Portal:Aviation

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Portal:Airplanes)
Portal topics
Activities
Culture
Geography
Health
History
Mathematics
Nature
People
Philosophy
Religion
Society
Technology
Random portal
Main page   Categories & Main topics  


Tasks and Projects

The Aviation Portal

A Boeing 747

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 craft 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

Color Autochrome Lumière of a Nieuport Fighter in Aisne, France 1917
Color Autochrome Lumière of a Nieuport Fighter in Aisne, France 1917
One of the many innovations of World War I, aircraft were first used for reconnaissance purposes and later as fighters and bombers. Consequently, this was the first war which involved a struggle for control of the air, which turned it into another battlefield, alongside the battlefields of land and sea. (Full article...)

Selected image

Did you know

...that the mysterious objects known as Black Triangles may actually be hybrid airships? ...that the airfields captured in the battle of Tinian were used for the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki? ... that the price war started by Color Air in 1998 led to its bankruptcy after 14 months?

More Did you know facts

General images - load new batch

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

In the news

Wikinews Aviation portal
Read and edit Wikinews

Related portals

Associated Wikimedia

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

Selected biography

Elizabeth Muriel Gregory "Elsie" MacGill (27 March 1905 – 4 November 1980), known as the Queen of the Hurricanes, was the world's first female aircraft designer. She worked as an aeronautical engineer during the Second World War and did much to make Canada a powerhouse of airplane construction during her years at Canada Car and Foundry (CC&F) in Fort William, Ontario. After her work at CC&F she ran a successful consulting business. Between 1967–1970 she was a commissioner on the Royal Commission on the Status of Women in Canada, published in 1970.

Selected Aircraft

Airbus A380
Airbus A380

The Airbus A380 is a double-deck, four-engined airliner manufactured by Airbus S.A.S. It first flew on 27 April 2005 from Toulouse–Blagnac Airport. Commercial flights began in late 2007 after months of testing, with the delivery of the first aircraft to launch customer Singapore Airlines. During much of its development phase, the aircraft was known as the Airbus A3XX, and the nickname Superjumbo has also become associated with the A380.

The A380 is double decked, with the upper deck extending along the entire length of the fuselage. This allows for a spacious cabin, with the A380 in standard three-class configuration to seat 555 people, up to maximum of 853 in full economy class configuration. Only one model of the A380 was available: The A380-800, the passenger model. It is the largest passenger airliner in the world superseding the Boeing 747. The other launch model, the A380-800F freighter, was canceled and did not join the ranks of the largest freight aircraft such as the Antonov An-225, An-124, and the C-5 Galaxy.

  • Span: 79.8 m (261 ft 10 in)
  • Length: 73 m (239 ft 6 in)
  • Height: 24.1 m (79 ft 1 in)
  • Engines: 4 * Rolls-Royce Trent 900 or Engine Alliance GP7200 (311 kN or 69,916 lbf)
  • Cruising Speed: 0.85 Mach (approx 1,050 km/h or 652 mph or 567 kn)
  • First Flight: 27 April 2005
  • Number built: 254 (including 3 prototypes)
More selected aircraft Read more...

Today in Aviation

June 1

  • 2009 – Swedish airline Air Express Sweden is taken over by MCA Airlines
  • 2009 – Air France Flight 447, an Airbus A330-200 flying from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to Paris, France, crashes in the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 228 occupants, including 12 crew; bodies and aircraft debris are not recovered until several days later; the aircraft itself is not found until 2011. The crash is the first fatal accident of the A330 and the worst-ever disaster involving the A330.
  • 2008 –A U.S. helicopter crashes south of Baghdad, injuring two soldiers. The type of helicopter has not been revealed.[1][2]
  • 2007 – A Tanzania People’s Defence Forces passenger plane (reg JW9036) developed dual engine failure as the pilot manoeuvred to land at Dodoma airport, the pilot, Lieutenant Colonel S. M. Mayenga, said, and crash landed in the Kizota area of Dodoma. All thirteen people aboard survived.
  • 1999 – American Airlines Flight 1420, a McDonnell Douglas MD-82, skids off the runway on landing at Little Rock, Arkansas during strong winds; eleven of 145 on board die.
  • 1998 – MetroJet, operated by US Airways, began operations.
  • 1992 – The United States Air Force‘s Strategic Air Command is disestablished.
  • 1976 – Aeroflot Flight 418, a Tupolev Tu-154, crashes into a mountain side on the island of Bioko in Equatorial Guinea; all 45 on board die.
  • 1975 – A Kenyan Air Force Hawker Hunter crashes at Nairobi, Kenya, during celebrations marking the anniversary of self-rule in the former British colony, the airframe impacting only a few hundred yards from where President Jomo Kenyatta is addressing a public rally. The two crew of the fighter are killed instantly, with the jet narrowly missing a crowded bus as it skids across a four-lane highway. Passengers panic as the bus brakes to a halt and fills with smoke from the burning wreckage. A second Hunter jet makes an emergency landing at Nairobi International Airport, where, according to one witness, it narrowly misses a loaded Pan American jet "by a matter of feet." The airport closes briefly after the incident.
  • 1953 – No. 423 Squadron was reformed at St. Hubert, Quebec and equipped with Avro Canada CF-100 fighters.
  • 1949 – A survey conducted by a firm of New York aviation consultants shows that for the first time in history air travel volume are greater than first class rail travel. Revenue passengers-miles for domestic airlines totals 603 million compared to 582 million for Pullman trains.
  • 1948 – Entered Service: Convair CV-240 Convairliner with American Airlines
  • 1948 – British European Airways (British European Airways) commences the first helicopter air mail service in the United Kingdom.
  • 1948 – First flight of Cessna 170. The Cessna 170 is a general aviation aircraft produced by the Cessna Aircraft Company between 1948 and 1956. Over 5,000 were built, and over 2,000 are still accounted for today. The Cessna 170 landing gear is a taildragger configuration. It was replaced by the Cessna 172 which became the most popular light plane in history.
  • 1944 – North West Air Command was formed at Edmonton under the command of A/V/M T. A. Lawrence.
  • 1943 – Allied aircraft begin a final period of heavy bombing of Pantelleria during the ten days prior to the scheduled invasion of the island, during which they will fly 3,647 sorties.
  • 1943 – In response to the Nazi dictatorship, the RCAF Second Tactical Air Force (2nd T. A. F.) was formed.
  • 1943 – BOAC Flight 777, a Douglas DC-3, is shot down by Luftwaffe fighter aircraft over the Bay of Biscay, killing 17 passengers and crew, including actor Leslie Howard and leading to speculation that the flight was attacked because German intelligence believed that British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was aboard.
  • 1942 – Because of the similarity of the red disc in the center of the national insignia for U. S. military aircraft USAAC to Japanese markings, the United States adopts a new national insignia without the red disc, consisting simply of a white star centered in a blue circle USAAC roundel.The new marking will remain in use until July 1943.
  • 1942 – (Overnight) – Royal Air Force Bomber Command mounts what is nominally its second “thousand-bomber raid” – 956 bombers actually participate – Targeting Essen, Germany. Industrial haze spoils the attack; the British bombers kill only 15 people in Essen and destroy only 11 homes there, while widely scattered bombs strike Oberhausen, Duisburg, and at least eleven other cities and towns, which suffer more damage than Essen itself.
  • 1941 – Germany completes the conquest of Crete. German airborne forces have suffered such heavy losses – probably 6,000 to 7,000 casualties and 284 aircraft lost – In the eleven days of fighting that Germany never again attempts a large airborne operation.
  • 1941 – German Junkers Ju 88 bombers sink the British light cruiser HMS Calcutta 100 nautical miles (185 km) north of Alexandria, Egypt, as she retires after evacuating troops from Crete.
  • 1940 – U. S. Army Air Corps announces plans for the construction of the world’s most powerful wind tunnel at Wright Field, Dayton, Ohio.
  • 1939 – The Douglas DC-4 makes its first passenger flight from Chicago to New York.
  • 1927 – Western Canada Airways inaugurated weekly air service from Winnipeg to Long Lake, Manitoba via Lac du Bonnet.
  • 1925 – A car dealer covers himself in stamps worth $718 in a bid to be sent airmail from San Francisco to New York; the U. S. Post Office refuses to accept him.
  • 1919 – A permanent flight of aircraft is stationed in San Diego to serve as a forest fire patrol. The machines are war-surplus Curtiss JN-4s.
  • 1915 – The United States Department of the Navy awards its first contract for an airship – The DN-1-Class Blimp – To the Connecticut Aircraft Company.
  • 1915 – Germany conducts the first zeppelin air raid over England.

References

  1. ^ Ross Colvin (2008-06-01). "Two US soldiers injured in Iraq helicopter crash". Reuters. Retrieved 2008-06-01.
  2. ^ "US helicopter crashes in Iraq; 2 soldiers injured". The Associated Press. 2008-06-01. Retrieved 2008-06-01.
  3. ^ United States Air Force Thunderbirds
Edit today's anniversaries – June Archive – All anniversaries...


Purge server cache

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Portal:Aviation&oldid=1142106391"