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Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. Aircraft include 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. Clément Ader built the "Ader Éole" in France and made an uncontrolled, powered hop in 1890. This was the first powered aircraft, although it did not achieve controlled flight. Some of the most significant advancements in aviation technology came with the controlled gliding flying of Otto Lilienthal in 1896. A major leap followed with the construction of the Wright Flyer, 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 engine which enabled aviation to become a major form of transport throughout the world. In 2024, there were 9.5 billion passengers worldwide according to the ICAO. Air travel is not universal. In fact, in 2018, estimates suggest that only 11% of the world’s population traveled by air, with at most 4% taking international flights. (Full article...)
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Wind shear itself is a microscale meteorological phenomenon occurring over a very small distance, but it can be associated with mesoscale or synoptic scale weather features such as squall lines and cold fronts. It is commonly observed near microbursts and downbursts caused by thunderstorms, weather fronts, areas of locally higher low level winds referred to as low level jets, near mountains, radiation inversions that occur due to clear skies and calm winds, buildings, wind turbines, and sailboats. Wind shear has a significant effect during take-off and landing of aircraft due to their effects on steering of the aircraft, and was a significant cause of aircraft accidents involving large loss of life within the United States.
Sound movement through the atmosphere is affected by wind shear, which can bend the wave front, causing sounds to be heard where they normally would not, or vice versa. Strong vertical wind shear within the troposphere also inhibits tropical cyclone development, but helps to organize individual thunderstorms into living longer life cycles which can then produce severe weather. The thermal wind concept explains with how differences in wind speed with height are dependent on horizontal temperature differences, and explains the existence of the jet stream. (Full article...)
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Did you know

...that the Fokker Spin (pictured) was the first aircraft built by Anthony Fokker, in which he taught himself to fly and earned his pilot license?

...that the asymmetrical monoplane BV 141 is one of many military aircraft designed by Richard Vogt?
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In the news
- 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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The Wright brothers, Orville Wright (August 19, 1871 - January 30, 1948) and Wilbur Wright (April 16, 1867 - May 30, 1912), are generally credited with making the first controlled, powered, heavier-than-air flight on December 17, 1903. In the two years afterward, they developed their flying machine into the world's first practical airplane, along with many other aviation milestones.
In 1878 Wilbur and Orville were given a toy "helicopter" by their father. The device was made of paper, bamboo and cork with a rubber band to twirl its twin blades, and about a foot long. The boys played with it until it broke, then built their own. In later years, they pointed to their experience with the toy as the initial spark of their interest in flying.
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The VZ-9 Avrocar (full military designation VZ-9-AV) was a Canadian VTOL aircraft developed by Avro Aircraft Ltd. as part of a secret U.S. military project carried out in the early years of the Cold War.[1] The Avrocar intended to exploit the Coandă effect to provide lift and thrust from a single "turborotor" blowing exhaust out the rim of the disk-shaped aircraft to provide anticipated VTOL-like performance. In the air, it would have resembled a flying saucer. Two prototypes were built as "proof-of-concept" test vehicles for a more advanced USAF fighter and also for a U.S. Army tactical combat aircraft requirement.[2] In flight testing, the Avrocar proved to have unresolved thrust and stability problems that limited it to a degraded, low-performance flight envelope; subsequently, the project was cancelled in 1961.
- Diameter:18 ft (5.486 m)
- Height: 3 ft 6 in (1.1 m)
- Engines: 3 x Turbomeca Marboré Continental J69-T-9
- Max Speed: 300 mph (482 km/h)
- First Flight: 12 November 1959
- Number built: 2
Today in Aviation
- 2012 – Turkey accuses Syria of firing at a second Turkish Air Force plane while it is searching for crew of the F-4 Phantom II shot down on 22 June.[3]
- 2009 – Zest Airways Flight 863, a Xian MA60, registration RP-C8892, overruns the runway at Godofredo P. Ramos Airport, Philippines. The aircraft is substantially damaged but is to be repaired.
- 2007 – PMTair Flight 241: Search-and-rescue teams combed the jungles of southern Cambodia after a passenger plane with 22 people on board crashed Monday while flying between two popular tourist destinations, officials said.
- 1997 – First flight of the Ka-52 Alligator combat helicopter.
- 1997 – Third Air Force Academy Slingsby T-3A Firefly crash in 28 months kills senior Cadet Pace Weber, 20, and his instructor, Captain Glen Comeaux, 31, when the engine sputters during a turn at ~500 feet altitude, aircraft enters spin and explodes on impact, two miles E of the Colorado Springs academy airfield. "Their plane had been written up by pilots 10 times for engine problems, including one during the flight immediately before the fatal trip. The Air Force said the engine was running at impact, although it was producing so little power that the propeller was barely turning."Although the Academy continues to fly the type, another incident in which the T-3 engine quits in-flight, forcing a dead-stick landing at the airfield, finally leads to USAF to ground the design on 25 July 1997, with the whole fleet eventually scrapped.
- 1992 – Launch: Space Shuttle Columbia STS-50 at 12:12:23 pm EDT. Mission highlights: Spacelab mission.
- 1972 – First flight of Yakovlev Yak-50 (1975) aerobatic sports airplane, V. I. Loychikov test pilot.
- 1965 – A USAFUSAF Boeing C-135A-BN Stratolifter, 60-0373, c/n 18148, out of McGuire AFB, New Jersey, crashed after 0135 hrs. take off in fog and light drizzle from MCAS El Toro, California, USA. Pilot flew into Loma Ridge at 0146. 84 died. Aircraft was bound for Okinawa.
- 1955 – First flight of the Scottish Aviation Twin Pioneer
- 1950 – The Korean War breaks out as North Korea invades South Korea.
- 1950 – The United States Air Force begins evacuating American citizens from South Korea.
- 1947 – First flight of the Boeing B-50 Superfortress
- 1946 – First flight of the Northrop YB-35 Flying Wing.
- 1944 – First flight of the Composite jet and piston engine airplane. Ryan FR Fireball.
- 1942 – No. 425 (Bomber) Squadron was formed in England.
- 1942 – (Overnight) Royal Air Force Bomber Command flies its third “thousand-bomber raid, ” with 1,067 bombers targeting Bremen, badly damaging the city in exchange for the loss of 55 bombers; night fighters of II Gruppe of the Luftwaffe’s Nachtjagdgeschwader 2 alone shoot down 16 of them. The Avro Manchester bomber flies its last combat mission in this raid.
- 1938 – The official public opening of Manchester Airport at Ringway, England, is held with an extensive air display.
- 1936 – First flight of the Bristol Blenheim prototype K7033
- 1935 – United States Coast Guard Lieutenant Richard L. Burke sets a world seaplane speed record carrying a 500-kg (1,102-lb) load over a 100 km (62 mi) course at an average speed of 280.105 km per hour (174.049 mph) flying a Grumman JF-2 Duck.
- 1933 – Boeing Y1B-9A, 32-307, '190', of the 49th Bombardment Squadron, departs Logan Field, Baltimore, Maryland at 2020 hrs. on routine night training mission to Langley Field, Virginia, but experience difficulties at ~2200 hrs., attempts crash landing in the James River ~one mile from Rushmere Island. Bomber strikes water nose first, breaks in half, sinks, killing four crew including pilot 2nd Lt. Lewis Horvath and co-pilot H. W. Macklean.
- 1928 – First flight of the Boeing Model 83 biplane, the last from this company in which wood was used for the wing frame and the last biplane built by Boeing.
- 1928 – First flight of the Boeing P-12 with the United States Army Air Corps.
- 1924 – Westbound from Rangoon to Akyab, the United States Army Air Service flight of Douglas World Cruisers attempting the first aerial circumnavigation of the world unknowingly flies over the Vickers Vulture II amphibian of the Royal Air Force team of MacLaren, Plenderleith, and Andrews, which is sheltering in a coastal bay in Burma while eastbound from Akyab to Rangoon during its own attempt at a circumnavigation.
- 1923 – First flight in the USSR of K. K. Artseulov on a glider.
- 1919 – The world’s most modern airliner, the Junkers F-13, makes its first flight at Dessau, Germany. It is made entirely of metal, with a strong, corrugated outer skin and cantilever wing structure, without struts or bracing wires.
- 1914 – Tom Blakely flies the West Wind in Calgary, Canada. The Curtiss-type biplane was designed by Frank Ellis.
- 1910 – The Hubbard monoplane, also referred to as ‘Mike’, was entered in the Montreal Air Meet of 25 June-5 July, 1910.
- 1894 – Hermann (Julius) Oberth, German scientist who was one of three founders of space flight (with Tsiolkovsky and Goddard), is born.
- 1886 – Henry H. "Hap" Arnold is born at Gladwyne, PA. Arnold, who had received flying instructions from Orville Wright in 1911, was the Commanding General of the U. S. Army Air Force in WW II. Arnold retired in 1946 and died near Sonoma, CA on January 15, 1950.
References
- ^ Yenne 2003), pp. 281–283.
- ^ Milberry 1979, p. 137.
- ^ "Turkey accuses Syria of firing at second plane while searching for downed jet". Al Arabiya. 25 June 2012. Retrieved 21 July 2012.
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