Happy Birthday Bruce Dickinson (1958)
Bruce Dickinson (born 7 August 1958) is an English musician who is best known as the lead vocalist of the heavy metal band Iron Maiden. Dickinson has performed in the band across two stints,…
Louis Bleriot is the First Man to Fly Over the Channel (1909)
Louis Blériot (1 July 1872 – 1 August 1936) was a French aviator, inventor, and engineer. He developed the first practical headlamp for cars and established a profitable business manufacturing them, using much of…
Fokker is founded (1919)
Fokker (Royal Dutch Aircraft Factory Fokker) was a Dutch aircraft manufacturer that operated from 1912 to 1996. The company was founded by the Dutch aviator Anthony Fokker and became famous during World War I for its fighter aircraft.…
Happy Birthday Richard Branson (1950)
Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson (born 18 July 1950) is an English business magnate who co-founded the Virgin Group in 1970, and, as of 2016, controls five companies. Branson expressed his desire to become an…
Maiden Flight of Bristol Belvedere (1958)
The Bristol Type 192 Belvedere is a British twin-engine, tandem rotor military helicopter built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company. It was designed by Raoul Hafner for a variety of transport roles including troop transport, supply dropping and casualty evacuation. It…
Maiden flight of the Vought‑Sikorsky F4U‑1 Corsair (1942)
The Vought F4U Corsair is an American fighter aircraft that saw service primarily in World War II and the Korean War. Designed and initially manufactured by Chance Vought, the Corsair was soon in great demand; additional production contracts…
First flight of the Dassault Mirage I (1955)
On 25 June 1955, the first prototype of the MD.550 Mystère Delta, without after-burning engines or rocket motor and with an unusually large vertical stabiliser, conducted its maiden flight. In this configuration,…
Maiden Flight of the Airbus A350 (2013)
The Airbus A350 is a long-range, wide-body twin-engine airliner developed and produced by Airbus. The initial A350 design, which was proposed in 2004, in response to the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, would have been a development of the Airbus A330 with composite…
Air France Retires it’s Concorde Fleet (2003)
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…
Maiden Flight of the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II Fighter Jet (1958)
The McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II is an American tandem two-seat, twin-engine, all-weather, long-range supersonic jet interceptor and fighter-bomber that was developed by McDonnell Aircraft for the United States Navy.…
The Tu-144 Passes Reaches Mach 2 (1970)
The Tupolev Tu-144 (Russian: Tyполев Ту-144; NATO reporting name: Charger) is a Soviet supersonic passenger airliner designed by Tupolev that operated commercially from 1975 to 1983, including 1977–1978 passenger service. The Tu-144 was the world’s first commercial supersonic transport aircraft with…
Sabena is Founded (1923)
The Société anonyme belge d’Exploitation de la Navigation aérienne (French; lit. ’Belgian Corporation for the Exploitation of Aerial Navigation’), better known by the acronym Sabena or SABENA, was the national airline and flag carrier of Belgium from 1923 to…
Aer Lingus is Founded (1936)
Aer Lingus is the flag carrier of the Republic of Ireland. It was founded by the Irish Government on the 22nd of May 1936. Between 2006 and 2015 it was privatised, and it is now a…
Maiden Flight of the Airbus A380 (2005)
The Airbus A380 is a large wide-body airliner, developed and produced by Airbus from 2003 to 2021. It is the world’s largest passenger airliner and the only full-length double-deck jet airliner. Airbus studies started in 1988, and…
Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk is Retired from Service (2008)
The Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk is a retired American single-seat, subsonic, twin-engined stealth attack aircraft developed by Lockheed’s secretive Skunk Works division and operated by the United States Air Force (USAF). It was the first operational aircraft to be designed with stealth technology.…
Maiden Flight of the Convair YB-60 (1952)
The Convair YB-60 was a prototype heavy bomber built by Convair for the United States Air Force in the early 1950s. It was a purely jet-powered development of Convair’s earlier mixed-power B-36 Peacemaker. The YB-60 had 72% parts commonality…
Maiden Flight of the Boeing B52 Stratofortress (1952)
The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress is an American nuclear-capable subsonic jet-powered strategic bomber. The B-52 was designed and built by Boeing, which has continued to provide support and upgrades. It has been operated by the United States Air Force (USAF)…
Maiden Flight of the “Roc” (2019)
The Scaled Composites Model 351 Stratolaunch, or “Roc”, is a solitary testbed aircraft built by Scaled Composites for Stratolaunch Systems to carry air-launch-to-orbit (ALTO) rockets, and subsequently repurposed to offer air launch hypersonic flight testing after a change of ownership. It was…
Maiden Flight of the Bristol Blenheim (1935)
The Bristol Blenheim is a British light bomber designed and built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company, which was used extensively in the first two years of the Second World War, with examples still being used as…
The Hawker Siddeley Harrier Enters RAF (1969)
The Hawker Siddeley Harrier is a British jet-powered attack aircraft designed and produced by the British aerospace company Hawker Siddeley. It was the first operational ground attack and reconnaissance aircraft with vertical/short takeoff and landing (V/STOL) capabilities and the only truly…
Happy Birthday Angus Young (1955)
Angus Young (born 31 March 1955) is an Australian musician, best known as the co-founder, lead guitarist, songwriter, and the only continuous member of the hard rock band AC/DC. He is known for his…
Maiden Flight of the Eurofighter Typhoon (1994)
The Eurofighter Typhoon is a European multinational twin-engine, supersonic, canard delta wing, multirole fighter. The Typhoon was designed originally as an air-superiority fighter and is manufactured by a consortium of Airbus, BAE Systems and Leonardo that conducts the majority of the project through a joint holding company, Eurofighter…
Maiden Flight of the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter (1954)
The Lockheed F-104 Starfighter is an American single-engine, supersonic interceptor. Created as a day fighter by Lockheed as one of the “Century Series” of fighter aircraft for the United States Air Force (USAF), it was developed into an all-weather multirole aircraft in…
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,…
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…
Happy Birthday Adrian Smith (1957)
Adrian Smith (born 27 February 1957) is an English guitarist and singer best known as a member of heavy metal band Iron Maiden, for whom he also writes songs and performs backing vocals. Smith…
Maiden Flight of the Airbus A320 (1987)
The Airbus A320 family is a series of narrow-body airliners developed and produced by Airbus, and is the best-selling airliner ever built. The A320 aircraft programme was launched in March 1984, first flew on 22 February 1987,…
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…
Maiden Flight of the SAAB 37 Viggen (1967)
The Saab 37 Viggen (The Tufted Duck; the word also means The Thunderbolt) is a single-seat, single-engine multirole combat aircraft designed and produced by the Swedish aircraft manufacturer Saab. It was the first canard-equipped aircraft to be produced in quantity and the…
Happy Birthday Charles Lindbergh (1902)
Charles Augustus Lindbergh (February 4, 1902 – August 26, 1974) was an American aviator, military officer, and author. On May 20–21, 1927, he made the first nonstop flight from New York to Paris, a…