg to RAF Beaulieu, crashes on third test flight at RAF Beaulieu, when a driveshaft failed. The accident was thought to be due to a failure to correctly tension the steel cables which secured the engine, despite warnings from Luftwaffe helicopter pilot Helmut Gerstenhauer.
- 1942 – The first A4 rocket, later dubbed the V-2 flies from Peenemünde, covering 190 km (119 miles) in 296 seconds at five times the speed of sound, reaching an altitude of 84.5 km (53 miles).
- 1941 – The first prototype Heinkel He 177A Greif, V1, CB+RP, is destroyed on landing.
- 1935 – Italy invades Ethiopia from its colony in Eritrea, beginning the Second Italo-Abyssinian War. The Italian expeditionary force has 150 aircraft – Including Savoia-Marchetti SM.81, Caproni Ca.113, and Caproni Ca.133 bombers, Savoia-Marchetti S.55 flying boats, and IMAM R.37bis strategic reconnaissance planes – while the serviceable portion of the Imperial Ethiopian Air Force consists only of three small, obsolete biplanes.
- 1934 – Martin B-12A, 33-171, c/n 545, of the 11th Bomb Squadron, 7th Bomb Group, crashed into Inyo National Forest, California, 3 killed, one bailed out. Surveyed at March Field, California, 7 January 1935. This accident resulted in the grounding of all B-12s. Fault traced to wing and aileron flutter and a backlash developed by the props when the engine was shut down.
- 1931 – 3-5 – Hugh Herndon and Clyde Pangborn make the first non-stop flight across the Pacific Ocean, from Samushiro Beach, Japan, to Wenatchee, Washington in 41 hours in a Bellanca Skyrocket.
- 1931 – Brazil reestablishes Brazilian Navy control over naval aviation, creating a naval aviation corps which takes over the control of naval aircraft from the general staff.
- 1925 – (3 or 30) The Royal Navy cruiser Vindictive launches a Fairey IIID floatplane by catapult. It is the first catapult launch of a standard British naval aircraft from a ship at sea.
- 1910 – The first mid-air collision takes place near Milan. Both pilots, Bertram Dickson and Rene Thomas, survive, but Bertram is badly injured.
- 1908 – George P. Dicken of the New York Herald becomes the first newspaper reporter to fly in an airplane when he rides as a passenger with Wilbur Wright at Camp d’Auvours.
- 1901 – Wilhelm Kress trials his Drachenflieger twin-hulled tandem triplane seaplane, the first powered marine aircraft, in Austria-Hungary. It begins to become airborne when Kress slows and tries to turn to avoid an obstruction, capsizing the aircraft.
- 1900 – Probably on this date, Wilbur Wright makes the Wright brothers’ first glider flight at Kitty Hawk. During their tests, they will fly the 1900 glider both as a glider and as a kite under various wind conditions.
- 1803 – 3-4 – Frenchman André-Jaques Garnerin covered a distance of 395 km from Paris to Clausen with his Montgolfière.
- 1785 – Jean-Pierre Blanchard makes the first manned balloon ascent in Germany.
References
- ↑ Yenne 2003), pp. 281–283.
- ↑ Milberry 1979, p. 137.
- ↑ Crash: Associated E120 at Lagos on Oct 3rd 2013, lost height after takeoff UPDATE The Aviation Herald. Retrieved 12 October 2013.
- Shortcuts to this page: Portal:Airplanes • P:AVIA