This Date in Aviation History: January 15 - January 17

"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn) 01/17/2020 at 13:50 • 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 January 15 through January 17.

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Flight 1549 floats slowly down the Hudson River as passengers gather on the wings and in life rafts. (Steven Day/AP)

January 15, 2009 – US Airways Flight 1549 ditches in the Hudson River after bird strikes cripple both engines. The world’s airways can be a crowded place, and when airplanes take to the skies pilots must not only watch out for other aircraft. Planes have to share the skies with the birds who were there first, and bird strikes are a constant danger to aircraft—and birds, it must be said. Bird strikes can cause significant and often expensive damage, though it is rare that a bird strike will bring down a jetliner, in large part because modern jet engines are designed and tested to withstand the ingestion of birds. But rare doesn’t mean never, as the passengers and crew of US Airways Flight 1549 found out.

Flight 1549 was a regularly scheduled flight from New York’s LaGuardia Airport to Charlotte, North Carolina. At the controls of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (N106US) that day were Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger and First Officer Jeffrey Skiles, along with three flight attendants and 150 passengers. While climbing out of LaGuardia roughly three minutes after takeoff, the Airbus flew through a flock of large !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and both engines abruptly lost power as the airliner passed near the George Washington Bridge over the Hudson River. Skiles was flying the Airbus when it struck the birds at approximately 2,800 feet, and Sullenberger took over the controls while Skiles started the emergency checklist for restarting the engines. Their immediate need was to find a place to land safely, as they quickly lost both altitude and airspeed.

Once alerted to the emergency, ground controllers held all traffic and suggested that the crew return to LaGuardia. Sullenberger quickly assessed the situation and realized that they would never make it back, so he suggested Teterboro Airport in New Jersey. But Teterboro was too far away. Seeing a water ditching as their only hope, Sullenberger calmly told controllers, “We can’t do it. We’re going to be in the Hudson.” As the stricken airliner passed less then 900 feet above the George Washington Bridge, Sullenberger told the passengers to brace for impact and then gently set the A320 down on the surface of the Hudson River off Midtown Manhattan. From bird strike to landing, only three minutes had elapsed.

Despite large holes ripped in the fuselage on impact, the Airbus remained afloat, drifting slowly downstream with the current. Passengers escaped through the overwing emergency exits and waited calmly on the wings for rescue. At the front of the aircraft, other passengers filled exit slides that acted as life rafts when inflated. Ferry boats and other civilian watercraft responded immediately to the ditching, and the first rescue boats arrived four minutes after the plane touched down. Ultimately, all 155 passengers and crew were rescued. Only five were treated for significant injuries, while a few others were treated for hypothermia.

The NTSB investigation determined the probable cause of the accident to be “the ingestion of large birds into each engine, which resulted in an almost total loss of thrust in both engines.” But the report also cited a number of factors that led to the best possible outcome for the plane and its passengers. The flight crew benefited from excellent visibility, and numerous boats on the busy river aided in the swift rescue of passengers. The Airbus also had more safety gear on board than regulations require, and the entire crew exercised excellent !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! during the emergency. For their actions, the entire crew received the Master’s Medal of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and NTSB member Kitty Higgins described the landing as “the most successful ditching in aviation history.” The A320 was recovered from the Hudson River and resided in the Carolinas Aviation Museum in Charlotte, North Carolia before the museum’s closure. The museum is currently looking for a new location to house its collection and hopes to reopen in 2022.

The damaged A320 formed the centerpiece of the Carolinas Aviation Museum before the museum’s closing (Tim Shaffer)

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Two F-15E Strike Eagles, and F-15C Eagle, and two F-16 Fighting Falcons fly over the burning oil fields of Kuwait. (US Air Force)

January 17, 1991 – Operation Desert Storm begins with a massive air campaign against Iraqi forces in Kuwait and Iraq. It’s difficult to know what Iraqi president Saddam Hussein was thinking when he invaded the tiny nation of Kuwait on Iraq’s southern border on August 2, 1990. Some point to a dispute over slant drilling, with Hussein accusing the Kuwaitis of drilling underneath Iraqi soil from the Kuwaiti side of the border. Others suggest that Hussein was trying to gain riches from Kuwait to offset the huge debt incurred by the Iraqi government following a protracted !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Or perhaps it was simply hubris on the part of a ruthless dictator. Regardless, the invasion brought swift condemnation from many of the world’s major powers. One day after the invasion, the United Nations passed !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! calling for the immediate withdrawal of Iraqi troops. When negotiations failed, a coalition of nations led by the United States decided to liberate Kuwait militarily, launching a two-part operation that began with Operation Desert Shield, a massive air assault against Iraqi ground positions. Desert Shield was followed by Operation Desert Storm, when ground forces moved into Kuwait and Iraq.

US Army AH-64 Apache attack helicopters, like this one photographed in Iraq in 2005, helped clear Iraqi radar defenses on the opening night of the air assault (US Army)

The air assault began at 2:10 am on the morning of January 17, when Task Force Normandy, a flight of eight !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! attack helicopters led by two !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! helicopters, destroyed radar sites on the Iraqi border that would have alerted the Iraqi defenses of an impending attack. This was followed with sorties against airfields, radar installations, and Iraqi command and control centers as far north as Baghdad. !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! cruise missiles were fired at the Iraqi capital from ships of the US Navy, and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! flew all the way from Louisiana to drop their bombs on Iraqi targets.

A US Air Force F-117 Nighthawk drops a laser-guided bomb during a training mission in the United States (US Air Force)

And while it wasn’t the first time that the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! had flown into battle (two took part in the invasion of Panama in 1989), it was the first time they were employed in large numbers. Flying over Baghdad, one of the most heavily defended cities in the world, the Nighthawks went completely undetected. The only way the Iraqis knew there were bombers in the air was when something blew up on the ground. Employing extremely accurate laser guided bombs, the Nighthawks were able to destroy almost all of the vital command and control centers in the capital on the first night of the campaign. The F-117 was so effective, and invisible to Iraqi defenders, that even though it flew only one percent of all sorties by Coalition forces, Nighthawk pilots accounted for forty percent of all bomb damage, and had an astounding seventy-five percent rate of direct hits. Not one F-117 was struck by enemy fire.

The true multinational effort of Desert Shield/Desert Storm is illustrated in this formation flight. From left to right: a Qatari Mirage F1, a French Mirage F1, a U.S. Air Force F-16C Fighting Falcon, a Canadian CF-18A Hornet and a Qatari Alpha Jet. (US Air Force)

But it wasn’t all stealth fighters doing the work. More than 1,000 sorties were flown that first night, including !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! electronic warfare planes that escorted !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! to bomb Iraqi airfields. During that mission, one of the Ravens scored a kill against an Iraqi !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! when the Mirage’s pilot crashed while maneuvering to avoid the Raven. This marked the only time an F-111 achieved an aerial victory over an opponent. US Navy fighters and attack aircraft also took part in the action and, in one instance, two !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , on their way to attack Iraqi oil fields, dispatched two Iraqi !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! fighters before continuing to the target and dropping their bombs. Though the bulk of combat missions were flown by the US, British !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! fighters played an important role in attacking air fields and ground targets. French Jaguars and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! also pressed the ground attack, while !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! fighters provided cover for the bombers. Canadian forces flying the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! took part in escort and ground attack missions.

Destroyed and abandoned vehicles litter Highway 80, known as the Highway of Death, after retreating Iraqi soldiers were attacked by Coalition aircraft at the close of the battle (US Air Force)

The air campaign continued until February 23 and, by the time the Coalition ground forces entered Kuwait, the much vaunted Iraqi air force had either been completely destroyed or fled, and command of Iraqi troops was virtually impossible. In a lightning “hail Mary” sweep through southern Iraq led by tank-busting !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! attack aircraft, Coalition forces surrounded and cut off the Iraqi army. Retreating Iraqi forces were decimated by aerial attacks by Coalition aircraft on the so-called Highway of Death, killing anywhere from 2,000-10,000 Iraqi invaders. Operation Desert Storm had taken a mere 100 hours to liberate Kuwait. In all, Coalition forces lost 52 fixed-wing aircraft (39 in combat) and 23 helicopters (five lost in combat), with 46 pilots and crew killed or missing. Though some Iraqi pilots chose to flee to Iran rather than fight, the Iraqi air force lost 259 aircraft, while as many as 12,000 soldiers were killed along with an estimated 3,000 civilians.

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Short Takeoff

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(US Air Force)

January 15, 1950 – The death of Henry Harley “Hap” Arnold. Born in 1886 in Gladwyne, PA, Arnold was an American aviation pioneer who took flying lessons from the Wright Brothers, was one of the world’s first military pilots, and was one of the first three rated pilots in the history of the US Air Force. During WWI, Arnold oversaw the expansion of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and was a student of strategic bombing proponent !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . During WWII, Arnold served as Commanding General of the US Army Air Forces, was the only Air Force general to hold a five-star rank, and the only general to hold a five-star rank in two different U.S. military services (US Army Air Forces and the US Air Force).

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(US Air Force)

January 15, 1943 – The first flight of the Vultee XP-54, nicknamed Swoose Goose, one of the radical designs that came out of the US Army’s R-40C request for aircraft that pushed the boundaries of aircraft design at the time. Originally designed as a heavily armed, high speed fighter, lackluster performance from the underpowered engine caused the concept to be changed to that of a heavily armed interceptor. The XP-54 featured a unique nose that could be raised or lowered depending on whether the machine guns or cannon, with its lower muzzle velocity, was being fired. Two prototypes were built before the project was canceled.

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January 15, 1937 – The first flight of the Beechcraft Model 18, a light, twin engined aircraft produced by Beech from 1937 to 1970, a production run that set a world record for its time. During WWII, more than 4,500 Beech 18s saw service with the US Army Air Forces where it was designated the C-45 Expeditor, AT-7 Navigator and AT-11 Kansan, and the US Navy, where it was known as the UC-45J Navigator and the SNB Kansan. More than 90-percent of Army Air Forces bombardiers and navigators trained in the Beech 18. Following the war, the Beech 18 became a popular executive aircraft, served as a small airliner, and was used in all manner of testing and commercial flying. More than 9,000 were built during its 23-year production run, and many still fly today, with some even being used for aerobatics.

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January 16, 1969 – The docking of Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5, the first time that two spacecraft docked in space and transferred crew from one ship to the other. Soyuz 4, piloted by a single cosmonaut, blasted off from the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! on January 14. Soyuz 5 blasted off one day later with a crew of three cosmonauts. All four cosmonauts were flying on their first mission into space. Soyuz 4 and 5 successfully docked on January 16 and, on the 65th orbit of the Earth, two cosmonauts from Soyuz 5 performed a space walk to transfer to Soyuz 4, as a docking tube had not yet been developed. Soyuz 4 and 5 returned to Earth on January 17 and 18 respectively. The Americans had made their first successful docking in orbit on July 19, 1966 during !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , when the crew docked with an unmanned !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

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January 17, 1963 – The first flight of the Short SC.7 Skyvan, a 19-seat, twin turboprop utility aircraft developed by !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (Shorts) of Northern Ireland. The SC.7 was inspired by the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and the impetus for developing the Skyvan came about when !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! approached Shorts with the idea of developing the Aerovan. Shorts went about building their own aircraft instead, though the two designs do share certain similarities. The Skyvan’s cavernous fuselage makes it ideal for cargo hauling and skydiving, and it was later developed into the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! which were used as commuter airliners. A total of 153 Skyvans were produced between 1963-1986.

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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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For Sweden > ttyymmnn 01/17/2020 at 13:54

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I can’t believe I paid money to watch that movie

ttyymmnn > For Sweden 01/17/2020 at 14:01

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Haven’t seen it. Is it that bad?

For Sweden > ttyymmnn 01/17/2020 at 14:07

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It’s a decent movie, if you are into fantasy.

ttyymmnn > For Sweden 01/17/2020 at 14:08

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Fantasy is always a better story than reality. 

shop-teacher > ttyymmnn 01/17/2020 at 14:14

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No, not always.

shop-teacher > ttyymmnn 01/17/2020 at 14:14

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That landing never ceases to amaze me.

Highlander-Datsuns are Forever > ttyymmnn 01/17/2020 at 14:29

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I have a friend who has been flying commercial for >20 years and had his first bird strike to engine this year. I guess it was fine and he kept flying the plane with the engine on but they had to take it out of service for a full inspection . 

ttyymmnn > shop-teacher 01/17/2020 at 14:38

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Well, fantasy makes better movies. 

ttyymmnn > shop-teacher 01/17/2020 at 14:38

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Any landing you can swim away from....

ttyymmnn > Highlander-Datsuns are Forever 01/17/2020 at 14:40

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There is a name for the remains of feather, blood, and bone from a bird strike: Snarge.

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/snarge

shop-teacher > ttyymmnn 01/17/2020 at 14:43

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I still say not necessarily ;)

farscythe - makin da cawfee! > ttyymmnn 01/17/2020 at 15:40

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i remember the hudson waterplane

that was some impressive landing

pilots earned their pay that day 

ttyymmnn > farscythe - makin da cawfee! 01/17/2020 at 15:46

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They both did, and it’s unfortunate that all the attention focuses on Sullenberger and often ignores Skiles. Sullenberger has said numerous times that it was a team effort among the whole crew, pilots and flight attendants. 

Distraxi's idea of perfection is a Jagroen > ttyymmnn 01/17/2020 at 15:48

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In 199 1 I was living in the UK and sharing a house with a couple of guys who worked for UK govt TLAs. Through November and Decembe r ‘90 they’d both been spending more and more time at work and by January they were pretty much livi ng at the office. On the eveni ng of the 17th one of them came home to grab a shower and a change of clothes, and on his way back out the door he said “Stay up late tonight and watch CNN”. So I was lucky enough to watch this broadcast live.

It seems like no big deal nowadays with ubiquitous live coverage of everything , but back then with 24 hour news being a new concept and CNN being still a niche operator , it’ s hard to overstate just how mindblowing realtime  unedited   reporting - and later in the war , live TV - from an active combat zone was. Vietnam ha d introduced people to embedded reporting and TV imagery of the reality of war ; Desert Storm both made it more real and turned it into a videogame, simultaneously .

farscythe - makin da cawfee! > ttyymmnn 01/17/2020 at 15:52

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not often everyone walks away from a waterlanding

welp hellova story to tell the grankids

ttyymmnn > Distraxi's idea of perfection is a Jagroen 01/17/2020 at 16:23

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I remember being glued to the coverage as much as possible. As an aviation and military history geek, the younger me had been mesmerized by the invasions of Granada and Panama, but as you say, this was quite different. War in real time. This put CNN on the map. 

ttyymmnn > farscythe - makin da cawfee! 01/17/2020 at 16:30

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Here is one that very few people know about, Pan Am Flight 6 . The flight was over the Pacific when it suffered engine trouble, and rendezvoused with the US Coast Guard cutter Pontchartrain that was on station in the Pacific for just such an emergency. The only casualties were 44 cases of live canaries in the hold. All 31 passengers and crew were rescued. These photos were taken by a crew member on board Pontchartrain. 

ttyymmnn > shop-teacher 01/17/2020 at 17:47

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https://oppositelock.kinja.com/1841069431

shop-teacher > ttyymmnn 01/17/2020 at 20:05

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Whoa!!

You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much > ttyymmnn 01/17/2020 at 23:03

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Regarding the Swoose G oose. Why didn’t anyone think to mount the cannon at an angle? Seems like it would have been simpler than a moving no se and allowed for the cannon and machine guns to be fired simultaneously for maximum effect. 

You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much > ttyymmnn 01/17/2020 at 23:05

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Didn’t that one circle the shi p overnight so that they could ditch in the daylight to help with the rescue efforts ?

John Norris (AngryDrifter) > ttyymmnn 01/18/2020 at 10:53

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The Beechcraft Mo del 18 looks  familiar.

ttyymmnn > John Norris (AngryDrifter) 01/18/2020 at 11:08

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That was flown by Frank Tallman for the movie. Interesting guy .