Portal:Aviation
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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...)
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Did you know
...that after the Red Baron, French ace René Fonck had the most confirmed World War I aerial victories?
...that the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight contains the world's oldest airworthy survivor of the Battle of Britain, alongside ten other historic aircraft - two of which fought over Normandy on D-Day? ... that the loss of nine military crew members and passengers when Buffalo 461 was shot down over Syria in 1974, remains the largest single-incident loss of life in Canadian peacekeeping history?
General images -
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 Biot-Massia glider, restored and on display in the Musee de l'Air (from History of aviation)
One of Leonardo's sketches (from History of aviation)
1928 issue of Popular Aviation (now Flying magazine), which became the largest aviation magazine with a circulation of 100,000. (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)
Alberto Santos-Dumont flying the Demoiselle over Paris (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)
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)
Early Voisin biplane (from History of aviation)
Otto Lilienthal, 29 May 1895 (from History of aviation)
Map of record breaking flights of the 1920s (from History of aviation)
Planophore model aeroplane by Alphonse Pénaud, 1871 (from History of aviation)
The Wright Military Flyer aboard a wagon in 1908 (from History of aviation)
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)
La France flying in 1885 (from History of aviation)
Flagg biplane from 1933 (from History of aviation)
First failure of Langley's manned Aerodrome on the Potomac River, 7 October 1903 (from History of aviation)
Jean-Marie Le Bris and his flying machine, Albatros II, 1868 (from History of aviation)
The 14-bis, or Oiseau de proie (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)
Clément Ader Avion III (1897 photograph) (from History of aviation)
The Wright Flyer: the first sustained flight with a powered, controlled aircraft (from History of aviation)
1843 artist's impression of John Stringfellow's plane Ariel flying over the Nile (from History of aviation)
Me 262, world first operational jet fighter (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)
Apollo 11 lifts off on its mission to land a man on the Moon (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)
"Governable parachute" design of 1852 (from History of aviation)
The Aeroplane of Victor Tatin, 1879. (from History of aviation)
An Airbus A380 of Qantas. The A380 is the world's largest passenger airliner. (from Wide-body aircraft)
Qantas De Havilland biplane, c. 1930 (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)
Maxim's flying machine (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)
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Aviation news
- 9 August 2026 – 2026 Pacific typhoon season
- Typhoon Dolphin makes landfall in eastern China, evacuating 1 million people and cancelling 1,300 flights from Shanghai. Monsoon rains are also reported in parts of the Philippines, causing flooding. (South China Morning Post) (The New York Times) (AP)
- 5 August 2026 –
- A drone loaded with explosives is found and defused at Leipzig/Halle Airport in Germany, while a cargo Boeing 757 had a collision with another supposed UAV at the same airport. (Reuters) (DW)
- 3 August 2026 –
- Major League Soccer, the top flight of men's soccer in the U.S. and Canada, announces that Larry Berg, currently a co-owner of Los Angeles FC (LAFC) in that league, will succeed Don Garber as league commissioner at the start of 2027. Berg will sell his interest in LAFC before assuming his new position. (AP) (The Guardian)
- 1 August 2026 – 2026 Aerodiana Cessna 208 crash
- Thirteen people, including eleven tourists, are killed when a small aircraft crashes near the Nazca Lines, Peru, after departing Pisco, Ica. (Firstpost)
- 31 July 2026 –
- Indonesian authorities announces it arrested a Malaysia Airlines pilot for allegedly smuggling over 26 kg (57 lb) of ecstasy and a package of methamphetamine into Jakarta's Soekarno–Hatta International Airport. (AP)
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Selected biography
The Wright brothers, Orville Wright (August 19, 1871 - January 30, 1948) and Wilbur Wright (April 16, 1867 - May 30, 1912), are generally credited with making the first controlled, powered, heavier-than-air flight on December 17, 1903. In the two years afterward, they developed their flying machine into the world's first practical airplane, along with many other aviation milestones.
In 1878 Wilbur and Orville were given a toy "helicopter" by their father. The device was made of paper, bamboo and cork with a rubber band to twirl its twin blades, and about a foot long. The boys played with it until it broke, then built their own. In later years, they pointed to their experience with the toy as the initial spark of their interest in flying.
Selected Aircraft
The Avro Lancaster was a British four-engine Second World War bomber aircraft made initially by Avro for the British Royal Air Force (RAF). It first saw active service in 1942, and together with the Handley-Page Halifax it was one of the main heavy bombers of the RAF, the RCAF and squadrons from other Commonwealth and European countries serving within RAF Bomber Command. The "Lanc" or "Lankie," as it became affectionately known, became the most famous and most successful of the Second World War night bombers, "delivering 608,612 tons of bombs in 156,000 sorties." Although the Lancaster was primarily a night bomber, it excelled in many other roles including daylight precision bombing, and gained worldwide renown as the "Dam Buster" used in the 1943 Operation Chastise raids on Germany's Ruhr Valley dams.
- Span: 102 ft (31.09 m)
- Length: 69 ft 5 in (21.18 m)
- Height: 19 ft 7 in (5.97 m)
- Engines: 4× Rolls-Royce Merlin XX V12 engines, 1,280 hp (954 kW) each
- Maximum Speed: 240 knots (280 mph, 450 km/h) at 15,000 ft (5,600 m)
- First Flight: 8 January 1941
- Number built: 7,377
Today in Aviation
- 2009 – Airlines PNG Flight 4684, a de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter carrying 11 passengers and 2 crew crashes into a mountain at Isurava, Papua New Guinea whilst attempting a go around at Kokoda Airport, Papua New Guinea; all passengers and crew perished in the accident.
- 2004 –CH-53E Super Stallion 164782 from HMM-166 (Reinforced) crashes in the Al-Anbar province, killing two Marines and wounding three others.
- 2003, The Spirit of Butts Farm becomes the first flight across the Atlantic by a computer-controlled model aircraft.
- 2002 – U. S. Airways filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
- 2001 – First flight of the Hawker 4000
- 1995 – First flight of the Embraer ERJ-145
- 1993 – 11-14 – Two B-1 Lancers complete a round-the-world trip in 47 hours.
- 1991 – Space Shuttle Atlantis lands after completing mission STS-43.
- 1986 – A modified Westland Lynx sets a new helicopter world speed record of 249 mph (401 km/h)
- 1985 – Space Shuttle Challenger is flown to Kennedy Space Center via Davis-Monthan AFB, Ariz.
- 1984 – President Ronald Reagan jokes during a radio sound check that he had “signed legislation that would outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in 5 min. ” The joke is not broadcast live (contrary to some accounts) but when word of it spreads, the Soviet Army is put on high alert for about 30 min.
- 1982 – A bomb explodes in a seat cushion aboard Pan Am Flight 830, killing 16-year-old Toru Ozawa and injuring 15 others. The plane, a 747-100 (Clipper Ocean Rover, N754 PA), makes an emergency landing in Honolulu and is repaired. The perpetrator, Mohammed Rashed, is arrested in Greece seven years later and convicted of murder, but freed eight years later. Rashed has also been indicted in the US, and is currently on the FBI’s most wanted list.
- 1979 – The 1979 Dniprodzerzhynsk mid-air collision between two Aeroflot Tupolev Tu-134s kills 178.
- 1972 – NATO signs a development contract for the MRCA (Multi-Role Combat Aircraft) programme, which will eventually result in the Panavia Tornado
- 1972 – First flight of the Northrop F-5E
- 1967 – F-105 Thunderchiefs of the 355th Tactical Fighter Wing USAF cut the Paul Doumer bridge, using 100 tons of bombs.
- 1962 – The Soviet Union launched cosmonaut Andrian Nikolayev on a 94-hour flight.
- 1956 – First flight of the 4-motor Cessna 620.
- 1955 – First flight of the Bell XV-3 (Bell 200), American tilt rotor aircraft (the three-bladed rotors replaced by two-bladed rotors)
- 1955 – Two United States Air Force C-119 Flying Boxcars collide near Stuttgart, Germany, killing 66.
- 1952 – British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) inaugurates its new weekly service between London and Colombo, the capital of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka).
- 1945 – First of only two Nakajima Kikka twin-jet fighters, completed on 25 June, first flown 7 August for eleven minutes by Lt. Cdr. Sasumu Tanaoka out of Kisarazu Naval Air Base, crashes on second flight this date. Second unflown Kikka is shipped to the U.S. after the Japanese capitulation.
- 1943 – Eight German Focke Wulf Fw 190 s attack USS Philadelphia and two American destroyers off Brolo, Sicily; they score no hits. Philadelphia shoots down five of them and destroyer USS Ludlow (DD-438) and a U. S. Army Air Forces fighter shoot down one each. Allied aircraft break up a German counterattack against U. S. Army forces at Brolo, but seven U. S. Army Air Forces A-36 bombers mistakenly attack the American positions, destroying the command post and four artillery pieces.
- 1943 – Nine U. S. Army Air Forces B-24 Liberators of the Eleventh Air Force make the second raid of World War II against the Kurile Islands, again attacking the Japanese base at Paramushiro, causing noteworthy damage. Japanese fighters shoot down one B-24 and damage the other eight; the B-24 s shoot down 13 Japanese fighters. The Eleventh Air Force decides not to raid the Kuriles again without fighter escort of its bombers.
- 1942 – Axis opposition to Operation Pedestal – An Allied resupply convoy to Malta escorted by the British aircraft carriers HMS Victorious, HMS Indomitable, and HMS Eagle, against which 1,000 Axis aircraft have gathered in Sicily and Sardinia – begins when the German submarine U-73 hits Eagle with four torpedoes in the Mediterranean Sea about 141 kilometres (88 mi) north of Algiers. Eagle sinks in eight minutes, with the loss of 131 of her crew and 16 Sea Hurricane fighters. German torpedo planes launch ineffectuve attacks on the convoys, and a strike by Royal Air Force Beaufighters destroys five and damages 14 of the German aircraft on the ground after they return to base
- 1941 – (11-12) The Soviet Air Force makes its first raid on Berlin, as 11 Petlyakov Pe-8 s arrack the city. German defenses shoot down five Pe-8 s, and Soviet antiaircraft artillery mistakenly shoots down another as it returns to base.
- 1939 – Pan American World Airways begins scheduled flights from New York, New York to Southampton, England.
- 1937 – First flight of the Boulton Paul Defiant
- 1926 – Second Lieutenant Eugene Hoy Barksdale is killed when the Douglas O-2 observation plane, 25-350, McCook Field project number P-441, he was testing went into an uncontrollable spin over McCook Field, Dayton, Ohio. His parachute snagged on the wingstruts, preventing escape from the aircraft. Barksdale Field, later Barksdale Air Force Base, is named for him upon establishment at the Military Reservation, Bossier Parish, Louisiana on 2 February 1933.
- 1921 – The 1921 Schneider Trophy race is flown at Venice, Italy. In an all-Italian field, Giovanni De Briganti wins the race in a Macchi M.7 with an average speed of 189.7 kilometres per hour (117.9 mph).
- 1918 – Royal Air Force Flight Sub-Lieutenant Stuart Culley shoots down Zeppelin L 53 after taking off from a barge towed behind the destroyer HMS Redoubt.
- 1918 – The first use of a parachute from a combat aircraft occurs when a German pilot escapes his burning Pfalz D.III after being attacked by a pilot from No. 19 Squadron RAF.
- 1915 – The U. S. Naval Observatory asks Eastman Kodak to develop a special aerial reconnaissance camera that could be used from an airplane flying at heights of 3,000 feet (910 m) to 6,000 feet (1,800 m).
- 1909 – The first flight of the Baddeck No. 1, a Canadian-built aircraft, by the Canadian Aeroplane Company, took place at Petawawa, Ontario.
- 1906 – Mrs. C. J. S. Miller becomes the first woman passenger in an airship. The 40-hp craft is owned and operated by her husband, Major Miller.
References
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