Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
Scientist and NASA astronaut Fernando “Frank” Caldeiro was born in Argentina’s capital city of Buenos Aires on June 12, 1958. As a young immigrant to the United States, however, he regarded both New York City and the Florida community of Merritt Island as his actual hometowns. Caldeiro graduated from William Cullen Bryant High School in... Continue Reading →
On June 10, 2021, Nuria I. Fernandez was confirmed by the U.S Senate as administrator of the Federal Transit Administration (FTA). This Senate confirmation by voice vote made Fernandez the first Afro-Latina to lead FTA. (An agency within the U.S. Department of Transportation [USDOT], FTA provides both financial and technical assistance to a wide range... Continue Reading →
September 28, 2019 In the Brazilian state of Santa Catarina, a new terminal for a longtime airport near the municipality of Florianópolis was officially opened. (Florianópolis is the capital of Santa Catarina.) This airport, which traces its origins to the 1920s, was named after Hercilio Pedro da Luz (1860-1924). Luz’s public service on behalf of... Continue Reading →
José Antonio Muñiz, an aviator whose U.S. military career included service in Southeast Asia during World War II, was born on October 16, 1919, in the city and municipality of Ponce on Puerto Rico’s southern coast. He was a student at elementary and secondary schools in Ponce. Muñiz then enrolled at the Ponce-based Colegio Ponceño... Continue Reading →
September 21, 2007 The multi-purpose, single-engine helicopter Alouette III was formally retired from service with the Irish Air Corps. Over the course of more than four decades, a total of eight of these helicopters had been used by the Irish Air Corps for various high-priority tasks. The Irish Air Corps, which traces its origins to... Continue Reading →
September 19, 1783 The Montgolfier brothers launched a duck, a sheep, and a rooster up into the air . . . While this might seem to be either something straight out of a Mother Goose tale or the setup for a bad joke, that is exactly what happened when aviation pioneers Joseph-Michel Montgolfier and Jacques-... Continue Reading →
September 13, 1964 In southeastern Australia, a regional airport in the state of New South Wales (NSW) was opened to the public. This airport is located 2.3 miles (3.7 kilometers) northeast of the NSW city of Albury, which is on NSW’s border with the neighboring state of Victoria. Albury Airport serves not only its namesake... Continue Reading →
September 1, 1919 In the southernmost part of Spain located within the Iberian Peninsula, the first scheduled commercial flights began for an airport in the country’s Costa del Sol region. This airport, which is five miles (eight kilometers) southwest of the municipality of Málaga, had been established about six months earlier. The first regular flights... Continue Reading →
August 19, 1929 In skies above the Detroit area, a one-of-a-kind airship manufactured for the U.S. Navy made its first flight. The ZMC-2 was created by the Detroit-based Aircraft Development Corporation and is the only successfully operated all-metal airship ever built. (ZMC stood for “Zeppelin Metal Clad.”) While nicknamed the “Tin Bubble,” the teardrop-shaped ZMC-2 --... Continue Reading →
August 16, 1928 San Diego Municipal Airport-Lindbergh Field was dedicated. The construction of this California-based airport, made possible by a bond issue passed by the city government of San Diego, had been inspired in large part by Charles Lindbergh’s historic solo transatlantic flight the previous year. The site of the new facility was near the airstrip... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 