1969

  • US Navy Fighter Weapons School – TOPGUN is founded (1969)

    The United States Navy Strike Fighter Tactics Instructor program (SFTI program), more popularly known as Top Gun (stylised as TOPGUN), is a United States Navy training program that teaches air combat manoeuvring tactics and techniques to selected naval aviators and naval flight officers, who return to their operating units as surrogate instructors. The program began as the United States Navy Fighter Weapons School, established on 3 March 1969,…

  • Maiden Flight of the Concorde (1969)

    Concorde is a retired Anglo-French supersonic airliner jointly developed and manufactured by Sud Aviation and the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC). Studies began in 1954 and a UK–France treaty followed in 1962, as the programme cost was estimated at £70 million (£1.68 billion in 2023). Construction of six prototypes began in February 1965, with the first flight from Toulouse on 2 March 1969. The market forecast was 350 aircraft, with manufacturers receiving up to…

  • Maiden Flight of the Boeing 747 (1969)

    The Boeing 747 is a long-range wide-body airliner designed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes in the United States between 1968 and 2023. After the introduction of the 707 in October 1958, Pan Am wanted a jet 2+1⁄2 times its size, to reduce its seat cost by 30%. In 1965, Joe Sutter left the 737 development program to design the 747. In April 1966, Pan Am ordered 25 Boeing 747-100 aircraft, and…

  • Happy Birthday Stephen Hendry (1969)

    Stephen Hendry (born 13 January 1969) is a Scottish former professional snooker player and a current commentator and pundit. One of the most successful players in snooker history, he turned professional in 1985, aged 16, and rose rapidly through the snooker world rankings, reaching number four in the world by the end of his third professional season. He won his first World…

  • Happy Birthday Michael Schumacher (1969)

    Today we celebrate the multiple German Formula One World Champion Michael Schumacher’s 57th Birthday. What way to celebrate this great racing driver and to wish him all the best, with this first car from the Michael Schumacher scale model car collection a FIAT 500 … If you like this photo, it is available for…

  • Happy Birthday Allan McNish (1969)

    Allan McNish (born 29 December 1969) is a British former racing driver, commentator, and journalist from Scotland.[1] He is a three-time winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, most recently in 2013, as well as a three-time winner of the American Le Mans Series, which he last won in 2007. He won the FIA World Endurance Championship (FIA WEC) in 2013. He…

  • Happy Name Day Erin (10/10)

    Every person’s name has a corresponding name day. As a car and movie fan, I have taken the 2000 movie Gone in 60 seconds, starring Nicolas Cage an inspiration. In the movie fifty cars are stolen in one night. The fifty cars are listed and given girls names. I have created selective coloration images…

  • Happy Birthday Felix Baumgartner (1969)

    Felix Baumgartner (born 20 April 1969) is an Austrian skydiver, daredevil and BASE jumper. He is widely known for jumping to Earth from a helium balloon from the stratosphere on 14 October 2012 and landing in New Mexico, United States, as part of the Red Bull Stratos project. Doing so, he set world records…

  • Happy Birthday Connor Trinneer (1969)

    Connor Trinneer (born March 19, 1969) is an American film, stage, and television actor. He is best known for his roles as Charles “Trip” Tucker III on Star Trek: Enterprise, Michael on the series Stargate Atlantis, and Professor Moynihan on the web series Guilty Party. Trinneer starred as Tucker in all 98 episodes of…

  • Happy Birthday Butch Leitzinger (1969)

    Robert Franklin “Butch” Leitzinger (born February 28, 1969) is an American professional racing driver. He is best known as an ALMS driver with Dyson Racing, but he has also driven for a variety of other teams and race series. He won the IMSA Pro WSC Championship driver’s titles in both 1997 and 1998 while…