AircraftOwner Online

Feb 1, 2003:
On this day in 2003, the space shuttle Columbia breaks up while entering the atmosphere over Texas, killing all seven crew members on board.
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Feb 2, 1916:
Two days after nine German zeppelins dropped close to 400 bombs throughout the English Midlands, the crew of the British fishing trawler King Stephen comes across the crashed remains of one of the giant airships floating in the North Sea.
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Feb 4, 1949:
CAA granted authorization for commercial planes to use ground control approach (GCA) radar as a "primary aid" for bad-weather landings.
Page 49 in the FAA HISTORICAL CHRONOLOGY.
 
Feb 4, 1962:
The first U.S. helicopter is shot down in Vietnam. It was one of 15 helicopters ferrying South Vietnamese Army troops into battle near the village of Hong My in the Mekong Delta.
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Feb 7, 1984:
While in orbit 170 miles above Earth, Navy Captain Bruce McCandless becomes the first human being to fly untethered in space when he exits the U.S. space shuttle Challenger and maneuvers freely, using a bulky white rocket pack of his own design. McCandless orbited Earth in tangent with the shuttle at speeds greater than 17,500 miles per hour and flew up to 320 feet away from the Challenger. After an hour and a half testing and flying the jet-powered backpack and admiring Earth, McCandless safely reentered the shuttle.
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Feb 8, 1933:
The Boeing 247 first flew. Often considered the first modern airliner, this single-wing airplane of all-metal construction was powered by two Pratt & Whitney Wasp air-cooled radial engines. It had a gross takeoff weight of 12,650 points and accommodated 10 passengers. The Aeronautics Branch type-certificated the plane on Mar 16, 1933, and it entered scheduled airline service on Mar 30, 1933.
Page 13 in the FAA HISTORICAL CHRONOLOGY.
 
Feb 10, 1971:
Four journalists, including photographer Larry Burrows of Life magazine, Kent Potter of United Press International, Nenri Huett of the Associated Press, and Keisaburo Shimamoto of Newsweek, die in a South Vietnamese helicopter operating in Laos. The journalists had been covering Operation Lam Son 719, a limited attack into Laos by South Vietnamese forces, when their helicopter crashed..
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Feb 11, 1970:
From the Kagoshima Space Center on the east coast of Japan's Ohsumi Peninsula, Ohsumi, Japan's first satellite, is successfully launched into an orbit around Earth. The achievement made Japan the world's fourth space power, after the Soviet Union in 1957, the United States in 1958, and France in 1965.
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Feb 12, 1915:
One of the biggest air raids of World War I occurs on this day in 1915, when 34 planes from the British Naval Wing attack the German-occupied coastal towns of Blankenberghe, Ostend and Zeebrugge in Belgium.
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Feb 12, 1931:
An amendment to existing regulations covering interstate airline operations required a copilot on all aircraft flying a schedule of five or more hours with eight or more passengers.(See Oct 1, 1931.)
Page 12 in the FAA HISTORICAL CHRONOLOGY.
 
Feb 12, 1935:
The U.S. Navy's rigid airship Macon crashed at sea off the California coast. This crash, coupled with the loss of the Macon's sister ship, the Akron, two years earlier, ended U.S. interest in rigid airship development.
Page 19 in the FAA HISTORICAL CHRONOLOGY.
 

Feb 13, 1945:
On the evening of February 13, 1945, a series of Allied firebombing raids begins against the German city of Dresden, reducing the "Florence of the Elbe" to rubble and flames, and killing as many as 135,000 people. It was the single most destructive bombing of the war—including Hiroshima and Nagasaki—and all the more horrendous because little, if anything, was accomplished strategically, since the Germans were already on the verge of surrender.
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Feb 14, 1942:
The Douglas DC-4 Skymaster made its initial flight, thereafter becoming prominent in a generation of four-engine U.S. transports that advanced long-haul air travel. The plane was a scaled-down version of a prototype developed in 1939. The DC-4 carried a crew of six and up to forty-two passengers. Unlike the Boeing 307 and 307B, it did not have a pressurized cabin. The DC-4 entered military transport service with the military designation of C-54. Page 34 in the FAA HISTORICAL CHRONOLOGY.
 
Feb 15, 1930:
The Aeronautics Branch announced that it had issued the first rating under the Airport Rating Regulations to the municipal airport at Pontiac, Mich. The airport received the highest possible rating, A-1-A. The designation system enabled pilots to know at a glance what facilities to expect at any of the rated airports, which the Branch inspected in response to voluntary applications by airport operators. The program was part of the Aeronautics Branch’s efforts to encourage airport development through promotional activities, disseminating technical and statistical information, and giving expert advice to municipalities.
Page 10 in the FAA HISTORICAL CHRONOLOGY.
 
Feb 15, 1946:
The Lockheed L-049 Constellation went into U.S. domestic passenger service. Designed for a three-man crew, the Constellation had a separate panel and side-facing seat for a flight engineer. (See Jul 10, 1945 and Feb 21, 1947.)
Page 39 in the FAA HISTORICAL CHRONOLOGY.
 
Feb 16, 1940:
Radio station WSY, the Civil Aeronautics Authority's first overseas and foreign airways communications station (OFACS) began regular operations. Capable of two-way radio communications with aircraft flying the Atlantic Ocean, the powerful facility could also communicate with various points in Europe, Bermuda, and Newfoundland.
Page 29 in the FAA HISTORICAL CHRONOLOGY.
 
Feb 18, 1930:
Pluto, once believed to be the ninth planet, is discovered at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, by astronomer Clyde W. Tombaugh.
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Jan 11, 1935:
Earhart flies from Hawaii to California
In the first flight of its kind, American aviator Amelia Earhart departs Wheeler Field in Honolulu, Hawaii, on a solo flight to North America. Hawaiian commercial interests offered a $10,000 award to whoever accomplished the flight first. The next day, after traveling 2,400 miles in 18 hours, she safely landed at Oakland Airport in Oakland, California.
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Jan 14, 1943:
FDR becomes first president to travel by airplane on U.S. official business
On this day in 1943, Franklin Roosevelt becomes the first president to travel on official business by airplane. Crossing the Atlantic by air, Roosevelt flew in a Boeing 314 Flying Boat dubbed the Dixie Clipper to a World War II strategy meeting with Winston Churchill at Casablanca in North Africa. With German U-boats taking a heavy toll on American marine traffic in the Atlantic, Roosevelt's advisors reluctantly agreed to send him via airplane. Roosevelt, at a frail 60 years old, gamely made the arduous 17,000-mile round trip.
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Jan 19, 1915:
First air raid on Britain
During World War I, Britain suffers its first casualties from an air attack when two German zeppelins drop bombs on Great Yarmouth and King's Lynn on the eastern coast of England.
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Jan 21, 1976:
Concorde takes off
From London's Heathrow Airport and Orly Airport outside Paris, the first Concordes with commercial passengers simultaneously take flight on January 21, 1976. The London flight was headed to Bahrain in the Persian Gulf, and the Paris to Rio de Janeiro via Senegal in West Africa. At their cruising speeds, the innovative Concordes flew well over the sound barrier at 1,350 miles an hour, cutting air travel time by more than half.
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 Jan 23, 1941:
Lindbergh to Congress: Negotiate with Hitler
On this day, Charles A. Lindbergh, a national hero since his nonstop solo flight across the Atlantic, testifies before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on the Lend-Lease policy-and suggests that the United States negotiate a neutrality pact with Hitler.
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Jan 27, 1943:
Americans bomb Germans for first time
On this day, 8th Air Force bombers, dispatched from their bases in England, fly the first American bombing raid against the Germans, targeting the Wilhelmshaven port. Of 64 planes participating in the raid, 53 reached their target and managed to shoot down 22 German planes—and lost only three planes in return.
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Jan 27, 1967:
Astronauts die in launch pad fire
A launch pad fire during Apollo program tests at Cape Canaveral, Florida, kills astronauts Virgil "Gus" Grissom, Edward H. White II, and Roger B. Chafee. An investigation indicated that a faulty electrical wire inside the Apollo 1 command module was the probable cause of the fire. The astronauts, the first Americans to die in a spacecraft, had been participating in a simulation of the Apollo 1 launch scheduled for the next month.
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Jan 28, 1986:
Challenger explodes
At 11:38 a.m. EST, on January 28, 1986, the space shuttle Challenger lifts off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and Christa McAuliffe is on her way to becoming the first ordinary U.S. civilian to travel into space. McAuliffe, a 37-year-old high school social studies teacher from New Hampshire, won a competition that earned her a place among the seven-member crew of the Challenger. She underwent months of shuttle training but then, beginning January 23, was forced to wait six long days as the Challenger's launch countdown was repeatedly delayed because of weather and technical problems. Finally, on January 28, the shuttle lifted off.
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Jan 28, 1964:
Soviets shoot down U.S. jet
The U.S. State Department angrily accuses the Soviet Union of shooting down an American jet that strayed into East German airspace. Three U.S. officers aboard the plane were killed in the incident. The Soviets responded with charges that the flight was a "gross provocation," and the incident was an ugly reminder of the heightened East-West tensions of the Cold War era.
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Jan 31, 1928:
The Aeronautics Branch's Domestic Air News reported an early instance of airplane noise nuisance. The proprietor of the Cackle Corner Poultry Farm, Garrettsville, Ohio, complained to the Postmaster General that low-flying planes were disrupting egg production. The Postmaster General forwarded the letter to National Air Transport, Inc., the private company operating the New York-Chicago air mail route, suggesting it make a special effort to maintain altitude over Garrettsville.
Page 5 in the FAA HISTORICAL CHRONOLOGY.
 
Jan 31, 1958:
The United States successfully launched Explorer I, the first U.S. earth satellite.
Page 68 in the FAA HISTORICAL CHRONOLOGY.
 
Jan 31, 1971:
Apollo 14, piloted by astronauts Alan B. Shepard Jr., Edgar D. Mitchell, and Stuart A. Roosa, is successfully launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on a manned mission to the moon.
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