Portal:Aviation

Assigned as a P-40 pilot with the 45th Fighter Squadron of the 15th Fighter Group at Wheeler Field, Hawaii, 2nd Lt. Gabreski witnessed the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, but did not become airborne in time to engage the attackers.

In March 1943 Gabreski became part of the 56th Fighter Group, flying the P-47 Thunderbolt, and in May was promoted to Major and named commander of the 61st Fighter Squadron, which included six Polish nationals as pilots in 1944. He made his 28th kill on July 5, 1944, passing Eddie Rickenbacker's record from World War I to become America's top ace (although several pilots passed him by the end of the war).

Col. Gabreski flew combat again during the Korean War, as commander of the 51st Fighter-Interceptor Wing, piloting an F-86 Sabre. He was credited with 6.5 MiG-15 kills, making him one of seven U.S. pilots to be aces in more than one war (the others are Col. Harrison Thyng, Col. James P. Hagerstrom, Major William T. Whisner, Col. Vermont Garrison, Major George A. Davis, Jr., and Lt.Col. John F. Bolt, USMC).

He ended his career as a commander of several tactical and air defense wings, his last assignment being commander of the 52d Fighter Wing at Suffolk County Air Force Base in Westhampton Beach, New York.

The Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow was a delta-winged interceptor aircraft, designed and built by Avro Aircraft Limited (Canada) in Malton, Ontario, Canada, as the culmination of a design study that began in 1953. Considered to be both an advanced technical and aerodynamic achievement for the Canadian aviation industry, the CF-105 held the promise of Mach 2 speeds at altitudes exceeding 50,000 ft (15,000 m), and was intended to serve as the Royal Canadian Air Force's primary interceptor in the 1960s and beyond. Not long after the 1958 start of its flight test program, the development of the Arrow (including its Orenda Iroquois jet engines) was abruptly and controversially halted before the project review had taken place, sparking a long and bitter political debate. The controversy engendered by the cancellation and subsequent destruction of the aircraft in production, remains a topic for debate among historians, political observers and industry pundits. "This action effectively put Avro out of business and its highly skilled engineering and production personnel scattered... The incident was a traumatic one... and to this day, many mourn the loss of the Arrow."

• Span: 50 ft 0 in (15.24 m)
• Length: 77 ft 9 in (23.71 m)
• Height: 20 ft 6 in (6.25 m)
• Engines: 2×Pratt & Whitney J75-P-3
• Cruising Speed: Mach 0.91 (607 mph, 977 km/h) at 36,000 ft (11,000 m)
• First Flight: 25 March 1958
• Number built: 5

February 10

• 2011 – A Peruvian Air Force Zlin Z-242L crashed at Pisco airfield, Peru killing the two crew.

• 2011 – Manx2 Flight 7100 from Belfast, operated by Fairchild Swearingen Metroliner EC-ITP leased from Flightline BCN of Barcelona, overturns on its third attempt to land at Cork, Republic of Ireland in fog, killing six and injuring six.^[1][2][3]

• 2010 – A Eurocopter AS350 helicopter of the Brazilian Army crashed while training tactical piloting maneuvering at Sao Pedro da Aldeia naval base, about 130 kilometers (81 mi) away from Rio de Janeiro city.

• 2009 – The communications satellites Iridium 33 and Kosmos-2251 collide in orbit 490 miles (789 km) above Siberia at a speed of 26,170 miles per hour (42,120 km/h).This was the first major collision of two satellites in Earth orbit. Both satellites were destroyed.

• 2004 – Kish Air Flight 7170, a Fokker 50, crashes at Sharjah International Airport, killing 43 people. Three survive with serious injuries.

• 2000 – Death of Igor Bensen, Russian born American engineer, founder of the Bensen Aircraft, which produced a successful line of Gyro-gliders (rotor kites) and Autogyros. He founded the Popular Rotorcraft Association in 1962, a non-profit interest group for owners and homebuilders of auto-gyros and helicopters, based in Mentone, Indiana.

• 1997 – Death of Amron Harry Katz, American physicist who specialized in aerial reconnaissance.

• 1995 – The prototype Antonov An-70 is destroyed after a mid-air collision with an An-72 chase plane. All seven aboard are killed in the crash.

• 1995 – Two Peruvian Sukhoi Su-22 Ms are shot down by a pair of Ecuadorian Mirage F.1JAs. Almost simultaneously, a Peruvian Cessna A-37 B is also shot down by an Ecuadorian Kfir C.2.

• 1993 – McDonnell Douglas produces its 10,000th aircraft

• 1991 – U. S. Navy A-6 Es sink two Iraqi Navy patrol boats in the northern Persian Gulf. Iraqi antiaircraft artillery shoots down a U. S. Marine Corps AV-8 B Harrier II over southern Kuwait.

• 1988 – The pilot of an General Dynamics F-16A Block 15J Fighting Falcon, 82–0909, c/n 61–0502, ejected safely when his plane caught fire and crashed on take-off at Moody Air Force Base in south Georgia. Problems occurred during a routine practice flight. Witnesses said the aircraft climbed straight into the air during take-off and exploded into flames before hitting the ground. The plane was assigned to Moody.

• 1982 – The flight of the Argus 10742 from Summerside to Rockcliffe for delivery to National Aviation Museum. The Argus overflew Canadair plant in a final salute.

• 1981 – Two United States Marine Corps helicopters (a CH-46 and a CH-53) collide over Tustin MCAS in California, United States, six killed.

• 1977 – Death of George John Dufek, American naval officer, naval aviator, and Arctic expert.

• 1975 – The Royal Australian Navy suffers its only operational Grumman S-2E Tracker loss during approximately 17 years of operation of the type when N12-153608 is lost at sea with two fatalities.

• 1971 – Death of Alfred Clayburn Atkey, Canadian WWI fighter ace.

• 1968 – Birth of Garrett Erin Reisman, American engineer and NASA astronaut.

• 1967 – First flight of the Dornier Do 31, a West German experimental VTOL jet transport.

• 1964 – The Royal Australian Navy aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne (R21) collides with the destroyer HMAS Voyager (D04) during exercises off of Jervis Bay, Australia, slicing the destroyer in two and killing 82 of Voyager's sailors.

• 1964 – Death of Eugen Sänger, Austrian-German aerospace engineer best known for his contributions to lifting body and ramjet technology.

• 1963 – Death of Isidore Auguste Marie Louis Paulhan, known as Louis Paulhan, pioneering French aviator who flew “Le Canard”, the world's first seaplane.

• 1962 – American U-2 pilot Gary Powers, shot down and arrested in the U. S. S. R. May 1st 1960, is exchanged along with American student Frederic Pryor in a well publicized spy swap for Soviet KGB Colonel Vilyam Fisher (aka Rudolf Abel), a Soviet colonel who was caught by the FBI and put in jail for espionage, at the Glienicke Bridge in Berlin, Germany.

• 1953 – Death of William Spurrett Fielding-Johnson, British WWI flying ace.

• 1952 – Maj George A. Davis Jr is awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously, after attacking a group of 12 Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15s that were about to bounce other US aircraft. He shot down two before being shot down himself.

• 1949 – USAF Douglas A-26B-66-DL Invader, 44–34719, out of Greenville AFB, South Carolina, piloted by Robert L. Kenyon, crashes at Waples Pond, Delaware - four killed.

• 1945 – German Junkers Ju 88s attack Convoy JW 64 in the Arctic Ocean.

• 1944 – American Airlines Flight 2, a Douglas DC-3, crashes into the Mississippi River for reasons unknown, killing all 24 occupants (21 passengers and 3 crew members).

• 1943 – A U. S. Army Air Forces Antisubmarine Command B-24D Liberator sinks a German submarine, apparently U-519, in the North Atlantic Ocean, the first submarine sunk by the command.

• 1942 – A Hawker Hurricane Mk. I, P3664, of No. 55 OTU, based at RAF Usworth,[109] crashes in bad weather in an orchard opposite the High Marley Hill Radio Mast, killing RCAF Sergeant Pilot James D’Arcy Lees Graham, 24, of Carstairs, Alberta. The Air Ministry Crash Card records that the fighter flew into high ground in a squall, the weather deteriorated and the aircraft dived out of low cloud into a snow squall and failed to pull out of the dive. The pilot was interred at St Margaret's Church Cemetery, Castletown, Sunderland.

• 1941 – Britain uses paratroops for the first time in an attack on Tragino

• 1941 – (overnight) – 222 British bombers attack Hanover, Germany, losing seven of their number, and 43 others attack oil storage tanks in Rotterdam in the Netherlands. In the Rotterdam raid, the Short Stirling makes its combat debut as the United Kingdom's first four-engined heavy bomber.

• 1936 – First flight of the Fiat BR.20, an Italian low-wing twin-engine medium bomber.

• 1935 – First flight of the A. N. F. Les Mureaux 180, a French Single engine High wing monoplane 2 seat fighter prototype, evolution of the ANF Les Mureaux 170.

• 1933 – First flight of the Hawker Demon

• 1930 – An Air Union Farman F.63 Goliath crashes while attempting an emergency landing at Marden Airfield, Marden, Kent due to structural failure, killing 2 of 6 on board.

• 1929 – Evelyn “Bobbi” Trout broke the record for the first all-night flight by a woman as well as and the new women's solo endurance record flying more than 17 hours in an open cockpit Bruner Winkle biplane .Trout flew from Mines Field USA.

• 1925 – The 1030 hrs. crash of a Curtiss JN-6H, AS-44806, ~2 miles (3.2 km) E of Brooks Field, Texas, kills instructor 1st Lt. Arthur L. Foster along with Maj. Lee O. Wright. Foster Field at Victoria, Texas is later dedicated to the pilot on 22 February 1942. Foster's widow, Mrs. Ruth Young Foster, of San Antonio, Texas, unveiled a plaque that read "Dedicated to the memory of Lieut. Arthur Lee Foster, a pioneer in aviation who gave his life teaching others to fly." Foster Field was designated Foster Air Force Base on an inactive status on 1 September 1952, by Department of the Air Force General Order No. 38, dated 29 August 1952.

• 1925 – Pacific Airways Ltd. was formed by D. R. MacLaren and took over the fishery patrol from the RCAF.

• 1923 – An experimental night flight arrives to Le Bourget, France, from Croydon, England. The pilot has given his position by radio and used the aviation light beacons to make his approach.

• 1914 – Berliner, Haase and Nikolai land their free balloon in Perm, setting a new distance record of 3053 km from Bitterfeld.

• 1913 – Birth of Federico Cozzolino, Italian Aviator.

• 1903 – Birth of George John Dufek, American naval officer, naval aviator, and Arctic expert.

• 1898 – Birth of Thomas Sydney Chiltern, British WWI flying ace.

• 1897 – Birth of Erik Thomas, German WWI flying ace.

• 1892 – Birth of Roland Rohlfs, American early aviator and test pilot.

• 1891 – Birth of Air Marshal Sir William Lawrie Welsh KBE, DSC, AFC, British Royal Air Force officer who commanded British air operations during Operation Torch and also a WWI RNAS Pilot.