Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
August 11, 1986 Test pilot Trevor Egginton established a new speed record for conventional helicopters. He did so by reaching a speed of 249.1 miles (400.9 kilometers) per hour in a helicopter that he flew in the skies above southwestern England. Egginton was accompanied by flight test engineer Derek J. Clews. The helicopter used for... Continue Reading →
August 7, 1933 About 56 hours after flying out of New York City, French aviators Maurice Rossi and Paul Codos completed their airborne journey of 5,657 miles (9,105 kilometers) in the town of Riyaq (also known as Rayak) in the present-day Republic of Lebanon. (At the time of this flight, Lebanon was part of the... Continue Reading →
July 27, 1962 Aviation executive and pioneer James H. “Dutch” Kindelberger died at his home in Los Angeles at age 67. Kindelberger, who was described in an Associated Press story that day as “one of the giants of America’s aerospace industry,” had been born in Wheeling, West Virginia, in 1895. He acquired the nickname “Dutch”... Continue Reading →
July 21, 1946 An aviation milestone took place with the first official U.S. assessment of the adaptability of an all-jet aircraft to shipboard operations. For that assessment, U.S. Navy (USN) Lieutenant Commander James J. Davidson piloted a McDonnell XFD-1 Phantom fighter jet as it made a series of successful catapult-free takeoffs from and landings on... Continue Reading →
July 14, 1922 Less than two years after being established, the pioneering Aeromarine Airways launched passenger flight services between Detroit and Cleveland in the Great Lakes region. Several local prominent citizens and public officials formally initiated this service by boarding flights at Detroit on the Aeromarine Airways hydroplanes Santa Maria and Wolverine. The Santa Maria... Continue Reading →
July 9, 1942 U.S. Navy Secretary Frank Knox approved the establishment of a training center for pilots at a 1,400-acre (566.6-hectare) tract of land a few miles (kilometers) north of the city of Ottumwa, Iowa. About eight months after that authorization, the Ottumwa Naval Air Station (officially known as NAS Ottumwa) welcomed its first group... Continue Reading →
June 29, 1934 Joseph Adamowicz (1893-1970) and his younger brother Benjamin Adamowicz (1898-1979) began an ambitious airborne journey from North America to Europe. They are believed to be among the first (if not the first) amateur pilots to undertake any kind of transatlantic flight. The brothers, flying a monoplane known as City of Warsaw, made... Continue Reading →
June 2, 1910 Charles Stewart Rolls, who had already distinguished himself in the automotive world when he cofounded the Rolls-Royce car manufacturing firm more than five years earlier, achieved another notable transportation milestone when he made the first non-stop double-crossing of the English Channel via plane. The 32-year-old Rolls piloted a Wright Flyer biplane over... Continue Reading →
In 2001, Mark L. Polansky became the first Korean-American to travel into outer space. He had been born in Paterson, New Jersey, in 1956. His mother Edith is of Korean descent, and his late father Irving was Jewish. When he was only 13, Mark Polansky began to develop a strong interest in spaceflight while watching... Continue Reading →
May 21, 1927 Charles A. Lindbergh, flying his plane "The Spirit of St. Louis," arrived at Le Bourget Field near Paris, France, 33-and-a-half hours after he departed from Roosevelt Airfield in Garden City, New York. That long journey made the pilot widely known as "The Lone Eagle" the first person to complete a solo non-stop,... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 