Portal:Aviation
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The Aviation Portal
Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. Aircraft includes fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as lighter-than-air craft 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. Some of the most significant advancements in aviation technology came with the controlled gliding flying of Otto Lilienthal in 1896; then a large step in significance came with the construction of 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 which permitted a major form of transport throughout the world. (Full article...)
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A hot air balloon consists of a bag called the envelope that is capable of containing heated air. Suspended beneath is the gondola or wicker basket (in some long-distance or high-altitude balloons, a capsule) which carries the passengers and a source of heat. The heated air inside the envelope makes it buoyant since it has a lower density than the relatively cold air outside the envelope. Unlike gas balloons, the envelope does not have to be sealed at the bottom since the air near the bottom of the envelope is at the same pressure as the surrounding air. In today's sport balloons the envelope is generally made from nylon fabric and the mouth of the balloon (closest to the burner flame) is made from fire resistant material such as Nomex.
Recently, balloon envelopes have been made in all kinds of shapes, such as hot dogs, rocket ships, and the shapes of commercial products. Hot air balloons that can be propelled through the air rather than just being pushed along by the wind are known as airships or, more specifically, thermal airships. (Full article...)
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Did you know
...that the Soviet spotter aircraft Sukhoi Su-12, though approved, was never produced due to lack of manufacturing capacity in the USSR? ...that No. 112 Squadron RAF was the first unit from any air force to use the "Shark Mouth" logo on P-40 fighter planes? ...that the strategic bombing campaign used in the 1990 Operation Instant Thunder served as a model for subsequent American military conflicts?
General images - load new batch
- Image 1Woodcut print of a kite from John Bate's 1635 book The Mysteryes of Nature and Art (from History of aviation)
- Image 2Planophore model aeroplane by Alphonse Pénaud, 1871 (from History of aviation)
- Image 3Maxim's flying machine (from History of aviation)
- Image 4D.H. Comet, the world's first jet airliner. As in this picture, it also saw RAF service (from History of aviation)
- Image 5Experimental 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)
- Image 6French reconnaissance balloon L'Intrépide of 1796, the oldest existing flying device, in the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum, Vienna (from History of aviation)
- Image 7Flagg biplane from 1933 (from History of aviation)
- Image 8Santos-Dumont's "Number 6" rounding the Eiffel Tower in the process of winning the Deutsch de la Meurthe Prize, October 1901 (from History of aviation)
- Image 91928 issue of Popular Aviation (now Flying magazine), which became the largest aviation magazine with a circulation of 100,000. (from History of aviation)
- Image 111843 artist's impression of John Stringfellow's plane Ariel flying over the Nile (from History of aviation)
- Image 12"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)
- Image 14Map of record breaking flights of the 1920s (from History of aviation)
- Image 16Nieuport 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)
- Image 17The Biot-Massia glider, restored and on display in the Musee de l'Air (from History of aviation)
- Image 21Early Voisin biplane (from History of aviation)
- Image 26The Wright Flyer: the first sustained flight with a powered, controlled aircraft (from History of aviation)
- Image 28La France flying in 1885 (from History of aviation)
- Image 29One of Leonardo's sketches (from History of aviation)
- Image 30First failure of Langley's manned Aerodrome on the Potomac River, 7 October 1903 (from History of aviation)
- Image 31Clément Ader Avion III (1897 photograph) (from History of aviation)
- Image 32"Governable parachute" design of 1852 (from History of aviation)
- Image 39Concorde, 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)
- Image 43Alberto Santos-Dumont flying the Demoiselle over Paris (from History of aviation)
In the news
- May 29: Austrian Airlines cancels Moscow-bound flight after Russia refuses a reroute outside Belarusian airspace
- August 8: Passenger flight crashes upon landing at Calicut airport in India
- June 4: Power firm helicopter strikes cables, crashes near Fairfield, California
- January 29: Former basketball player Kobe Bryant dies in helicopter crash, aged 41
- January 13: Iran admits downing Ukrainian jet, cites 'human error'
- January 10: Fire erupts in parking structure at Sola Airport, Norway
- October 27: US announces restrictions on flying to Cuba
- October 3: World War II era plane crashes in Connecticut, US, killing at least seven
- September 10: Nevada prop plane crash near Las Vegas leaves two dead, three injured
- August 6: French inventor Franky Zapata successfully crosses English Channel on jet-powered hoverboard
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Selected biography
Erich Alfred "Bubi" Hartmann (19 April 1922 – 20 September 1993), also nicknamed "The Blond Knight of Germany" by friends and "The Black Devil" by his enemies, was a German fighter pilot and still is the highest scoring fighter ace in the history of aerial combat. He scored 352 aerial victories (of which 345 were won against the Soviet Air Force, and 260 of which were fighters) in 1,404 combat missions and engaging in aerial combat 825 times while serving with the Luftwaffe in World War II. During the course of his career Hartmann was forced to crash land his damaged fighter 14 times. This was due to damage received from parts of enemy aircraft he had just shot down, or mechanical failure. Hartmann was never shot down or forced to land due to enemy fire.[1]
Hartmann, a pre-war glider pilot, joined the Luftwaffe in 1940 and completed his fighter pilot training in 1942. He was posted to Jagdgeschwader 52 (JG 52) on the Eastern front and was fortunate to be placed under the supervision of some of the Luftwaffe's most experienced fighter pilots. Under their guidance Hartmann steadily developed his tactics which would earn him the coveted Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds on 25 August 1944 for claiming 301 aerial victories.
He scored his 352nd and last aerial victory on 8 May 1945. He and the remainder of JG 52 surrendered to United States Army forces and were turned over to the Red Army. Convicted of false "War Crimes" and sentenced to 25 years of hard labour, Hartmann would spend 10 years in various Soviet prison camps and gulags until he was released in 1955. In 1956, Hartmann joined the newly established West German Luftwaffe and became the first Geschwaderkommodore of Jagdgeschwader 71 "Richthofen". Hartmann resigned early from the Bundeswehr in 1970, largely due to his opposition of the F-104 Starfighter deployment in the Bundesluftwaffe and the resulting clashes with his superiors over this issue. Erich Hartmann died in 1993.
Selected Aircraft
The Embraer ERJ-145 is a regional jet produced by Embraer, a Brazilian aerospace company. The ERJ 145 is the largest of a family of airliners, which also includes the ERJ 135, ERJ 140, and Legacy. All aircraft in the series are powered by two turbofan engines. It is one of the most popular regional jet families in the world with primary competition coming from the Canadair Regional Jet.
The first flight of the ERJ 145 was on August 11, 1995, with the first delivery in December 1996 to ExpressJet Airlines (then the regional division of Continental Airlines). ExpressJet is the largest operator of the ERJ 145, with 270 of the nearly 1000 ERJ 145s in service. The second largest operator is American Eagle, with 206 ERJ 145 aircraft. Chautauqua Airlines also operates 95 ERJ 145s through its alliances with American Connection, Delta Connection, US Airways Express and United Express. By some accounts, the ERJ 145 has a cost of ownership of about $2,500,000 per year.
- Span: 20.04 m (65 ft 9 in)
- Length: 29.9 m (98 ft 0 in)
- Height: 6.76 m (22 ft 2 in)
- Engines: 2× Rolls-Royce AE 3007A turbofans, 33.0 kN (7,420 lbf) thrust each
- Cruising Speed: 834 km/h (518 mph, Mach 0.78)
- First Flight: August 11, 1995
- Number built: ≈1000
Today in Aviation
- 2013 – Nepal Airlines Flight 555, the de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter 9N-ABO, skids off the runway at Jomsom Airport in Jomsom, Nepal, and falls 20 meters (65 feet) into the Gandaki River. All 21 people on board survive, but seven suffer serious injuries.
- 2011 – Launch: Space Shuttle Endeavour STS-134 at 12:56:28 UTC. Mission highlights: ISS assembly flight ULF6, ELC 3, ROEU, Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer. Final flight of Endeavour.
- 2001 – A Turkish Air Force CASA CN-235M-100 crashes into a field in Malatya, Turkey killing all 34 on board.
- 1995 – A Royal Air Force BAe Nimrod is forced to ditch in Moray Firth
- 1992 – STS-49, maiden flight of the Space Shuttle Endeavour lands at Edwards AFB.
- 1992 – Munich-Riem Airport, the main, international airport of Munich until is closed down. Operations moved to the new location near Freising. The IATA airport code MUC and the ICAO airport code EDDM were transferred to the new Munich Franz Josef Strauss Airport.
- 1992 – The 2,000th C-130 Hercules rolls off the production line.
- 1986 – Top Gun (film) opens in theaters in United States.
- 1977 – The landing gear failed on a New York Airways Sikorsky S-61 while it was taking on passengers on the roof of the Pan Am building. The aircraft rolled onto its side. Its spinning rotor blades killed four passengers waiting to board (including movie director Michael Findlay) and injured a fifth. Parts of a broken blade fell into the streets below, killing one pedestrian and injuring another.
- 1968 – A British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) Super Vickers VC10 on a routine service from Chicago and Montreal makes the airline’s first fully automatic approach and landing in London.
- 1961 – First flight of Mikoyan/Gurevich Ye-152/1, Soviet single-seat fighter/interceptor aircraft.
- 1959 – Newly-formed RCAF aerobatic team, the Golden Hawks, flying gold-finished North American F-86 Sabre, performed its first demonstration at Torbay, Newfoundland.
- 1958 – Captain Walter W. Irwin sets a new airspeed record of 1,404 mph (2,259 km/h) in a F-104 Starfighter, the first record over 2,000 km/h.
- 1957 – First flight of the Saunders-Roe SR.53, prototype interceptor aircraft of mixed jet and rocket propulsion developed for the Royal Air Force.
- 1954 – Birth of Dafydd Rhys "Dave" Williams, Canadian physician and a retired CSA astronaut. He had two space flights, both of which were Space Shuttle missions.
- 1953 – 90 U. S. Air Force Republic F-84 Thunderjets carry out a successful attack against Chusan, Korea.
- 1946 – A B-17G Flying Fortress crashes into White's Hill near Fairfax, California, while en route to Hamilton Field in Marin County, California, after running out of fuel. Two crew members are killed.
- 1945 – Birth of Brewster Hopkinson Shaw, Jr. former NASA astronaut, veteran of three space shuttle missions and has logged 533 hours of space flight. He was pilot of Space Shuttle Columbia in November 1983, commander of Space Shuttle Atlantis in November 1985 and commander of Space Shuttle Columbia in August 1989.
- 1945 – (16-17) British Pacific Fleet carrier aircraft strike Japanese airfields in the Sakishima Gunto.
- 1943 – Launch of Operation Chastise, attack on German dams by Royal Air Force No. 617 Squadron, subsequently known as the "Dambusters", using a specially developed "bouncing bomb" invented and developed by Barnes Wallis.
- 1942 – Canadian Pacific Airlines was formed.
- 1940 – Death of Allen Benjamin Angus, DFC, Canadian WWII fighter pilot and first Canadian ace of WWII.
- 1930 – First flight of the Blériot Bl-110 nicknamed 'Joseph Le Brix', French high wing single engine monoplane prototype designed for endurance records.
- 1929 – Wings, a silent film about World War I fighter pilots, is the first film, and the only silent film ever, to win the Academy Award for Best Picture.
- 1920 – Birth of Joseph Otis Fletcher, American Air Force pilot and polar researcher, first pilot to land at the North Pole along with William Pershing Benedict with a Douglas C-47 Skytrain.
- 1919 – A naval Curtiss aircraft NC-4 commanded by Albert Cushing Read leaves Trepassey, Newfoundland, for Lisbon via the Azores on the first transatlantic flight.
- 1918 – The Imperial German Navy recommissions the light cruiser Stuttgart after her conversion into a seaplane carrier. She is the only German seagoing aviation ship capable of working with the fleet commissioned during either World War I or World War II.
- 1917 – Death of Enrico Cottino and Francesco Guadalupi in their Farman 14.
- 1915 – (16-17 overnight) Two Royal Naval Air Service Avro 504s interceot the Imperial German Navy Zeppelins LZ 38 and LZ 39, badly damaging LZ39 with four 20-lb (9-kg) bombs dropped on its envelope from above.
- 1890 – Birth of http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucien_Bossoutrot, French pioneer aviator and politician.
References
- Toliver & Constable 1986, p. 12.
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