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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 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...)

Selected article

A U.S. Air Force F-35A off the coast of Florida
A U.S. Air Force F-35A off the coast of Florida
The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II is an American family of single-seat, single-engine, all-weather stealth multirole combat aircraft that is intended to perform both air superiority and strike missions. It is also able to provide electronic warfare and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities. Lockheed Martin is the prime F-35 contractor, with principal partners Northrop Grumman and BAE Systems. The aircraft has three main variants: the conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) F-35A, the short take-off and vertical-landing (STOVL) F-35B, and the carrier-based (CV/CATOBAR) F-35C. (Full article...)

Selected image

Nevada test Site, August 7, 1957. The tail, or “After” section of a U.S. Navy Blimp is shown with the Stokes cloud in background. Blimp was in temporary free flight in excess of five miles from ground zero when collapsed by the shock wave from the blast. The airship was unmanned and was used in military effects experiments on blast and heat. Navy personnel on the ground in the vicinity of the experimental area were unhurt. On ground to the left are remains of the forward section.

Did you know

... that Paul Haenlein was the first to create a dirigible airship powered by an internal combustion engine? ... that the Air Zoo in Kalamazoo, Michigan houses the only SR-71B Blackbird in existence? ... that former USAF officer David P. Cooley who was the chief test pilot for the F-117 Nighthawk died in March 2009 while testing the F-22 Raptor?

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
Read and edit Wikinews

Associated Wikimedia

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

Selected biography

Frank Whittle speaking to employees of the Flight Propulsion Research Laboratory (now known as the NASA Glenn Research Center), USA, in 1946
Air Commodore Sir Frank Whittle (1 June 1907 – 9 August 1996) was a Royal Air Force officer and was one of the inventors of jet propulsion. By the end of the war, Whittle's efforts resulted in engines that would lead the world in performance through the end of the decade.

Born in Earlsdon, Coventry, England on June 1, 1907, Whittle left Leamington College in 1923 to join the Royal Air Force (RAF). Through his early days as an Aircraft apprentice he maintained his interest in the Model Aircraft Society where he built replicas, the quality of which attracted the eye of his commanding officer, who was so impressed that he recommended Whittle for the Officer Training College at Cranwell in Lincolnshire in 1926, a rarity for a "commoner" in what was still a very class-based military structure. A requirement of the course was that each student had to produce a thesis for graduation. Whittle decided to write his thesis on future developments in aircraft design, in which he described what is today referred to as a motorjet.

Whittle and Hans von Ohain met after the war and initially Whittle was angry with him as he felt Ohain had stolen his ideas. Ohain eventually convinced him that his work was independent and after that point the two became good friends.

Selected Aircraft

An A400M flying
An A400M flying

The Airbus A400M Atlas is a four-engine turboprop aircraft, designed by Airbus Military (now Airbus Defence and Space) to meet the demand of European nations for military airlift. Since its formal launch, the aircraft has also been ordered by Malaysia, Kazakhstan and Indonesia.

The A400M is assembled at the Seville plant of Airbus Military. The first test flight occurred in December 2009.

  • Span: 42.4 m (139 ft 1 in)
  • Length: 45.1 m (148 ft)
  • Height: 14.7 m (48 ft 3 in)
  • Engines: 4 EPI TP400-D6 (8,250 kW power)
  • Cruising Speed: 780 km/h (480 mph, 420 knots)
  • First Flight: 11 December 2009
  • Number built: 119 as of 31 August 2023
More selected aircraft Read more...

Today in Aviation

September 27

  • 2011 – (Overnight) All Nippon Airways flies the first delivery flight of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, from Paine Field, Washington, to Tokyo International Airport.
  • 1992 – Military transport plane crashes in Lagos, Nigeria killing 163
  • 1990 – United Air Lines is the first airline to introduce satellite communications for its aircraft
  • 1977 – Japan Airlines Flight 715, a Douglas DC-8, crashes into a hillside while on approach to Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport, killing 34 of 79 on board.
  • 1977 – A1977 Yokohama F-4 crash: A United States Navy McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II based at nearby Naval Air Facility Atsugi suffered a mechanical malfunction, caught fire, and crashed into a residential neighborhood. The crash killed two young boys, ages 1 and 3, and injured seven others, several seriously. The two-man crew of the aircraft ejected and were not seriously injured.
  • 1967 – A Lockheed SP-2H Neptune, BuNo 147946, of VP-30, collides with a US Navy Vought RF-8G Crusader, BuNo 146864, assigned to VFP-62, Detachment 38, NAS Cecil Field, Jacksonville, Florida, during a heavy rainstorm, near Jacksonville Beach, Florida, crashing on the swampy east bank of the Intracoastal Waterway. The Crusader, which was operating off of the USS Shangri-La, also impacts near Jacksonville Beach. The Neptune was carrying two officers and three enlisted men. The pilot was the only occupant of the jet. All six KWF.
  • 1956 – Retired: Bell X-2
  • 1956 – Test pilot Mel Apt is killed on the 17th flight of the Bell X-2, 46-674, out of Edwards Air Force Base, California, when he attempts a turn at Mach 3.2 (nearly 2,100 mph), and the airframe goes into a vicious case of inertia coupling. Apt jettisons the escape capsule but runs out of height before he can bail out of the falling nose section.
  • 1954 – Sole Folland Midge prototype, G-39-1, crashes into trees at Chilbolton, England, killing the Swiss pilot. Cause was believed to have been inadvertent application of full nose-down trim.
  • 1950 – An Argentine Air Force Vickers VC.1 Viking, T-8, was burnt out in a hangar fire at El Palomar, Argentina.
  • 1946 – Geoffrey de Havilland, Jr., is killed when de Havilland DH 108, TG306, second prototype, breaks up in flight, coming down in the Thames near Egypt Bay.
  • 1943 – German night fighter ace Hauptmann Hans-Dieter Frank dies in a collision with another night fighter over Hanover, Germany. His score stands at 55 kills at his death.
  • 1941 – During Operation Halberd, Italian aircraft attack a Malta-bound convoy and its escorts in the Mediterranean, damaging the British battleship HMS Nelson and fatally damaging a merchant cargo ship.
  • 1940 – S/L Ernie McNab became the first RCAF ace during WWII.
  • 1922 – The US Navy conducts the first large-scale torpedo bombing exercises. Eighteen Naval Aircraft Factory PTs attack three battleships and score 8 hits in 25 min.
  • 1922 – Dr. Albert Taylor and Leo Young, scientists at the US Naval Aircraft Radio Laboratory, make the first successful detections of objects by “radio observation”. They use wireless waves to detect objects not visible due to weather or darkness. This insight leads to the advent of radar.
  • 1914 – The first French bomber group is formed.
  • 1913 – Katherine Stinson becomes the first woman in the United States to make an official airmail flight.
  • 1910 – First test flight of a twin-engined aircraft took place in France.
  • 1908 – Thérèse Peltier makes a flight of 200 m (656 feet) at a height of approximately 2.5 m (8 feet) at the Military Square in Turin, Italy. Photos of Peltier with the aeroplane are published on 27 September. Unofficially, it is the first flight by a female aviator.
  • 1894 – Lothar von Richthofen German pilot was born. (d. 1922) Richtofen was a German First World War fighter ace credited with 40 victories during the war. He was younger brother of top-scoring ace Manfred von Richthofen (the Red Baron) and a cousin of the Luftwaffe field marshal Wolfram von Richthofen.

References

Edit today's anniversaries – September Archive – All anniversaries...


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