May 8, 1925. Washington, D.C. ” ‘Yorktown.’ Christening of Sikorsky plane.”
“This aircraft is the S-29A (The A stands for first Sikorsky model built in America). It was eventually sold to famed stunt pilot Roscoe Turner, who in turn sold it to Howard Hughes. Hughes had it disguised as a WWI German Gotha bomber, and it was crashed (spun in) during the filming of Hells Angels.”
October 05, 2009, 8:51am
6 July 1935
A Royal Jubilee Review of the RoyalAir Force by King George V is held at Mildenhall and Duxford and includes an inspection of 200 aircraft on the ground and a flypast of 350 aircraft.
September 21, 2009, 10:29pm
The Albessard tandem monoplane, 1912, possibly the first (unsuccessful) attempt at making the world’s first airliner.
April 09, 2009, 7:02pm
aviator at the controls of a Deperdussin Monocoque (possibly Armand Deperdussin himself)
this aircraft was one of the first great racing planes, being the first aircraft to exceed 100 miles per hour
April 09, 2009, 2:13pm
A Deperdussin aircraft of the Turkish Air force, circa 1912
The Turco-Italian War (1911-12) is generally regarded as the first to actually involve aeroplanes, and saw (reputedly) the first anti-aircraft fire, the first shoot-down, and the first aircraft capture..
April 09, 2009, 9:31am
“A curious type of flying machine has just been constructed at the Vermorel works to the design of M. Givaudan..” Flight Magazine, 1909
April 08, 2009, 6:00pm
“Guy Lambton Menzies (1909 - 1 November 1940) was the Australian aviator who flew the first solo trans-Tasman flight, from Sydney, Australia to the West Coast of New Zealand, on 7 January 1931.
Poor weather forced Menzies off course, and after 11 hours and 45 minutes he crash-landed upside-down in the La Fontaine Swamp near Hari Hari on New Zealand’s west coast. Despite the unfortunate landing, he had broken Smith and Ulm’s time by 2½ hours.”
(photo from a plaque near the site)
March 09, 2009, 7:30pm
“In 1928 a three-engined Fokker monoplane named the Southern Cross made the first crossing of the Tasman from Australia to New Zealand, to a rapturous reception. The pilot, Charles Kingsford Smith (right foreground), co-pilot Charles Ulm (third from left) and crew became celebrities.
They are pictured after their arrival at Christchurch. The first crossing of the Tasman Sea from Sydney to Christchurch took 14 hours and 25 minutes, while the return flight from Blenheim to Sydney took 22 hours and 51 minutes. Today the flight takes about 3 hours.”
March 09, 2009, 4:30pm
“The first attempt at a trans-Tasman (Australia to New Zealand) flight took place in January 1928. Here, Laura Hood and Dorothy Moncrieff wait at Trentham racecourse in Wellington for the arrival from Sydney of the aircraft flown by their husbands, Captain John Hood and Lieutenant John Moncrieff. The plane failed to arrive, and was never found.”
March 09, 2009, 3:30pm
“In the early years of New Zealand aviation, crowds flocked to see displays by touring aviators, who often offered joyrides for the daring.
One was the American Arthur ‘Wizard’ Stone, who flew his Blériot monoplane in front of 11,000 paying spectators at the Auckland Domain on 19 April 1913. Another 30,000 are said to have watched from outside the grounds.
The aircraft made a forced landing after 400 yards; it and the pilot were attacked by members of the disgruntled crowd who felt they had not got their money’s worth.”
March 09, 2009, 12:16pm
“Early American stunt flyer Lincoln Beachey pits his airplane against a race car.”
February 10, 2009, 10:11pm
