This Date in Aviation History: November 13 - November 15 (Birthday Edition)

"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn) 11/15/2019 at 12:35 • Filed to: wingspan, Planelopnik, TDIAH

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Welcome to This Date in Aviation History , getting of you caught up on milestones, important historical events and people in aviation from November 13 through November 15.

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No big stories in today’s edition, so I’m posting a few of my favorite airplane photos since today is my birthday. If you’re so inclined, you can see some more of my work !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

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All photos © Tim Shaffer

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Short Takeoff

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(Author unknown)

November 13, 1907 – The first flight of the Cornu helicopter. Built by French bicycle-maker !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the twin-propeller helicopter is considered by some historians as the first rotary-wing aircraft to take flight. The Cornu helicopter was controlled by a system that varied the pitch of the propellers, and also employed vanes that directed the downdraft from the rotors. Cornu made several short hops, perhaps as much as six feet in the air, each lasting less than a minute. The brief flights gave Cornu just enough time to determine that his steering mechanism was ineffective and he soon abandoned the project. Modern analysis indicates that Cornu’s machine would likely never have flown successfully.

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November 14, 1970 – The crash of Southern Airways Flight 932, a chartered !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (N97S) flying from North Carolina to West Virginia. While conducting a nonprecision instrument landing at Tri-State Airport in Ceredo, West Virginia, the DC-9 struck trees short of the runway and crashed, killing all 75 on board, including 37 members of the Marshall University football team, along with nine coaches and 25 team boosters. Investigators determined that the airliner had descended below minimum altitude for unknown reasons during poor weather conditions, possibly due to a malfunctioning altimeter or the pilot’s improper interpretation of instrument data. The crash ended the school’s football program, but the team was reconstituted the following year by a Marshall coach who wasn’t on the plane and manned by players from the school’s junior varsity squad. The story has been dramatized in the movies !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

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Conrad standing next to Surveyor 3, with the Lunar Module in the background. (NASA)

November 14, 1969 – The launch of Apollo 12, the second manned mission to the surface of the Moon. Launched only four months after !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , Mission Commander !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and Lunar Module Pilot !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! spent 31 hours on the surface of the Moon, while Command Module Pilot !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! remained in Lunar orbit. Bean was able to land the Lunar Module at the site of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!   unmanned probe, and he and Conrad retrieved parts of the probe during two moonwalks and returned them to Earth. The pair also carried the first color TV camera to the Moon, but Bean ruined the camera when he accidentally pointed it at the sun. Apollo 12 returned to Earth on November 24.

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(NASA)

November 14, 1933 – The birth of Fred Haise. Born in Biloxi, Mississippi, Haise served as a US Marine Corps fighter pilot from 1954 to 1956, but retired from active duty to complete a degree in aeronautical engineering. While serving in the Oklahoma Air National Guard, including an active duty stint during the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , Haise was selected for !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and flew as the Lunar Module Pilot on the ill-fated !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! mission in 1970. He was assigned as a backup on !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and scheduled to fly on Apollo 19, but the mission was canceled due to budget constraints. Following the Apollo program, Haise worked on the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and piloted three unpowered landings of the Shuttle !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . He scheduled to fly in space on the Shuttle before delays canceled that flight as well. Haise left NASA in 1979 to work for !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and retired in 1996.

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(US Library of Congress)

November 14, 1930 – The first flight of the Handley Page H.P.42, a four-engine biplane airliner that was built for Imperial Airways. The H.P.42 had an all-metal fuselage with fabric covered wings and tail, and was designed for long-range eastern routes, while the derivative H.P.45, which carried more passengers but less baggage, was designed for European routes. Four of each type were constructed, and were given the mythological and historical names of !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Five of the aircraft were lost to crashes or other incidents, but the remaining three flew long enough to be pressed into service in the early days of WWII, but all had been to mishaps lost by 1940.

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(NASA)

November 14, 1930 – The birth of Edward White, an aeronautical engineer, US Air Force pilot, test pilot, and NASA astronaut. White was born in San Antonio, Texas and attended the US Military Academy. Following graduation, he was commissioned in the US Air Force and served as a fighter pilot in Europe. White was chosen for !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and piloted !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in 1965, and became the first American to walk in space during that flight. The following year, White was selected as the Senior Pilot for !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the first manned mission of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . During a ground test of the Saturn IB booster and spacecraft components on January 27, 1967, a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! engulfed the Command Module, killing White, along with astronauts !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . White was buried with full military honors at West Point Cemetery, and was posthumously awarded the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

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(US Navy)

November 14, 1910 – Eugene Ely is the first person to take off from a ship. In 1910, the Secretary of the Navy appointed Ely, along with aviation pioneer !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , to investigate the operation of aircraft from ships. The appointment led to two experiments, the first with Ely piloting a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! from a temporary runway constructed on the deck of the light cruiser !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (CL-2) anchored in Hampton Roads near Norfolk, Virginia. In the second experiment two months later, Ely landed on !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (ACR-4) anchored in San Francisco Bay. While neither ship was a true aircraft carrier, Ely’s achievements helped prove the feasibility of naval aviation.

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November 15, 1981 – The crew of the Double Eagle V completes the first crossing of the Pacific Ocean by balloon. The flight of Double Eagle V was a followup to the first successful crossing of the Atlantic Ocean by the balloon !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in 1978. Double Eagle V was piloted by !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , two members of the original Double Eagle II crew, along with Ron Clark and restaurateur Rocky Aoki, who helped fund the mission. For the Pacific crossing, the team departed from Nagashima, Japan on November 10 and arrived in California after a flight of 84 hours. Despite the historical importance of the flight, it was overshadowed by the return to Earth of the Space Shuttle !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! following the orbiter’s !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and failed to receive as much recognition it was due.

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November 15, 1979 – The attempted bombing of American Airlines Flight 444. Flight 444 was regularly scheduled !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! service from Chicago to Washington, DC. !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , popularly known as the “Unabomber,” had placed a bomb in the cargo hold of the aircraft. Although the bomb malfunctioned and failed to detonate, it still filled the cabin with smoke. The airliner diverted to Dulles International Airport and landed safely, though 12 passengers and crew were treated for smoke inhalation. The attempted bombing was the second of 16 bombings carried out by Kaczinski directed at symbols of modern technology and global industrializations that killed three people and injured 23 before his arrest in 1996.

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(FOTO:Fortean)

November 15, 1957 – The first flight of the Tupolev Tu-114 Rossiya , a turboprop-powered long-range airliner with swept wings developed from the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! bomber. Powered by four !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! engines turning massive, 18-foot diameter !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! propellers, the Rossiya was the fastest airliner of its day, and still holds the record as the fastest propeller-driven airliner which it set in 1960. Capable of carrying up to 224 passengers, the Tu-114 more commonly carried 170 passengers in sleeping berths, and also included a dining lounge. The Rossiya transported over six million passengers in its 14 years of civilian service, and a total of 32 aircraft were produced from 1958 to 1963.

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(NASA)

November 15, 1929 – The first flight of the McDonnell Doodlebug, the first aircraft designed by famed aircraft designer !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Built by !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (Hamilton Standard), the Doodlebug was a two-seat, tandem monoplane designed in response to a safety contest sponsored by the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! Fund for the Promotion of Aeronautics. Though ultimately unsuccessful (the competition was won by a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! biplane), McDonnell went on to become one of the great American pioneers of aviation. He founded the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in 1939 (later merged with Douglas to form McDonnell Douglas), one of the major suppliers of aircraft to the US Air Force and US Navy. The Doodlebug was sold to the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (NACA) for continued research into the aircraft’s innovative !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

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Connecting Flights

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If you enjoy these Aviation History posts, please let me know in the comments. And if you missed any of the past articles, you can find them all at !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . You can also find more stories about aviation, aviators and airplane oddities at !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

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For Sweden > ttyymmnn 11/15/2019 at 12:40

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I would like to know Ted Kaczinski’s opinions on autonomous cars

Hamtractor > ttyymmnn 11/15/2019 at 12:46

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Happy Birthday, you magnificent bastard!  Starting of with a Saber and a Phantom is good juju.  May your celebrations be legendary...

Aremmes > For Sweden 11/15/2019 at 12:52

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Just guessing, he'd likely argue that autonomous cars take control away from the driver, leading to an unfulfilling experience. So, he has something in common with a lot of Oppos.

vondon302 > For Sweden 11/15/2019 at 12:53

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Cotd!

I had forgotten he attempted to take down a plane.

Chariotoflove > For Sweden 11/15/2019 at 13:37

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He’d predict they will bomb.

Chariotoflove > ttyymmnn 11/15/2019 at 13:38

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Happy birthday!

arl > ttyymmnn 11/15/2019 at 13:45

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Thanks for the pics and Happy Birthday! 

user314 > ttyymmnn 11/15/2019 at 13:48

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15 November 1967

Michael Adams died when the X-15 he was flying broke apart and impacted the dry lake bed below. An investigation by NASA found that an experiment using COST components damaged the RCS system, leading to the X-15 entering a spin at Mach 5 at around 230,000 feet AGL. Adams was the only death involving the X-15.

15 November 1988

The Soviet Buran space shuttle launches on its only flight. The spaceplane landed 206 minutes later in the Kazak SSR, and the flight was unmanned.

OK-1.01 (AKA OK-1K1, aka Orbiter K 1, aka Shuttle 1. 01) was flown to the Paris Air Show in 1989 atop the An-225.

A second automated flight lasting 15-20 days was projected to take place in 1993, but the breakup of the USSR in 1991 lead to the program’s dissolution. The Buran and an Energia fuel tank/booster assembly was placed into a hanger at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, but both were destroyed in 2002 when the hanger collapsed.

WilliamsSW > ttyymmnn 11/15/2019 at 13:58

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Happy Birthday

ttyymmnn > For Sweden 11/15/2019 at 14:19

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Whatever his opinion, it’s sure to be explosive.

ttyymmnn > Hamtractor 11/15/2019 at 14:19

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Thank you, Sir Hamtractor. 

ttyymmnn > arl 11/15/2019 at 14:29

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Thanks!

ttyymmnn > user314 11/15/2019 at 14:29

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Well, it looks like I’ve got a couple of things to add! Thanks!

ttyymmnn > WilliamsSW 11/15/2019 at 14:30

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Thank you@!

Only Vespas... > ttyymmnn 11/15/2019 at 19:10

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Happy birthday, T-Man! Thanks for all the TDAH. Great work as always. [I do love me some Tu-144].

Here’s an Italian Trimotor Floatplane Torpedo Bomber for you:

ttyymmnn > Only Vespas... 11/15/2019 at 19:42

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Thanks! And thanks for reading. The Italians certainly did make some unique aircraft back in the day. Not always the most attractive, but certainly interesting. 

Jcarr > ttyymmnn 11/15/2019 at 20:32

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Happy birthday Ttyymmnn!

Did you see that the only airworthy FJ- 4 had to belly land yesterday? Not good.

https://fox13now.com/2019/11/14/historic-plane-belly-lands-at-richfield-municipal-airport/

f86sabre > ttyymmnn 11/15/2019 at 20:56

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May your thrust exceed your drag and your lift better gravity!

ttyymmnn > Jcarr 11/15/2019 at 22:32

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No! I photographed that a/c a few years ago at a show at Kingsville NAS. I don’t imagine replacement parts are easy to come by.

Crews were able to get the landing gear extended and the jet removed from the runway.

Well, that’s good news at least.

Thanks for the birthday wishes . Take care.

ttyymmnn > f86sabre 11/15/2019 at 22:37

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Thanks! I thought you might appreciate that lead image. I shot that all the way back in 2012. There was a three-ship F-86 demo team that day. First— and only— time I’ve ever seen Sabres at an air show. I took so. many. photos. You can see some more of them here .

pip bip - choose Corrour > ttyymmnn 11/16/2019 at 03:51

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happy birthday

ttyymmnn > pip bip - choose Corrour 11/16/2019 at 12:07

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Thanks!