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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

A Ryanair Boeing 737 on the landing roll at Bristol Airport

Ryanair is an airline based in Ireland. It is Europe's largest low-cost carrier, operating 209 low-fare routes to 94 destinations across 17 European countries. Over the years it has evolved into the world's most profitable airline, running at remarkable margins by relentlessly driving costs down. Ryanair has been characterised by rapid and continuing expansion, enabled by the deregulation of the air industry in Europe in 1997. It operates a fleet of 74 Boeing 737s, and currently has firm orders for an additional 225 Boeing 737-800 airplanes by 2010, with options on a further 193. Ryanair is one of Europe's most controversial companies, praised and criticised in equal measure. Its supporters praise its commitment to exceptionally low fares, its radical management, its populism, and its willingness to challenge what Ryanair calls the 'establishment' within the airline industry. Critics, meanwhile, have attacked its labor union policies, and have charged that it practises deceptive advertising. (Full article...)

More selected articles

Selected image

SR-71 Blackbird

Credit: NASA

The Lockheed SR-71, commonly known as the "Blackbird," was an advanced, long-range, Mach 3 strategic reconnaissance aircraft that flew from 1964–98. The SR-71 was one of the first aircraft to be shaped to have an extremely low radar signature. The aircraft flew so fast and so high that if the pilot detected a surface-to-air missile launch, the standard evasive action was simply to accelerate. During its entire operational life, more than 3,000 missiles were fired at the aircraft, yet no SR-71 was ever shot down.

Did you know

...that BŻ-1 GIL was the first Polish experimental helicopter? ...that during World War II, Marine Fighting Squadron 215 established four new U.S. Marine Corps records in the South Pacific including having the most ace pilots? ...that Yekaterina Zelenko was the only woman to perform an aerial ramming and the only female pilot in the Winter War?

General images -

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

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  General aviation aircraft at Cheb Airport in Czech Republic (from General aviation)
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  Otto Lilienthal, 29 May 1895 (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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  The Aeroplane of Victor Tatin, 1879. (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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  Robinson R22, a light piston-engine helicopter (from General 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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  Leonardo da Vinci's ornithopter design (from History of aviation)
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  One of Leonardo's sketches (from History of aviation)
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  La France flying in 1885 (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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  1843 artist's impression of John Stringfellow's plane Ariel flying over the Nile (from History of aviation)
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  The Wright Flyer: the first sustained flight with a powered, controlled aircraft (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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  Jean-Marie Le Bris and his flying machine, Albatros II, 1868 (from History of aviation)
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  The business class cabin on an A350 (from Wide-body aircraft)
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  German Taube monoplane, illustration from 1917 (from History of aviation)
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  Maxim's flying machine (from History of aviation)
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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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  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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  Clément Ader Avion III (1897 photograph) (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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  Flagg biplane from 1933 (from History of aviation)
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  Sailplane, a Rolladen-Schneider LS4 (from General 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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  Alberto Santos-Dumont flying the Demoiselle over Paris (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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  Cessna CitationJet/M2, part of the Citation family of business jets (from General 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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  Félix du Temple's 1874 Monoplane (from History of aviation)
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  Early Voisin biplane (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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  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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  Qantas De Havilland biplane, c. 1930 (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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  Me 262, world first operational jet fighter (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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  Map of record breaking flights of the 1920s (from History of aviation)
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  "Governable parachute" design of 1852 (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 economy class cabin of an Airbus A350 (from Wide-body aircraft)

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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Selected biography

Orville Wright

Wilbur Wright

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.

Selected Aircraft

Douglas Dakota DC-3 (G-ANAF) of the Air Atlantique Historic Flight.

The Douglas DC-3 is a fixed-wing, propeller-driven aircraft which revolutionized air transport in the 1930s and 1940s, and is generally regarded as one of the most significant transport aircraft ever made.

The DC-3 was engineered by a team led by chief engineer Arthur E. Raymond and first flew on December 17, 1935 (the 32nd. anniversary of the Wright Brothers flight at Kitty Hawk). The plane was the result of a marathon phone call from American Airlines CEO C.R. Smith demanding improvements in the design of the DC-2. The amenities of the DC-3 (including sleeping berths on early models and an in-flight kitchen) popularized air travel in the United States. With just one refuelling stop, transcontinental flights across America became possible. Before the DC-3, such a trip would entail short hops in commuter aircraft during the day coupled with train travel overnight.

During World War II, many civilian DC-3s were drafted for the war effort and thousands of military versions of the DC-3 were built under the designations C-47, C-53, R4D, and Dakota. The armed forces of many countries used the DC-3 and its military variants for the transport of troops, cargo and wounded. Over 10,000 aircraft were produced (some as licensed copies in Japan as Showa L2D, and in the USSR as the Lisunov Li-2).

• Span: 95 ft (28.96 m)
• Length: 64 ft 5 in (19.65 m)
• Height: 16 ft 11 in (5.16 m)
• Engines: 2× Pratt & Whitney Twin Wasp S1C3G 14-cylinder radial engines, 1,200 hp (895 kW) or Wright Cyclone
• Cruising Speed: 170 mph (274 km/h)
• First Flight:December 17, 1935
• Number built: 13,140 (including license built types)

Today in Aviation

May 14

• 2013 – The world's first catapult launch of an unmanned aircraft from an aircraft carrier takes place when the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush (CVN-77) launches a Northrop Grumman X-47B demonstrator unmanned combat air vehicle in the Atlantic Ocean off Virginia. The X-47B makes two low passes as if preparing to land on the carrier, then flies to a landing at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland, about an hour later.

• 2012 – Agni Air Dornier 228 crash: After aborting its landing at Jomsom Airport at Jomsom, Nepal, Agni Air Flight CHT, the Dornier 228 AG-CHT, strikes a hillside with its wing while attempting a go-around and crashes, killing 15 of the 21 people on board and injuring all six survivors.

• 2010 – Death of Stelio Frati, Italian mechanical engineer and aeroplane designer. He graduated from the University of Milan as a Mechanical Engineer in 1943, and after teaching aircraft design became a freelance aircraft designer, being responsible for many well known aircraft designs. Best known designs are the Falco F8L and the Aermacchi SF.260.

• 2010 – Launch: Space Shuttle Atlantis STS-132 at 10:21:22 UTC. Mission highlights: ISS assembly flight ULF4: Mini-Research Module 1.

• 2009 – A Royal Air Force BAE Systems Harrier GR9 (ZG478/68) from No. 1 Squadron based at RAF Cottesmore makes a heavy landing at Kandahar International Airport, Afghanistan due to an engine failure forcing the pilot to successfully eject from the aircraft.

• 2006 – AH-6M Little Bird (OH-6 Cayuse) from 1–160th SOAR shot down during combat operations in Yusufiyah, southwest of Baghdad, killing the two crewmen.

• 2005 – A Eurocopter AS350 helicopter piloted by Eurocopter test pilot Didier Delsalle touched down on the top of Mt. Everest, at 8,850 m (29,035 feet). This record has been confirmed by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale.

• 2005 – The former USS America (CV-66), a decommissioned super carrier of the United States Navy, is deliberately sunk in the Atlantic Ocean after four weeks of live-fire exercises. She is the largest ship ever to be disposed of as a target in a military exercise.

• 1997 – Star Alliance is founded. The world's first and largest airline alliance, headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany (near Frankfurt Airport) the five founders were the world's leading airlines Air Canada, Lufthansa, Scandinavian Airlines, Thai Airways International and United Airlines.

• 1985 – Second of three Northrop F-20 Tigersharks, 82-0063, c/n GG1002, N3986B, during stopover at Goose Bay, Labrador, en route to the Paris Air Show, crashes at 1350 hrs. Atlantic Daylight Time at the end of sixth practice flight of the day, in circumstances much like the loss of the first prototype on 10 October 1984. Hesitating in the inverted position at the top of a series of 9G vertical rolls, airframe dove erratically into the ground, coming down in an upright, wings-level, nose-up attitude on snow-covered ground, killing Northrop test pilot Dave Barnes. Again, G-induced pilot unconsciousness was suspected, investigation finding no sign of airframe failure.

• 1979 – Progress 6 (Soviet unmanned cargo spacecraft) docks with Salyut 6.

• 1977 – In the 1977 Dan-Air Boeing 707 crash, a Boeing 707 crashes near Lusaka, Zambia, due to structural failure, killing all 6 on board.

• 1973 – Skylab, the United States' first space station, is launched.

• 1972 – Two American Bell UH-1 attack helicopters using TOW missiles blunt a major North Vietnamese attack near Kontum, South Vietnam.

• 1968 – Death of Husband Edward Kimmel, four-star admiral in the United States Navy. He served as Commander-in-chief, U.S. Pacific Fleet at the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Because of the attack, he was removed from office and was reduced to his permanent two-star rank of rear admiral.

• 1964 – Birth of James McNeal "Vegas" Kelly, NASA Astronaut.

• 1959 – Convair YB/RB-58A-10-CF Hustler, 58-1012, c/n 19, of the 43rd Bomb Wing, destroyed by fire at the Convair plant, Carswell AFB, Texas. Fuel leak on the ramp during refuelling followed by accidental ignition kills two Convair ground support personnel.

• 1957 – Birth of William George "Borneo" Gregory, former NASA astronaut.

• 1957 – A Royal Canadian Navy McDonnell F2H-3 Banshee, BuNo 126310 of VF-871, strikes a hilltop during ground-attack exercises near Terence Bay, Nova Scotia, killing pilot SubLt. Conrad Bissett.

• 1952 – Birth of Donald Ray McMonagle, USAF test pilot & Manager, Launch Integration at the Kennedy Space Center.

• 1945 – A kamikaze crashes on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CV-6), knocking her out of action for the rest of World War II.

• 1945 – The final Arctic convoy of World War II, Convoy JW 67, departs Scapa Flow for the Kola Inlet in the Soviet Union escorted by the British aircraft carrier HMS Queen. It returns to the United Kingdom later in the month as Convoy RA 67. Queen's presence as an escort is deemed necessary in case any German submarine commanders opt to ignore Germany's surrender and attack the convoy.

• 1941 – During testing, the Grumman XP-50 prototype (39-2517) is lost, falling victim to a turbo-supercharger explosion that destroyed the aircraft. The test pilot Bob Hall bailed out while the XP-50 plunged into Smithtown Bay in Long Island Sound.

• 1944 – The German Luftwaffe employs circling torpedoes in a predawn attack on Allied ships at Naples, Italy, but scores no hits.

• 1941 – German aircraft begin daily bombing of Crete to soften it up for the upcoming German airborne assault on the island.

• 1941 – The RAF receives authorization to attack German aircraft on Vichy French airfields in Syria. British fighters disable two Heinkel He 111s on the ground at Palmyra, Syria.

• 1940 – The Allies lose 110 aircraft – 70 British Fairey Battles and Bristol Blenheims and forty French planes – on one day in a disastrous attempt to bomb bridges over the River Meuse.

• 1940 – Fifty-three German Heinkel He.111 bombers drop nearly 100 tons of bombs on Rotterdam in the Netherlands. The attack kills nearly 1,000 people, destroys 20,000 buildings, and leaves 78,000 people homeless.

• 1940 – The Yermolayev Yer-2, a long-range Soviet medium bomber, has its first flight.

• 1939 – Following first flight of the prototype Short S.29 Stirling four-engine bomber, L7600, out of Rochester, Kent, one of the brakes locks, causing it to slew off the runway and collapse the undercarriage, airframe damaged beyond repair.

• 1938 – First prototype Focke-Wulf Fw 187 V1, D-AANA, crashes at Bremen, Germany, when test pilot Paul Bauer, having completed test series, makes high-speed run across airfield, pulls up too sharply, stalls, spins in next to the control tower.

• 1936 – First flight of the Miles Whitney Straight M.11,two-seater light aircraft with a dual-control, 'side-by-side' cockpit configuration.

• 1923 – Air Union Farman F.60 Goliath crashes near Monsures, Somme, France due to the structural failure of a wing, killing all 6 on board.

• 1917 – Flight Sub-Lt Robert Leckie and crew of Curtiss H-12 flying boat shot down Zeppelin L-22.

• 1915 – The U.S. Navy contracts with the Connecticut Aircraft Company for its first airship.

• 1912 – Birth of Giorgio Graffer, Italian Alpinist and WWII pilot.

• 1909 – Pilot S.F.Cody makes first flight of more than a mile in Britain using British Army Aeroplane No 1, flying from Laffan's Plain to Danger Hill in Hampshire at average height of 30 ft (9.1 m). Later in the afternoon, the Prince of Wales asks Cody to repeat the flight, but in so doing, Cody is forced to turn quickly to avoid some troops in his path, smashing the tail against an embankment. Aircraft rebuilt at Farnborough with design changes to improve performance.

• 1908 – Charles Furnas becomes the first North American passenger in an aeroplane, piloted by Wilbur Wright. Wilbur Wright flew Charles W. Furnas for a distance of 2.5 miles in a Wright Model B.

• 1902 – Birth of Friedrich Schmiedl, Austrian Rocket pioneer.

• 1897 – Birth of Robert Ludvigovich Bartini, Italian aircraft designer and scientist. Active mostly in Soviet Union, he was named, because of his noble descent, Barone Rosso (Red Baron).

• 1894 – Birth of Gilbert Stuart Martin Insall VC MC, British WWI pilot.

• 1884 – Birth of Claude (Claudius) Honoré Desiré Dornier, German airplane builder and founder of Dornier GmbH.

References

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