Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/May 9

May 9

• crashes on Mount Salak on Java in Indonesia
  during a demonstration flight for airline representatives and journalists, killing all 45 people on board. Its wreckage is discovered on 10 May.

• 2004 – Southwest Airlines begins service to Philadelphia International Airport in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

• American Eagle Flight 5401
  is damaged by high winds during landing in San Juan, Puerto Rico, injuring 13 people.

• Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency to return a sample of material from a small near-Earth asteroid named 25143 Itokawa to Earth
  for further analysis.

• 2003 – UH-60A Black Hawk 86-24507 of 571st Medical Company (AA) crashes into Tigris River, the vicinity of Samarrah, Iraq killing two pilots and crew chief. One more soldier was injured.^[1]

• 1991 – Death of Aviard Gavrilovich Fastovets, Soviet test pilot.

• LOT Flight 5055
  , an Ilyushin Il-62M, crashes near Warsaw during landing because of engine failure. All 183 passengers and crew members perish in the worst ever accident involving the Ilyushin Il-62.

• Air Force C-141 crew from the 18th Military Airlift Squadron, McGuire Air Force Base, New Jersey
  .

• 1981 – Second prototype of Dornier 228 200 (E-2 extended version, twin-turboprop STOL utility aircraft), makes its first flight.

• Lieutenant Commander
  D. R. Taylor had developed the ramp.

• 1981 – Thunderbird 6 a United States Air Force Northrop T-38A Talon of the Thunderbirds demonstration team crashed during a display at Hill AFB, Utah, United States, pilot killed.

• hang-glider
  .

• WWI flying ace
  .

• structural failure of its left wing in flight, killing the 17 people on board. The accident investigation determined that a lightning strike had caused an explosion in a fuel tank
  in the wing, leading to flutter and the separation of the wing.

• 1967 – First flight of the Fokker F28 Fellowship, Dutch short range jet airliner.

• uncrewed space mission of the Luna program, also called Lunik
  5.

• 1964 – de Havilland’s Chief Test Pilot Bob Fowler took the first flight of the Cariboo.

• 1964 – A Republic F-105B-15-RE Thunderchief, 57-5801, Thunderbird 2, one of nine delivered to the Thunderbirds demonstration team in mid-April 1964, suffers structural failure and disintegrates during 6G tactical pitch up for landing at airshow at Hamilton AFB, California, killing pilot Capt. Eugene J. Devlin. The failure of the fuselage's upper spine causes the USAF to ground all F-105s and retrofit the fleet with a structural brace, but the air demonstration team reverts to the North American F-100 Super Sabre and never flies another show in F-105s.

• S-64 Skycrane
  .

• 1960 – First flight of the Auster D.6 G-25-10.

• 1958 – A USAF North American F-100F-10-NA Super Sabre, serial number 56-3810, crashed 8 miles (13 km) NNE of Kadena AB,Japan. Instructor/test Pilot:Capt Theodore Christos and rear seat pilot Capt James Looney ejected but were killed. Crash Investigation Board report indicated cause of crash was undetermined.

• 1957 – Boeing KC-97F-55-BO Stratotanker, 51-0258, c/n 16325, en route from Sidi Slimane Air Base, Morocco, to Terceira-Lajes AFB, Azores, ditches at 0616 hrs. in the Atlantic 550 km (343.8 mls) SE of the Azores Islands following a double engine failure, no fatalities amongst the seven crew. The airplane floated for ten days and was sunk by USS Wisconsin.

• 1957 – 1st Lt. David Steeves departs Hamilton AFB, California for Craig AFB, Alabama, in T-33A-1-LO Shooting Star, 52-9232, and disappears without a trace. Declared dead by the Air Force, he emerges from the Kings Canyon National Park in the Sierra Nevada mountains 54 days later, having ejected from the jet after an in-flight emergency. He stumbled on a ranger cabin during his ordeal where he found fish hooks, a canned ham and a can of beans. Unable to locate the downed trainer, officials eye him with suspicion and rumors that he traded to jet to the Russians, or flew it to Mexico, dog the pilot and ruin his military career. He returns to civilian life and eventually dies in an aircraft accident in 1965. Finally, in 1977, Boy Scouts hiking in the national park discover the canopy of his T-33, too late to vindicate the pilot's story and reputation.

• 1954 – First flight of the Goodyear GA-400R Gizmo, an American one man helicopter for liaison and observation.

• 1952 – Death of Elia Antonio Liut, Italian Aviation pioneer.

• 1952 – French Leduc 0.16 research ramjet again suffers landing gear collapse on touchdown and is damaged. After several more flights in 1954, it will be retired to the Musée de l'Air.

• 1952 – Maj. Neil H. Lathrop attempts low-level aileron roll in second prototype Martin XB-51-MA, 46-686, crashes at end of runway at Edwards AFB, California with fatal result.

• Cosmonaut
  .

• rocket engines
  for added thrust during climb and interception.

• 1948 – First flight of the Aeronova A. E. R.1, Italian road-able monoplane.

• tricycle undercarriage
  .

• aircraft carriers HMS Formidable and HMS Victorious
  .

• US aircraft carrier USS Wasp and the Royal Navy carrier HMS Eagle
  .

• U.S. Army Air Forces similar to the Royal Air Force’s Coastal Command. His proposal eventually will lead to the establishment of the Army Air Forces Antisubmarine Command
  .

• bombing raid at RAF Wittering
  .

• Soviet fighter aircraft
  .

• twin-engine, experimental pressurized airplane, first American aircraft to feature cabin pressurization. It was initially described as a 'supercharged cabin' by the Army, development of the Lockheed Model 10 Electra
  .

• German airship Hindenburg lands at Lakehurst, New Jersey after its first scheduled transatlantic flight
  .

• de Havilland Aircraft Company as a potential replacement for its highly successful de Havilland Tiger Moth
  trainer.

• 1933 – First flight of the Vought XF3U-1, an American two-seat, all-metal biplane fighter prototype.

• Albert Hegenberger makes the first completely blind solo flight entirely on instruments, in a Consolidated NY-2
  .

• Vance DeVoe Brand, American engineer and former test pilot and NASA astronaut
  .

• Spitzbergen, Norway
  is 1,600 miles (2,575 km).

• 1923 – First flight of the: Blériot 115, a French 4 engine 8 passengers biplane airliner.

• Hilo. Two days after the crash, Clark and Gray emerge from the Hawaiian jungle unhurt. According to Harold Richards in "The History of Army Aviation in Hawaii", Clark accomplished another "first" on this flight as he had agreed to deliver two letters from Oahu
  residents to their relatives on Hawaii. After emerging from the jungle, Clark delivers the letters to their intended recipients. Thus, Clark carried the first letters by airmail in the Hawaiian Islands.

• fighter ace René Fonck
  shoots down 6 German aircraft that day.

• 1917 – Death of Wilhelm Cymera, German WWI flying ace, killed in action.

• 1917 – French ace René Fonck shoots down six German aircraft in a day.

• 1916 – Using a bombsight developed by Bourdillon and Tizard, a British Short 184 seaplane hits a target in with a 500 pound bomb from a height of 4,000 feet.

• WWII
  Italian pilot.

• Grahame-White Type X Charabanc (or Aerobus) at Hendon
  .

• Charles Samson becomes the first person to fly an aircraft off the deck of a moving ship. He takes off in a Short S.38 from the deck of HMS Hibernia in Weymouth Bay
  .