Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
May 5, 1991 In northern Italy’s administrative region of Emilia-Romagna, an airport located a mile-and-a-half (2.4 kilometers) from the city of Parma was officially opened. This civil airport was built on the site of an airfield that had existed there as far back as 1923. Regularly scheduled flights at the airport began on the same... Continue Reading →
April 27, 1922 Sheila Scott, who would break more than 100 aviation records, was born in the cathedral city of Worcester in central England. Prior to her pursuit of flying, she worked in such varied fields as nursing and acting. Scott learned how to fly in 1958. After nine months of training, she began to... Continue Reading →
April 17, 1962 A dedication ceremony took place for an airport in the vicinity of Bhubaneswar, the capital city of eastern India’s state of Odisha. This airport was specifically dedicated to the people of Odisha, and it had the distinction of being the first commercial airport in the state. The airport is named after Biju... Continue Reading →
April 8, 1956 In the Brazilian state of Paranã, operations began for a newly relocated airport about a mile (1.6 kilometers) from the downtown section of the city of Londrina. This milestone took place two decades after Londrina Airport had first gone into service with an unpaved runway in the city’s Vila Isabel neighborhood. The... Continue Reading →
March 20, 1956 Only four days after his 76th birthday, inventor and engineer William Bushnell Stout died of a heart attack at his home in Phoenix, Arizona. Stout, who made significant innovations in the aviation and automotive fields, had been born in 1880 in Quincy, Illinois. After graduating from the Mechanic Arts High School in... Continue Reading →
In 1978, Jill E. Brown made aviation history as the first African American woman to become a pilot for a major U.S. passenger airline. She was born in Baltimore in 1950. Her family owned a farm in West Virginia and, by the time she was nine, Brown had begun operating a tractor there and performing... Continue Reading →
Aviation pioneer Janet Harmon Bragg was born in the city of Griffin, Georgia, on March 24, 2007. She developed a strong interest in flying at a young age. In 1933, Bragg enrolled at Curtiss-Wright Aeronautical University in Chicago. By that time, the university had become an aviation school for blacks that was managed by pilots John C. Robinson (1903-1954)... Continue Reading →
January 15, 1961 Italy’s Leonardo da Vinci Rome Fiumicino Airport, located about 19 miles (30 kilometers) southwest of Rome in the town of Fiumicino, was officially opened. This international airport, which replaced Rome Ciampino Airport as the region’s main airport, was named in honor of someone regarded by many as the ultimate Renaissance man. Italian polymath... Continue Reading →
Robbie Hood, a member of the Cherokee Nation, has made notable flight-oriented contributions as an atmospheric scientist. She is a direct descendant of John Ross (1790-1866), whose tenure as principal chief of the Cherokee Nation from 1828 to 1866 was the longest of anyone serving in that role. Ross achieved lasting prominence for his pivotal... Continue Reading →
Richard Francis "Dick" Gordon Jr., who made notable contributions as both a U.S. Navy aviator and NASA astronaut, died at his home in the city of San Marcos, California. He was 88. Gordon had been born in Seattle on October 5, 1929. After graduating from the University of Washington in 1951 with a B.S. in... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 