Tag: Aircraft

• Podcast

1st November 1911: World’s first aerial bombing by Italian Lieutenant Giulio Gavotti on Turkish troops in Libya

• 1st November 2022
• Tagged as: Air Strike, Aircraft, Bombing, Explosion, Hague Convention, Italo-Turkish War, Italy, Libya, Ottoman Empire, Turkey, War

Although nobody was injured during Italy’s attack, the Ottoman Empire complained that aerial bombing contravened the Hague Convention.

• Podcast

23rd October 1911: Italian Carlo Piazza pilots the first aircraft to be used in war

• 23rd October 2022
• Tagged as: Aircraft, Italo-Turkish War, Italy, Libya, Technology, Turkey, War

Piazza made history’s first reconnaissance flight when he observed the Turkish lines from a Blériot XI aircraft.

• Podcast

28th May 1987: Mathias Rust, an 18-year-old amateur pilot from West Germany, illegally landed a private aircraft near Moscow’s Red Square

• 28th May 2022
• Tagged as: Aircraft, Border, Cold War, Flight, Russia, Soviet Union, USSR, West Germany

Rust approached Moscow in the early evening and, after passing the city’s ‘Ring of Steel’ anti-aircraft defences, touched down on a bridge next to St Basil’s Cathedral and taxied his aircraft into Red Square.

• Podcast

21st May 1927 and 1932: Charles Lindbergh makes the first solo non-stop flight across the Atlantic, followed five years later by Emilia Earhart as the first woman

• 21st May 2022
• Tagged as: Aircraft, Aviation, Charles Lindbergh, Emilia Earhart, Flight, Transatlantic

The very first non-stop transatlantic flight had occurred in 1919 when John Alcock and Arthur Whiten Brown flew a modified Vickers Vimy bomber aircraft from Newfoundland to Ireland in just under 16 hours.

• Podcast

17th May 1943: Royal Air Force No. 617 Squadron carries out the ‘Dambusters’ raids

• 17th May 2022
• Tagged as: Aircraft, Barnes Wallis, Bomb, Bouncing Bomb, Britain, Germany, Guy Gibson, Royal Air Force, Ruhr Valley, Second World War

Royal Air Force No. 617 Squadron attacked German dams in Operation Chastise, otherwise known as the Dambuster Raids.

• Podcast

10th May 1941: Rudolf Hess, Deputy Führer of the German Nazi Party, flew from Germany to Scotland on a mission to strike a peace deal with the British government

• 10th May 2022
• Tagged as: Aircraft, Britain, Germany, Nazi, Nuremberg Trials, Rudolf Hess, Scotland, Second World War, Spandau Prison, World War 2

Hess landed twelve miles away from his intended destination of Dungavel House, the home of the Duke of Hamilton, with whom he hoped to open peace negotiations.

• Podcast

8th May 1942: The Battle of the Coral Sea ends during the War in the Pacific

• 8th May 2022
• Tagged as: Aircraft, Allies, America, Australia, Battle of the Coral Sea, Japan, Navy, Operation MO, USA, War in the Pacific

The Battle of the Coral Sea, the first naval battle in which the participating ships never came in sight of each other, ended.

• Podcast

2nd May 1952: The world’s first passenger jet aircraft carries 36 passengers from London to Johannesburg

• 2nd May 2022
• Tagged as: Aircraft, Britain, Flight, London, South Africa, Technology

The De Havilland DH 106 Comet operated by the British Overseas Airways Corporation reduced the overall journey time from London to Johannesburg by a third.

• Podcast

21st April 1918: Manfred von Richthofen, aka The Red Baron, shot down and killed

• 21st April 2022
• Tagged as: Aircraft, Australia, First World War, Germany, Pilot, Somme, War

The German fighter pilot Baron Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen, better known as the Red Baron, was shot down and killed.

• Podcast

9th February 1969: First test flight of Boeing 747 ‘Jumbo Jet’

• 9th February 2022
• Tagged as: Aircraft, America, Science, Technology, Transport, USA

On the 9^th February 1969, the first test flight of the Boeing 747 ‘Jumbo Jet’ took place.