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Portal:Aviation

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The Aviation Portal

A Boeing 747 in 1978 operated by Pan Am

Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. Aircraft includes fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as lighter-than-air aircraft such as hot air balloons and airships.

Aviation began in the 18th century with the development of the hot air balloon, an apparatus capable of atmospheric displacement through buoyancy. Clément Ader built the "Ader Éole" in France and made an uncontrolled, powered hop in 1890. This is the first powered aircraft, although it did not achieve controlled flight. Some of the most significant advancements in aviation technology came with the controlled gliding flying of Otto Lilienthal in 1896; then a large step in significance came with the construction of the first powered airplane by the Wright brothers in the early 1900s. Since that time, aviation has been technologically revolutionized by the introduction of the jet which permitted a major form of transport throughout the world. (Full article...)

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Ben Gurion International Airport is the largest and busiest international airport in Israel, with about 10.2 million passengers passing through it in 2007. It was known as Wilhelma Airport when it was first founded by the British Mandate of Palestine. It was known as Lod Airport from 1948 until 1973, when the name was changed to honor Israel's first prime minister, David Ben Gurion.

The airport is located near the city of Lod, 15 km (9 mi) southeast of Tel Aviv. It is operated by the Israel Airports Authority, a government-owned corporation that manages all public airports and border crossings in Israel. Ben Gurion Airport is on Highway 1, the main Jerusalem-Tel Aviv Highway, accessible by car or public bus.

Ben Gurion Airport is the hub of El Al, Israir Airlines, Arkia Israel Airlines, and Sun d'Or International Airlines. During the 1980s and 1990s, it was a focus city of the now-defunct Tower Air. Today, Terminal 3 is used for international flights, and Terminal 1 is used for domestic flights. The airport has three runways and is used by commercial, private, and military aircraft.

Ben Gurion Airport is considered to be among the five best airports in the Middle East due to its passenger experience and its high level of security. Security forces such as Israel Police officers, IDF and Israel Border Police soldiers are complemented by airport security guards who operate both in uniform and undercover. The airport has been the target of several terrorist attacks, but no attempt to hijack a plane departing from Ben Gurion airport has succeeded. (Full article...)

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Did you know

...that the hyper engine was a hypothetical aircraft engine design meant to deliver 1 horsepower from 1 cubic inch of displacement? ...that passengers aboard JetBlue Airways Flight 292 were able to watch their own malfunctioning aircraft circle Los Angeles International Airport on the satellite television screens at each seat until the flight crew disabled the system in preparation for the aircraft's successful emergency landing? ... that Samuel Frederick Henry Thompson, a British flying ace of World War I, scored 30 kills in five months of service and won both the DFC and MC?

More Did you know facts

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The following are images from various aviation-related articles on Wikipedia.

In the news

Wikinews Aviation portal
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Associated Wikimedia

The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:

Selected biography

Jeana Yeager (born May 18, 1952, in Fort Worth, Texas) is an aviator, most famous for flying with Dick Rutan on a non-stop, non-refueled flight around the world in the Voyager aircraft from December 14 to December 23, 1986. The flight took 9 days, 3 minutes, and 44 seconds and covered 24,986 miles (40,211 km), more than doubling the old distance record. She received the US annual Harmon Trophy for outstanding international achievements in the aeronautics, and is the first woman recipient of the Collier Trophy for "the greatest achievement in aeronautics in America, with respect to improving the performance, efficiency, and safety" of aircraft.

Despite her surname, Jeana Yeager is not related to Chuck Yeager, the first man to break the sound barrier in level flight.

Selected Aircraft

Dash 8 300 landing at Bristol (UK)
Dash 8 300 landing at Bristol (UK)

The de Havilland Canada DHC-8, popularly the Dash 8, is a series of twin-turboprop airliners designed by de Havilland Canada in the early 1980s. They are now made by Bombardier Aerospace which purchased DHC from Boeing in 1992. Since 1996 the aircraft have been known as the Q Series, for "quiet", due to installation of the Active Noise and Vibration Suppression (ANVS) system designed to reduce cabin noise and vibration levels to near those of jet airliners.

Notable features of the Dash 8 design are the large T-tail intended to keep the tail free of propwash during takeoff, a very high aspect ratio wing, the elongated engine nacelles also holding the rearward-folding landing gear, and the pointed nose profile. First flight was in 1983, and the plane entered service in 1984 with NorOntair. Piedmont Airlines (formerly Henson Airlines) was the US launch customer for the Dash 8 in 1984.

The Dash 8 design had better cruise performance than the earlier Dash 7, was less expensive to operate, and more notably, much less expensive to maintain. The Dash 8 had the lowest costs per passenger mile of any feederliner of the era. The only disadvantage compared to the earlier Dash 7 was somewhat higher noise levels, but only in comparison as the Dash 7 was notable in the industry for extremely low noise due to its four very large and slow-turning propellers.

  • Length: 107 ft 9 in (32.84 m)
  • Wingspan: 93 ft 3 in (32.84 m)
  • Height: 27 ft 5 in (8.34 m)
  • Powerplant: 2× Pratt & Whitney Canada PW150A turboprops, 5,071 shp (3,781 kW) each
  • Cruise speed: 360 knots (414 mph, 667 km/h)
  • Maiden Flight: June 20, 1983

Today in Aviation

March 18

  • 2012 – A Turkish Army Aviation Sikorsky S-70A-28 crashed near Kabul, Afghanistan killing all 12 on board and four on the ground.
  • 2005 – A Regional Airlines Antonov An-24 aircraft carrying oil workers to Varandey, Russia crashed five kilometers from the runway. A mixture of bad weather and pilot error caused the crash. Twenty-six of the 45 passengers died as well as two of the seven crew members.
  • 1997 – An McDonnell-Douglas F/A-18C Hornet makes hard landing on the deck of the USS John F. Kennedy at 1603 hrs. during work-ups in the Atlantic Ocean, off-center touch-down causing starboard undercarriage leg to collapse, aircraft arrested just before striking parked aircraft forward.
  • 1969 – Viasa Flight 742, a McDonnell Douglas DC-9-30, crashes on takeoff from Maracaibo, Venezuela. All 84 passengers on board, plus 71 people on the ground were killed in the crash. At 155 people dead, it was the worst aviation disaster in history at that time.
  • 1962 – Flying Tiger Line Flight 739, a Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation chartered by the United States military, and carrying 96 American soldiers en route to South Vietnam, disappears over the western Pacific..
  • 1960 – KLM opens its first intercontinental jet service, by Douglas DC-8 from Amsterdam to New York.
  • 1954 – RAF de Havilland Mosquito TT.35, TH992, 'N-for-Norman', built at Hatfield as a B.35, and modified as a target-tug, of No. 2 APS at Sylt, on mission over the North Sea, loses starboard engine. While attempting to return to base the port engine overheats, pilot puts it down on the first available land, a beach on the island of Anrum, N of Heligoland, shearing off starboard engine and breaking fuselage into three pieces, but no post-crash fire. Pilot and Target Towing Operator (TTO) survive with minor injuries. Airframe believed to have been burnt where it came to rest.
  • 1947 – Saudi Arabian Airlines begins regular international services.
  • 1938 – (16-18) Italian aircraft based on Majorca carry out a heavy, round-the-clock bombing of Barcelona, conducting seventeen air raids at three-hour intervals. Making no attempt to strike military targets specifically, they hit all parts of the city, killing about 1,300 people and injuring about 2,000.
  • 1932 – Walter Cunningham, American astronaut, was born. In 1968, Cunningham was the pilot for the lunar module in the Apollo 7 mission. he occupied the lunar module pilot seat for the eleven-day flight of Apollo 7.
  • 1927 – The Portuguese Military Aviation seaplane Argos, piloted by Sarmento de Beires, makes the first night aerial crossing of the South Atlantic, taking off from Portuguese Guinea and landing in Brazil.
  • 1923 – Imperial Japanese Navy Lieutenant Shunichi Kira lands a Mitsubishi 1 MF fighter on the aircraft carrier Hōshō, becoming the first Japanese pilot to land on an aircraft carrier.
  • 1911 – The first certificate of airworthiness awarded to an airplane in Britain is signed by Mervyn O’Gorman, superintendent of the Balloon Factory at Farnborough, covering the Farman III Type Militaire purchased by the British Army during the second half of 1910.
  • 1907 – Built for Leon Delagrange and pilot Charles Voisin, the Voisin-Delagrandge biplane makes its first flight from Bagatelle, France, achieving a height of 13ft. and a distance of 260ft.
  • 1905 – (16-20) Professional balloon-parachute jumper Daniel Maloney is launched by balloon in a tandem-wing glider designed by John Montgomery and makes three successful flights at Aptos, California, the highest launch being at 3,000 feet with an 18 min descent to a predetermined landing location.

References

Edit today's anniversaries – March Archive – All anniversaries...


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