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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. 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

Zeppelin
Zeppelin
A Zeppelin is a type of rigid airship pioneered by Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin in the early 20th century. Due to the outstanding success of the Zeppelin design, the term zeppelin in casual use came to refer to all rigid airships. The German defeat in World War I halted the business temporarily, but under the guidance of Hugo Eckener, the successor of the deceased count, civilian Zeppelins experienced a renaissance in the 1920s. They reached their zenith in the 1930s, when the airships LZ127 "Graf Zeppelin" and LZ129 "Hindenburg" profitably operated regular transatlantic passenger flights. The Hindenburg disaster in 1937 triggered the fall of the "giants of the air", though other factors, including political issues, contributed to the demise. (Full article...)

Selected image

A test firing of twin linear XRS-2200 Aerospike engines. The aerospike engine is a type of rocket engine that maintains its efficiency across a wide range of altitudes through the use of an aerospike nozzle. A standard rocket engine uses a bell shaped nozzle to contain and direct the exhaust gases. However the optimum shape of the bell depends on the air pressure which reduces as the rocket climbs. An aerospike uses the air flowing past the rocket to form half of a 'virtual bell' which automatically compensates for the reducing pressure.

Did you know

...that the hyper engine was a hypothetical aircraft engine design meant to deliver 1 horsepower from 1 cubic inch of displacement? ...that the BAE Systems HERTI is the first and only fully autonomous UAV to have been certificated by the United Kingdom? ...that Washington Senators outfielder Elmer Gedeon, who pulled a crew member from a burning wreck, died while piloting a B-26 bomber over France?

More Did you know facts

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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

Wiley Hardeman Post (November 22, 1898 – August 15, 1935) was the first pilot to fly solo around the world. Also known for his work in high altitude flying, Post helped develop one of the first pressure suits. His plywood aircraft, the Winnie Mae[1] is on display at the National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, VA, and his pressure suit is being prepared for display at the same location. On August 15, 1935, Post and American humorist Will Rogers were killed when Post's plane crashed on takeoff from a lagoon near Point Barrow, Alaska.

Selected Aircraft

Dash 8 300 landing at Bristol (UK)
Dash 8 300 landing at Bristol (UK)

The de Havilland Canada DHC-8, popularly the Dash 8, is a series of twin-turboprop airliners designed by de Havilland Canada in the early 1980s. They are now made by Bombardier Aerospace which purchased DHC from Boeing in 1992. Since 1996 the aircraft have been known as the Q Series, for "quiet", due to installation of the Active Noise and Vibration Suppression (ANVS) system designed to reduce cabin noise and vibration levels to near those of jet airliners.

Notable features of the Dash 8 design are the large T-tail intended to keep the tail free of propwash during takeoff, a very high aspect ratio wing, the elongated engine nacelles also holding the rearward-folding landing gear, and the pointed nose profile. First flight was in 1983, and the plane entered service in 1984 with NorOntair. Piedmont Airlines (formerly Henson Airlines) was the US launch customer for the Dash 8 in 1984.

The Dash 8 design had better cruise performance than the earlier Dash 7, was less expensive to operate, and more notably, much less expensive to maintain. The Dash 8 had the lowest costs per passenger mile of any feederliner of the era. The only disadvantage compared to the earlier Dash 7 was somewhat higher noise levels, but only in comparison as the Dash 7 was notable in the industry for extremely low noise due to its four very large and slow-turning propellers.

  • Length: 107 ft 9 in (32.84 m)
  • Wingspan: 93 ft 3 in (32.84 m)
  • Height: 27 ft 5 in (8.34 m)
  • Powerplant: 2× Pratt & Whitney Canada PW150A turboprops, 5,071 shp (3,781 kW) each
  • Cruise speed: 360 knots (414 mph, 667 km/h)
  • Maiden Flight: June 20, 1983

Today in Aviation

December 13

  • 2011 – The engine of an unarmed, contractor-operated U.S. Air Force MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicle fails two minutes after takeoff from Seychelles International Airport on Mahé in the Seychelles. The Reaper descends too quickly while its operator attempts an emergency landing at the airport, touches down too far along the runway, bounces over a perimeter road and breakwater, and crashes and sinks in the Indian Ocean about 200 feet (61 meters) offshore.[3]
  • 1995 – Banat Air Flight 166, a Romavia Antonov An-24 (registered YR-AMR), crashes after taking off from Verona airport, because of overloading and ice accumulation on the wings. All 4 crew and all 45 passengers die.
  • 1994 – American Eagle Flight 3379, a Jetstream 31, crashed 5 miles short of the runway in Raleigh-Durham, killing 15 of the 20 on board. The night flight crashed due to an engine failure and not following the proper procedures after it.
  • 1993 – Lockheed U-2R, 68-10339, Article 061, eleventh airframe of initial R-model order of twelve, N819X allocated, delivered to USAF 22 October 1968, but retained for trials. Delivered to 100th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing by early 1972. To 9th SRW, 1976. On take-off, this date, from Beale AFB, California, jet goes out of control, experienced U-2 Instructor Pilot Capt. Richard Schneider ejects but does not survive.
  • 1977 – University of Evansville men’s basketball team plane crash occurred when a DC-3 aircraft chartered from the Indianapolis-based National Jet crashed on takeoff at the Evansville Regional Airport, killing 29, including the University of Evansville basketball team, support staff and boosters of the team.
  • 1972 – Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt begin the third and final Extra-vehicular activity (EVA) or “Moonwalk” of Apollo 17. This was the last manned mission to the moon of the 20th century.
  • 1971 – The RCAF’s 436 Squadron Hercules was fired on by the Indian Navy over the Bay of Bengal.
  • 1968 – USAF Martin B-57E Canberra 54-4284 of the 8th Tactical Bombardment Squadron, 35th Tactical Fighter Wing, has mid-air collision with Fairchild C-123B-5-FA Provider 54-0600 over Xieng Khovang, southern Laos, all three crew of the B-57 KWF, pilot of C-123 survives bail-out, lands in tree, rescued by an HH-3, but six others are KWF.
  • 1955 – The de Havilland Comet 3, the world’s first jet airliner, visits an American airport for the first time when it stops at Honolulu International Airport during an around-the-world flight. It then flies to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, in 5 hours 39 min.
  • 1948 – A blade on the starboard rotor of the second prototype Bratukhin B-11 Soviet twin-rotor helicopter fails, and the subsequent crash kills the two crew.
  • 1944 – As the U. S. Navy Mindoro Attack Force is about to round the southern cape of Negros to enter the Sulu Sea, a Japanese Aichi D3 A (Allied reporting name “Val”) dive bomber operating as a kamikaze hits the light cruiser USS Nashville (CL-43), flagship for the Mindoro invasion, badly damaging her, wounding ground forces commander Brigadier General William C. Dunckel, and killing and wounding members of his staff. Another kamikaze badly damages a destroyer.
  • 1944 – (13–17) Six U. S. Navy escort carriers provide direct support for the U. S. invasion of Mindoro. They fly 864 sorties, losing nine planes, none to enemy action.
  • 1943 – North American’s P-51 B Mustangs accompany 651 heavy bombers to U-boat pens at Kiel, Germany. Three days later a Mustang downs a German fighter for the first time.
  • 1943 – Since November 14, the Japanese have lost 122 aircraft based in the Marshall Islands.
  • 1942 – U. S. Navy PBY Catalina flying boats begin night harassment raids against Munda airfield.
  • 1939 – A Fairey Seafox floatplane catapulted from the British light cruiser HMS Ajax spots fire for her guns while she fires on the German “pocket battleship” Admiral Graf Spee during the Battle of the River Plate. It is the first time in World War II that a ship-based seaplane spots gunfire for a Royal Navy ship and is considered a classic example of the use of a floatplane in such a role; the pilot, Lieutenant E. D. G. Lewin, receives the Distinguished Service Cross for the action. The Seafox goes on to conduct reconnaissance flights over the Admiral Graf Spee daily until her crew scuttles her on December 17.
  • 1935 – A U.S. Army Air Corps officer is killed in the crash of a Boeing P-12F, 32-100, of the 36th Pursuit Squadron, 3 miles E of Dale, South Carolina, while en route from Langley Field, Virginia, to Miami, Florida for an air race and exhibition. Maj. Arthur K. Ladd was the assistant supply officer for the General Headquarters Air Force. Fairbanks Air Base, Fairbanks, Alaska, is renamed Ladd Field on 1 December 1939.
  • 1913 – 13-14 – German balloonist Hugo Kaulen stays aloft for 87 hours. This record lasted until 1935.
  • 1872 – Paul Haenlein tests the first airship with a gas engine in Brünn, achieving 19 km/h. The tests were stopped because of a shortage of money.

References

  1. ^ Winnie Mae
  2. ^ Associated Press, "Japan: Chinese Plane Seen Over Disputed Islands," The Washington Post, December 14, 2012, p. A10.
  3. ^ Whitlock, Craig, "Drone Crashes Pile Up Abroad," The Washington Post, December 1, 2012, p. A8.
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