*27 January - [[United States Air Force]] [[Silverplate]] [[B-29]]-36-MO [[Superfortress]], ''44-65385'', of the 428th Base Unit, [[Kirtland Army Air Field]], [[New Mexico]], for [[Los Alamos]] bomb development testing, crashed immediately after take-off from Kirtland on routine maintenance test flight. No specific cause is documented, a fire in one engine and the pilot's failure to compensate for loss of power is believed to have caused the accident. Twelve crew KWF.
*27 January - [[United States Air Force]] [[Silverplate]] [[B-29]]-36-MO [[Superfortress]], ''44-65385'', of the 428th Base Unit, [[Kirtland Army Air Field]], [[New Mexico]], for [[Los Alamos]] bomb development testing, crashed immediately after take-off from Kirtland on routine maintenance test flight. No specific cause is documented, a fire in one engine and the pilot's failure to compensate for loss of power is believed to have caused the accident. Twelve crew KWF.
*February - Second prototype [[Curtiss XBTC-2]], BuNo ''31402'', of only two built, crashes at [[NATC Patuxent River]], [[Maryland]], during testing of full-span Duplex wingflaps and dual rotation propellers.
*21 February - [[United States Air Force]] [[B-29]]-95-BW [[Superfortress]], ''45-21768'', "''[[Kee Bird]]''", of the 46th/72nd Reconnaissance Squadrons, on mission out of [[Ladd Field]], runs out of fuel due to a navigational error and is forced to land in a remote area of northern [[Greenland]]. The aircrew is rescued unharmed 3 days later, but the plane is abandoned in place. The accident achieves continuing notability for the exceptionally fortuitous rescue and later for a well-publicized and ultimately disastrous 1994 [[List of notable incidents and accidents involving military aircraft#1995|recovery attempt]].
*21 February - [[United States Air Force]] [[B-29]]-95-BW [[Superfortress]], ''45-21768'', "''[[Kee Bird]]''", of the 46th/72nd Reconnaissance Squadrons, on mission out of [[Ladd Field]], runs out of fuel due to a navigational error and is forced to land in a remote area of northern [[Greenland]]. The aircrew is rescued unharmed 3 days later, but the plane is abandoned in place. The accident achieves continuing notability for the exceptionally fortuitous rescue and later for a well-publicized and ultimately disastrous 1994 [[List of notable incidents and accidents involving military aircraft#1995|recovery attempt]].
*July - First prototype [[Curtiss XBTC-2]], BuNo ''31401'', of only two built, crashes at [[NATC Patuxent River]], [[Maryland]], during testing of full-span Duplex wingflaps and dual rotation propellers.
*19 July - [[RAF]] [[Bristol Brigand]] TF.1, ''RH742'', assigned to the [[A&AEE]], piloted by F/L T. Morren, failed to pull out of firing pass during exercise in the [[Lyme Bay]] area off the [[Dorset]] coast, entered slow roll and lost speed while inverted, into spiral dive into sea, killing both crew. It was thought that one of the dive brakes may have failed. This was the first fatal accident in the type.<ref name="Crouchman">Crouchman, Alan F., "''Last of the 'Colonial Policemen'?''", Air Enthusiast No.83, Stamford, Lincs., U.K., September/October 1999, pages 22-23.</ref>
*19 July - [[RAF]] [[Bristol Brigand]] TF.1, ''RH742'', assigned to the [[A&AEE]], piloted by F/L T. Morren, failed to pull out of firing pass during exercise in the [[Lyme Bay]] area off the [[Dorset]] coast, entered slow roll and lost speed while inverted, into spiral dive into sea, killing both crew. It was thought that one of the dive brakes may have failed. This was the first fatal accident in the type.<ref name="Crouchman">Crouchman, Alan F., "''Last of the 'Colonial Policemen'?''", Air Enthusiast No.83, Stamford, Lincs., U.K., September/October 1999, pages 22-23.</ref>
*15 October - Second prototype [[Westland Wyvern]] TF Mk. 1, ''TS375'', crashes during attempted forced landing at [[Farnborough]] after its propeller stopped, killing Westland test pilot [[Squadron Leader]] P.J. Garner.<ref name=autogenerated11 />
*15 October - Second prototype [[Westland Wyvern]] TF Mk. 1, ''TS375'', crashes during attempted forced landing at [[Farnborough]] after its propeller stopped, killing Westland test pilot [[Squadron Leader]] P.J. Garner.<ref name=autogenerated11 />
This is a list of notable accidents and incidents involving military aircraft grouped by the year in which the accident or incident occurred. For more exhaustive lists, see the Aircraft Crash Record Office or the Air Safety Network.
16 October - Pilot S.F. Cody takes off from Farnborough Common, Great Britain, in his British Army Aeroplane 1A, a tailless biplane with vertical surfaces mounted on the wingtips and over the centre-section, powered by a 50 hp. Antoinette engine. His flight covers 424 metres before ending in a crash-landing, which he survives.[1]
1913
9 September - Imperial German Navy Zeppelin, L 1, LZ14, pushed down into the North Sea in a thunderstorm, drowning 14 crew members. This was the first Zeppelin incident in which fatalities occurred.
17 October - Imperial German Navy ZeppelinL 2, LZ18, destroyed by an exploding engine during a test flight - the entire crew was killed. Painting of LZ18 descending in flames after engine fire, 17 October 1913.
26 July - Seventh aircraft erected at Tokorozawa Airfield, Japan, the Kaishiki Converted Type Mo (Maurice Farman Type), 7, crashed at this airfield while piloted by Capt. Tokugawa. When rebuilt, with completion on 19 January 1915, this 7th Type Mo 1913 became known as the Sawada Type No. 7, or more officially because of radical modifications, as the Kaishiki the 3rd Year Model.[3]
12 August - Sole Royal Aircraft FactoryS.E.4, 628, crashlands at 1145 hrs. while being flown by Norman Spratt when one of the wheels collapsed, airframe overturning, sustaining such extensive damage that it is abandoned.[4]
5 October - First aerial combat kill in history recorded when a Voison pusher of Escadrille VB24, flown by Sgt. Joseph Frantz and Cpl. Quénault, downed a German two-seater believed to have been an Aviatik, using what is believed to have been a Hotchkiss machine gun.[5]
1915
6 March - First fatal accident involving Japanese Naval aviators occurs when Yokosho-built Navy Type Mo Large Seaplane (Maurice Farman 1914 Seaplane), serial number 15, crashed at sea with Sub-Lieuts. Tozaburo Adachi and Takao Takerube, and W/O 3/c Hisanojo Yanase on board, all KWF. [6]
17 November - Imperial German Navy Zeppelin, L 18, LZ52, destroyed in shed fire at Tondern during refilling.
1916
Afternoon of 7 June - Fokker's chief designer and test pilot Martin Kreutzer takes a Fokker D.I for test flight, but when he kicks rudder hard over, it jams and he is severely injured in subsequent crash, dying in hospital the next day.[7]
3 September - Imperial German Army ZeppelinLZ86, LZ56, crashed when the fore and aft nacelles broke away from the ship's hull after a raid.
Night of 6 September - The Roland (Luftfahrzeug Gesellschaft mbH, or LFG) Adlershof, Germany, aircraft plant burns, destroying seven complete aircraft, including the prototypeRoland C.III (and only one built), as well as ten fuselages. Assembly jigs and fixtures, models and some drawings are salvaged and production resumes a week later in commandeered Automobile Exhibition Hall.[8]
16 September - Two Imperial German Navy Zeppelins destroyed when L 6, LZ31, took fire during refilling of gas in its hanger at Fuhlsbüttel and burnt down together with L 9, LZ36.
21 September - One only prototype Avro 521 fighter, 1811, (a serial that duplicated one assigned to a Bleriot monoplane), assigned to Central Flying School Upavon, crashes killing pilot Lt. W.H.S. Garnett.[9]
7 November - Imperial German Army ZeppelinLZ90, LZ60, broke loose in the direction of the North Sea in a storm and never seen again.
12 December - Sole prototype of Kishi No.2Tsurugi-go ("Sword" type) Aeroplane, 'II', single-engine pusher biplane, makes first and last flight when Lt. Inoue lifts off, immediately banks sharply to port, wingtip contacts ground, airframe cartwheels sustaining considerable damage. Cause of accident assumed to be due to the sweptback wing design.[10]
28 December - Imperial German Navy ZeppelinL 24, LZ69, crashed into a wall while being "stabled", broke its back, and burned out together with L 17, LZ53.
29 December - Imperial German Navy ZeppelinL 38, LZ84, damaged beyond repair in a forced landing (due to heavy snowfall) during an attempted raid on Reval and Saint Petersburg.
1917
28 January - Royal Aircraft Factory test pilot Maj. Frank W. Goodden is killed in the second prototype S.E.5, A4562 at RAE Farnborough, when it breaks up in flight. At the time of his death, Goodden was one of Britain's most experienced pilots. Inspection found that the wings had suffered failure in downward torsion. Plywood webs were added to the compression ribs, curing the trouble and were standardized on all later S.E.5s and 5a's. [11][12]
7 February - Imperial German Navy ZeppelinL 36, LZ82, damaged during landing in fog at Rehben-an-der-Aller and decommissioned.
16 June - Imperial German Navy ZeppelinL 40, LZ88, damaged beyond repair in a failed landing at Nordholz.
7 August - Squadron Commander Edwin H. Dunning, RNAS, (17 July 1892 - 7 August 1917) during landing attempt aboard HMS Furious, Pennant number 47, in Sopwith Pup, N6452, decides to go around before touchdown, but Le Rhône rotary engine chokes, Pup stalls and falls into the water off the starboard bow. Pilot stunned, drowns in the 20 minutes before rescuers reach still-floating airframe. Dunning had made two previous successful landings on Furious, the first-ever aboard a moving vessel.[13]Sqn Cdr E. H. Dunning landing aboard HMS Furious in the Scapa Flow, in a Sopwith Pup, 2 August 1917, five days before his fatal third attempt.
25 August - First Vickers F.B.26 Vampire, unnumbered, piloted by Vickers test pilot Harold Barnwell, crashes at Joyce Green, when he attempts a spin without sufficient altitude for recovery. Pilot KWF.[14]
19 October - Imperial German Navy ZeppelinL 16, LZ50, damaged beyond repair in a forced landing near Brunsbüttel.
December - Second prototype Sopwith Snipe, B9963, tricky to fly as its 230 hp. Bentley BR2rotary engine had immense torque that made directional control difficult, as well as being tail heavy while climbing, and nose heavy while diving, crashes, probably at RAE Farnborough, England.[15] This airframe may have been a rebuild of B.R.1 prototype.[16]
1918
5 January - Imperial German Navy Zeppelin, L 47, LZ87, destroyed by a giant explosion at the air base in Ahlhorn, along with L 46, LZ94, L 51, LZ97, and L 58, LZ105, and one non-Zeppelin-type airship, stabled in three adjacent hangars. This is supposed to have been an accident, though sabotage could not be ruled out.
10 March - Sole prototype Nieuport B.N.1, C3484, operating out of Sutton's Farm, a home aerodrome, Great Britain, catches fire in the air and is destroyed. No further development undertaken.[17]
28 March - Sole prototype of the Breguet LE (Laboratoire Eiffel), a single-seat fighter monoplane, crashes on its second flight, out of Villacoublay, France, when it dives into the ground at full-throttle, killing pilot Jean Sauclière. Further development suspended.[18]
19 August - First of three crashes of new Fokker E.V. (Eindekker Versuchs, or monoplane experimental), six of which are delivered to Jasta 6 of the Imperial German Air Force on 7 August, to occur in a week, kills Leutnant Emil Rolff when wing fails, and, like the Fokker Triplane before it, the type is grounded for investigation. Problem traced to shoddy workmanship at the Mecklenburg factory where defective wood spars, water damage to glued parts, and pins carelessly splintering the members instead of securing them are discovered. Upon return to service two months later, design is renamed the Fokker D.VIII in an effort to distance type's reputation as a killer. Rolff had scored the first kill in the type on 17 August.[19][20]
1919
9 April - Second of only two Bristol M.R.1 metal-covered, two-seat biplanes built, A5178, flown by Capt. Barnwell, strikes pine tree on approach to RAE Farnborough's North Gate and is written off.[21]
July - Three-engine bomber, designed by Juan de la Cierva, reminiscent of the German Gotha, is destroyed on its first flight. Pilot, Capt. Rios, is shaken up but survives.
Summer - Sole flying prototype of Curtiss 18-B two-bay biplane version of 18-T triplane trainer, USAAS 40058, 'P-86', crashes early in flight trials at McCook Field, Dayton, Ohio. Type not ordered into production. One non-flying prototype also delivered for static testing.[22]
1921
23 March - In an all-night training flight, a U.S. Navy free balloon launches from NAS Pensacola, Florida, with five crew and drifts over the Gulf of Mexico. Two messages received by pigeon indicate it first is 20 miles from St. Andrews Bay, then that all ballast had been dropped and that it was at 100 feet and descending. Nothing is ever found of the balloon or Chief Quartermaster E.W. Wilkinson, enlisted men R.V. Wyland, E.L. Kershaw, and J.P. Elder, and Marine Corps member W.H. Tressey.[23]Rescuers scramble across the wreckage of British R-38/USN ZR-2 airship, 24 August 1921.
21 February - U.S. Army semi-rigid (blimp with a keel) Roma, bought from Italy, formerly T34, buckled in flight, nosed into the ground, struck power lines at Army supply base, Norfolk, Virginia, and burst into flames, killing 34 of 45 on board. This would remain the worst American aviation accident until the loss of the USS Akron in 1933.[23]22 February 1922 Langley Field base newspaper extra edition about the Roma Tragedy Accident spurs American lighter-than-air operations to switch to helium, less buoyant than hydrogen, but non-inflammable.
October - Hangar fire at Martlesham Heath, Great Britain, destroys a number of captured aircraft from the Great War.
22 October: 1st Lt. Harold R. Harris becomes the first member of the U.S. Army Air Service to save his life by parachute, when the LoeningPW-2A he is testing out of McCook Field, Ohio, suffers vibration, loses part of left wing or aileron, so he parts company with the airframe, landing safely.[26] McCook Field personnel create the "Caterpiller Club" for those whose lives are saved by parachute bail-out with Harris the plank-holding member.
11 November - 1st Lt. Frank B. Tyndall is the second U.S. Army Air Service pilot to utilize a parachute in a life-saving effort when the Boeing-built MB-3A he is testing at Seattle, Washington sheds its wings in flight almost directly over the Boeing factory.[26]
23 September - 1st Lts. Robert S. Olmsted and John W. Shoptaw enter U.S. Army balloon S-6 in international balloon race from Brussels, despite threatening weather which causes some competitors to drop out. S-6 collides with Belgian balloon, Ville de Bruxelles on launch, tearing that craft's netting and knocking it out of the race. Lightning strikes S-6 over Nistelrode, Holland, killing Olmsted outright, and Shoptaw in the fall. Switzerland's Génève is also hit, burns, killing two on board, as is Spain's Polar, killing one crew immediately, second crewman jumps from 100 feet, breaking both legs. Three other balloons are also forced down.[26][23]Middletown Air Depot, Pennsylvania, was later renamed Olmsted AFB.
23 November - First of only three Bristol Jupiter Fighters, essentially adaptations of the Bristol F.2B airframe converted with 425 hp. Bristol Jupiter IV engines and oleo-type undercarriage, crashes due an engine seizure at high altitude. Second conversion was sold to Sweden in May 1924, and third was converted to a dual-control trainer.[28]
3 September - The USS Shenandoahairship, ZR-1, crashed after encountering thunderstorms near Ava, Ohio after an in flight break up due to cloud suck about 0445 hrs. Fourteen of 43 aboard are killed. The ship's commanding officer, Lt. Cdr. Zachery Lansdowne is killed on what was to have been his final flight before reassignment to sea duty.[23]
1926
22 March - On its seventh test flight during tests at Taura Beach, Yokosuka, Japan, the Kaibo Gikai KB experimental flying boat is seen in a glide with both engines stopped, which steepens until it strikes the water in a near-vertical attitude, killing all four crew. Cause attributed to a malfunction of the flight control system.[29]
February - RAFCierva C.6J autogyro, J8068, based on an Avro 504K fuselage, constructed by A.V. Roe at Hamble, Hampshire, flown by test pilot Frank T. Courtney, suffers spectacular crash at Hamble in which two opposing rotor blades come loose in flight after failure of tubular rivet fitted in the rotor blade spar root, coming down adjacent to rail line crossing the airfield. Pilot survives.
29 September - Georg Wulf, co-founder of Focke-Wulf, is killed in the crash of the first Focke-Wulf F 19 Ente ("Duck"). Second airframe is constructed, eventually put on display in Berlin air museum, destroyed in bombing raid.[30]
1929
24 January - Surplus RAFS.E.5a, (original serial unknown), presented to Aviación Naval (Argentine Naval arm), E-11/AC-21, written-off in crash landing at Campo Sarmiento, Argentina when pilot Alferez de Fragata Alberto Sautu Riestra approaches field too flat and lands short, collapsing undercarriage. Pilot uninjured. As the airframe was an obsolescent one-only on strength design, with no supporting plans or parts, it is scrapped. [31]
15 October - Martin XT5M-1 divebomber, BuNo A-8051, during terminal dive test at 350 IAS at 8,000 feet, lower starboard wing caves in, ripping extensive hole. Pilot Bill McAvoy staggers aircraft back to the Martin field north of Baltimore, Maryland, landing at 110 mph with full-left stick input. Aircraft will go into production as the BM-1.[32]
1930
5 October - British rigid airship R101, completed in 1929 as part of the Imperial Airship Scheme. After initial flights and two enlargements to the lifting volume, it crashed this date, in Beauvais, France, during its maiden overseas voyage, killing 48 people. Amongst airship accidents of the 1930s, the loss of life surpassed the Hindenburg, LZ-129, disaster of 1937, and was second only to that of the USS Akron, ZRS-4, crash of 1933. The demise of R101 effectively ended British employment of rigid airships.
1931
10 March - Lockheed Y1C-17, 31-408, Vega Model DL1B Special, c/n 159, assigned at Bolling Field, Washington, D.C., cracks up during forced landing at Tolu, Kentucky during attempted transcontinental record flight by Capt. Ira C. Eaker, pilot unhurt. Specially rigged gas lines had leaked air which shut off fuel flow to engine. Wreckage taken to Wright Field, Ohio, scrapped 22 April 1931. Was the fastest USAAC aircraft of its time at 221 mph. Total airframe flight time 33 hours.[33]
19 October - Sole Lockheed-Detroit YP-24, 32-320, crashes during tests at Wright Field, Ohio, pilot bails out. Four Y1P-24 pre-production models cancelled due to Detroit Aircraft's shaky financial situation. Two will be built as Consolidated Y1P-25s after Detroit's chief designer Robert Wood joins that firm. Second Y1P-25 completed with a supercharger as Y1A-11.[34][35]
14 December - RAF pilot Douglas Bader (21 February 1910 – 5 September 1982), undertaking a low-level roll in Bristol Bulldog Mk. IIA, K1676, of 23 Squadron at Woodley, Great Britain, hooks a wingtip, rolls the biplane into a ball, and loses both his legs. Undeterred, he returns to the air and becomes a renowned World War II fighter pilot with 22 credited "kills" before being downed over France, 9 August 1941. As a POW, he has such determination to escape that he is eventually sent to Colditz Castle for recidivist escapees.[36]
1932
June - Lockheed Y1C-25, 32-393, Altair Model 8A c/n 153, NR119W. First Lockheed to be equipped with fully retractable landing gear. Struck off charge after belly landing at Wright Field, Ohio. Hulk destroyed in tests of bottled carbon dioxide fire extinguishers at Wright Field, 27 September 1932.[37]
15 November - On first flight of United States Navy Hall XP2H-1 four-engine flying boat, BuNo A-8729, it noses straight up on take-off due to incorrectly rigged stabilizer, test pilot Bill McAvoy and aircraft's designer Charles Ward Hall, Sr., manage to chop throttles, plane settles back, suffering only minor damage. Incident occurred at NAS Anacostia, Washington, D.C.. This sole prototype was the largest four-engine biplane the U.S. Navy ever procured, with a wingspan of 112 feet.[38]
9 October - Prototype Martin XB-10, 33-157, assigned to Langley Field, Virginia, is lost when landing gear will not extend during routine flight, Lt. E.A. Hilary parachutes from bomber, which is destroyed with only 132 flight hours.[39]
1934
11 May - Sole prototype of U.S. Navy DouglasXO2D-1, BuNo 9412, noses over on water landing near NAS Anacostia, Washington, D.C., after starboard landing gear would not retract, nor support runway landing. Pilot survives. Aircraft salvaged, rebuilt, but no production contract let.[40]
14 June - United States Navy Curtiss XSBC-1, BuNo 9225, crashed at Lancaster, New York. Redesigned new-build airframe as XSBC-2 received same Navy serial.
3 October - Martin B-12A, 33-171, c/n 545, of the 11th Bomb Squadron, 7th Bomb Group, crashed into Inyo National Forest, California, 3 killed, one bailed out. Surveyed at March Field, California, 7 January 1935. This accident resulted in the grounding of all B-12s. Fault traced to wing and aileron flutter and a backlash developed by the props when the engine was shut down.[41]
31 October - First prototype TupolevANT-40RT suffers engine problems on flight test out of Central Aero and Hydrodynamics Institute (TsAGI), and pilot K.K. Popov makes gear-retracted forced landing of the twin-engine bomber at Moscow Central Airfield. Repairs will take until February 1935. It had made its first flight on 7 October.[42]
12 February - The US Navy's last rigid airship, the USS Macon, ZRS-5, loses its upper fin off Point Sur, California, sinks to the surface of the Pacific Ocean in a controlled crash, and is lost, although the inclusion of lifevests on board allows the saving of 81 of 83 crew. The airship's remains lie unfound until 1990 when a fisherman brings up a girder. Wreck is subsequently found by manned Navy submersible Sea Cliff.[23][43]
22 March - Prototype Grumman XF3F-1, BuNo 9727 (1st), c/n 257, company model G.11, disintegrates when pulled sharply out of a terminal velocity dive, killing pilot Jimmy Collins. G-forces in this dive estimated at 12-13. 9727 serial applied to three Grumman prototypes, two of which crashed.[44][45]
April - Yugoslavian Air Force Ikarus IK-1, high-wing monoplane fighter, first prototype crashes on third flight at Zemun airfield when it fails to recover from power dive, pilot Capt. Leonid Bajdak, parachuting to safety. Examination of wreck revealed that fabric covering of the port wing had failed due to negligence in sewing the seams. Second prototype ordered as IK-2, wings metal-skinned.[46]
17 May - Second of three Grumman XF3F-1 prototypes, BuNo 9727 (2nd), crashes after entering irrecoverable spin - pilot Lee Gelbach bails out safely. A third XF3F-1 prototype will be built, also with BuNo 9727, but pilot Bill McAvoy will be luckier than his two fellow test pilots, and NOT have to evacuate the Flying Barrel during testing.[47][48]
20 June - Douglas Y1O-35, 32-319, c/n 1119, of the 88th Observation Squadron, suffers loss of power on right engine during takeoff from Griffith Park, Los Angeles, California for flight to Rockwell Field, San Diego, California, at approximately 1000 hrs. Pilot, Cadet Tracy R. Walsh, manages to hop over soldiers breaking camp alongside runway but does not have sufficient flying speed. Airplane crashes through a tent, a fence, and into an automobile, demolishing itself, the vehicle, and killing three civilians in the car. Three crew on plane unhurt. O-35 surveyed and dropped from records, 15 October 1935.[49]
Summer - Prototype Junkers Ju 87 V1, fitted with a pair of vertical fins, suffers tail section oscillation during medium-angle test dive, loses starboard fin during attempted recovery, crashes at Dessau, Germany. All subsequent Ju 87s have single fin tail unit.[30]
25 May - Maj. Hezekiah ("Hez") McClellan, (1894-1936), was killed while flight-testing Consolidated TPB-2A, 35-1, which crashed near Centerville, Ohio. Posthumously awarded the DFC, McClellan prepared early charts and records while pioneering Alaskan air routes. Sacramento Air Depot renamed McClellan Field on 1 December 1939.[25]
7 November - Polish Lotnictwo WojskowePZL.30 Żubr ("Bison") prototype, a hideously ugly twin-engine bomber design modified from a transport rejected in favour of Douglas DC-2s by LOT, the Polish airline, disintegrates in mid-air when wing structure fails. First flown in March 1936, the uninspired composite design of metal, wood and fabric was the first twin-engined bomber of home design to leave the ground, powered by 680 hp. P.Z.L. (Bristol) Pegasus radials, but only 16 Żubrs were completed, most relegated to training, none seeing combat.[52]
1937
May 19 - Prototype Sud-EstLeO H-47 flying boat sustains fatigue failure damage to hull bottom on take-off and, upon landing at Antibes at 41,890 lbs., took in water that displaced the centre of gravity, sinking the aircraft.[53]
Early July - Blohm und Voss Ha 137 V6 dive bomber, D-IDTE, destroyed in crash. No production contract awarded for the type.[30]
19 September - Junkers EF 61 V1, first prototype of pressurized bomber, suffered control surface flutter, crashed at Dessau, Germany, killing both crew.[30]
24 October - During engine start at an airfield on Saishuto Island (now Cheju Do) off of the southern coast of South Korea, a Hirosho G2H1 Navy Type 95 attack aircraft catches fire and soon explodes. Fire spreads to other G2Hs, armed with bombs, destroying four and damaging a fifth. Only eight G2H1s were built, six by Hirosho and two by Mitsubishi, the Imperial Japanese Navy deciding to standardize on the slightly smaller Mitsubishi G3M Navy Type 96 twin-engined land-based bomber, Allied codename "Nell". [54]
December - Junkers EF 61 V2, second prototype of pressurized bomber, crashes at Dessau, Germany, before high-altitude trials can be conducted. Program is abandoned.[30]
1938
6 February - Junkers Ju 90 V1, D-AALU, "Der Grosse Dessauer", combination of wings, engines, undercarriage and tail assembly of Junkers Ju 89 V3, Werk Nummer 4913, mated to a new transport fuselage, broke up in flight while undergoing flutter tests out of Dessau, Germany.[30]
May 14 - First prototype Focke WulfFw 187 V1, D-AANA, crashes at Bremen, Germany, when test pilot Bauer, having completed test series, makes high-speed run across airfield, pulls up too sharply, stalls, spins in next to the control tower.[30]
24 July - In the airfield Mars in Santa Ana, Usaquén, Colombia, during an airshow, a F11C Goshawk crashed into the audience and killed 75 people.
October 5 - Blohm und VossBV 141 V3 assymetric reconnaissance design, D-OLGA, plagued with hydraulic problems, makes forced landing in ploughed field with mainwheel undercarriage legs only partly extended, suffers extensive damage to starboard wing.[30]
1939
19 January - Yugoslav Rogožarski IK-3 prototype, piloted by Capt. Pokorni, fails to recover from terminal velocity dive out of Zemun airfield, destroying airframe. Subsequent investigation exonerates the design and production order for twelve placed.[56]
11 February: After cross-country speed flight, Lockheed XP-38 prototype, 39-974, crashlands on Cold Stream Golf Course on approach to Mitchel Field, Long Island, New York when engines fail due to icing. Pilot Ben Kelsey survives. Attempts by authorities to shield "secret" design from local photographers fail miserably.[57]
4 September - SupermarineType 300, F.37/34, the prototype Spitfire, K5054, is wrecked when Flt. Lt. "Spinner" White misjudges his landing approach at Farnborough, bouncing several times before fighter noses over onto its back. Pilot dies in hospital four days later. Spitfire is not repaired.[58]
10 December - Second production Sud-EstLeO H-470 flying boat written off when pilot alighted in error in shallow water on Lake Urbino, Corsica, airframe too badly damaged to permit repairs.[59]
1940
3 February - US Army Air Corps Chief of Staff Gen. Henry H. Arnold's personal staff transport, Northrop A-17AS, 36-350, c/n 290, 3-seat command transport, written off in accident this date.[60]
7 April - Blackburn B-20, experimental flying-boat with retractable lower-hull, lost after suffering severe aileronflutter - 3 crew killed, 2 rescued.
11 April - The XF4F-2 Wildcat prototype, BuNo 0383, c/n 356, suffers engine failure during test flight out of NAS Anacostia, Washington, D.C., force lands causing considerable damage. Aircraft grounded for several weeks for repairs.[62]
27 April - Prototype Yakovlev I-26, first of what became the Yak-1 fighter, crashes, killing pilot.[63]
13 August - Three members of the Australian cabinet, the Chief of the Australian Army's General Staff and six other passengers and aircrew were killed when the Lockheed Hudson they were travelling in crashed near Canberra.[64]
5 September - Flugkapitän Fritz Wendel, Messerschmitt's chief test pilot, performing series of diving trials on Me 210 V2, Werknummer 0002, WL-ABEO, loses starboard tailplane in final dive, bails out, twin-engined fighter crashing at Siebentíschwald, Germany. This was the first of many losses of the type.[30]
20 September - Svenske Flygvapnet (Swedish Air Force) Seversky 2-PA Guardsman B6, 7203, '16', of Flotilla 6 (F6), written off during landing at Karlsborg at 1025 hrs. by neophyte pilot who attempts go-around, but only lifts nose without applying power, stalls. Pilot G.B.H. Lindstrom killed, flight cadet A.G. Nystrom in backseat severely injured. Aircraft stricken 22 October 1940.[65]
18 October - First Bell YP-39 Airacobra, 40-027, crashes near Buffalo, New York on eighth flight when landing gear would not extend. Bell test pilot Bob Stanley bailed out rather than try a wheels-up landing.[66][67]
16 December - The XF4F-3 Wildcat prototype, BuNo 0383, c/n 356, modified from XF4F-2, is lost under circumstances that suggested that the pilot may have been confused by poor lay-out of fuel valves and flap controls and inadvertently turned the fuel valve to "off" immediately after takeoff rather than selecting flaps "up". This was the first fatality in the type.[68]
5 January - Renowned aviatrix Amy Johnson takes off from an overnight stopover at Squire's Gate, Blackpool in Airspeed OxfordV3540 on an ATA delivery flight from Prestwick, Scotland to RAF Kidlington, in Oxfordshire. The weather is foggy and foul, and, ATA crews flying without radio, Johnson becomes lost. When next seen more than three hours later over the Thames Estuary, Johnson is parachuting into the water, where the Royal Navy destroyer HMS Hazlemere spotting her descent hurries to pick her up. By the time the vessel reaches Johnson she is exhausted and unable to grab the line thrown to her. An officer from the destroyer, Lt Cmdr Walter Fletcher, dives into the sea to help, but numbed by the cold Johnson sinks beneath the surface. Johnson's body is never recovered. Fletcher succumbs to the cold and also dies. Johnson had made headlines in 1930 when she had become the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia. [69]
Post-January - Prototype TupolevANT-58, first of what became the Tupolev Tu-2, crashes after uncontrollable fire in problematic starboard MikulinAM-37 engine. Pilot Mikhail A. Nyutikov and observer A. Akopyan bail out, but Akopyan's parachute lines entangle in tail structure and he is killed.[70]
4 February - Armstrong Whitworth Albemarle prototype, P1360, written off in crash landing on test flight out of RAF Boscombe Down when six-foot square panel is lost from port wing surface. Norman Sharp bails out successfully, but John Hayhurst's parachute entangles with tail structure and he releases his chute just before touchdown on a flat ridge on top of a quarry SE of Crewkerne, Somerset, landing at ~150 mph in snow and bushes, surviving with serious injuries. Pilot Brian Huxtable survives crash landing.[71]
Wreckage of Hess' Bf 110D, Bonnyton Moor, Scotland
10 May - At 2305 hrs. Messerschmitt Bf 110D, Werknr 3868, 'VJ+OQ', appears over Eaglesham, Renfrewshire. Pilot bails out and when challenged by David McLean, Head Ploughman of a local farm, as to whether he is German, the man replies in good English; "Yes, I am Hauptmann Alfred Horn. I have an important message for the Duke of Hamilton". Horn is taken to McLean's cottage where McLean's wife makes a pot of tea, but the German requests only a glass of water. Horn has hurt his back and help is summoned. Local Home Guard soldiers arrive and Horn is taken to their headquarters at the Drill Hall, Busby, near Glasgow. Upon questioning by a visiting Royal Observer Corps officer, Major Graham Donald, Horn repeats his request to see the Duke. Donald recognises "Hauptmann Horn" to be non-other than Rudolph Hess. The remains of Hess' Messerschmitt Bf 110 are now in the Imperial War Museum.[72]
14 May - Grumman XP-50 Skyrocket, 40-3057, crashed into Long Island Sound during first test flight when a turbo-supercharger exploded. Pilot bailed out. Built as a company project, it was allocated a USAAF serial, but was destroyed before being taken on charge.[73]
16 June - USAAFDouglas O-38F, 33-324, c/n 1177, first aircraft to land at Ladd Field, Alaska, in October 1940, this aircraft flew various missions until it crashed on 16 June 1941, due to engine failure about 70 miles SE of Fairbanks. Uninjured, the pilot, Lt. Milton H. Ashkins, and his mechanic, Sgt. R.A. Roberts, hiked to safety after supplies were dropped to them. The abandoned aircraft remained in the Alaskan wilderness until the National Museum of the United States Air Force arranged for its recovery by helicopter in June 1968. Despite being exposed to the Alaskan weather for 27 years, the aircraft remained in remarkable condition. Only the wings required extensive restoration.[74]
27 August - Four Boulton Paul Defiants of 256 Squadron on practise formation flight, on NE heading a little W of Blackpool at 2,000 feet, break formation - right into a trio of Blackburn Bothas of 3 School of General Reconnaissance, flying NW at 1,500 feet. First two Defiants avoid Bothas, but third off the break, N1745, 'J-TP', strikes one Botha, L6509, cutting it in two, and losing one of its own wings. Botha comes down on ticket office of the Central Railway Station, setting large gasoline-fed fire. Defiant impacts on private home at No. 97 Reads Avenue. Thirteen killed outright, including all four aircrew, 39 others injured. Of 17 detained in hospital, five later died. All civilian casualties were visitors to the seaside resort, except for one occupant of the house on Reads Avenue. This accident caused more casualties than all the enemy air raids on Blackpool and Fylde during the entire war.[75]
4 November - Tail section of YP-38, 39-689, separates in flight over Glendale, California, Lightning crashes inverted on house at 1147 Elm Street, killing Lockheed test pilot Ralph Virden. Home owner survives, indeed, sleeps right through the crash.[57]
21 December - Curtiss XSB2C-1 Helldiver, BuNo 1758, destroyed after suffering inflight wing failure. Airframe had previously crashed on 8 February 1941 due to engine failure during approach. Sustained damage to fuselage but was repaired.
1942
13 January - Heinkel test pilot Helmut Schenk becomes the first person to escape from a stricken aircraft with an ejection seat after the control surfaces of the first prototype He 280 V1 ice up and become inoperable. The fighter, being used in tests of the Argus As 014 impulse jets for Fieseler Fi 103 missile development, had its regular HeS 8A turbojets removed, and was towed aloft from Rechlin, Germany by a pair of Bf 110C tugs in a heavy snow-shower. At 7,875 feet, Schenk found he had no control, jettisoned his towline, and ejected.[30]
26 March - The fifth P-47B Thunderbolt, 41-5899, is lost when pilot George Burrell is forced to bail out after fabric-covered tail surfaces balloon and rupture. Future P-47s have enlarged all-metal surfaces.[77]
The HalifaxV9977, which crashed killing Alan Blumlein and several other key British radar technicians 7 June 1942.
16 June - B-17E-BO converted to XB-38-VE, 41-2401, with Allison V-1710 liquid-cooled engines. Wrecked near Tipton, California after engine fire. The pilots bailed out after pointing the aircraft to an uninhabited area. The pilot was killed when his parachute did not deploy, and the other crewmember was seriously injured when his parachute did not deploy properly.
8 August - The sole XP-47B Thunderbolt, 40-3051, operating out of the Republic plant at Farmingdale, New York, is lost when the pilot interrupted wheel retraction, leaving the tailwheel in the superchargers' exhaust gases. This set the tire alight which ignited the magnesium hub. When the burning unit retracted into the fuselage, it severed the tail unit control rods, forcing the pilot, Fillmore "Fil" Gilmer, a former naval aviator, to bail out with the airframe crashing in the waters of Long Island Sound.[77] Loss of prototype went unpublicized at this early stage of the war. Nothing is ever found of the wreckage.[79]
4 September - On the night of 4-5th, Handley Page Hampden, AE436, of No. 44 Squadron RAF crashes on the remote Tsatsa Mountain in Sweden while en route from Sumburgh in the Shetlands to Afrikanda, Northern Russia, after being forced down to lower altitude by overheating engine. Pilot Officer D.I. Evans and passenger Cpl B.J. Sowerby survive with only slight injuries, three other members of crew die. Evans and Sowerby take three days to cross mountains and reach the village of Kvikkvokk, ~20 miles to the south east. Wreckage of Hampden is re-discovered by three girl hikers at 5,000ft in August 1976, with remains of dead crew still in wreckage.[81]
12 September - Martin-Baker MB 3, prototype fighter crashes after engine failure while trying to land. Captain Valentine Baker (Company manager, aircraft-designer and test pilot) killed.
15 September - Vultee XA-31B-VU Vengeance overturns in a tobacco field while making forced landing in Connecticut after engine failure.[82]
21 October - B-17D, 40-3089, of the 5th Bomb Group/11th Bomb Group, with Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker, America's top-scoring World War I ace (26 kills), aboard on a secret mission, is lost at sea in the central Pacific Ocean when the bomber goes off-course. After 24 days afloat, he and surviving crew are rescued by the U.S. Navy after having been given up for lost.
23 October - Mid-air collision at 9,000 feet altitude between American AirlinesDC-3, NC16017, “Flagship Connecticut,” Flight 28 out of Lockheed Air Terminal (now Burbank Airport) en route to Phoenix, Arizona and New York City, and USAAFLockheed B-34Ventura II bomber on ferry flight from Long Beach Army Air Base to Palm Springs Army Air Field. Pilot of B-34, Lt. William N. Wilson and copilot Staff Sergeant Robert Leicht, were able to make emergency landing at Palm Springs, but DC-3, carrying nine passengers and a crew of three, its tail splintered and its rudder shorn off by B-34’s right engine, went into a flat spin, clipped a rocky ledge in Chino Canyon below Mount San Jacinto, and exploded in desert, killing all on board. Among the passengers killed was Academy Award-winning Hollywood composer Ralph Rainger, 41, who had written or collaborated on such hit songs as “Louise,” “Love in Bloom” (comedian Jack Benny’s theme song), “Faithful Forever,” “June in January,” “Blue Hawaii” and “Thanks for the Memory,” which entertainer Bob Hope adopted as his signature song. Initial report by Ventura crew was that they had lost sight of the airliner due to smoke from a forest fire, but closed-door Congressional investigation revealed that bomber pilot knew the first officer on the DC-3, Louis Frederick Reppert, and had attempted to wave to him in mid-air rendezvous. However, Wilson misjudged the distance between the two aircraft and triggered the fatal collision when, in pulling his B-34 up and away from the DC-3, its right propeller sliced through the airliner’s tail. The Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) placed the blame directly on the “reckless and irresponsible conduct of Lieutenant William N. Wilson in deliberately maneuvering a bomber in dangerous proximity to an airliner in an unjustifiable attempt to attract the attention of the first officer (copilot) of the latter plane.” Lt. Wilson subsequently faced manslaughter charges by the U.S. Army but about a month after the accident a court martial trial board acquitted him of blame. In a separate legal development, a lawsuit seeking $227,637 was filed against American Airlines on behalf of crash victim Ralph Rainger’s wife, Elizabeth, who was left widowed with three small children. In June 1943 a jury awarded her $77,637.[83]
1943
13 January - JunkersJu 290 V1, (Ju 90 V11), modified from Ju 90B-1, Werknummer 90 0007, D-AFHG, "Oldenberg", crashed on takeoff evacuating load of wounded troops from German 6th Army at Stalingrad. The need for large capacity transports was so dire at this point that the Luftwaffe was taking Ju 290As straight from the assembly line into operation.[30]
18 February - Second prototype XB-29, 41-003[84], crashes into Frye meat packing plant at Seattle, Washington after R-3350 engine catches fire, killing all 10 crew including chief test pilot Eddie Allen along with 20 on the ground.[85]
4 April - B-25C, 41-12634, of the 376th Bomb Squadron, 309th Bomb Group(M), ditches in Lake Murray, South Carolina, during skip-bombing practice, after starboard engine failure. Crew of five escapes before Mitchell sinks after seven minutes afloat, about two miles west of the Lake Murray Dam in 150 feet of water. On 19 September 2005, the bomber was raised to the surface by aircraft recoverer Gary Larkins for preservation (not restoration) at the Southern Museum of Flight, Birmingham, Alabama.[86]
9 April - P-38G-10-LO, 42-12937, flown by Col. Ben Kelsey, gets into inverted spin during dive flap test, loses one wing and entire tail section. Kelsey bails out, suffers broken ankle, while P-38 hits flat on hillside near Calabasas, California.[57]
3 May - During an inspection tour, Lt. Gen. Frank Maxwell Andrews (1884-1943) is killed in crash of B-24D-1-CO, 41-23728, of the 8th Air Force out of RAF Bovingdon, England, on Mt. Fagradalsfjall on the Reykjanes peninsula after an aborted attempt to land at the Royal Air Forcestation at Kaldadarnes, Iceland. Andrews and thirteen others died in the crash; only the tail gunner survived. Andrews was the highest-ranking Allied officer to die in the line of duty to that point in the war. At the time of his death, he was Commanding General, United States Forces, European Theatre of Operations. Camp Springs Army Air Field, Maryland, is renamed Andrews Field (later Andrews Air Force Base), for him on 7 February 1945.[25][87]
6 May - Curtiss XP-60D, 41-19508, crashed at Rome Air Depot, New York. Was second XP-53 - later redesignated XP-60D.
Circa 7 May - The first developmental prototype Finnish Valtion LentokonetehdasVL Myrsky (State Aircraft Factory Storm), a low-wing single-seat cantilever monoplane fighter, completed on 30 April 1943, crashes "a week later." [88]
10 May - First Consolidated XB-32, 41-141, crashes on take-off, probably from flap failure. Although bomber does not burn when it piles up at end of runway, Consolidated's senior test pilot Dick McMakin is killed.[89]
10 May - First Curtiss YC-76 constructed at the Louisville, Kentucky plant, 43-86918, loses tail unit at 1729 hrs. due to lack of "forgotten" securing bolts during test flight, crashes at Okalona, Kentucky, killing three Curtiss test crew, pilot Ed Schubinger, co-pilot John L. "Duke" Trowbridge, and engineer Robert G. Scudder. Miserable attempt at building all-wood cargo design is cancelled by the USAAF on 3 August with only nineteen completed, all grounded by 12 September 1944. Four C-76s at the St. Louis, Missouri plant are granted one-time flight clearance and flown directly to Air Training Command bases for use as instructional airframes. [90]
June - Second production Mitsubishi J2M2 Raiden (Thunderbolt), Allied codename "Jack", noses over shortly after take-off and crashes for unknown reasons. When pilot of tenth production J2M2 experiences same phenomenon just after gear-retraction on test flight, he has enough altitude to drop gear and recover. It is discovered that retractable tailwheel shock strut can press against elevator torque tube during retraction, forcing control stick full-forward. This is modified and fighter production resumes.[91]
4 August - North American XB-28A-NA, 40-3058, c/n 67-3417, crashes into the Pacific Ocean off California after the crew bails out. Project not proceeded with.[92]
1944
January - Thirtieth Mitsubishi J2M2 Raiden (Thunderbolt) disintegrates over Toyohashi airfield. Cause never satisfactorily explained but believed to have been either violent engine shaking due to failed attachment point causing secondary airframe failure, or, possibly, engine cowling detaching and striking tail assembly. Both power attachment points and cowling fasteners strengthened, but Raidens continue to be lost after these modifications.[93]
24 March - RAFFlight SergeantNicolas Alkemade jumps without a parachute from a burning Avro Lancaster flying at 18,000ft during a raid on Germany. Alkemade falls into a forest and is decelerated by fall through tree branches before landing in deep snowdrift. Alkemade survives fall with severe bruising and a sprained leg. Captured and unable to show them his parachute, his captors disbelieve his story and suspect him of being a spy until he shows them bruising and indentation in snowdrift. Alkemade finishes war in Stalag Luft III and dies in 1987.
8 April - Fifth Fisher XP-75 Eagle, 44-32163, crashes after pilot engaged in low-level aerobatics that reportedly exceeded the placarded limitations. Pilot killed.[94]
31 July - Noted aviation pioneer and author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry vanishes without a trace while flying a Free French ForcesLockheedF-5B-1-LO, 42-68223, c/n 2734, of II/33 Squadron, out of Borgo-Porreta, Bastia, Corsica, a reconnaissance variant of the P-38 Lightning, over the Mediterranean Sea; his fate remains a mystery until 2004 when the wreckage of his plane is discovered. While the cause of the crash is unknown, analysis of the wreckage and enemy wartime records suggests that the crash was an accident unrelated to enemy action.[96] A former Luftwaffe pilot has published a volume in which he claims to have shot down a French-marked Lightning, but his claim is largely discounted.
5 August - Third Fisher XP-75 Eagle, 44-32161, crashes after an explosion and fire at 23,000 feet - pilot bailed out at 4,000 feet.[97]
6 September - First prototype (and only one completed) McDonnell XP-67 Moonbat, 42-11677, suffers fire in starboard engine during functional test flight at 10,000 feet. Pilot E.E. Elliot manages to bring stricken airframe into Lambert Field, St. Louis, Missouri, flames gut the fuselage, engine nacelle and wheelwell before firefighters halt blaze. As jet engined project that will become the FD-1 Phantom is already on the horizon, project is cancelled.[98]
10 October - First Fisher P-75A Eagle, 44-44549, crashes on flight test out of Eglin Field, Florida, when propellers apparently run out of oil, pilot Maj. Bolster attempts dead-stick landing but crashes short on approach, dies.[99]
6 December - LockheedXF-14 Shooting Star, 44-83024, c/n 080-1003, originally YP-80A No 2, redesignated during production. Destroyed in mid-air collision with B-25J-20-NC, 44-29120, near Muroc Army Air Base, California. All crew on both planes killed.
6 December - First prototype Heinkel He 162 V1 Salamander, or "Volksjager" ("Peoples' Fighter"), loses wheel-well doors on first flight due to improper bonding. Nonetheless, flight testing is not delayed for a thorough inspection, and on another flight in front of German high brass several days later, V1 starboard wing comes apart in high-speed pass, killing pilot.[101]
16 December - Second of two prototypes of the Douglas XB-42 "Mixmaster", 43-50225, on routine flight out of Bolling Field, Washington, D.C., suffers in short order, a landing gear extension problem, failure of the port engine, and as coolant temperatures rose, failure of starboard engine. Maj. Hayduck bails out at 1,200 feet, Lt. Col. Haney at 800 feet, and pilot Lt. Col. (later Major General) Fred J. Ascani, after crawling aft to jettison pusher propellers, at 400 feet - all three survive. Secret jettisonable props caused a problem for authorities in explaining what witnesses on ground thought was the aircraft exploding. Possible fuel management problem speculated, but no proof.[102]
1945
28 February - First manned flight test of Bachem Ba 349 Natter, '23', a vertically-launched bomber interceptor, fails when Oberleutnant Lothar Siebert, a volunteer, is killed as rocket-powered aircraft reaches ~1,650 feet, cockpit canopy detaches, Ba 349 noses over onto back, then falls from ~4,800 feet, killing pilot. No cause for crash determined but it was thought that improperly latched canopy may have knocked Siebert unconcious. Three successful manned flights subsequently flown and a group of the fighters readied for intercept mission, but advancing U.S. 8th Army armoured units overrun launchsite before Natters can be used.[30]
20 March - Lockheed test pilot Tony LeVier is forced to bail out of first XP-80A prototype, 44-83021, c/n 080-1001, '01', after catastrophic turbine blade failure slices off tail, coming down on Highway 99 near Rosamond, California.[103]
8 April - First prototype Rikugun Ki.93, '1', twin-engine fighter makes first and only flight from Tachikawa airfield, a successful 20 minute test of its low-speed handling characteristics, piloted by Lt. Moriya of the Koku Shinsa-bu (Air Examination Department) with 2nd Lt. Ikebayashi in the second seat. Unfortunately, pilot undershot the runway and touched down in soft soil, ground-looping airframe and tearing off port undercarriage leg, engine mount, and bending six-blade propeller. Repairs completed in four weeks, but the night before the scheduled second test flight, a B-29 bombing raid on Tachikawa destroyed the hangar housing the airframe.[104]
21 April - LufthansaFocke-Wulf Fw 200B-2, D-ASHH, "Hessen", hastily loaded with baggage of the Berlin Headquarters Staff, departs for Barcelona, Spain via Munich, piloted by Flugkapitän Künstle. Condor reaches Munich safely, but never appears in Spain. Extensive inquiries in Germany, Switzerland and Spain turn up no clues to fate. In 1954, evidence finally is discovered that the overloaded transport crashed and burned with no survivors near Piesenkofen Kreis Mühlberg, Bavaria.[105]
4 June - Aichi E13A "Jake" floatplane, c/n 41116, of 634 Kokutai-Teisatsu, 302 Hikotai, crashed into the sea during night time search mission. Salvaged from waters off Kaseda city, Kagoshima prefecture on 22 August 1992, it is displayed in unrestored condition at the Kasedo Peace Museum, Kyushu, Japan.[107]
7 July - On the first flight of the prototype Mitsubishi J8M1 Shusui, Japanese derivative of the Me 163, aircraft reaches 1,300 feet in a steep climb, then the rocket motor cut out, airframe crashing at Yokosuka Naval Aeronautical Engineering Arsenal. Cause believed either hydrogen peroxide shifting to rear of partially-empty tank, or air leak in fuel line causing blockage. Pilot Lt. Cdr. Toyohiko Inuzuka dies in hospital the next day. A redesign of the fuel system follows, but no additional flights made before Japanese capitulation in August.[108]
28 July – A US Army Air Forces B-25D-20-NC Mitchell bomber, 41-30577, "Old John Feather Merchant", crashes into the 79th floor of the Empire State Building in fog at 0949 hrs., killing 3 on aircraft plus 11 on ground and causing over $1 million in damage [3].
5 August - First production MartinJRM-1 Mars flying boat, BuNo 76819, c/n 9263, "Hawaii Mars", crashes on test flight in the Chesapeake Bay after porpoising during landing - never delivered to the US Navy.[109][110]
17 August - During Operation Dodge, the RAF airlift of troops home from Italian deployment, Avro Lancaster, ME834, 'K-OG', of 115 Squadron, based at RAF Graveley, struck HK798, 'K-OH', of the same squadron, and PB754, 'TL-A', of Graveley-based 35 Squadron when it swerves off runway while taking off from Bari, Italy.[111]
17 August - Two B-29 Superfortress bombers collide over Weatherford, Texas during a bomber training exercise. 18 crew members were killed, 2 managed to escape from the falling wreckage and parachute to safety.
14 September - Hurricane destroys several wooden hangars at NAS Richmond, Florida, southwest of Miami, with 140 mph winds. Fire consumes twenty-five blimps, 31 non-Navy U.S. government aircraft, 125 privately-owned aircraft, and 212 Navy aircraft. Thirty-eight Navy personnel injured, civilian fire chief killed.[23]
29 September - SilverplateB-29-36-MO, 44-27303, "Jabit III", of the 509th Composite Group, Wendover Army Air Field, Utah, on cross-country training mission, strikes several objects on landing at Chicago Municipal Airport, Illinois, never flies again. Assigned to the 4200th Base Unit at the airport pending disposition decision, it is salvaged there in April 1946.
1 November - First prototype McDonnell XFD-1 Phantom, BuNo 48235 crashes, killing McDonnell's chief test pilot.[112]
5 December – Flight 19, a training flight of 5 TBM Avengertorpedo bombers, manned by 14 US Navy and Marine personnel from Ft LauderdaleNaval Air Station, Florida, USA, vanishes over the Bermuda Triangle under mysterious circumstances. Avengers were four TBM-1Cs, BuNo 45714, 'FT3', BuNo 46094, 'FT36', BuNo 46325, 'FT81', BuNo 73209, 'FT117', and TBM-3, BuNo 23307, 'FT28'. A US NavyPBM-5 Mariner, BuNo 59225, carrying 13 sailors searching for the missing planes also disappears after a large mid-air explosion is seen near its last reported position.[113]
1946
28 January - First prototype Short Shetland I, DX166, the largest British-built flying boat, burns out at its mooring from fire in galley before flight testing can be completed.[114]
1 March - Two SilverplateB-29s written off in taxi accident at Kirtland Army Air Field, New Mexico. Pilot of B-29-60-MO, 44-86473, of the 509th Composite Group, assigned to Roswell AAF, New Mexico, attempts to taxi without energizing the hydraulic brake system, cannot stop bomber which collides with B-29-36-MO, 44-27296, "Some Punkins", also of the 509th. "Some Punkins" stricken in August 1946 and destroyed in fire-fighting training. 44-86473 dropped from inventory, April 1946, after salvage.
7 March - SilverplateB-29-30-MO, 42-65387, from Kirtland Army Air Field, New Mexico, on practice mission to Los Lunas bombing range, releases 10,150 pound Fat Man shape, and then disintegrates for unknown reasons and spins in from 32,000 feet. Ten crew die, wreckage strewn up to 16 miles from main portion. B-29 that drops the weapon in Operation Crossroads test Able on 1 July 1946, is named "Dave's Dream" for bombardier Dave Semple, killed in this accident.[115]
19 March - Col. George Vernon Holloman, (1902-1946), aviation instrument inventer and early experimenter with guided missiles, is killed in a B-17 accident on Formosa, while enroute from China to the Philippines. Holloman had received the DFC for conducting the first instrument-only landing of an aircraft. Alamogordo Army Air Base, New Mexico, renamed Holloman AFB, 13 January 1948.[25]
7 July - Eccentric, iconoclastic millionaire and aviator Howard Hughes is gravely injured when he mishandles a propeller pitch control failure and crashes his controversial XF-11 reconnaissance plane, 44-70155, during its maiden flight.
4 September - First prototype Bell XP-83, 44-84990, bailed back to Bell Aircraft Company by the USAAF as a ramjet testbed, and modified with an engineer's station in the fuselage in lieu of the rear fuel tank and pylon for test ramjet under starboard wing, suffers fire in ramjet on flight out of Niagara Falls Airport, New York. Flames spread to wing, forcing Bell test pilot "Slick" Goodlin and engineer Charles Fay to bail out, twin-jet fighter impacting at ~1020 hrs. on farm in Amhurst, New York, ~13 miles from Niagara Airport, creating ~25 foot crater.[116]
1 October - RAFBristol Brigand TF.1, RH744, failed to develop sufficient power on takeoff from RAE Farnborough, overran into soft ground and flipped over, without injuries to crew. This was the first Brigand written off.[117]
27 January - United States Air ForceSilverplateB-29-36-MO Superfortress, 44-65385, of the 428th Base Unit, Kirtland Army Air Field, New Mexico, for Los Alamos bomb development testing, crashed immediately after take-off from Kirtland on routine maintenance test flight. No specific cause is documented, a fire in one engine and the pilot's failure to compensate for loss of power is believed to have caused the accident. Twelve crew KWF.
February - Second prototype Curtiss XBTC-2, BuNo 31402, of only two built, crashes at NATC Patuxent River, Maryland, during testing of full-span Duplex wingflaps and dual rotation propellers.
21 February - United States Air ForceB-29-95-BW Superfortress, 45-21768, "Kee Bird", of the 46th/72nd Reconnaissance Squadrons, on mission out of Ladd Field, runs out of fuel due to a navigational error and is forced to land in a remote area of northern Greenland. The aircrew is rescued unharmed 3 days later, but the plane is abandoned in place. The accident achieves continuing notability for the exceptionally fortuitous rescue and later for a well-publicized and ultimately disastrous 1994 recovery attempt.
July - First prototype Curtiss XBTC-2, BuNo 31401, of only two built, crashes at NATC Patuxent River, Maryland, during testing of full-span Duplex wingflaps and dual rotation propellers.
19 July - RAFBristol Brigand TF.1, RH742, assigned to the A&AEE, piloted by F/L T. Morren, failed to pull out of firing pass during exercise in the Lyme Bay area off the Dorset coast, entered slow roll and lost speed while inverted, into spiral dive into sea, killing both crew. It was thought that one of the dive brakes may have failed. This was the first fatal accident in the type.[117]
15 October - Second prototype Westland Wyvern TF Mk. 1, TS375, crashes during attempted forced landing at Farnborough after its propeller stopped, killing Westland test pilot Squadron Leader P.J. Garner.[12]
3 November - English Electric test pilot Johnny W.C. Squier takes off from Salmesbury, Lancs. in EE-built Vampire F.3, VP732, intended for the RCAF as 17043, experiences engine failure, force lands on a farm, narrowly missing trees. Fighter is wrecked but pilot survives.[120]
1948
23 May - In the early evening, ex-RAFHandley Page Halifax C.MK 8, registered G-AIZO, ex-PP293, and operated by Bond Air Services Ltd. carrying a cargo of apricots from Valencia, Spain, crashes at Studham, Bedfordshire while on a Standard Beam Approach (SBA) to Bovingdon in bad weather. After a steep turn to port and losing height rapidly, the Halifax sideslips towards the ground until, seeming to recover and flying straight and level and with engines at full power, the aircraft strikes the ground flat and disintegrates, breaking into its component sections. Miraculously, the crew escape alive. After initial suspicions that the cargo may have shifted in flight, the subsequent AAIB report blames loss of control by the pilot whilst the aircraft was too close to the ground for recovery. [121]
3 September - The only SilverplateB-29 to be part of the strike package on both atomic missions over Japan, B-29-40-MO, 44-27353, "The Great Artiste", of the 509th Composite Group, deployed to Goose Bay Air Base, Labrador for polar navigation training, aborts routine training flight due to an engine problem, makes downwind landing, touches down half way down runway, overruns onto unfinished extension, groundloops to avoid tractor. Structural damage at wing joint so severe that Superfortress never flies again. Despite historicity, airframe is scrapped at Goose Bay in September 1949.
20 September - First prototype USAF XB-45 Tornado, 45-59479, in a dive test at Muroc Air Force Base, California, to test design load factor, suffers engine explosion, tearing off cowling panels that shear several feet from the horizontal stabilizer, aircraft pitches up, and both wings tear off under negative g load. Crew has no ejection seats, and George Krebs and Nick Piccard are killed.[123]
1949
25 May - SilverplateB-29-36-MO Superfortress, 44-27299, of the 97th Bomb Group, Biggs AFB, Texas, suffers fire in number 4 (starboard outer) engine shortly after take-off for routine navigation and radar training mission. Unable to extinguish blaze, crew bails out but navigator's parachute does not open and he is killed - believed that he had struck his head on nosegear operating assembly while departing bomber. B-29 makes two-mile circle, then comes down 35 miles NE of El Paso, Texas, exploding on impact.
9 August - US Navy Lt. J. L. Fruin loses control of his F2H-1 Banshee and ejects, becoming the first American pilot to use an ejector seat during an actual in-flight emergency.
1 November – A P-38L-5-LO Lightning, 44-26927, c/n 422-7931, NX-26927, flown by a Bolivian Air Force pilot, collides in midair with Eastern Airlines Flight 537, a DouglasDC-4 (C-54B-10-DO) airliner, N88727, (ex-USAAF43-17165), c/n 18365, on its final approach to National Airport. All 55 people on board the DC-4 die; the P-38 pilot, Eric Rios Bridaux, survived with injuries. Bridaux was considered one of Bolivia's most experienced pilots. Among the dead were Congressman George J. Bates and former Congressman Michael J. Kennedy. DC-4 wreckage comes down on Virginia shoreline of the Potomac River, north of Mount Vernon. It was (at the time) the worst plane crash in the history of civil aviation. The P-38 pilot was accused of causing the accident, later tried and cleared of the charges, which now is believed to have been an ATC error. This aircraft had been flown in the National Air Races at Cleveland, Ohio as '48'.
29 November - First prototype Fairey Gannet, VR546, crashes on take-off from Fairey's flight test airfield at White Waltham, Berkshire, following violent porpoising at unstick speed. Repairs take three months and test flying does not resume until March 1950.[125].
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^Bruce, J.M., "War Planes of the First World War, Fighters, Volume Two", Doubleday & Company Inc., Garden City, New York, 1968, Library of Congress card number 65-25323, page 78.
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^
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