2010 – After Pakistani troops at a border post along the border with Afghanistan fire warning shots at North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) attack helicopters flying a combat mission over Afghan territory against Afghan insurgents near the border, the helicopters mistake them for insurgents and return fire, killing three Pakistanis.[2][3]
1996 – Air Force Academy Slingsby T-3A Firefly crashes 30 miles E of Colorado Springs, Colorado when the crew, who had been practicing a forced landing, suffer engine failure during the key part of the manoeuvre. Cadet Dennis Rando, 21, and his instructor, Captain Clay Smith, 28, KWF.
1994 – Launch: Space Shuttle Endeavour STS-68 at 7:16:01 am EDT. Mission highlights: Space Radar Laboratory-2.
1985 – The first Italian aircraft carrier, Giuseppe Garibaldi, is commissioned.
1982 – H Ross Perot Jr. and J. W. Coburn make history by landing their Bell LongRanger IIhelicopter in Dallas, Texas 29 days, 3 hours, and 8 min after taking off. It is the first time a trip around the world is completed by helicopter.
1978 – Aarno Lamminparras, an unemployed home building contractor, hijacks Finnair Flight 405, a Sud Aviation SE-210 Caravelle with 47 other people on board flying from Oulu to Helsinki, Finland. At Helsinki, he allows 34 passengers off the plane, which he then forces to fly back to Oulu, where he receives a ransom payment from Finnair, then back to Helsinki, where he receives more money from a Finnish newspaper and releases the remaining 11 passengers. The aircraft then flies to Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, refuels, and returns to Helsinki for more ransom money from the newspaper before flying on to Oulu, where he releases his final three hostages in exchange for a chauffeured limousine ride home and 24 hours alone with his wife. Police storm his house and arrest him.
1975 – Malév Flight 240, a Tupolev Tu-154, crashes on approach near Lebanon, killing all 60 people on board.
1973 – Aeroflot Flight 3932, a Tupolev Tu-104, crashed shortly after takeoff from Koltsovo Airport in Sverdlovsk, Soviet Union. All 108 passengers and crew on board were killed.
1965 – Republic Aviation becomes a division of the Fairchild-Hiller Corporation.
1955 – First cruise for full-scale training exercises without operational restrictions for the Westland Wyvern S Mk. 4, deployed aboard HMS Eagle with Nos. 813 and 827 Squadrons, begins inauspiciously when on this date a Wyvern attempting a go-around after misjudged approach, strikes ship's funnel, forcing the carrier to return to Portsmouth to have Armstrong Siddeley Python turboprop engine extracted from funnel "in which it was stuck like a dart." Repairs delay cruise by a fortnight.
1954 – XA271 a Royal Air Force Miles Marathon T1 of No. 2 Air Navigation School dives into the ground near Calne, Wiltshire, England following structural failure of outer wings.
1949 – The Berlin Airlift officially ends, with 2,325 tons (2,362 tonnes) of food and supplies having been flown into the city. The final flight is made a week later.
1949 – First Avro 707 delta-wing research aircraft, VX784, first flown 6 September 1949 (one source says 4 September), crashes near Blackbushe on test flight out of Boscombe Down, killing Avro test pilot Flt. Lt. Eric Esler. Cause never established
1945 – Squadrons 121, 167, and 170 (Ferry) squadrons were all disbanded.
1944 – Grumman F6F-3 Hellcat, BuNo. 42782, lost 125 miles (201 km) SE of Nantucket Island, Massachusetts during carrier qualifications. Pilot's name/fate unknown. Located by submarine DSV Alvin, 24 September 1968.
1942 – The pilot of an Imperial Japanese Navy Nakajima A6 M2-N (Allied reporting name “Rufe”) floatplane fighter discovers the American base on Adak in the Aleutian Islands, a month after it was established. Japanese aircraft from Kiska bomb Adak daily for the next five days, but their biggest raid, on October 4, consists of only three planes. The rest of the raids consist of one plane each, and Adak suffers almost no damage.
1942 – Since June 1, German night fighters defending Germany have shot down 435 British bombers.
1942 – Engine failure of Messerschmitt Bf 109G-2/trop, Werke Nummer 14256, "Yellow 14" (on its first combat mission), of 3./JG 27, fills cockpit with smoke, forces Luftwaffe ace Hans-Joachim Marseille to bail out near Sidi Abdel Rahman, Egypt. His chest strikes the vertical fin as he departs the fighter, either killing him outright, or rendering him unconscious, as he makes no effort to deploy his parachute. His body is recovered from the desert, ~7 km. South of Sidi Abdel Rahman.
1941 – Maritime Central Airlines was formed at Charlottetown P. E. I. by Carl Burk and Josiah Anderson.
1940 – Since September 1, the Royal Air Force has lost 65 bombers.
1940 – The Battle of Britain is said to be over, with Hitler's planned invasion of Britain ("Operation Seelöwe") postponed indefinitely.
1938 – A senior French general tells the British military attaché in Paris that in the event of a war with Germany “French cities would be laid in ruins…They had no means of defense, ” and adds that France was paying the price for having neglected the French Air Force for years.
1936 – The German airlift of Spanish Nationalist troops from Spanish Morocco to Spain ends after 677 flights carrying 12,000 men in August and September. The airlift will be one of the most decisive factors in the eventual Nationalist victory in the Spanish Civil War.
1929 – Fritz von Opel pilots the world's first rocket-powered Opel RAK.1 aircraft on a 75-second, 1.6-kilometer (0.99 mi) flight near Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany.
1914 – The Wakamiya is damaged by a naval mine and forced to retire from the Siege of Tsingtao, ending the first combat deployment of an aviation ship in history.
1911 – First flight across the Continental Divide: Cromwell Dixon in a Curtiss on (both directions)
1907 – A. V. Roe tested his 6-hp JAP powered full scale Biplane at Brooklands, but does not take off. (RAF).
1907 – Flying a Voisin-Farman I biplane at Issy, Henry Farman begins a progressively longer series of flights.
1906 – The Gordon Bennett Trophy (right) for ballooning is awarded for the first time. It goes to Lt Frank Lahm of the US Army, who flies 647 km (402 miles) in the balloon.
References
^Associated Press, "Baggage-Fee Total Tops Last Year's," The Washington Post, December 18, 2012, p. A14.
^Brulliard, Karin, "Pakistan Blocks NATO's Afghan-Bound Supply Trucks After Airstrike Kills 3," washingtonpost.com, 30 September 2010, 12:49 p.m. EDT
^Brulliard, Karin, and Joshua Partlow, "NATO Airstrike Strains U.S.-Pakistan Relations", washingtonpost.com, 27 November 2011, which corrects the death toll (reported as three in the earlier article) to two.