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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. 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...)

Selected article

Airbus A380, the largest passenger jet in the world, entered commercial service in 2007.

Airbus SAS is an aircraft manufacturing subsidiary of EADS, a European aerospace consortium. Based in Toulouse, France and with significant activity across Europe, the company produces around half of the world's jet airliners. Airbus began as a consortium of aerospace manufacturers. Consolidation of European defence and aerospace companies around the turn of the century allowed the establishment of a simplified joint stock company in 2001, owned by EADS (80%) and BAE Systems (20%). After a protracted sale process BAE sold its shareholding to EADS on 13 October 2006. Airbus employs around 57,000 people at sixteen sites in four European Union countries: Germany, France, the United Kingdom, and Spain. Final assembly production is at Toulouse (France) and Hamburg (Germany). Airbus has subsidiaries in the United States, Japan and China. (Full article...)

More selected articles

Selected image

Airport traffic pattern diagram

airfield traffic pattern

Credit: Ericg

An airfield traffic pattern is a standard path followed by aircraft when taking off or landing at an airport.The pattern (or circuit) is used to coordinate air traffic, and differs from straight-in approaches and departures in that aircraft remain in close proximity to the airport. Circuits are usually employed at small general aviation (GA) airfields and military airbases.

Did you know

...that the Brimstone missile, an anti-tank guided missile, is carried by three Royal Air Force aeroplane types? ... that the Air Zoo in Kalamazoo, Michigan houses the only SR-71B Blackbird in existence? ... that on 28 May 1931, a Bellanca CH-300 fitted with a Packard DR-980 diesel engine set a 55-year record for staying aloft for 84 hours and 32 minutes without being refueled?

General images -

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

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  D.H. Comet, the world's first jet airliner. As in this picture, it also saw RAF service (from History of aviation)
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  The Wright Military Flyer aboard a wagon in 1908 (from History of aviation)
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  Santos-Dumont's "Number 6" rounding the Eiffel Tower in the process of winning the Deutsch de la Meurthe Prize, October 1901 (from History of aviation)
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  The economy class cabin of an Airbus A350 (from Wide-body aircraft)
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  The Biot-Massia glider, restored and on display in the Musee de l'Air (from History of aviation)
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  Cathay Pacific's first class cabin on board a Boeing 747-400 (from Wide-body aircraft)
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  Qantas De Havilland biplane, c. 1930 (from History of aviation)
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  "Governable parachute" design of 1852 (from History of aviation)
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  Alberto Santos-Dumont flying the Demoiselle over Paris (from History of aviation)
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  German Taube monoplane, illustration from 1917 (from History of aviation)
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  Woodcut print of a kite from John Bate's 1635 book The Mysteryes of Nature and Art (from History of aviation)
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  Experimental helicopter by Enrico Forlanini (1877), exposed at the Museo nazionale della scienza e della tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci of Milan, Italy (from History of aviation)
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  The Wright Flyer: the first sustained flight with a powered, controlled aircraft (from History of aviation)
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  Flagg biplane from 1933 (from History of aviation)
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  1843 artist's impression of John Stringfellow's plane Ariel flying over the Nile (from History of aviation)
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  Félix du Temple's 1874 Monoplane (from History of aviation)
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  Nieuport IV, operated by most of the world's air forces before WW1 for reconnaissance and bombing, including during the Italian-Turkish war (from History of aviation)
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  Otto Lilienthal, 29 May 1895 (from History of aviation)
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  One of Leonardo's sketches (from History of aviation)
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  Jean-Marie Le Bris and his flying machine, Albatros II, 1868 (from History of aviation)
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  Apollo 11 lifts off on its mission to land a man on the Moon (from History of aviation)
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  Robinson R22, a light piston-engine helicopter (from General aviation)
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  Cessna CitationJet/M2, part of the Citation family of business jets (from General aviation)
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  The business class cabin on an A350 (from Wide-body aircraft)
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  Me 262, world first operational jet fighter (from History of aviation)
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  Leonardo da Vinci's ornithopter design (from History of aviation)
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  Maxim's flying machine (from History of aviation)
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  Map of record breaking flights of the 1920s (from History of aviation)
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  General aviation aircraft at Cheb Airfield in Czech Republic (from General aviation)
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  French reconnaissance balloon L'Intrépide of 1796, the oldest existing flying device, in the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum, Vienna (from History of aviation)
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  Sailplane, a Rolladen-Schneider LS4 (from General aviation)
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  The 14-bis, or Oiseau de proie (from History of aviation)
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  Daedalus working on Icarus' wings (from History of aviation)
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  First failure of Langley's manned Aerodrome on the Potomac River, 7 October 1903 (from History of aviation)
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  A Boeing 787 Dreamliner of United Airlines landing at Beijing Capital International Airport in December 2018. (from Wide-body aircraft)
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  First female combat pilot, Sabiha Gökçen, reviews her Breguet 19 (from History of aviation)
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  Planophore model aeroplane by Alphonse Pénaud, 1871 (from History of aviation)
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  1928 issue of Popular Aviation (now Flying magazine), which became the largest aviation magazine with a circulation of 100,000. (from History of aviation)
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  Clément Ader Avion III (1897 photograph) (from History of aviation)
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  "Map of Air Routes and Landing Places in Great Britain, as temporarily arranged by the Air Ministry for civilian flying", published in 1919, showing Hounslow, near London, as the hub (from History of aviation)
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  Early Voisin biplane (from History of aviation)
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  La France flying in 1885 (from History of aviation)
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  The Aeroplane of Victor Tatin, 1879. (from History of aviation)
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  Concorde, G-BOAB, in storage at London Heathrow Airport following the end of all Concorde flying. This aircraft flew for 22,296 hours between its first flight in 1976 and final flight in 2000 (from History of aviation)

In the news

Wikinews Aviation portal

• May 29: Austrian Airlines cancels Moscow-bound flight after Russia refuses a reroute outside Belarusian airspace
• August 8: Passenger flight crashes upon landing at Calicut airport in India
• June 4: Power firm helicopter strikes cables, crashes near Fairfield, California
• January 29: Former basketball player Kobe Bryant dies in helicopter crash, aged 41
• January 13: Iran admits downing Ukrainian jet, cites 'human error'
• January 10: Fire erupts in parking structure at Sola Airport, Norway
• October 27: US announces restrictions on flying to Cuba
• October 3: World War II era plane crashes in Connecticut, US, killing at least seven
• September 10: Nevada prop plane crash near Las Vegas leaves two dead, three injured
• August 6: French inventor Franky Zapata successfully crosses English Channel on jet-powered hoverboard

Related portals

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

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  Wikidata
  Free knowledge base

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  Wikinews
  Free-content news

• 

  Wikiquote
  Collection of quotations

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  Wikisource
  Free-content library

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  Wikiversity
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  Wikivoyage
  Free travel guide

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  Wiktionary
  Dictionary and thesaurus

Selected biography

Neil Armstrong (born August 5, 1930) is a former American astronaut, test pilot, university professor, and United States Naval Aviator. He was the first person to set foot on the Moon. His first spaceflight was aboard Gemini 8 in 1966, for which he was the command pilot. On this mission, he performed the first manned docking of two spacecraft together with pilot David Scott. Armstrong's second and last spaceflight was as mission commander of the Apollo 11 moon landing mission on July 20, 1969. On this mission, Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin descended to the lunar surface and spent 2.5 hours exploring while Michael Collins orbited. Armstrong is a recipient of the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.

Before becoming an astronaut, Armstrong was in the United States Navy and saw action in the Korean War. After the war, he served as a test pilot at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) High-Speed Flight Station, now known as the Dryden Flight Research Center, where he flew over 900 flights in a variety of aircraft. As a research pilot, Armstrong served as project pilot on the F-100 Super Sabre A and C aircraft, F-101 Voodoo, and the Lockheed F-104A Starfighter. He also flew the Bell X-1B, Bell X-5, North American X-15, F-105 Thunderchief, F-106 Delta Dart, B-47 Stratojet, KC-135 Stratotanker and Paresev. He graduated from Purdue University.

Selected Aircraft

Avro Arrow replica at CASM Arrow rollout in 2006

The Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow was a delta-winged interceptor aircraft, designed and built by Avro Aircraft Limited (Canada) in Malton, Ontario, Canada, as the culmination of a design study that began in 1953. Considered to be both an advanced technical and aerodynamic achievement for the Canadian aviation industry, the CF-105 held the promise of Mach 2 speeds at altitudes exceeding 50,000 ft (15,000 m), and was intended to serve as the Royal Canadian Air Force's primary interceptor in the 1960s and beyond. Not long after the 1958 start of its flight test program, the development of the Arrow (including its Orenda Iroquois jet engines) was abruptly and controversially halted before the project review had taken place, sparking a long and bitter political debate. The controversy engendered by the cancellation and subsequent destruction of the aircraft in production, remains a topic for debate among historians, political observers and industry pundits. "This action effectively put Avro out of business and its highly skilled engineering and production personnel scattered... The incident was a traumatic one... and to this day, many mourn the loss of the Arrow."

• Span: 50 ft 0 in (15.24 m)
• Length: 77 ft 9 in (23.71 m)
• Height: 20 ft 6 in (6.25 m)
• Engines: 2×Pratt & Whitney J75-P-3
• Cruising Speed: Mach 0.91 (607 mph, 977 km/h) at 36,000 ft (11,000 m)
• First Flight: 25 March 1958
• Number built: 5

Today in Aviation

December 23

• 2012 – Over a period of 17 minutes, three waves of Syrian Air Force aircraft attack the only bakery operating in Halfaya, Syria, where hundreds of people had gathered to buy the first fresh bread available in the area for days, killing dozens. Opposition groups estimate the number of dead at anywhere from fewer than 100 to as many as 300 people.

• 2009 – Thai Air Force Northrop F-5E (211 Sq. coded 21118/91681) fighter aircraft crashed in Thailand. Pilot Chatchawan Rassamee died.

• 2005 – Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 217, an Antonov An-140, crashes 5 minutes after takeoff from Baku Airport due to instrument failure; all 23 on board die.

• 2002 – A MQ-1 Predator is shot down by an Iraqi MiG-25, making it the first time in history that an aircraft and an unmanned drone had engaged in combat.

• 1990 – First flight of the Boeing VC-25(No. 29000)

• 1986 – Voyager, piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, lands at Edwards Air Force Base in California becoming the first aircraft to fly non-stop, non-refueled around the world.

• 1982 – First flight of the Short C-23 Sherpa

• 1979 – Turkish Airlines Fokker F28 crashes into a hillside near Kuyumcuköy, Ankara, Turkey while on approach to Esenboğa Airport; of the 45 on board, only 4 survive.

• 1978 – Alitalia Flight 4128, a McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32, crashed into the Tyrrhenian Sea when on approach to Palermo International Airport in Palermo, Italy. 108 of the 129 passengers and crew on board are killed.

• 1975 – LTV A-7D Corsair II, 67-14586, c/n D.005, while assigned to Eglin AFB, Florida's 3246th Test Wing, Air Development & Test Center for mission support, suffers engine failure on take-off from Tallahassee Municipal Airport, Florida and makes forced landing, coming down largely intact. Airframe is hauled back to Eglin AFB on a truck, where it is either scrapped or becomes a target hulk.

• 1975 – General Dynamics FB-111A-CF, 68-290, c/n B1-62, crashes in the area of the Ashland forest in Maine, ~45 minutes after take-off from Loring AFB, Maine.

• 1974 – First flight of the Rockwell B-1 Lancer

• 1973 – First flight of the Aero Boero 260AG

• 1972 – Braathens SAFE Flight 239, a Fokker F-28, crashes in Asker upon landing at Fornebu airport, Oslo, Norway, killing 40 of 45 people on board.

• 1972 – Andrei Tupolev dies, aged 86

• 1966 – First flight of the Dassault Mirage F1

• 1961 – In Operation Chopper, U. S. Army helicopters airlift 1,000 South Vietnamese paratroopers to attack a suspected Viet Cong headquarters in South Vietnam 10 miles (16 km) west of Saigon.

• 1950 – AU.S. Navy Lockheed P2V-3W Neptune, BuNo 124357, of VP-931, NAS Whidbey Island, crashes on McCreight Mountain, Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Wreckage found 21 September 1961, according to Joe Baugher. Pilot Lt. Lalonde M. Pinne and ten crew KWF. Another source cites crash date of 18 December 1950. Yet another source lists discovery date as 21 October 1951, found by a Canadian aircraft that was off-course.

• 1943 – American aircraft based at Tarawa strike Nauru.

• 1943 – (23-25) Air Solomons (AirSols) aircraft strike Rabaul heavily, U. S. Navy carrier aircraft strike Kavieng on New Ireland, and Fifth Air Force aircraft attack Japanese positions at Cape Gloucester and Cape Hoskins on New Britain.

• 1941 – First flight of the Douglas C-47 Skytrain

• 1940 – The first U. S. all-cargo air service is inaugurated by United Air Lines when at 11:30 P. M. a flight leaves New York for Chicago, where it arrives at 3:40 A. M. local time the following morning after stopping in Cleveland.

• 1940 – Eddie August Schneider dies in crash when his plane is clipped by a U. S. Navy bomber at Floyd Bennett Field.

• 1939 – Anthony Fokker, pioneer in aviation and a Dutch-American aircraft manufacturer dies in New York, aged 49

• 1938 – First flight of the Blackburn Roc

• 1929 – Trans-Canada (McKee) Trophy was awarded to ‘Wop’ May for his flight carrying a diphtheria anti-toxin from Edmonton to Fort Vermillion, Alberta.

• 1910 – Lt Theodore Ellyson of the United States Navy is assigned to flight training with the Curtiss company, making him the first naval aviator.

References

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