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

Sukhoi Su-27

Credit: Dmitry A. Mottl

Su-27 from Russian Knights aerobatic team on landing, Kubinka

Did you know

...that British Airways unveiled a new corporate identity in 1997 which involved repainting its fleet with around 20 daring tailfin designs by world artists? ...that the Zagreb mid-air collision over Croatia in 1976 was one of the deadliest mid-air collisions? ... that before he flew the Spirit of St. Louis on his historic transatlantic flight, Charles Lindbergh's first choice of aircraft was the Ryan M-2?

General images -

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

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  Me 262, world first operational jet fighter (from History of aviation)
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  Alberto Santos-Dumont flying the Demoiselle over Paris (from History of aviation)
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  Cathay Pacific's first class cabin on board a Boeing 747-400 (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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  The Wright Military Flyer aboard a wagon in 1908 (from History of aviation)
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  Leonardo da Vinci's ornithopter design (from History of aviation)
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  Flagg biplane from 1933 (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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  Jean-Marie Le Bris and his flying machine, Albatros II, 1868 (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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  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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  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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  The Aeroplane of Victor Tatin, 1879. (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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  German Taube monoplane, illustration from 1917 (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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  La France flying in 1885 (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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  First failure of Langley's manned Aerodrome on the Potomac River, 7 October 1903 (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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  Swiss International Air Lines' business class cabin on an Airbus A340 (from Wide-body aircraft)
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  Cessna CitationJet/M2, part of the Citation family of business jets (from General aviation)
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  Maxim's flying machine (from History of aviation)
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  General aviation aircraft at Cheb Airfield in Czech Republic (from General 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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  Sailplane, a Rolladen-Schneider LS4 (from General aviation)
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  Robinson R22, a light piston-engine helicopter (from General 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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  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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  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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  An Airbus A380 of Qantas. The A380 is the world's largest passenger airliner. (from Wide-body aircraft)
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  Daedalus working on Icarus' wings (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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  Qantas De Havilland biplane, c. 1930 (from History of aviation)
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  Otto Lilienthal, 29 May 1895 (from History of aviation)
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  First female combat pilot, Sabiha Gökçen, reviews her Breguet 19 (from History of aviation)
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  "Governable parachute" design of 1852 (from History of aviation)
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  Félix du Temple's 1874 Monoplane (from History of aviation)
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  Early Voisin biplane (from History of aviation)
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  The 14-bis, or Oiseau de proie (from History of aviation)
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  Clément Ader Avion III (1897 photograph) (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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  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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  Map of record breaking flights of the 1920s (from History of aviation)
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  Planophore model aeroplane by Alphonse Pénaud, 1871 (from History of aviation)
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  Delta Air Lines' economy class cabin on a Boeing 767 (from Wide-body aircraft)
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  One of Leonardo's sketches (from History of aviation)

Aviation news

5 October 2026 – 2026 Nigerian Air Force ATR 42 crash

A Nigerian Air Force ATR 42-500 aircraft carrying 32 people crashes in Ondo State, Nigeria. (DW) (Reuters)

4 October 2026 –

The United States Coast Guard suspends the search for the Latitude Air Ambulance Gulfstream G100 aircraft that went missing yesterday with six passengers on board after finding a debris field in the ocean south of Nantucket, Massachussetts. All six passengers, including four Canadian pilots and crew and two Bermudian passengers, are presumed dead. (CBC) (Winnipeg City News)

4 October 2026 – Chinese espionage in the United States

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation arrests a 34-year-old Chinese American woman at Los Angeles International Airport in California for allegedly acting as an unregistered Chinese agent and surveilling Taiwanese president Lai Ching-te's son and family in the United States. (AFP via RFI) (The Daily Telegraph)

3 October 2026 – Ethiopian civil conflict

Ethiopian federal forces retake control of the Alula Aba Nega Airport in Mekelle, Tigray, from the Tigray People's Liberation Front. (Los Angeles Times)

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)

Related portals

Associated Wikimedia

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

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  Commons
  Free media repository
• 
  Wikibooks
  Free textbooks and manuals
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  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 Yakovlev Yak-42 is a line of tri-jet aircraft produced by the aircraft company Yakolev. The Yak 42 was produced from 1980-2003.

Historically, the yak-42 was competition for older Russian aircraft companies. The Yak-42 was only made in one passenger variant, but it was used in many tests of equipment.

• Crew: 3
• Span: 114 ft 5 in (34.88 m)
• Length: 119 ft 4 in (36.38 m)
• Height: 32 ft 3 in (9.83 m)
• Engines: 3× Lotarev D-36 turbofan
• Cruise Speed: 740 km/h (399 knots, 460 mph) (economy cruise)
• Range: 4,000 km (2,158 nmi, 2,458 mi) (with maximum fuel)

Today in Aviation

October 6

• 2010 – Tajik National Guard Helicopter crash was an accident that occurred when a Mi-8 military helicopter from the Tajik National Guard crashed in the Rasht Valley close to Ezgand and Tavildara. The helicopter got caught in power lines and crashed while attempting to land. It caught fire; there were no survivors.

• 2008 – Deceased: Richard Heyser, 81, American U-2 pilot during the Cuban missile crisis.

• 2005 – A small aircraft carrying cargo for FedEx, including six vials of research viruses, crashes in downtown Winnipeg. The female pilot, the only occupant, is killed but there are no injuries on the ground.

• 1993 – Larry Walters, American “lawn chair” pilot dies. (b. 1949) He took flight on July 2, 1982 in a homemade aircraft constructed out of a patio chair and 45 helium-filled weather balloons. He reached an altitude of 16,000 feet (3 miles) and floated from San Pedro, California into federal airspace near Long Beach airport.

• 1990 – Launch: Space Shuttle Discovery STS-41 at 11:47:15 UTC. Mission highlights: Ulysses/IUS solar probe deployment.

• 1984 – First flight of the FMA IA 63 Pampa

• 1966 – First flight of the Bell OH-58 Kiowa (OH-58A)

• 1981 – NLM CityHopper Flight 431, a Fokker F28 Fellowship, is destroyed in flight by a tornado near Rotterdam, killing all 17 people on board.

• 1977 – The first prototype of the Mikoyan MiG-29, designated 9-01, makes its maiden flight.

• 1976 – Cubana de Aviación Flight 455, a Douglas DC-8, is bombed by anti-Castro militants and crashes near Bridgetown, Barbados, killing all 73 people on board.

• 1973 – Egypt and Syria launch air strikes on Israel, starting the Yom Kippur War. The conflict lasts 18 days.

• 1962 – The U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Navy suffer their first helicopter fatalities in Vietnam when a Marine Corps UH-34 Seahorse crashes 15 miles (24 km) from Tam Ky, South Vietnam, killing five Marines and two Navy personnel.

• 1956 – A USAF Lockheed T-33A Shooting Star overruns runway while landing at Mitchel AFB, Long Island, New York, runs through perimeter fence, flips over, ending up on the Hempstead Turnpike. Pilot Maj. Daniel Kramer killed, three in an automobile are injured.

• 1955 – United Airlines Flight 409, a Douglas DC-4, crashes into Medicine Bow Peak near Centennial, Wyoming, killing all 66 on board.

• 1955 – First flight of the Convair CV-440 Metropolitan

• 1955 – McDonnell company test pilot George Shirley Mills bails out of McDonnell F3H-2N Demon over Carrollton, Illinois near St. Louis, Missouri after what appears to be a massive systems failure, including the J40 engine. Instead of crashing, fighter circles over two states for more than an hour sans canopy, ejection seat and pilot. It eventually impacts in cornfield near Monticello, Iowa, 250 miles (400 km) from ejection.

• 1954 – First flight of the Fairey FD.2.

• 1948 – United States Air Force Boeing B-29-100-BW Superfortress, 45-21866, of the 3150th Electronics Squadron, crashed in Waycross, Georgia shortly after take off from Robins Air Force Base due to an engine fire. Of the 13 men aboard 9 are killed including 3 RCA engineers. Four parachuted to safety.

• 1944 – No. 6 (RCAF) Group sent 293 bombers to attack Dortmund, Germany. This was the largest force sent out by the Group.

• 1944 – Cancelled: Fisher P-75 Eagle.

• 1944 – Junkers Ju 90, G6+AY, blows two tires and crashes on landing at Tatoi Airport, Greece, after flight from Iraklion, Crete. Repairs prove impossible and the aircraft is set on fire by the crew to prevent capture by the British, who were about to occupy Greece.

• 1939 – First flight of the Curtiss SO3C Seamew

• 1927 – Western Canada Airways commenced contract airmail service between Lac du Bonnet, Wadhope and Bisset, Manitoba.

• 1923 – Curtiss R2Cs win first and second place in the Pulitzer air race, the winning aircraft setting a new airspeed record of 243.6 mph (392 km/h).

• 1922 – Lt John A. Macready and Lt Oakley G. Kelly set a flight endurance record of 35 hours 18 min in a Fokker T-2.

• 1912 – At Oppama, Japan, Lieutenant Yōzō Kaneko makes the Imperial Japanese Navy's first flight, piloting a Farman seaplane for 15 min and reaching an altitude of 30 m (100 feet).

• 1908 – Wilbur Wright and a French writer make the first passenger flight of over one hour.

References

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