This Date in Aviation History: November 14 - November 17

"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn) 11/17/2020 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 14 through November 17.

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An L-1011 of All Nippon Airways takes off from Osaka International Airport

November 16, 1970 – The first flight of the Lockheed L-1011 TriStar. As passenger jet aviation gained popularity in the decade of the 1960s, increasing passenger numbers meant that the commercial airliner needed to grow in size to match demand. Aircraft such as the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! had set the standard for single-aisle airliners, and Boeing created the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! market with the development of the twin-aisle !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Despite the range and capacity of the 747, American Airlines was interested in a smaller airliner that would still be capable of transatlantic operations from bases in Dallas and New York. American approached both Boeing and Lockheed, and Lockheed, long a producer of large military aircraft, saw an opportunity to stay relevant in the area of civilian transport with the development of their own wide-body airliner.

The L-1011 prototype on display prior to its maiden flight in 1970

Lockheed hadn’t produced a civilian airliner since the turboprop !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in 1957. Nevertheless, they were keen to reenter the commercial market, and originally proposed a twin-jet design, a so-called “Jumbo Twin.” But longstanding safety !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! prohibited transoceanic flights that took airliners more than 60 minutes from the closest airport, rules which were waived for three-engine aircraft in 1964. So Lockheed augmented their design by adding a third engine mounted in the tail and fed by !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! air intake in front of the vertical stabilizer. Compared to the similar !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , which housed its third engine entirely in the tail above the fuselage, Lockheed’s arrangement reduced drag and simplified maintenance, and allowed the center engine to be serviced or replaced more easily. Lockheed entered into a partnership with Rolls-Royce to provide !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! engines which gave the L-1011 a top speed of Mach 0.95 and a cruising speed of 600 mph. The TriStar’s twin-aisle interior accommodated up to 400 passengers in a single-class configuration, and 256 passengers in a traditional mixed-class layout, more than its DC-10 competitor.

Eastern Airlines served as the launch customer for the Lockheed L-1011 TriStar

The TriStar entered service with !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in 1972, but it was the beginning of a turbulent history for the new widebody. After helping to initiate the entire project, American opted instead to purchase the DC-10, using their reported interest in the L-1011 as leverage to force McDonnell Douglas to lower their prices. Engine supplier Rolls-Royce went into receivership in 1971, largely as a result of the enormous costs of developing the RB.211 engine. Ultimately, the British government agreed to subsidize the production of the engines, but the delay put the TriStar a year behind schedule and allowed the DC-10 to enter the market unopposed ahead of Lockheed. The original L-1011 also came in overweight, which limited its range and carrying power. And, to add yet another strike against the TriStar, a major !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! broke when it was discovered that Lockheed had bribed Japanese government officials to purchase the new airliner, leading to the arrest of the Japanese prime minister. Sales to Russia were also blocked by the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! over Soviet human rights issues. The L-1011 was also more expensive than the DC-10.

Lockheed L-1011 Stargazer mothership releases a Pegasus rocket for testing

Despite variants meant to make the L-1011 more marketable, Lockheed ended production in 1984 after building only 250 aircraft, needing sales of at least 500 just to break even. Though a handful of L-1011s were converted for military service with the RAF, Lockheed gave up on the TriStar and left the civilian airliner market for good. Today, and only one L-1011 remains operational, the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , a modified aircraft flown by Orbital Sciences as a mothership for the launch of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! rocket.  

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A Mirage III D (foreground) and Mirage III O of the Royal Australian Air Force photographed during a combined US-Australian Air Force exercise in 1980

November 17, 1956 – The first flight of the Dassault Mirage III. In the early years of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , before the advent of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , defense against nuclear-armed bombers centered around the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , an aircraft that sacrificed maneuverability in favor of straight line speed and high climb rates to destroy high-flying bombers before they could loose their nuclear payload. Beginning in 1952, the French government initiated the procurement of their own supersonic interceptor, one that could operate in all-weather conditions and be able to reach 59,000 feet in just six minutes. This project led to the Mystère Delta, subsequently renamed the Dassault Mirage I, an all-delta-wing interceptor that was powered by two afterburning turbojets augmented with rockets that pushed it to Mach 1.6. However, due to the small size of the fighter, its armament was restricted to a single air-to-air missile and the project was eventually scrapped.

The Dassault Mirage I, an all-delta wing interceptor that led the way to the ultimate Mirage III multi-role fighter

Dassault considered a larger version of this hybrid powered fighter, but that program was also abandoned in favor of a still larger interceptor, which would be called the Mirage III. The Mirage III was powered by a single !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! afterburning turbojet engine, and while provisions were also made for a rocket engine, this configuration was never put into production. The Mirage III’s fuselage was redesigned to take advantage of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and the interceptor reached Mach 1.52 on its tenth test flight. Later variants attained speeds exceeding Mach 2, making the Mirage III the first European aircraft to fly at twice the speed of sound. This variant was designated Mirage IIIA and led to an initial order for 10 aircraft. The Mirage IIIC, armed with two 30mm cannons, became the first production model, and had five external hardpoints for weapons and an aerodynamic centerline fuel tank that could also house a bomb. This version was subsequently developed into the Mirage IIIE which was specialized for ground attack, and the Mirage IIIR which took on a reconnaissance role.

A Mirage IIIDA of the Argentine Air Force

The Mirage III entered service in 1961, and despite its original mission as an interceptor, it proved to be an excellent all-around fighter and attack aircraft. It was widely exported, and saw combat service with the Israeli Air Force (IAF) during the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , with the South African Air Force in the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and with devastating effectiveness by the Argentine Air Force against British naval forces during the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Numerous variants have also been produced, including the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , which was eventually developed into the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! by the Israel Aircraft Industries. A total of 1,422 Mirage IIIs were produced, and the type remains in service with the Pakistan Air Force.

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A US Air Force Fairchild C-119B Flying Boxcar of the 314th Troop Carrier Group in 1952

November 17, 1947 – The first flight of the Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcar. World War II was the first war to be fought on a truly global scale, with major theaters of operations on opposite sides of the world in Europe and the Pacific, as well as North Africa. The geographical extent of the conflict required aerial resupply of armies on a scale that had previously never been imagined, and nations that fought in both theaters were hard-pressed to supply their troops using existing aircraft. For the most part, cargo aircraft of the time had been developed from passenger aircraft, and had no special design considerations for loading and unloading cargo, except for larger doors on the side of the fuselage and reinforced floors. What was desperately needed was a purpose-built aircraft designed specifically for handling heavy loads of cargo.

Fairchild C-82 Packet, the forerunner to the C-119 Flying Boxcar

In 1944, !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! developed the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , a cargo hauler that featured a large fuselage centered between a twin-boom tail. This arrangement allowed vehicles and supplies to be driven directly into the cargo hold, greatly simplifying and speeding up loading and unloading. The Packet entered service in June 1945, just one month before the end of the war, too late to make a significant contribution. Though the Packet also had some serious shortcomings, particularly with underpowered engines and a relatively flimsy airframe, the overall design concept showed great promise.

Paratroopers of the 187th Airborne Regimental Combat Team jump out of US. Air Force C-119 Flying Boxcars over Korea in 1950

Based on their experience with the C-82, the Air Force asked Fairchild to develop a larger and more robust version of the Packet. Starting with the C-82 as a basis, Fairchild enlarged the fuselage and moved the cockpit fully forward, rather than on top of the fuselage, to make better use of the cargo space. They also gave the C-119 more powerful !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! radial engines, the same engines that powered the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . In a nod to both its shape and mission, the new aircraft received the nickname Flying Boxcar. In order to supplement Fairchild’s production of the C-119 and to provide aircraft in the large numbers, the Air Force awarded a contract in 1951 to industrialist !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! to produce the Flying Boxcar in a factory at Willow Run Airport in Michigan where !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! had been built during the war. The only difference between the Kaiser C-119s and Fairchild’s was the use of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! engine, which had previously been used on the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Kaiser constructed 71 of the almost 2,000 Flying Boxcars built, with the limited number most likely owing to political pressure from Fairchild over the loss of revenue.

Fairchild AC-119 Shadow gunship

The Flying Boxcar entered service in 1949 and served with great distinction in Korea and Vietnam. A number of aircraft were converted to flying gunships with the addition of four !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! 7.62mm mini guns and two !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! 20mm Gatling cannons. This variant was designated the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and the AC-119K Stinger, and was used to complement the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! gunship. Others C-119s served in Europe and the Far East, and the Flying Boxcar was also used to snare film capsules ejected from early !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! spy satellites. Nearly 1,200 Flying Boxcars were produced from 1949-1955, and after their removal from wartime duties, C-119s continued flying cargo and supply missions into the 1970s. The last operational C-119s were retired by the Republic of China Air Force in 1995.

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Short Takeoff

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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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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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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 was 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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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 lost to mishaps by 1940.

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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, 1988 – The first flight of the Soviet/Russian reusable orbiter Buran . The Soviet Union had been working on and off on the concept of a reusable spacecraft since the 1950s, but the impetus to initiate a program in the early 1970s was a direct response to the American !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , which the Soviets feared would be used for military purposes. Though Soviet engineers tried to develop a spacecraft that was distinctly different from its NASA counterpart, research showed that the American orbiter was already the ideal shape for the mission. Several non-orbiting test articles were built, including !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! that flew under its own power and was used to study the handling of Buran as it glided back to Earth. Flight tests were carried out from 1985-1988. Buran ( Snowstorm , or Blizzard ) made its sole spaceflight when it was launched atop an expendable !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! rocket for a test flight with no crew aboard. The spaceplane made two orbits and returned safely to Earth using its automatic landing system. With no money to continue the program, Russian president Boris Yeltsin canceled the entire Buran program in 1993. The orbiter that went to space was destroyed on May 12, 2002 when the hangar where it was stored collapsed under heavy rain, killing eight workers.

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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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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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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 Hamilton Aero Manufacturing (Hamilton Standard), the Doodlebug was a two-seat, tandem monoplane designed in response to a safety contest sponsored by the Daniel Guggenheim 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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November 16, 2004 – NASA’s X-43 sets a world record speed of Mach 9.68. The X-43 is an unmanned hypersonic aircraft and part of NASA’s !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! which was created to test the extreme limits of air-breathing engine technology. The X-43 began its flight mated to a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! booster rocket, and both were carried aloft by a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . After separation from the mothership, the rocket motor fired then released the X-43, and the aircraft’s !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , or scramjet, was ignited. The X-43 reached a top speed of 6,598 mph, or Mach 9.68, at 110,000 feet before its fuel was expended and and the aircraft fell into the ocean. Following the successful test program, NASA hoped to produce a two-stage-to-orbit crewed vehicle by 2024, but those plans have been shelved for now.

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November 16, 1973 – The launch of Skylab 4, the third manned mission to the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! orbiting space station laboratory carrying the final crew to man the station. Astronauts !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , each taking their first and only spaceflight, resided just over 84 days onboard Skylab, completed 1,214 orbits of the Earth, and spent a total of 22 hours outside the station over the course of four spacewalks. During the mission, the astronauts performed intensive photographic study of the Earth (inadvertently photographing the super-secret !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and causing a minor controversy), and also made observations of the Sun and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . The crew returned to Earth on February 8, 1974, and Skylab fell from orbit and burned up on July 11, 1979.

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November 16, 1965 – The launch of Venera 3, a space probe that was built to explore the surface of Venus. Venera 3 carried radio communication equipment and scientific instruments, along with medallions that bore the Soviet Coat of Arms. The mission was not a success, and the probe most likely crashed on the Venusian surface, though a failure of the radios made it impossible to be certain. However, Venera 3 does have the distinction of being the first man-made spacecraft to reach the surface of another planet. Venera 3 was followed in 1967 by the successful !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

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November 16, 1959 – The first flight of the Canadair CL-44 Yukon, a turboprop powered airliner and cargo aircraft that was built in Canada and based on the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Originally known as the CC-106 Yukon and designed to ferry troops and supplies for Canadian forces stationed in Europe, the CL-44 was powered by four !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! turboprops and had a top speed of 416 mph with accommodations for up to 160 passengers. In 1961, a CL-44 set a world record with a flight from Tokyo to Ontario, a distance of 6,750 miles, and set another record for staying airborne for nearly 24 hours, a record that was unbroken until the arrival of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . A total of 39 were built for the domestic and export markets, and the RCAF retired the type in 1971.

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November 16, 1946 –The first flight of the Saab 90 Scandia. As WWII drew to a close, Svenska Aeroplan Aktiebolaget (Swedish Aeroplane Company Limited, or !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ) turned away from producing military aircraft to create civilian airliners in order to survive financially (the same diversification also led to the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the first Saab automobile). The Scandia was developed as a domestically produced replacement for the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and it bears a strong resemblance to its American counterpart, though the Saab aircraft featured a tricycle landing gear. !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (SAS) received the first production aircraft in 1950, and 18 Scandias were built from 1946 to 1954.

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November 16, 1920 – Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Service (Qantas) is formed. The world’s third oldest airline after !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , Qantas began service in 1920 with an !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! that seated two, and today boasts more than 133 aircraft in service, from the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! up to the giant !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Following its nationalization in 1947, Qantas is now the flag carrier airline of Australia and, in 2014, served 98 destinations in 22 countries from its hubs in Brisbane, Melbourne, and Sydney. Qantas made headlines in 2014 when it initiated nonstop A380 service between Sydney and Dallas/Fort Worth, the longest nonstop passenger flight at the time at 8,578 miles. Qantas reclaimed that record with !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! service between New York and Sydney with a flying distance of 10,200 miles dubbed Project Sunrise, though that route was placed on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic. With the last fatal accident suffered by Qantas occurring in 1951, the airline is known for its record of safety, and the company has never lost a jet airliner.

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November 17, 1965 – The first circumnavigation of the globe passing over the poles. Taking off from Honolulu, Hawaii on November 14 in a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (N322F) nicknamed Pole Cat and leased from !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , a group of five pilots, three navigators, and three flight engineers, led by Captains Fred Austin, Jr. and Harrison Finch, both retired TWA pilots, headed north and crossed the North Pole before a stop in London for fuel. After further stops in Lisbon and Buenos Aires, the crew circled the South Pole four times before a stop in Christchurch, New Zealand to refuel for the final leg back to Hawaii. The flight, which covered 26,230 miles and lasted 62.5 hours, was funded by !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the founder of the Rockwell Corporation, who came along on the trip with 27 other passengers.

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November 17, 1943 – The first flight of the Fisher P-75 Eagle, a high-altitude fighter developed for the US Army Air Forces by the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! Division of General Motors. The Eagle was cobbled together from the outer wing panels of a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the tail from a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (the Army version of the Navy’s SBD Dauntless dive bomber), the undercarriage from a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and was powered by an !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! 24-cylinder engine placed behind the pilot. Problems with controllability in testing led to a redesign of the wings and tail, but the performance never met expectations, and the Army canceled the program in 1944. Thirteen were built, and the sole remaining aircraft is on display at the US Air Force Museum in Ohio.

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November 17, 1941 – The death of Ernst Udet, the second-highest scoring ace of WWI and the highest scoring ace to survive the Great War. Udet served under !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (known as the Flying Circus ) where he tallied 62 confirmed victories. Following the war, Udet flew as a stunt pilot and barnstormer, then joined the Nazi Party in 1933 and was instrumental in the development of the Luftwaffe, particularly the dive bombing tactics used by the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Following the German loss of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , Luftwaffe chief !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! led Hitler to believe that the loss was Udet’s fault, and Udet committed suicide on November 17, 1941.

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Connecting Flights

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If you enjoy these Aviation History posts, please let me know in the comments. You can find more posts about aviation history, aviators, and aviation oddities at !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

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