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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 includes 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 is 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; 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...)

Selected article

British Airways Boeing 747-400 taking off at Heathrow Airport in October 2007
British Airways Boeing 747-400 taking off at Heathrow Airport in October 2007
British Airways is the flag carrier airline of the United Kingdom and its largest airline based on fleet size, international flights and international destinations. When measured by passengers carried it is second-largest, behind easyJet. The airline is based in Waterside near its main hub at London Heathrow Airport. A British Airways Board was established by the United Kingdom government in 1972 to manage the two nationalised airline corporations, British Overseas Airways Corporation and British European Airways, and two smaller, regional airlines, Cambrian Airways, from Cardiff, and Northeast Airlines, from Newcastle upon Tyne. On 31 March 1974, all four companies were merged to form British Airways. After almost 13 years as a state company, British Airways was privatised in February 1987 as part of a wider privatisation plan by the Conservative government. The carrier soon expanded with the acquisition of British Caledonian in 1987, Dan-Air in 1992 and British Midland International in 2012. British Airways is a founding member of the Oneworld airline alliance, along with American Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Qantas, and the now defunct Canadian Airlines. The alliance has since grown to become the third-largest, after SkyTeam and Star Alliance. British Airways merged with Iberia on 21 January 2011, formally creating the International Airlines Group (IAG), the world's third-largest airline group in terms of annual revenue and the second-largest in Europe. (Full article...)

Selected image

The controlled impact demonstration
The controlled impact demonstration
On December 1, 1984, NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) conducted the Controlled Impact Demonstration, where they deliberately crashed a Boeing 720 aircraft with the intent of improving occupant crash survivability. Seen left-to-right, top-to-bottom, the plane makes a practice approach, hits the ground, slides for a short distance, strikes posts cemented in the ground, and becomes engulfed in flames.

Did you know

...that the Fairey Seafox was a Second World War reconnaissance floatplane of the Fleet Air Arm? ...that the Blohm und Voss Bv 144 was an attempt by Nazi Germany to develop an advanced commercial airliner for post-war service? ...that a Cambridge University society has launched high altitude balloons that have taken a picture of the earth's curvature from a height of 32 km?

More Did you know facts

General images - load new batch

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

In the news

Wikinews Aviation portal
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Associated Wikimedia

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

Selected biography

Marshal of the Royal Air Force Hugh Montague Trenchard, 1st Viscount Trenchard GCB OM GCVO DSO (3 February 1873 – 10 February 1956) was a British officer who was instrumental in establishing the Royal Air Force. He has been described as the Father of the Royal Air Force.

During his formative years Trenchard struggled academically, failing many examinations and only just succeeding in meeting the minimum standard for commissioned service in the British Army. As a young infantry officer, Trenchard served in India and in South Africa. During the Boer War, Trenchard was critically wounded and as a result of his injury, he lost a lung, was partially paralysed and returned to Great Britain. While convalescing in Switzerland he took up bobsleighing and after a heavy crash, Trenchard found that his paralysis was gone and that he could walk unaided. Some months later, Trenchard returned to South Africa before volunteering for service in Nigeria. During his time in Nigeria, Trenchard commanded the Southern Nigeria Regiment for several years and was involved in efforts to bring the interior under settled British rule and quell inter-tribal violence.

In 1912, Trenchard learned to fly and was subsequently appointed as second in command of the Central Flying School. He held several senior positions in the Royal Flying Corps during World War I, serving as the commander of Royal Flying Corps in France from 1915 to 1917. In 1918, he briefly served as the first Chief of the Air Staff before taking up command of the Independent Air Force in France. Returning as Chief of the Air Staff under Winston Churchill in 1919, Trenchard spent the following decade securing the future of the Royal Air Force. He was Metropolitan Police Commissioner in the 1930s and a defender of the RAF in his later years.

Selected Aircraft

The Airbus A340 is a long-range four-engined widebody commercial passenger airplane manufactured by Airbus. The latest variants (-600 & A340E) competed with Boeing's 777 series of aircraft on long-haul and ultra long-haul routes, but it has since been succeeded by the Airbus A350.

The A340-600 flies 380 passengers in a three-class cabin layout (419 in 2 class) over 7,500 nautical miles (13,900 km). It provides similar passenger capacity to a 747 but with twice the cargo volume, and at lower trip and seat costs.

The A340-600 is more than 10 m longer than a basic -300, making it the second longest airliner in the world, more than four meters longer than a Boeing 747-400.

  • Span: 63.45 m (208 ft 2 in)
  • Length: 75.30 m n(246 ft 11 in)
  • Height: 17.30 m (56 ft 9 in)
  • Engines: four 56,000 lbf (249 kN) thrust Rolls-Royce Trent 556 turbofans
  • Cruising Speed: Mach 0.83 (885 km/h, 550 mph)
  • First Flight: October 25, 1991
More selected aircraft Read more...

Today in Aviation

January 6

  • 2009 – Ted, a brand of the American airline United Airlines for their economy flights, is discontinued. Economy flights are rebranded under the main United Airlines brand.
  • 2008 – A Boeing F/A-18E Super Hornet has a mid air collision with a Boeing F/A-18F Super Hornet over the North Persian Gulf during routine ops from the USS Harry S Truman. One pilot ejects and is recovered.
  • 2007 – BA Connect, easyJet, XL Airways UK, Thomsonfly, Thomas Cook Airlines, Balkan Bulgarian Airlines, First Choice Airways, Air Malta, KLM Cityhopper and SN Brussels Airlines cancel all their flights to and from Bristol International Airport in a row over runway safety.
  • 2006 – Hugh Thompson, Jr., decorated Vietnam War helicopter pilot, dies (b. 1943). He is chiefly known for his role in curtailing the My Lai massacre, during which he was flying a reconnaissance mission.
  • 1985 – Death of Vladimir Konstantinovich Kokkinaki, test pilot in the Soviet Union, who had twenty-two world records and served as president of the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale.
  • 1984 – Hughes Helicopters merges with McDonnell Douglas Corp.
  • 1982 – First cargo flight with payload of the Myasishchev VM-T Atlant, variant of Myasishchev's M-4 'Molot' bomber (3 M) designed as a strategic airlift airplane. The VM-T was modified to carry rocket boosters and the Soviet space shuttles of the Buran program. It is also known as the 3 M-T.
  • 1979 – Death of Kenneth Russell Unger, American WWI flying ace, US Airmail pilot, and WWII transport pilot.
  • 1969 – Allegheny Airlines Flight 737, a Convair CV-580, crashes while on approach to Bradford Regional Airport. 11 of the 28 passengers and crew on board are killed.
  • 1968 – NASA'S Surveyor 7 lands on the moon, and is the last in its series.
  • 1968 – Patrick Henry Brady, US Army helicopter pilot, volunteered with H-1 H ambulance helicopters. Sites were in enemy held territory which were reported to be heavily defended and to be blanketed by fog. Using 3 helicopters in at least 6 missions he rescued a total of 51 seriously wounded men.
  • 1964 – A U.S. Navy pilot ejects from a Douglas A-4C Skyhawk shortly after departing NAS Oceana, Virginia when the fighter-bomber catches fire. Lt. J.G. J. R. Mossman, 24, of Springfield, Pennsylvania, is alerted by his wingman that the tail is on fire just after beginning a flight to NAS Pensacola, Florida, and ejects 10 miles SE of Virginia Beach, Virginia, parachuting into the Atlantic Ocean. Wingman Lt. Henri B. Chase orbits Mossman's position until a helicopter from NAS Norfolk arrives and picks him up. The pilot is unhurt. "By coincidence, Mossman is one of three pilots who last month practiced being rescued at sea by helicopter off Virginia Beach."
  • 1963 – Birth of Philippe Perrin, French Air Force pilot, test pilot and former CNES and European Space Agency astronaut.
  • 1959 – While on approach to Tri-Cities Regional Airport in Bristol, Tennessee, Southeast Airlines Flight 308, a Douglas DC-3 A, strays off course and crashes into Holston Mountain, killing all 10 people on board.
  • 1957 – Birth of Colin Michael Foale, CBE, PhD, British-American astrophysicist with dual citizenship and NASA astronaut, first Briton to perform a space walk.
  • 1954 – A Royal Air Force Vickers Valetta T3 carrying a rugby team crashes at Albury, Hertfordshire, England, in bad weather, killing 16 of the 17 people on board.
  • 1953 – German airline LuftAG (Aktiengesellschaft für Luftverkehrsbedarf / Air traffic on demand) is formed.
  • 1949 – First flight of the Nord Noroit, a French reconnaissance and air-sea rescue flying-boat, only one built.
  • 1948 – Birth of Guy Spence Gardner, USAF test pilot and NASA astronaut.
  • 1945 – Death of Tokushige Yoshizawa, Japanese WWII flying ace, killed in action.
  • 1945 – Task Force 38 carrier aircraft attack Japanese forces and facilities on Luzon, claiming 14 Japanese aircraft destroyed in the air and 18 on the ground in exchange for the loss of 17 U. S. aircraft, but bad weather prevents them from employing the "Big Blue Blanket" tactic of maintaining continuous coverage over Japanese airfields to prevent Japanese aircraft from attacking the U. S. invasion force in Lingayen Gulf. In Lingayen Gulf, kamikazes damage the battleship USS New Mexico, killing 30 – Including British Lieutenant General Herbert Lumsden – The battleship USS California, the heavy cruiser USS Louisville – mortally wounding Rear Admiral Theodore E. Chandler – The heavy cruiser HMAS Australia, the light cruiser USS Columbia, three destroyers, a destroyer-minesweeper, and a destroyer-transport and sink a destroyer-minesweeper.
  • 1944 – Death of Charles Learmonth, Australian WWII bomber pilot, killed in the crash of his Bristol Beaufort during an exercise off Rottnest Island. Before crashing, Learmonth was able to identify what was causing his aircraft to shake violently, solving a problem that had affected the entire Beaufort fleet.
  • 1943 – Firing at a Japanese Aichi D3A dive bomber (Allied reporting name “Val”) south of Guadalcanal, the U. S. Navy light cruiser USS Helena claims the first hit on an enemy aircraft by antiaircraft ammunition employing the Mark 32 VT proximity fuse.
  • 1943 – Consolidated B-24D-20-CO Liberator, 41-24202, c/n 997, of the 504th Bomb Squadron, 346th Bomb Group, out of Salina Army Airfield, Kansas, suffers fire in flight, crashes 15 miles SW of Madill, Oklahoma, destroyed by fire. Pilot was R. G. Bishop.
  • 1942 – Wirraways of No. 24 Squadron attempted to intercept Japanese seaplanes flying over New Britain; only one managed to engage an enemy aircraft, marking the first air-to-air combat between RAAF and Japanese forces
  • 1942 – Imperial Japanese Navy aircraft based at Truk begin attacks on the Australian air base at Rabaul.
  • 1940 – Finnish Air Force Lieutenant Jorma Sarvanto shoots down six Soviet Ilyushin DB-3 bombers out of a formation of seven in four minutes.
  • 1938 – Spanish Republican Minister of Defense Indalecio Prieto y Tuero proposes to the Nationalists that both sides in the Spanish Civil War ban air attacks on cities and towns in rear areas. The Nationalists reply that they will continue to bomb Barcelona unless its industries are evacuated.
  • 1933 – Birth of Oleg Grigoryevich Makarov, Soviet cosmonaut.
  • 1927 – Imperial Airways de Havilland DH.66 Hercules lands in Karachi on his way to New Delhi coming from Croydon on a survey flight to India.
  • 1921 – After modifications, HMS Argus returns to service with the Royal Navy as the world's first aircraft carrier equipped with palisades. Installed on the port and starboard edges of the flight deck and capable of being raised and lowered, the palisades when raised serve as a windbreak and prevent aircraft on the flight deck from blowing or rolling overboard in heavy weather.
  • 1916 – (6 or 15) The German submarine U-12 departs Zeebrugge with a Friedrichshafen FF.29 seaplane lashed to her deck in an attempt to use submarines to carry seaplanes within range of England. The seaplane is forced to take off early, reconnoiters the coast of Kent, and has to fly all the way back to Zeebrugge when bad weather makes returning to U-12 impossible. It is the only German attempt to operate an aircraft from a submarine.
  • 1911 – 750,000 Indians watch a flying display at Calcutta by French Henri Jullerot in his Military Biplane.
  • 1899 – Birth of John Lancashire Barlow, British WWI flying ace.
  • 1898 – Birth of James Fitzmaurice DFC, Irish aviation pioneer. He was a member of the crew of the Bremen, which made the first successful Trans-Atlantic aircraft flight from East to West
  • 1897 – Birth of Joseph Leonard Maries "John" White DFC, Canadian WWI flying ace.
  • 1897 – Birth of George Hatfield Dingley Gossip, Australian WWI flying ace.
  • 1895 – Birth of Francis Peabody Magoun, Jr, MC, American WWI flying ace.
  • 1894 – Birth of Cyril Marconi "Billy" Crowe, British WWI flying ace and WWII pilot.
  • 1890 – Birth of Franz Wognar, Austro Hungarian WWI flying ace.
  • 1745 – Birth of Jacques-Étienne Montgolfier, brother of Joseph-Michel, inventors of the montgolfière-style hot air balloon, globe aérostatique.

References

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