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A Boeing 747 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

J-3 aircraft with CAP markings

The Civil Air Patrol is the official civilian auxiliary of the United States Air Force. It was created just days before the Attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, and is credited with sinking at least two German U-boats during the War. It was seen as a way to use America's civil aviation resources to aid the war effort, rather than grounding them, as was the case in the United Kingdom. Today, the Civil Air Patrol is a volunteer organization dedicated to education and national service, including people from all backgrounds and all walks of life. It performs three key missions: Emergency services (including search and rescue), aerospace education for youth and the general public, and cadet programs. The September 11, 2001 attacks demonstrated the importance of the Civil Air Patrol, as it was this organization's aircraft that flew blood to victims of the attack as well as providing the first aerial pictures of the World Trade Center site. (Full article...)

More selected articles

Selected image

Airbus A330

Picture: Sergey Kustov

The Airbus A330 is a wide-body twin-engine jet airliner made by Airbus which was introduced in 1994. The A330-200, such as pictured here in Aeroflot livery, entered service in 1998 and was considerably more popular than the earlier A330-300. In December 2012 there were 476 A330-200s in operation.

Did you know

...that sailplane winglets were first successfully implemented by American inventor Peter Masak? ...that the Alexander Aircraft Company, which produced Eaglerock biplanes in Colorado, was the largest aircraft manufacturer in the world for a brief period between 1928 and 1929? ... that in the middle of building Fagernes Airport, Leirin, the authorities changed their minds and gave the airport more than twice the runway length?

General images -

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

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  Clément Ader Avion III (1897 photograph) (from History of aviation)
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  German Taube monoplane, illustration from 1917 (from History of aviation)
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  Apollo 11 lifts off on its mission to land a man on the Moon (from History of aviation)
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  1928 issue of Popular Aviation (now Flying magazine), which became the largest aviation magazine with a circulation of 100,000. (from History of aviation)
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  First failure of Langley's manned Aerodrome on the Potomac River, 7 October 1903 (from History of aviation)
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  The Biot-Massia glider, restored and on display in the Musee de l'Air (from History of aviation)
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  Daedalus working on Icarus' wings (from History of aviation)
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  The 14-bis, or Oiseau de proie (from History of aviation)
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  Robinson R22, a light piston-engine helicopter (from General aviation)
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  General aviation aircraft at Cheb Airport in Czech Republic (from General aviation)
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  D.H. Comet, the world's first jet airliner. As in this picture, it also saw RAF service (from History of aviation)
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  Qantas De Havilland biplane, c. 1930 (from History of aviation)
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  Flagg biplane from 1933 (from History of aviation)
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  Maxim's flying machine (from History of aviation)
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  The economy class cabin of an Airbus A350 (from Wide-body aircraft)
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  French reconnaissance balloon L'Intrépide of 1796, the oldest existing flying device, in the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum, Vienna (from History of aviation)
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  Woodcut print of a kite from John Bate's 1635 book The Mysteryes of Nature and Art (from History of aviation)
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  The Aeroplane of Victor Tatin, 1879. (from History of aviation)
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  Jean-Marie Le Bris and his flying machine, Albatros II, 1868 (from History of aviation)
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  Map of record breaking flights of the 1920s (from History of aviation)
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  First female combat pilot, Sabiha Gökçen, reviews her Breguet 19 (from History of aviation)
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  Alberto Santos-Dumont flying the Demoiselle over Paris (from History of aviation)
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  Experimental 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)
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  Me 262, world first operational jet fighter (from History of aviation)
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  Leonardo da Vinci's ornithopter design (from History of aviation)
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  La France flying in 1885 (from History of aviation)
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  The Wright Military Flyer aboard a wagon in 1908 (from History of aviation)
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  "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)
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  Santos-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)
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  Planophore model aeroplane by Alphonse Pénaud, 1871 (from History of aviation)
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  Concorde, 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)
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  Otto Lilienthal, 29 May 1895 (from History of aviation)
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  Félix du Temple's 1874 Monoplane (from History of aviation)
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  Nieuport 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)
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  The business class cabin on an A350 (from Wide-body aircraft)
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  One of Leonardo's sketches (from History of aviation)
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  "Governable parachute" design of 1852 (from History of aviation)
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  Sailplane, a Rolladen-Schneider LS4 (from General aviation)
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  Cessna CitationJet/M2, part of the Citation family of business jets (from General aviation)
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  Early Voisin biplane (from History of aviation)
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  1843 artist's impression of John Stringfellow's plane Ariel flying over the Nile (from History of aviation)
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  Cathay Pacific's first class cabin on board a Boeing 747-400 (from Wide-body aircraft)
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  The Wright Flyer: the first sustained flight with a powered, controlled aircraft (from History of aviation)

In the news

Wikinews Aviation portal

• 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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  Collection of quotations

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  Wiktionary
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Selected biography

Charles Elwood "Chuck" Yeager (born February 13, 1923) is a retired Brigadier-General in the United States Air Force and a noted test pilot. In 1947, he became the first pilot (at age 24) to travel faster than sound in level flight and ascent.

His career began in World War II as a private in the U.S. Army Air Forces. After serving as an aircraft mechanic, in September 1942 he entered enlisted pilot training and upon graduation was promoted to the rank of Flight Officer (WW 2 U.S. Army Air Forces rank equivalent to Warrant Officer) and became a P-51 Mustang fighter pilot. After the war he became a test pilot of many kinds of aircraft and rocket planes. Yeager was the first man to break the sound barrier on October 14, 1947, flying the experimental Bell X-1 at Mach 1 at an altitude of 45,000 ft (13,700 m). Although Scott Crossfield was the first man to fly faster than Mach 2 in 1953, Yeager shortly thereafter exceeded Mach 2.4. He later commanded fighter squadrons and wings in Germany and in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War, and in recognition of the outstanding performance ratings of those units he then was promoted to Brigadier-General. Yeager's flying career spans more than sixty years and has taken him to every corner of the globe, even into the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War.

Selected Aircraft

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

Today in Aviation

July 14

• 2013 – Pakistan Air Force jets bomb at least seven Islamist militant hideouts in Pakistan, killing at least 17 insurgents and injuring at least 13.

• 2009 – Airfast Indonesia, Garuda Indonesia, Mandala Airlines and Premiair are removed from the European Commission blacklist.

• 2009 – American airline Pet Airways commences operations.
• 2008 – First flight of the Boeing 777F

• 2007 – An OH-58 Kiowa 95-0002 crashes into power lines in Mosul, killing the pilot and injuring the copilot.

• 2004 – (14-20) The 14th FAI World Rally Flying Championship in Herning, Denmark. Individual winners: 1. Jiří Filip & Michal Filip (Czech), 2. František Cihlář & Milos Fiala (Czech), 3. Krzysztof Wieczorek & Krzysztof Skrętowicz (Poland); team winners: 1. Czech Republic, 2. Poland, 3. France.

• 1996 – NATO Boeing E-3B Sentry AWACS, LX-N90457, c/n 22852, ex-79-0457, overruns runway into sea on take-off from Preveza AFB, Preveza, Greece. Fuselage breaks in two, but no casualties among crew of 16. Aircraft had rolled out at Boeing Renton, Washington plant on 21 April 1984, first flown 5 June 1984. Delivered to NATO on 19 December 1984 after AEW suite fitted out by Dornier.

• 1993 – Introduction: Boeing C-17 Globemaster III

• 1988 – First flight of the SOCATA TBM F-WTBM

• 1998 – Death of Mark Lasarewitsch Gallai, sovietic WWII pilot, Testpilot and engineer.

• 1982 – Death of Marcel Anatole Hugues, French WWI flying ace and WWII pilot.

• 1982 – First flight of the Harbin Y-12, Chinese high wing twin-engine turboprop utility aircraft.

• 1978 – After receiving orders from United Airlines, Boeing begins full-scale development of the Boeing 767.

• 1974 – Death of Carl Andrew "Tooey" Spaatz, WWI pilot, American WWII general and First Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force.

• 1971 – First flight of the VFW-Fokker 614

• 1965 – The Mariner 4 flyby of Mars takes the First close-up photos of another planet.

• 1960 – Lockheed U-2A, 56-6720, Article 387, the 27th airframe of the first USAF production batch, delivered in October 1957 and assigned to the 4080th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing, Laughlin AFB, Texas, as a "ferret" aircraft, crashes this date in the early morning ~30 miles NE of Laughlin. Pilot Maj. Raleigh Myers experiences an oxygen fire in the cockpit after a pressure-reducing switch fails, ignited by the 24-volt power supply line to the switch. He bails out at 24,000 feet (7,300 m), escaping safely. The oxygen supply system is subsequently redesigned.

• 1959 – Maj V Ilyushin sets a new altitude record of 28,852 m (94,659 ft) in the Sukhoi T-431

• 1955 – Vought F7U-3 Cutlass, BuNo 129595, 'D 412', of VF-124, suffers ramp strike on landing aboard USS Hancock during carrier qualifications off of the California coast, disintegrating airframe spins off portside; pilot LCDR Jay Alkire, USNR, executive officer of VF-124, killed when airframe sinks, still strapped into ejection seat; also killed are two boatswain's mates, one photographers mate, in port catwalk by burning fuel. Dramatic footage shot from port catwalk exists showing burning fighter going over the side. Footage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CT670dAzfo

• 1954 – First prototype Handley Page Victor bomber, WB771, is lost when the tailplane detaches while making a low-level pass over the runway at Cranfield, causing the aircraft to crash with the loss of the crew. Attached to the fin using three bolts, the tailplane was subject to considerably more stress than had been anticipated and the three bolts failed due to metal fatigue.

• 1954 – First flight of the McDonnell XV-1

• 1951 – First flight of the Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation.

• 1949 – A Fairchild C-82A-15-FA Packet, 44-23014, c/n 10058, crashes into a parking lot in Area B of Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio. While conducting routine drop testing in Area C of the base, the C-82 attempted an emergency landing in Area B. With its electrical system down and the right engine on fire, the plane landed ~three-quarters down the runway, running off the end of the runway across a grassy area, plowing through a steel fence, and ran over a number of cars in the main parking lot near Highway 4 before flipping onto its back. Firecrews were on the scene immediately. The only person killed was MSgt Lubitz, Flight Test Division, who jumped from the plane just before it hit the fence. The other four crew were only slightly injured and no one on the ground was hurt.

• 1948 – Vampire F3 s of No. 54 Squadron RAF became the first jet aircraft to fly across the Atlantic Ocean. The six aircraft, commanded by Wg Cdr D S Wilson-MacDonald, DSO, DFC, go via Stornoway, Iceland and Labrador to Montreal on the first leg of a goodwill tour of Canada and the US where they gave several formation aerobatic displays.

• 1948 – First flight of The Supermarine Seagull ASR-1, British amphibious prototype, military flying boat and last to be built by the Supermarine company.

• 1948 – Silver City Airways makes the first car-carrying flight between England and France.

• 1945 – Task Force 38 carrier aircraft fly 1,391 sorties against targets in northern Honshu and Hokkaido, Japan, without any Japanese air opposition. They destroy 25 Japanese aircraft, sink three destroyers, eight naval auxiliaries, and 20 merchant ships, and damage a destroyer, three escort craft, and 21 merchant ships.

• 1944 – (14–15) Saipan-based U. S. Navy PB4Y-1 Liberators of Bomber Squadron 109 (VB-109) raid Iwo Jima, Chichi Jima, and Haha Jima.

• 1944 – United States Army Air Forces Chief of Staff General Henry H. “Hap” Arnold recommends to joint planners that the United States capture the island of Iwo Jima to provide an emergency landing strip for B-29 Superfortress heavy bombers and a base for P-51 Mustang fighters for the strategic bombing campaign against Japan.

• 1940 – In retaliation for the British attacks at Mers-el-Kébir and Dakar, French bombers again attack Gibraltar, but most of their bombs fall into the sea.

• 1938 – Howard Hughes flies a Lockheed 14N around the world in 3 days 19 hours, to and from Floyd Bennett Field New York, more than halving the time that Wiley Post took to make the trip.

• 1937 – Mikhail Gromov, A. B. Yumashev and S. A. Danilin established a new non-stop flight distance record of 10,148 km (6,306 mi) from Moscow to San Jacinto, California, U. S., via the North Pole in a Tupolev ANT-25.

• 1936 – First flight of the Kawanishi H6K (Allied reporting name “Mavis”).

• 1936 – Birth of Robert Franklyn Overmyer, USMC test pilot and NASA astronaut.

• 1936 – The British Royal Air Force is re-organised on functional grounds and RAF Fighter Command, RAF Bomber Command, RAF Coastal Command, and RAF Training Command are established.

• 1933 – July 14-22, Wiley Post, flying a Lockheed Vega, makes the first around the world solo flight. His flight begins and ends at Floyd Bennett Field in New York, with stops at Berlin, Moscow, Irkutsk and Alaska – A total distance of 25,099 km (15,596 miles).

• 1922 – Birth of Robin Olds, American fighter pilot and general officer in the U. S. Air Force. He was a "triple ace", with a combined total of 16 victories in WWII and the Vietnam War.

• 1919 – A Fiat BR makes the first direct flight from Rome to Paris.

• 1919 – To protest against the fact that pilots have to parade on foot at the World War I victory parade on the Champs-Elysées in Paris, French pilot Charles Godefroy flies his Nieuport fighter under the arches of the Arc de Triomphe.

• 1918 – Serving as a fighter pilot in the United States Army Air Service’s 95th Aero Squadron, Second Lieutenant Quentin Roosevelt, the youngest son of former U. S. President Theodore Roosevelt, is shot down and killed at Chamery, France, by a German fighter while flying a Nieuport 28.

• 1917 – Death of Thomas (Tom) Wesley Benoist, American aviation pioneer who started the First scheduled aircraft service, founder of Benoist Aircraft Co.

• 1916 – First flight of The Bristol M.1 Monoplane Scout, British WWI monoplane fighter.

• 1915 – Death of Lawrence Hargrave, British engineer, explorer, astronomer, inventor and aeronautical pioneer.

• 1913 – First flight of the Cody Floatplane (also referred to as the Cody Hydro-biplane) was designed and built as an entrant in the 1913 Daily Mail Circuit of Britain race.

• 1913 – Death of Léonce Bertin, French aircraft designer, killed with his son René in the crash of his Bertin Monoplane.

• 1914 – Dr. Robert H. Goddard is granted a patent for his liquid fuel rocket engine.

• 1905 – Orville Wright has a serious crash with Wright Flyer III, upon which the Wright Brothers radically alter the aircraft. The front rudder is mainly the culprit for the Flyer’s insistent pitching.

• 1877 – Birth of Karl Illner, Austrian aviation pioneer.

References

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