Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
November 26, 1931 Thanksgiving Day in 1931 proved to be memorable in New York City. The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade started at 1:30 that afternoon in Manhattan at 110th and Broadway. The large helium balloons being carried in that year’s parade included a turkey, a dragon, a two-headed Martian, the popular cartoon star Felix the... Continue Reading →
November 18, 1949 A new aviation record was established when a U.S. Air Force (USAF) C-74 Globemaster plane transporting 103 people landed at the Royal Air Force (RAF) station near the village of Marham, England. This 82-ton (74.4-metric ton) plane, which was known as the Champ and reached its destination approximately 23 hours after flying... Continue Reading →
November 12, 2008 Operations fully began for a state-of-the-art terminal at Indianapolis International Airport. (This airport, which dates back to 1931, was originally known as Indianapolis Municipal Airport.) The new terminal was named after H. Weir Cook, one of the Hoosier State’s most prominent miliary heroes and aviation trailblazers. Cook had been born in 1892... Continue Reading →
October 31, 2020 A newly completed international airport in Germany’s state of Brandenburg was opened for commercial operations. This airport, which is just south of the country’s capital of Berlin, was named after Willy Brandt (1913-1992). Brandt, who had been a staunch opponent of the Nazi regime, served as governing mayor of West Berlin from... Continue Reading →
October 18, 2013 In India’s western state of Maharashtra, a newly completed air traffic control (ATC) tower at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport was formally introduced to the public. This airport serves Maharashtra’s capital city of Mumbai. At the time of its debut, this ATC tower -- with a height of 274.9 feet (83.8... Continue Reading →
José Moreno Hernández was born on August 7, 1962, in the community of French Camp in California. His family was originally from the municipality of La Piedad in western Mexico’s state of Michoacán. During much of his childhood, as a matter of fact, Hernández and his family routinely spent half the year in the United... Continue Reading →
October 11, 1927 Ruth Elder (1902-1977) and her co-pilot George W. Haldeman (1898-1982) took off from Long Island’s Roosevelt Field in a yellow Stinson Detroiter monoplane named American Girl for what was supposed to be the longest transatlantic flight to date. Elder and Haldeman, both of whom are depicted in the accompanying photo, planned to... Continue Reading →
October 10, 2012 A major milestone for Brazilian aerospace manufacturer Embraer’s short- to medium-range E-Jets took place when the 900th of those twin-engined jet airliners to be designed and produced was delivered to Kenya Airways. This particular type of E-Jet is formally known as the E-190. Along with acknowledging the numerical significance of the 900th... Continue Reading →
In 2022, Jo-Ann F. Burdian achieved a notable milestone as part of her service in the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) when she was promoted from captain to rear admiral (lower half). This promotion made her the first Latina in the USCG’s history to become a flag officer. This type of commissioned officer is senior enough... Continue Reading →
As a senior astronautical engineer at NASA, Irma Aracely Quispe Neira (widely known as Aracely Quispe) has made several noteworthy contributions to space and flight operations on behalf of that agency. Her accomplishments to date include becoming the first woman of Latin American descent to help oversee and lead three separate NASA missions. These major... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 