Portal:Aviation

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The Aviation Portal

A Boeing 747

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

Rear view of CFM56-5
Rear view of CFM56-5
The CFM International CFM56 series is a family of high-bypass turbofan aircraft engines made by CFM International with a thrust range of 18,500 to 34,000 pound-force (lbf) (80 to 150 kilonewtons (kN)). CFMI is a 50–50 joint-owned company of SNECMA and GE Aviation. Both companies are responsible for producing components and each has its own final assembly line. The CFM56 first ran in 1974 and, despite initial political problems, is now one of the most prolific jet engine types in the world: more than 20,000 have been built in four major variants. It is most widely used on the Boeing 737 airliner and under military designation F108 replaced the Pratt & Whitney JT3D engines on many KC-135 Stratotankers in the 1980s, creating the KC-135R variant of this aircraft. It is also one of two engines used to power the Airbus A340, the other being the Rolls-Royce Trent. The engine is also fitted to Airbus A320 series aircraft. Several fan blade failure incidents were experienced during the CFM56's early service, including one failure that was noted as a cause of the Kegworth air disaster, and some variants of the engine experienced problems caused by flight through rain and hail. However, both these issues were resolved with engine modifications. (Full article...)

Selected image

Credit: U.S. Air Force
The Ryan X-13 Vertijet was designed to explore the feasibility of a pure-jet vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) fighter aircraft. Here, the X-13 is about to moor itself to a dual-role flatbed transport/launch trailer.

Did you know

...that during the Winter War, a Swedish fundraising drive paid for the purchase of a Fokker F.VIII airliner for the Finnish Air Force? ...that Frenchman Jean-Marie Le Bris accomplished the world's first powered flight in 1856, with a glider that was pulled behind a running horse? .. that five UH-1 Iroquois helicopters of the Experimental Military Unit were shot down by a single Viet Cong soldier armed with an AK-47 rifle?

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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Selected biography

Elizabeth 'Bessie' Coleman (January 26, 1892 – April 30, 1926), popularly known as "Queen Bess", was the first African American (male or female) to become an airplane pilot, and the first American of any race or gender to hold an international pilot license. Growing up in Chicago, she heard tales of the world from pilots who were returning home from World War I. They told stories about flying in the war, and Coleman started to fantasize about being a pilot. She could not gain admission to American flight schools because she was black and a woman. No black U.S. aviator would train her either. Coleman took French language class at the Berlitz school in Chicago, and then traveled to Paris on November 20, 1920. Coleman learned to fly in a Nieuport Type 82 biplane.

Selected Aircraft

Concorde at Heathrow
Concorde at Heathrow

Aérospatiale-BAC Concorde supersonic transport (SST), along with the Tupolev Tu-144, was one of only two models of supersonic passenger airliners to have seen commercial service.

Concorde had a cruise speed of Mach 2.02 (around 2170 km/h or 1,350 mph) and a maximum cruise altitude of 60,000 feet (18 300 metres) with a delta wing configuration and a reheat-equipped evolution of the engines originally developed for the Avro Vulcan strategic bomber. The engines were built by Rolls-Royce. Concorde was the first civil airliner to be equipped with an analogue fly-by-wire flight control system. Commercial flights, operated by British Airways and Air France, began on January 21, 1976 and ended on October 24, 2003, with the last "retirement" flight on November 26 that year.

Construction of the first two prototypes began in February 1965. Concorde 001 was built by Aerospatiale at Toulouse and Concorde 002 by BAC at Filton, Bristol. Concorde 001 took off for the first test flight from Toulouse on March 2, 1969 and the first supersonic flight followed on October 1. As the flight programme of the first development aircraft progressed, 001 started off on a sales and demonstration tour beginning on September 4, 1971. Concorde 002 followed suit on June 2, 1972 with a sales tour of the Middle and Far East. Concorde 002 made the first visit to the United States in 1973, landing at the new Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport to commemorate its opening.

  • Span: 84 ft 0 in (25.6 m).
  • Length: 202 ft 4 in[2] (61.66 m)
  • Height: 40 ft 0 in (12.2 m )
  • Engines: 4× Rolls-Royce/SNECMA Olympus 593 Mk 610 afterburning turbojets 170 kN each.
  • Cruising Speed: Mach 2.04 (1,350 mph, 2,170 km/h)
  • First Flight: March 2, 1969
  • Number built: 20 (including prototypes)

Today in Aviation

May 15

  • 2009 – A Fuerza Aérea Colombiana Dassault Mirage 5COAM (FAC-3031) on a routine training flight from the Comando Aéreo de Combate No. 1, crashed shortly after take-off from the Palanquero airbase, Puerto Salgar, Cundinamarca Department, Colombia. The aircraft from the Escuadrón de Combate 112 suffered a technical fault causing a fire which forced the pilot to successfully eject from the plane without injury.
  • 2009 – An Indian Air Force Mikoyan MiG-27 Flogger crashed shortly after take-off and the pilot successfully ejected from the aircraft. The accident occurred near the Konkani village, Jodhpur, India and resulted in injuries to 7 local villagers.
  • 1997 – Launch: Space Shuttle Atlantis STS-125 at 4:07:48.62 am EST. Mission highlights: Shuttle-Mir docking.
  • 1989 – US Navy North American CT-39E Sabreliner, BuNo 158383, 'JK', of VRC-40, NAS Norfolk, Virginia, runs off runway at Andrews AFB, Maryland, at 1100 hrs. Crew of four and one passenger uninjured.
  • 1987 – The Soviet Union launches the Polyus spacecraft prototype orbital weapons platform. It fails to reach orbit.
  • 1981 – Prototype of an improved variant PZL-106 Kruk (Polish agricultural aircraft) was flown with redesigned wings using shorter struts.
  • 1970 – The Dymshits – Kuznetsov aircraft hijacking affair (Leningrad Process) was an attempt to hijack a civilian aircraft by a group of Soviet refuseniks in order to escape to the West.
  • 1965 – The U. S. Navy deploys its first aircraft carrier to Dixie Station in the South China Sea off South Vietnam’s Mekong Delta. It is a single-carrier station for the provision of air support in South Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, and will remain in use until August 1966.
  • 1962 – During refuelling at Whiteman AFB, Missouri, Boeing B-47E-135-BW Stratojet, 53-6230, of 340th Bomb Wing catches fire, 10,000 gallons of fuel ignite. Four firemen are killed and 18 others injured when fireball engulfs all within 100 feet of burning aircraft.
  • 1958 – The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 3. It carried a large array of instruments for geophysical research. Its tape recorder failed, making it unable to measure the Van Allen radiation belts.
  • 1956 – Fifth Lockheed U-2A, Article 345, 56-6678, delivered to the CIA on 16 December 1955, crashes at Groom Lake, Nevada, killing Agency pilot Wilburn S. "Billy" Rose. Aircraft had just departed Groom with a full fuel load, but an underwing pogo hung up. Pilot attempted to return to try to shake it loose, but let angle of bank increase too much and fully fuelled starboard wing kept dropping.
  • 1956 – A RCAF Avro CF-100 Mk. IVB Canuck, 18367, of 445 Squadron, out of CFB Uplands, falling from 33,000 feet (10,000 m) crashed into Villa St. Louis, a convent of the Grey Nuns of the Cross in Orleans, Ontario, Canada at roughly 2300 hrs. (reports vary). 15 people were killed; both crewmen of the aircraft, a priest, 11 nuns and one other woman.
  • 1953 – An errant United States Air Force Republic F-84E-30-RE Thunderjet, 51-628, of the 22d Fighter-Bomber Squadron, 36th Fighter-Bomber Group, collides with two USAF C-119 Flying Boxcars of the 10th Troop Carrier Squadron, 60th Troop Carrier Group, flying in formation near Weinheim, Germany, sending all three planes down in flames. Fairchild C-119C Flying Boxcar, 51-8235, was struck by the fighter, which then hit struck C-119C, 51-8241, three Flying Boxcar crew killed, three injured. F-84 pilot James W. Chilton parachutes to safety.
  • 1945 – Aircraft from the British aircraft carrier HMS Emperor attack the Japanese heavy cruiser Haguro in the Indian Ocean, but achieve only one near-miss.
  • 1944 – Ex-RAF de Havilland Mosquito B.IV, DK296, formerly flown by 105 Squadron as 'GB-G', delivered to the Soviet Union for testing on 19 April 1944 by Soviet flight crew, is written off this date in landing accident at Sverdlovsk when pilot A. I. Kabanov loses control with engines at low power setting, turns to port, runs off runway, shears off undercarriage and skids to a stop on its belly. Pilot and navigator P. I. Perevalov unhurt. This was the ninth flight of DK296 (which never received a Soviet serial) since it arrived in Russia and was the only Mosquito delivered to Russia. Kabanov was the Deputy Director of the Scientific Research Institute of the Air Force at this time, and had much experience flying foreign types
  • 1940 – During British evacuation and demolition operations in Dutch ports, German dive bombers attack the British destroyer HMS Valentine, which is beached and wrecked at the mouth of the Scheldt.
  • 1923 – First course of Provisional Pilot Officers began training at Camp Borden.
  • 1921 – Laura Bromwell loops in New York State 199 times in 1 h, 20 min, setting a new women’s record for consecutive loops.

References

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


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