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*Late October - Second prototype [[Me 262]]V2, ''PC+UB'', first flown 1 October 1942, is damaged when pilot strikes ground vehicle with starboard wing during flight preparations, due to restricted visibility from cockpit in tail-dragger configuration of early 262s. Aircraft repaired. <ref>Price, Dr. Alfred, "''Messerschmitt Me 262: Missed Opportunity or Impossible Dream?''", International Air Power Review, AIRtime Publishing Inc., Westport, Connecticut, 2007, ISBN 1-880588-99-4, page 130.</ref>
*Late October - Second prototype [[Me 262]]V2, ''PC+UB'', first flown 1 October 1942, is damaged when pilot strikes ground vehicle with starboard wing during flight preparations, due to restricted visibility from cockpit in tail-dragger configuration of early 262s. Aircraft repaired. <ref>Price, Dr. Alfred, "''Messerschmitt Me 262: Missed Opportunity or Impossible Dream?''", International Air Power Review, AIRtime Publishing Inc., Westport, Connecticut, 2007, ISBN 1-880588-99-4, page 130.</ref>
*27 November - [[Douglas O-46|Douglas O-46A]], ''35-179'', lands downwind at [[Brooks Field]], [[Harlingen, Texas]], runs out of runway, overturns. Written off, it is abandoned in place. More than twenty years later it is discovered by the [[Antique Airplane Association]] with trees growing through its wings, and in 1967 it is rescued and hauled to [[Ottumwa, Iowa]]. Restoration turns out to beyond the organization's capability, and in September 1970 it is traded to the [[National Museum of the United States Air Force]] for a flyable [[C-47]]. The (then) Air Force Museum restores it and places it on display in 1974, the sole survivor of the 91 O-46s built. <ref>Westburg, Peter W., and Bowers, Peter M., "''The Parasols of Santa Monica''", Wings, Granada Hills, California, April 1974, Volume 4, Number 2, pages 68-69.</ref>
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.
Information on aircraft gives the type, and if available, the serial number of the operator in italics, the constructors number, also known as the manufacturer's serial number (c/n), exterior codes in apostrophes, nicknames (if any) in quotation marks, flight callsign in italics, and operating units.
16 October - Pilot S.F.Cody takes off from Farnborough Common, Great Britain, in his British Army Aeroplane No 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.[2]
1909
14 May - Pilot S.F.Cody makes first flight of more than a mile in Britain using British Army Aeroplane No 1A, flying from Laffan's Plain to Danger Hill in Hampshire at average height of 30 feet. Later in the afternoon, the Prince of Wales asks Cody to repeat the flight, but in so doing, Cody is forced to turn quickly to avoid some troops in his path, smashing the tail against an embankment. Aircraft rebuilt at Farnborough with design changes to improve performance. [1]
1911
10 May - First U.S. Army pilot casualty, 2nd Lt. George E. Maurice Kelly (1878-1911), London-born, and a naturalized United States citizen in 1902, is killed when he banks his Curtiss Type IV (or Curtiss Model D), Army Signal Corps serial number 2, sharply to avoid plowing into an infantry encampment near the present site of Fort Sam Houston, Texas. The Aviation Camp (aka Remount Station) at Fort Sam Houston is renamed Camp Kelly, 11 June 1917, then Kelly Field on 30 July 1917, and finally Kelly AFB on 29 January 1948.[3] Airframe rebuilt, finally grounded in February 1914, refurbished, and placed on display in the Smithsonian Institution National Air and Space Museum, Washington, D.C. Due to this crash, the commanding officer of Fort Sam Houston bans further training flights at the base, the flying facilities being moved to College Park, Maryland in June-July 1911. [1]
18 November - First British seaplane to leave the water, and the first seaplane to take off from British waters, an Avro Type D, the first of six of the type, piloted by Royal Navy Cmdr. Oliver Schwann, lifts off from Barrow-in-Furness, England briefly, falls back into the water and is damaged. [1]
1912
31 July - An attempt by the U.S. Navy to catapult launch the Navy's first seaplane, a Curtiss pusher, A-3, at the Washington Navy Yard, Washington, D.C., fails when a crosswind catches the plane halfway along the catapult and tosses it into the Anacostia River. Pilot uninjured. [1]
6 September - Capt. Patrick Hamilton and Lt. Wyness-Stuart of the Royal Flying Corps are killed while flying (KWF) when their Deperdussin monoplane breaks up in flight, crashing at Graveley, near Welwyn. The 60-hp. Anzani-powered aircraft had been taken on strength by the army in January 1912. [1]
10 September - Second Royal Flying Corps accident involving monoplanes in five days causes Col. Seely, secretary of state for war, to issue ban on monoplanes on 14 September. In this accident, Lts. E. Hotchkiss and C.A. Bettington are KWF when fabric rips from the starboard wing of their Bristol-Coanda type which plummets to the ground. The ban will be reversed five months later when technical studies show that monoplanes are no more dangerous than biplanes.[1]
28 September - Wright Model B, U.S. Army Signal Corps serial number 4, crashes at College Park Airport, Maryland killing two crew. On 20 July, 1917, the Signal Corps Aviation School is named Rockwell Field in honor of 2nd Lt. Lewis C. Rockwell, killed in this crash.
1913
Painting of LZ18 descending in flames after engine fire, 17 October 1913.
8 February - Russian pilot N. de Sackoff becomes the first pilot shot down in combat when his biplane is hit by ground fire following bomb run on the walls of Fort Bezhani during the First Balkan War. Flying for the Greeks, he comes down near small town of Preveza, on the coast N of the Aegean island of Levkas, secures local Greek assistance, repairs plane and resumes flight back to base. [1]
20 June - First fatality in U.S. Naval aviation occurs when Ens. W.D. Billingsley is thrown from pilot seat of the second Wright CH seaplane, B-2, at height of 1,600 feet in turbulent air over Annapolis, Maryland. Passenger Lt. John Henry Towers stays with airplane, sustaining injuries when it hits water. Design was modified conversion of Wright Model B with two pusher propellers driven through chains connected to a 60-hp. Wright engine. [1]
23 June - The S-21 Russky Vityaz ("Russian Knight"), designed by Igor Sikorsky and built by the RBVZ, a redesigned variant of the Bolshoi Baltiski, as the first large aircraft intended exclusively as a bomber, first flies on this date. It is lost with all seven crew in freak accident during 1913 military trials when the Gnôme rotary on a Moller II pusher biplane tears loose and hits the giant bomber. [1]
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 of 28 was killed. [1]
25 May - First fatal mid-air between two machines of the Royal Flying Corps kills Capt. E.V. Anderson and his passenger Air Mechanic Carter when their Sopwith three-seater biplane is accidentally rammed by Lt. C.W. Wilson in another Sopwith of the same type. Wilson was returning from Brooklands and descending to land at Farnborough when he struck the other plane, which was climbing away from the aerodrome on a familiarization flight. Wilson escapes with bruises and a broken jaw. Both machines and all three airmen were from No. 5 Squadron, RFC. [1]
4 June - First fatal British seaplane accident kills Lt. T.S. Cresswell and Cmdr. A. Rice of the Royal Navy. While ascending from the Calshot Air Station, the Short S.128 they are flying passes over motorboat on Southampton Water where Short's test pilot Gordon Bell and Lt. Spencer Grey are watching flight. At height of just over 200 feet, seaplane appears to break up and plummets into sea, killing both occupants. Some witnesses say that they believed that the seaplane stalled and that the wings folded up as structural limits were exceeded. [1]
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. [5]
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.[6]
5 October - First aerial combat kill in history recorded when a Voisin pusher of Escadrille VB24, French Air Service, flown by Sgt. Joseph Frantz and Cpl. Quénault, downed a German two-seater Aviatik B.II, flown by Feldwebel Willhelm Schlichting with Oberleutnant Fritz von Zangen as observer, [1] using what is believed to have been a Hotchkiss machine gun.[7]
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. [5]
17 November - Imperial German Navy Zeppelin, L 18, LZ52, destroyed in shed fire at Tondern during refilling.
18 June - German ace Max Immelmann (17 victories) is killed at ~2215 hrs. when his Fokker E.III monoplane crashes after breaking up in the air when the interrupter gear malfunctions and he shoots away his own propeller. He had been engaging an F.E.2b piloted by 2nd Lt. G.R. Gubbin with Cpl. J.H. Waller as gunner. [1]
Afternoon of 27 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.[8][9]
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, Berlin, 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.[10]
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.[11]
7 November - Imperial German Army ZeppelinLZ90, LZ60, broke loose in the direction of the North Sea in a storm and never seen again.
13 November - Sole prototype of the Dornier (Zeppelin) V1, a single-seat, all-metal fighter with pod-type fuselage and pusher 160-hp. Maybach Mb III engine, designed by Dipl-Ing Claudius Dornier, and built by the Abteilung 'Dornier' of the Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH at Seemoos, near Friedrichshafen, attempts initial flight. After a series of ground hops in September by Bruno E. Schröter, this pilot refused to fly the prototype due to pronounced tail-heaviness. Oblt. Haller von Hallerstein, instead undertakes initial flight this date, but the V1 performs a loop immediately after take-off, crashing, killing pilot. No further development undertaken of the type.[12]
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. [5]
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
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.
1 January - Five Royal Naval Air Service crew en route from Manston, England to Villacoublay, France in a Handley Page 0/100 bomber, run into clouds, lose their direction due to a compass fault, and land to ask directions. Unfortunately, they come down behind German lines at Chalandry, near Lâon, France, and before they can either burn the machine or take off, a German infantry patrol captures them and their intact bomber. An unconfirmed story states that Manfred von Richthofen flew this machine to 10,000 feet before the Kaiser at a later date. [1]
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. [13][14]
7 February - Imperial German Navy ZeppelinL 36, LZ82, damaged during landing in fog at Rehben-an-der-Aller and decommissioned.
June - During this month, six Russian Anatra D biplanes crash due to poor quality manufacturing, killing their pilots. The Russian aircraft builder was hampered by a shortage of high quality wood and fabricated each wing spar in two pieces, overlapping at the joint by only 12 inches, held together with glue and tape. [1]
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.[15]
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.[16]
19 October - Imperial German Navy ZeppelinL 16, LZ50, damaged beyond repair in a forced landing near Brunsbüttel.
File:Hgontermann.jpgLt. Heinrich Gontermann's Fokker Dr.IDreidekker, 115/17, the day after after losing the top wing during aerobatics, with fatal result for the ace.
29 October - Lt. Heinrich Gontermann, known as the Balloon Strafer, receives fatal injuries when the Fokker Dr.I Triplane, 115/17, of Jasta 15, he is performing aerobatics over his airfield at 1,500 feet in, suffers structural failure as the top wing breaks up, crashes, suffers grievous facial injuries, dies the following day. The Triplane had been delivered to Jasta 15 on 22 October but foul weather kept it grounded until the 28th. Gontermann had scored 21 airplane kills and 18 balloons. [1]
31 October - Fokker Dr.I Triplane, 121/17, flown by Lt. Pastor from Jasta 11, one of the JG.1 units under Manfred von Richthofen, suffers structural failure and crashes. Second such crash in three days causes all Fokker Triplanes to be grounded immediately with affected flight crew reverting temporarily to Albatros D.Va and Pfalz D.III scouts. Accidents are investigated 2 November, reports issued 13 days later. Instructions for manufacturing and assembly improvements are implemented, production and flying resume 28 November. [1]
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.[17] This airframe may have been a rebuild of B.R.1 prototype.[18]
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.
7 February - During U.S. Navy tests of a converted Curtiss N-9 biplane as an unpiloted flying bomb, equipped with a Sperry automatic control, Lawrence Sperry takes it up to prove airworthiness of the design, crashes, but pilot unhurt. [1]
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.[19]
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.[20]
19 June - Lt. Frank Stuart Patterson, son and nephew of the co-founders of National Cash Register, is killed in the crash of his Airco DH.4 at Wilbur Wright Field during a flight test of a new mechanism for synchronizing machine gun and propeller, when a tie rod breaks during a dive from 15,000 feet (4,600 m), causing the wings to separate from the aircraft. Wishing to recognize the contributions of the Patterson family (owners of NCR) the area of Wright Field east of Huffman Dam (including Wilbur Wright Field, Fairfield Air Depot, and the Huffman Prairie) is renamed Patterson Field on 6 July1931, in honor of Lt. Patterson.
9 July - The fourth-highest-scoring British ace of the Great War, Maj. James Thomas Byford McCudden, is killed when he side-slips into the ground while trying to return to the airfield at Auxi-le-Château after the engine of his S.E.5a cuts out. McCudden had taken off to fly to his new command, No. 60 Squadron, RAF. He had 57 aerial victories. [1]
10 August - Lt. Erich Loewenhardt, third-highest-scoring German ace of the Great War, is KWF when the wheels of a Fokker D.VII flown by Lt. Alfred Wentz of Jasta 11 (also spelt Wenz in some sources) collide with the wing of his own Fokker D.VII, causing it to crash. He bails out but his chute fails to open. Lowenhardt, posted to JG.1, and flying with Jasta 10 from July 1917, scored 53 victories before his death. Wentz successfully bails out of his stricken fighter. [1]
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.[21][22]
1919
4 February - First of three Bristol F.2C Badger prototypes suffers crash landing when its 320 hp. ABC Dragonfly I nine-cylinder radial engine fails during the type's first take-off. Aircraft is subsequently rebuilt and flown. [23]
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.[24]
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. [25]
8 October - During the first transcontinental reliability and endurance test, an air race between Roosevelt Field, Long Island, New York and the Presidio of San Francisco, California, Brig. Gen. Lionel E.O. Charlton, Royal Air Force, the British Air Attaché, hits a fence during a forced landing near Ithaca, New York in his Bristol Fighter, 2nd Lt. George C. McDonald hits a ditch when engine trouble in his unspecified type (possibly a de Havilland) forces him down at Plymouth, Pennsylvania, and 1st Lt. D.B. Gish's DH-4 catches fire over Livingston County in western New York state, and he makes an emergency landing. Neither he, nor his passenger, Capt. Paul de la Vergne of the French air service and French Air Attaché, are injured, but the plane is written-off. A forced landing kills Sgt. W.H. Nevitt when the Liberty motor of the DH-4 piloted by Col. Gerald C. Brant fails after an oil line breaks. Plane plunges to the ground near Deposit, New York when power is lost on landing, killing Nevitt and injuring Brant. Of entrants flying from the Presidio to New York, one de Havilland DH-4B crashes attempting to land at Salt Lake City, Utah, killing pilot Maj. Dana H. Crissy, commander of Mather Field, California, and his mechanic, SFC Virgil Thomas.[26] The flying field at the Presidio is subsequently named Crissy Field.
9 October - Continuing the cross-country contest, a DH-4 hits the side of a mountain W of Cheyenne, Wyoming, killing 1st Lt. Edwin V. Vales and badly injuring 2nd Lt. William C. Goldsborough. [26] Lt. A. M. Roberts and his observer survive a close call when, in an effort to make up for lost time, Roberts chooses the direct route, over Lake Erie, between Buffalo and Cleveland. His engine fails, and he has to ditch in the lake. Luckily, a passing freighter sees the crash and picks up the two men. [27]
10 October - On third day of transcontinental contest, an east-bound DH-4, piloted by Maj. Albert Sneed, almost out of gas, makes fast landing at Buffalo, New York. Passenger Sgt. Worth C. McClure undoes his seatbelt and slides onto the rear fuselage to weight down the tail for a quicker stop. Plane bounces on landing, smashes nose-first into the ground, and McClure is thrown off and killed. [26]
15 October - Two more fatalities are recorded in the transcontinental endurance test when 2nd Lts. French Kirby and Stanley C. Miller die in an emergency landing in their DH-4 near the Wyoming-Utah border when they suffer engine failure near Evanston, Wyoming. During the two-week test, 54 accidents wreck or damage planes. Twenty-nine result from motor trouble, 16 from bad landings, 5 from poor weather, 2 when pilots lose their way, 1 in take-off, and 1 by fire. In 42 cases the accident meant the end of the race for the pilot. Seven fatalities occur during the race, one in a de Havilland DH-4B, the others in DH-4s. [26]
1920
3 February - World War I American ace (twelve victories) Field Eugene Kindley is killed in a crash at Kelly Field near San Antonio, Texas, during a demonstration flight for General John J. Pershing. A control cable snaps on the SE-5 biplane Kindley is flying, he stalls, falls from an altitude of 100 feet. [1]Kindley Air Force Base, Bermuda, is later named for him. Other sources give his crash date as both 1 February and 2 February.
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.[29]Rescuers scramble across the wreckage of British R-38/USN ZR-2 airship, 24 August 1921.
August - U.S. Navy airship D-6, A5972, with a C-type envelope built by Goodyear in 1920 and a special enclosed car built by the Naval Aircraft Factory, is destroyed by fire. [30]
24 August - The British airshipR38 (ZR-2) due to be delivered to the United States Navy as the ZR-2, broke in two on a test flight near Hull, England, half falling to the ground in flames. 44 died, including British Air CommodoreE.M. Maitland, Leader of Airships, and 16 Americans.[29][1]
31 August - U.S. NavyGoodyear airship H-1, A5973, the sole H-model, a powered two-seat observation balloon built along the lines of the commercial Goodyear "Pony Blimp", is destroyed by fire. [31]
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, including Capt. Dale Mabry, its commander. This would remain the worst American aviation accident until the loss of the USS Akron in 1933.[29]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. Dale Mabry Municipal Airport in Tallahassee, Florida, that city's first airport, was named after him. Mabry was a Tallahassee native.
June - Sole prototype of the Royal Air ForceVickers Valentia flying boat, N124, which was constructed between 1918 and 1921, and completed by S.E. Saunders of Cowes, Isle of Wight, crashes and is written off. [33]
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] Another source gives the date as 20 October. [1] 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]
7 December - de HavillandDH departs Rockwell Field, San Diego, California at 0905 hrs. bound for Fort Huachuca, Arizona, piloted by 1st Lt. Charles L. Webber with Col. Francis C. Marshall aboard for an inspection trip of cavalry posts and camps. When plane never arrives, one of the largest man-hunts in Air Service history is mounted but when search is finally given up on 23 February 1923 nothing had been found. Wreckage is eventually discovered 12 May 1923 by a man hunting stray cattle in the mountains. Flight apparently hit Cuyamaca Peak just a few miles east of San Diego in fog within thirty minutes of departure. [26]
1923
5 March - Martin GMT (Glenn Martin Transatlantic), USAAS 62949, McCook Field project code 'P-87', loses power on one of two Liberty engines while en route to Chanute Field, Illinois, is unable to stay aloft on one only, crashes. Pilot Maj. Bradley escapes injury, but Lt. Stanley Smith is fatally injured. [34]
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][29]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 to an engine seizure at high altitude. Second conversion was sold to Sweden in May 1924, and third was converted to a dual-control trainer.[36]
1924
21 March - Martin GMB (Glenn Martin Bomber), USAAS 64308, ex-Post Office (possibly 202), ends cross-country flight to Parris Island, South Carolina, noses over when it hits unmarked ditch on the airfield. Pilot 1st Lt. (later Lieutenant General) Harold L. George reported later that "I also remember being told that it (Parris Island) was an exceptional landing field. It was except that the information had failed to inform me that the Marines had dug a trench across the field. This was not indicated by markers, or in any other way. I didn't know the trench was there until we stopped quickly." [37] Airframe had only logged 99 hours when it was written off.
The front section of the wreck, from gelatin silver print by R.S. Clements.
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.[29]
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. [5]
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.[38]
4 November - US Army Air Corps Capt. Hawthorne C. Gray succeeds in setting new altitude record in a silk, rubberized, and aluminum-coated balloon out of Scott Field, Illinois, reaching 42,270 feet, but dies when he fails to keep track of his time on oxygen, and exhausts his supply. The record is recognized by National Aeronautical Association, but not by the Federation Aeronautique Internationale because the dead aeronaut "was not in possession of his instruments." Gray is posthumously awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his three ascents on 9 March, 4 May and 4 November. [26]
8 December - Prototype Curtiss XB-2 Condor, 26-211, crashes after having logged only 58 hours, 55 minutes flying time. [39]
1928
May: Sumitoshi Nakao becomes the first Japanese aviator to save his life by parachute when he bails out of one of two Mitsubishi 1MF2 Hayabusa-type fighter prototypes when it disintegrates during a diving test during official Army trials at Tokorozawa. Pilot uninjured. Because of the accident, further flight evaluations of the type are suspended and the other airframe is statically tested to destruction. [5]
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. [40]
18 May - During the 1929 U.S. Army maneuvers, two Boeing P-12s of the 95th Pursuit Squadron collide over the north side of Columbus, Ohio, the propeller of 2nd Lt. Andrew F. Solter's fighter cutting into the rear fuselage of 2nd Lt. Edward L. Meadow's P-12. Meadow is killed but Solter bails out and lands safely. Gen. Benjamin Foulois tells newsmen, "It's all in a day's work of the Air Corps. Although an unhappy occurrence, the accident will cause no change in the maneuver plans, which will be carried out as scheduled." [26]
15 October - MartinXT5M-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.[41]
1930
The wreckage of R101.
5 October - British rigid airship R101, G-FAAW, 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.[42]
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.[43][44]
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.[45]
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.[46]
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.[47]
26 November - One of two Nakajima Experimental 6-Shi Tokushu Bakugekiki [6-Shi (1931) Special Bomber] prototypes, the first carrier-based dive bomber design in Japan, crashes in a rural area, killing Nakajima test pilot Tsuneo Fujimaki. Observers reported that the pilot made several attempted recoveries but each time the nose pitched down to vertical. Impact is said have driven the airframe two metres into the ground. Further evaluation of the type is suspended. For security purposes, the term "dive-bomber" was not used, the design being described as a "special bomber". [5]
1933
8 January - Kawanishi H3K1 Navy Type 90-2 flying boat, the largest design in the Pacific at the time, crashes while alighting at night at Tateyama on a training flight, cause given as a slow-reading altimeter. Noted naval pilot Lt. Cmdr. Shinzo Shin killed, as are two more of nine crew. [5]
July - First prototype of two Mitsubishi 1MF10 Experimental 7-Shi carrier fighters, completed at the end of February 1933, crashes on test flight out of Kagamigahara due to structural failure of vertical fin. Mitsubishi test pilot Yoshitaka Kajima successfully bails out. [5]
9 October - Prototype MartinXB-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.[51]
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.[52]
June - Second prototype of two Mitsubishi 1MF10 Experimental 7-Shi carrier fighters, crashes when it enters irrecoverable flat spin. Test pilot Lt. Motoharu Okamura bails out, but loses four fingers in the accident, ending his career as a fighter pilot. As a Navy captain, he later commands the 341st (Tateyama) Kokutai for kamikaze attacks in June 1944. [5]
14 June - United States Navy CurtissXSBC-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.[53]
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.[54]
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. It takes with it the four CurtissF9C-2 Sparrowhawks, BuNos. A-9058/9061 carried aboard for fleet scouting. 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.[29][55]
22 March - Prototype GrummanXF3F-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.[56][57]
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.[58]
17 May - Second of three GrummanXF3F-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 (3rd), but pilot Bill McAvoy will be luckier than his two fellow test pilots, and NOT have to evacuate the Flying Barrel during testing.[59][60]
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 ~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 at March Field, 15 October 1935.[61]
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.[38]
Circa July - Within three weeks of arriving at the Erprobungstelle at Rechlin, Germany for testing, both the Henschel Hs 123V1 and V2 (D-ILUA) prototype dive bombers crash after failing to pull out of terminal velocity dives when wing centre-sections fail, both pilots killed.[38][62]
25 May - Maj. Hezekiah ("Hez") McClellan, (1894-1936), was killed while flight-testing ConsolidatedTPB-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.[3]
17 July - French Bloch 150.01 fighter prototype suffers damage to tailwheel as it taxies from the hangar at Villacoublay to inaugurate its flight test program. Returned to the factory at Courbevoie for repairs which, inexplicably, take ten months to accomplish. Poor ground handling of design, as well as unsuitability for mass-production, forces total reworking of the type, the new version being designated the Bloch 151, and developmentally, the Bloch 152.[65]
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.[66] The Romanian Air Force had shown an interest in the Żubr prototype in 1936, and wanted to buy 24 planes. However, after the prototype crash over Michałowice with two Romanian officers onboard, they ordered the PZL.37 Łoś instead. (It should be noted, that the factory published a cover-up story, that the crash was caused by one of Romanians opening the door during flight).
7 December - First Y1B-17, 36-149, c/n 1973, first flown 2 December, makes rough landing at Boeing Field, Seattle, Washington, on third flight, when Army pilot Stanley Umstead touches down with locked brakes, airframe ends up on nose after short skid. Repaired, Flying Fortress departs for Wright Field on 11 January 1937. [67]
Post-21 December - Prototype Junker Ju 88V1, D-AQEN, first flown at Dessau, Germany on 21 December 1936, crashes after only a few test flights, but is ordered into production. [1]
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.[68]
Early July - Blohm und Voss Ha 137 V6 dive bomber, D-IDTE, destroyed in crash. No production contract awarded for the type.[38]
23 July-1 August - During the International Flying Meet at Zurich, German ace Ernst Udet crash lands Bf 109V10, D-ISLU, a Bf 109B equipped with early production 950 hp. Daimler Benz Db.600 engine, when it suffers power loss during Alps circuit race. Udet attempts to land, walks away from wrecked airframe. [69]
19 September - Junkers EF 61 V1, first prototype of pressurized bomber, suffered control surface flutter, crashed at Dessau, Germany, killing both crew.[38]
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". [5]
December - Junkers EF 61 V2, second prototype of pressurized bomber, crashes at Dessau, Germany, before high-altitude trials can be conducted. Program is abandoned.[38]
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, Werknummer 4913, mated to a new transport fuselage, broke up in flight while undergoing flutter tests out of Dessau, Germany.[38]
April - Prototype of the Belgian Renard R-35, one of the first pressurized transports in the world, designed by Albert Renard, crashes on its first take-off, killing Renard chief test pilot George Van Damme. [70]
4 April - Les Ateliers de Constructions Aéronautiques BelgesLACAB GR.8, dubbed unofficially the Doryphore by its pilots, "a singularly ugly multi-rôle combat aircraft intended for long-range bombing, and reconnaissance missions, and also as a heavy fighter," crashes during landing, writing off the undercarriage, both starboard wings, and suffering damage to the aft fuselage. The two-bay unequal-span staggered biplane of mixed construction, powered by two Gnôme-Rhône 14Kdrs radial engines, had first flown 14 May 1936, and was taken over by Belgium's Aéronautique Militaire on 2 June 1936 for testing and evaluation. Surprisingly, SABCA was contracted to repair the airframe, although no further testing appears to have been done. The airframe was found in a hangar at Evere in May 1940 by German troops who subsequently scrapped it. [71]
14 May - 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.[38]
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.
21 September - USAAC Chief Maj. Gen. Oscar Westover is killed in crash of Northrop A-17AS, 36-349, c/n 289, '1', out of Bolling Field, Washington, D.C., in a crosswind short of the runway at Lockheed Air Terminal in Burbank, California, now known as Bob Hope Airport. The single-engined attack design used as a high-speed staff transport, crashed into a house at 1007 Scott Road in Burbank. Also KWF is his mechanic S/Sgt Samuel Hymes.[72] Another source identifies him as Sgt. Samuel Hyne.[73] Northeast Air Base, Massachusetts, renamed Westover Field on 1 December 1939, later Westover AFB on 13 January 1948. [3]
5 October - Blohm und VossBV 141 V3 asymmetric 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.[38]
November - First prototype DornierDo 217V1, first flown 4 October 1938, crashes one month into test programme, killing both crew members. [74]
8 November - Col. Leslie MacDill, commissioned in the Coast Artillery in 1912, became a military pilot in 1914, and commanded an aerial gunnery school in St. Jean de Monte, France in World War I, is killed this date in the crash of his North AmericanBC-1 at Anacostia, D.C. after take-off from Bolling Field. Southeast Air Base, Tampa, Florida, is renamed MacDill Field on 1 December 1939.[3]
1939
Bf 109V17, D-IWKU, prototype of the Bf 109E-3, crashes during test flight. [75]
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.[76]
23 January - Sole prototype Douglas 7B twin-engine attack bomber, designed and built as a company project, suffers loss of vertical fin and rudder during demonstration flight over Mines Field (now Los Angeles International Airport, California), flat spins into parking lot of North American Aviation, burns. Douglas test pilot Johnny Cable bails out at 300 feet, chute unfurls but does not have time to deploy, killed on impact, flight engineer John Parks rides airframe in and dies, but 33-year old French Air Force Capt. Paul Chemidlin, riding in aft fuselage near top turret, survives with broken leg, severe back injuries, slight concussion. Presence of Frenchman, a representative of foreign purchasing mission, causes furor in Congress by isolationists over neutrality and export laws. Type will be developed as Douglas DB-7. [77]
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.[78]
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.[79]
Circa 30 November - On second test flight of first Bell Aircraft CorporationYFM-1 Airacuda, 38-486, disaster narrowly avoided when supercharger turbine buckets on starboard engine disintegrate, throwing shrapnel through fuselage, resulting in considerable damage. Pilot shuts down engine and lands safely at Bell plant, Buffalo, New York, using only port powerplant. [80]
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.[81]
1940
6 January - XP-39B Airacobra, 38-326, modified from prototype XP-39, on test flight out of Buffalo, New York, suffers failure of main gear legs to retract fully, stopping 18 inches short of flush stowage. Pilot, Wright Field P-39 project officer George Price, saves prototype with deft belly-landing, damage mostly limited to the propeller.[82]
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.[83]
11 March - Second prototype 12Si carrier-borne naval fighter, built by the Nagoya Aircraft Works of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, equipped with a Mitsubishi Zusei 13 engine, disintegrates at ~1030 hrs. during dive test out of Oppama Airfield, Japan. Pilot Masumi Okuyama of the flight test division of the Aeronautical Establishment is seen to deploy his chute, but then, inexplicably, releases harness and is killed by fall from height of 300 meters. Crash is determined to have been caused by tail flutter due to missing mass balance weight on elevator. The new design enters service named after the end of the year Kigen 2600 as the type Rei (Zero) carrier-borne fighter Model 11.[84]
5 April - Prototype Sud-Est SE 100-01 crashes at MarignaneFrance returning from test flight. Approaching field, gear down, flaps up, it is seen to execute a flat turn at 1000 feet (300 metres), sink abruptly and crash. Unprotected fuel tanks in fuselage belly rupture, pilot Rouland and his mechanic perish in fire. Starboard propeller pitch mechanism inadvertently went into reverse on power increase causing loss of control.[85][86]
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.[87]
27 April - Prototype Yakovlev I-26, first of what became the Yak-1 fighter, crashes, killing pilot.[88]
June - Seventh (of 13 ordered) Bell Aircraft CorporationYFM-1 Airacuda, 38-492, crash lands in farmer's field at East Aurora, New York, before acceptance by U.S. Army Air Corps when aircraft will not recover from spin, rudder locks, pilot cuts power prior to bail-out. After Bell test pilot Brian Sparks departs airframe, suffering severe injuries (two broken legs) when he strikes vertical fin and horizontal stabilizer, fellow Bell pilot John Strickler regains rudder control, dead-sticks the pusher twin into field ~15 SE of Buffalo. Sparks parachutes down, Strickler uninjured, airframe written-off. [90]
9 July - During shakedown cruise of the aircraft carrier USS Wasp (CV-7), one of her VoughtSB2U-2 Vindicators crashes two miles (3 km) from the ship. Wasp goes to flank speed to close, as does the plane-guarding destroyer USS Morris (DD-271). The latter's boats recover items from the plane's baggage compartment, but the plane sinks with its two crew.
11 July - On its fifth test flight, the prototype VoughtXF4U-1 Corsair, BuNo 1443, runs low on fuel, Vought test pilot Boone Guyton attempts landing on rain-slicked fairway of the Norwich, Connecticut golf course, crashes into woods, flips over, slides into tree stump, comes to rest in ravine with wing and empennage torn off, propeller damage, but pilot unhurt. Vought rebuilds wreck to airborne condition in two months. [91]
6 August - XP-39B Airacobra, 38-326, suffers second landing accident when pilot Capt. Ernest Warburton, chief of the Wright Field test unit, on his third landing attempt, pulls back power as he approaches Wright Field, Ohio, at ~106 mph, stalls, and hits ground harder than intended. "The wing structure yielded where the main gear attached, damaging the wing and integral fuel tanks. Damage proved more substantial than first thought. As it turned out, this was the last flight of the XP-39B. Paper work was submitted to survey the airframe 11 days later and final approval was received 27 December 1940. (Air Corps record card for XP-39B, serial number 38-326.) The prototype Airacobra was scrapped." [92]
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.[93]
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.[38]
13 September - Friday the 13th flight of Fairey Battle, L5343, of 98 Squadron, first RAF aircraft to deploy to Iceland on 27 August 1940, on inspection flight from Kaldadarnes, Iceland to Akureyri,Iceland, comes to unexpected end when engine quits over remote area, wheels down emergency landing results in gear collapse, but pilot Fg. Off. "Willie" Wilcox and passenger Lt. Col. H. Davies of the Royal Engineers okay. Airframe is finally retrieved in 1972, restored, and is now displayed at the RAF Museum at Hendon, U.K.[94]
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.[95]
18 October - First BellYP-39 Airacobra, 40-027, crashes near Buffalo, New York on eighth flight when only one main landing gear extends. Bell test pilot Bob Stanley bails out at 7,000 feet rather than try a wheels-up landing, suffering only minor injuries when he lands in a tree. Examination of the wreckage shows that universal joints attached to the torque tubes driving the main gear struts had failed, as had limit switches placed in the retraction mechanism to shut off the electrical motors.[96][97][98]
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.[99]
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. [100]
Post-January - Prototype TupolevANT-58, also known as samolet ("aircraft") 103, 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.[101]
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.[102]
16 April - Lt. j.g. Yasushi Nikaido, fighter squadron leader of the Imperial Japanese Navy carrier Kaga, survives close call when Mitsubishi Zero, number 140, loses both port and starboard ailerons as well as part of the upper wing surface while performing dive of 550 kph at 2,300 rpm, but pilot makes skillful emergency landing at Kisarazu Airfield. Accident is reported to Naval Aeronautical Headquarters, the Naval Aeronautical Technical Establishment, and the Yokosuka Air Corps. [103]
17 April - During dive tests to determine why wrinkles are appearing on the surface plates of the wings, Lt. Manbei Shimokawa, squadron leader at Yokosuka Naval Air Corps, is killed in Mitsubishi Zero Model 21, number 135, equipped with balance tabs, when, during pull-out at 1,500 meters from dive from 4,000 meters, parts are seen by ground observers to depart from the port wing, fighter drops nose, plunges into ten fathoms of water off Natsu Island. Pilot found in recovered wreckage with head injuries from striking instrument panel on impact. Aeronautical Technical Establishment investigation reveals that flutter and vibration tests had not simulated the stiffness distribution of actual airframes and that the ailerons and horizontal stabilizers had been torn out. Fighter had previously been assigned to the carrier Akagi. [104]
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.[105]
14 May - Grumman XP-50 Skyrocket, 40-3057, crashed into Long Island Sound during first test flight when the starboard turbo-supercharger exploded. Pilot Bob Hall bailed out. Built as a company project, it was allocated a USAAF serial, but was destroyed before being taken on charge.[106][78]
Early summer - Junkers Ju 288 V4, D-AACS, during one of its first test flights out of Dessau, Germany, fire starts in port BMW 801MA radial engine nacelle during landing approach at Dessau, burns so fiercely that it cuts through the main longerons, virtually severing the forward fuselage from the center fuselage. Despite severe damage, airframe is rebuilt and resumes flight test programme in late November.[107]
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.[108]
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.[109]
28 August - First prototype GrummanXTBF-1 Avenger, BuNo 2539, suffers fire in bomb bay believed to have been electrical during test flight out of Long Island, New York factory airfield, forcing pilot Hobart Cook and engineer Gordon Israel to bail out.[110]
28 November - First prototype GrummanXTBF-1 Avenger, BuNo 2539, suffers fire in bomb bay during test flight out of Long Island, New York factory airfield, forcing pilot Hobart Cook and engineer Gordon Israel to bail out. (Joe Mizrahi source cites date of accident as 28 August 1941.) [112][113]
21 December - CurtissXSB2C-1 Helldiver, BuNo 1758, destroyed after suffering inflight wing failure. Pilot Baron T. Hulse bails out. Airframe had previously crashed on 8 February 1941 due to engine failure during approach. Sustained damage to fuselage but was repaired. [114]
1942
January - Lt. I.M. Chisov of the Red Air Force survives miraculous fall from 22,000 feet without a parachute after departing a heavily damaged Ilyushin Il-4 twin-engined medium bomber. After achieving a terminal velocity of about 150 mph, he is decelerated when he hits the lip of a snow-covered ravine, sliding down with decreasing speed until he stops at the bottom, suffering a broken pelvis and severe spinal injuries. [1]
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.[38]
25 March - Test pilot Fritz Wendel takes Me 262V1, PC+UA, on its first jet-powered flight but experimental BMW 003 gas turbine engines both fail and he has to limp the prototype airframe back to Augsburg on the nose-mounted Jumo 210 piston engine installed for initial airframe testing. [115]
26 March - The first XP-39E Airacobra (of three), 41-19501, with lengthened fuselage to accommodate the Allison V-1710-E9 engine, and used for determining handling qualities, armament tests, and maneuvers, crashes on its 36th test flight during a spin test out of Wright Field, Ohio.[116]
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.[117]
23 April - US NavySB2U Vindicator of VS-71, assigned to the USS Wasp, but put ashore to clear deckspace for Spitfires bound for Malta, crashes in peat bog near Invergordon, Great Britain, killing Ens. Jackson and Aviation Machinist's Mate Atchison. Atchison's body recovered, but squadron diary records that Jackson's body and bulk of airframe were buried too deeply, so remains and wreckage were covered over. [118]
The HalifaxV9977, which crashed killing Alan Blumlein and several other key British radar technicians 7 June 1942.
May (?) - Reggiane Re 2001, MM8071, (third one built), downed in the Sardinian Sea apparently by engine failure, pilot recovered, possibly during ferry flight to Sardinian-based 2nd Gruppo. Airframe recovered 23 November 1991 by Sardinian chapter of the Gruppo Amici Velivoli Storici (GAVS), the Italian national aircraft preservation society for the Italian Air Force Museum. This is the only example of a Daimler-Benz inline engine equipped fighter to survive in Italy. [119]
3 June - During a Japanese raid on Dutch Harbor, eastern Aleutians, Alaska, the Mitsubishi Zero Model 21 flown by Flying Petty Officer 1st Class Koga takes hit to fuel tank. Pilot realizes he cannot make return flight to carrier Ryujo so he attempts emergency landing on what appears to be grassy terrain but turns out to be soft muskeg, fighter overturning as undercarriage makes contact, pilot killed. Attempt by Japanese submarine crew to rescue pilot is unsuccessful. U.S. Navy search team discovers nearly undamaged Zero with dead pilot still under the canopy, retrieves it and in August 1942 ships it to the repair depot at NAS North Island, San Diego, California for repair and evaluation, the first intact example to fall into American hands. [120]
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.
15 July - During Operation Bolero, the ferrying of combat aircraft from the U.S. to England by air, a flight of two B-17E Flying Fortresses of the 97th Bomb Group and six P-38F Lightnings of the 94th Fighter Squadron, 1st Fighter Group, on the 845-mile leg between Bluie West 8 airfield and Reykjavik, Iceland, run out of fuel after being held up by bad weather, and all force-land on the Greenland icecap. All safely belly in except for the first P-38 which attempts a wheels-down landing, flipping over as nosewheel catches a crevasse, but pilot Lt. Brad McManus unhurt. All crews rescued on 19 July, but aircraft are abandoned in place. One P-38F, now known as "Glacier Girl", recovered in 1992 from under 200 feet of accumulated snow and ice and rebuilt to flying status. One B-17 also found, but it is too badly crushed for recovery. Although the USAAF had expected to lose 10 percent of the 920 planes that made the North Atlantic transit during Bolero, losses were only 5.2 percent, the majority being involved in this single incident.[78]
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.[117] Loss of prototype went unpublicized at this early stage of the war. Nothing is ever found of the wreckage.[122]
8 August - 1st Lt. Edward Joseph Peterson is killed in the crash of North AmericanF-6 Mustang, a reconnaissance variant of the P-51, when it suffers engine failure on take-off from Air Support Command Base, near Colorado Springs, Colorado. Field is renamed Peterson Army Air Field on 3 March 1943, later Peterson Air Force Base on 1 March 1976. [3]
25 August - The Prince George, Duke of Kent (George Edward Alexander Edmund; 20 December1902 - 25 August1942) is killed while a passenger on a Short Sunderland Mk. IIIflying boat, W4026, 'DQ-M', of 228 Squadron. Thirteen of 14 on board killed including the Duke of Kent, three members of his staff, pilot Flt. Lt. Frank Goyen, Wing Cmdr. Moseley, and six other crew. Tail gunner Sgt. Andrew Jack was thrown clear of the wreckage in his turret, suffering burns and other injuries. The plane was en route from Evanton, Rosshire to Iceland, and then on to Newfoundland. The four-engined Sunderland struck Wolf Rock on Ben Morven after take off from Loch More, but the accident was never fully explained and several conspiracy theories have been circulated regarding the accident and Prince George's mission. Sole survivor Jack refused to discuss the accident throughout his life, fuelling the conspiracies.
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.[124]
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 - VulteeXA-31B-VU Vengeance, 42-35824, overturns in a tobacco field while making forced landing in Connecticut after engine failure. Initially built as a non-flying XA-31A engine-test airframe but later upgraded for operation. [125]
15 October - DouglasC-49E-DO, 42-43619, DST-114, c/n 1494, first DC-3, ex-American Airlines Douglas Sleeper Transport NC14988, A115 "Texas", first flown as X14988 on 17 December 1935; sold to TWA, 14 March 1942, as line number 361; commandeered by USAAF, 31 March 1942; crashed this date in bad weather at Knobnoster, Missouri. [1][126]
16 October - MartinB-26 Marauder operated by the USAAF 5th Ferrying Group, Air Transport Command is on a routine flight to Dallas Love Field when bad weather closes airfield and controllers advise crew to divert to Fort Worth. Plane is enroute below 500 ft (152 m) altitude to stay in visual conditions under low cloud deck when wingtip is sliced off by a guy-wire of WFAAradio tower near Grapevine, Texas; all 6 crewmembers die in subsequent crash.[127]
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.[128]
Late October - Second prototype Me 262V2, PC+UB, first flown 1 October 1942, is damaged when pilot strikes ground vehicle with starboard wing during flight preparations, due to restricted visibility from cockpit in tail-dragger configuration of early 262s. Aircraft repaired. [129]
27 November - Douglas O-46A, 35-179, lands downwind at Brooks Field, Harlingen, Texas, runs out of runway, overturns. Written off, it is abandoned in place. More than twenty years later it is discovered by the Antique Airplane Association with trees growing through its wings, and in 1967 it is rescued and hauled to Ottumwa, Iowa. Restoration turns out to beyond the organization's capability, and in September 1970 it is traded to the National Museum of the United States Air Force for a flyable C-47. The (then) Air Force Museum restores it and places it on display in 1974, the sole survivor of the 91 O-46s built. [130]
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.[38]
15 January - Prototype Commonwealth Aircraft CorporationCA-4 Wackett Bomber, A23-1001, crashes on test flight to assess powerplant performance and evaluate aerodynamic effects of a new fixed leading edge slat. During return to CAC airfield at Fisherman's Bend, Australia, pilot Sqn. Leader Jim Harper detects fuel leak in port Pratt & WhitneyR-1830 engine; as problem worsens he attempts shut-down and feathering of propeller but actuation of feathering switch causes explosion and uncontrollable fire. Crew of three attempts evacuation at 1000 feet (305 metres), but only pilot Harper succeeds in parachuting, CAC test pilot Jim Carter and CAC power plant group engineer Lionel Dudgeon KWF. Airframe impacts ~three miles SW of Kilmore, Victoria.
8 February - The second XP-39E Airacobra (of three), 41-19502, is damaged during a forced landing when a Wright Field test pilot runs out of fuel short of Niagara Falls Airport, New York, where the Bell Aircraft plant is located. [131]
18 February - Second prototype XB-29 Superfortress, 41-003[132], 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.[133]
22 February - Boeing 314, Pan American "Yankee Clipper", NC18603, c/n 1990, (U.S. Navy BuNo 48224), crashes into the Tagus River near Lisbon, while on approach to Portugal by way of the Azores. Caught in a storm, the flying boat hooked a wingtip in a turn while attempting an emergency landing. 25 of 39 on board die. Among those killed are actress Tamara Drasin and international journalist Ben Robertson, en route to his new job, chief of the New York Herald-Tribune's London bureau. Actress Jane Froman is seriously injured. Her story of survival will be made into the 1952 film "With a Song in My Heart" starring Susan Hayward.
4 April - B-25C Mitchell, 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.[134]
9 April - P-38G-10-LO Lightning, 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.[78]
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." [137]
10 May - First ConsolidatedXB-32 Dominator, 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.[138]
10 May - First CurtissYC-76 Caravan 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. [139]
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.[140]
14 June - B-17C Flying Fortress, 40-2072 of the 19th Bomb Group, heavily damaged on Davao mission 25 December 1941 and converted into transport. With 46th Troop Carrier Squadron, 317th Transport Group, crashed Bakers Creek, Queensland, Australia, this date while ferrying troops to New Guinea. Six crew and 34 GIs killed. One survived.
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.[141]
14 August - CurtissXP-60E-CU, 42-79425, is damaged in a forced landing just before being released to the USAAF for official trials. Becomes XP-60C when it is retrofit with wings, undercarriage, and other items from the XP-60A-CU, 42-79423. Meanwhile, original XP-60C-CU, 42-79424, becomes second XP-60E with removal of 2,000 hp. R-2800-53 engine and contraprops, replaced with R-2800-10 engine and four-blade prop. [142] Whole P-60 project is essentially a dead-end, being nothing more than Curtiss' attempt to stretch pre-war design that started out as the P-36, and the company's unwillingness or inability to start fresh with a new fighter design will force them out of the aircraft business a few short years after the war.
9 September - During carrier compatibility trials, test pilot Capt. Eric Brown crashlands Fairey Firefly Mk. I, Z1844, on the deck of HMS Pretoria Castle when tailhook indicator light falsely shows "down" position. Fighter hits crash barrier, shears off undercarriage, shreds propeller, but pilot unhurt.[143]
2 October - Second prototype Arado Ar 234 V2 crashes at Rheine near Munster after suffering fire in port wing, failure of both engines, and various instrumentation failure, the airframe diving into the ground from 4,000 feet (1219 m), killing pilot Flugkapitän Selle.[144]
15 November - First of three prototypes of the Curtiss XP-55 Ascender, 42-78845, on test flight out of Lambert Field, St. Louis, Missouri, crashes when pilot is unable to recover from a stall, engine then quits, Curtiss test pilot Harvey Gray divorces airframe after 16,000 foot plummet, landing safely, fighter impacts inverted in an open field. [145][146]
23 December - Lt. Col. William Edwin Dyess (1916-1943) is killed when the P-38 is his undergoing retraining in catches fire in flight near Burbank, California. He refuses to bail out over a populated area and dies when his Lightning impacts in a vacant lot. Dyess had been captured on Bataan in April 1942 by the Japanese, but escaped in April 1943 and fought with guerilla forces on Mindanao until evacuated by submarine in July 1943. Abilene Air Force Base, Texas, is named for him on 1 December 1956. [3]
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.[147]
24 March - RAFFlight SergeantNicholas 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.[148]
18 July - Hauptman Werner Thierfelder, unit commander of Erprobungskommando 262, out of Lechfeld, is lost in crash of Me 262A-1a under unclear circumstances. Luftwaffe records indicate that he was shot down but U.S. and British records show no comparable engagement. A possible cause is that Thierfelder exceeded the airframe's limiting Mach number in a dive, perhaps while pursuing an Allied reconnaissance aircraft, leading to an irrecoverable dive.[150]
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; 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.[151] 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.
August - Test program of LavochkinLa-7TK, fitted with turbo-supercharged M-82FN engine in July-August 1944 comes to sudden end when one TK-3 supercharger explodes and airframe is destroyed. [152]
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.[153]
23 August - Maj. Carlo Emanuele Buscaglia, one of Italy's most noted aviators, crashes this date in a Martin Baltimore light bomber. After the armistice of 8 September 1943, Buscaglia was asked to fight alongside the Allies, as a member of the newly-formed Aeronautica Cobelligerante del Sud. In the meantime, in the northern part of Italy still occupied by Germany, a wing of the Aeronautica Nazionale Reppublicana (the Air Force of the puppet Italian Social Republic) had also been named after him. On 15 July 1944 Buscaglia assumed command of the 28th Bomber Wing, equipped with Baltimores, based on Campo Vesuvio airport, near Naples. On 23 August, while attempting to fly one of the new planes during the early transition training phase, without an instructor, Buscaglia crashes on take-off, dying in hospital in Naples the following day. [154]
Redesigned Me 155, Blohm und VossBv 155V1, first flown 1 September 1944, crashes on later test flight for unknown reasons. Second prototype, Bv 155B (V2), completed just before war's end, is recovered by Allies in hangar at Hamburg-Finkenwärder and taken to England for examination. [155]
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.[157]
18 September - Second FollandFo 108, P1775, 'P', one of only twelve built by newly-founded Folland company, as dedicated engine-testbed type, specification 43/37, crashes this date. Of the twelve, five were lost in accidents, including three in a 21 day period in August and September 1944, giving rise to the nickname, the Folland "Frightener". [158]
October - First prototype of two LavochkinLa-7R (Raketny - 'Rocket') conversions from standard production La-7 with rear fuselage and lower rudder cut-away to accommodate RD-1KhZ auxiliary rocket motor designed by S. P. Korolev and V. P. Glushko, to counter threat of high-altitude Luftwaffe attacks against the Soviet capital, attempts first test flight after protracted ground trials. During the take-off run, however, a fuel pipe fails, the rocket motor explodes, and the airframe catches fire, test pilot Georgi M. Shiyanov bailing out. Shiyanov continues test programme with second prototype, and experiences close call on another flight when the nitric acid and kerosene-fuelled rocket explodes during a relight, destroying almost all the elevator surface, and 75 percent of the rudder, but he skillfully lands the damaged airframe, and it is repaired. [159]
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.[160]
14 November - RAFAir Chief Marshall Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory, his wife Dora, and eight aircrew are killed when Avro 685 York Mk. C.I, MW126, strikes ridge at the 6,300 foot level in the French Alps between Belledonne and Seven Lakes Mountains, 30 miles S of Grenoble, France, in a blizzard. Wreckage found by a villager in June 1945. Leigh-Mallory, originator of the "Big Wing" concept during the Battle of Britain, was en route to his new posting in Ceylon where he was to take over command of Allied air operations in the Pacific.
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.[162]
1945
28 February - First manned flight test, launched from the Lager Heuberg military training area near Stetten am kalten Markt, 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 unconscious. 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.[38]
4 March - At precisely 0151 hrs., Junkers Ju 88G-6, Werknummer 620028, D5+AX, piloted by Hauptman J. Dreher, with a crew of three from night fighter unit 13/Nachtjagdgeschwader 3, becomes the last aircraft to crash on British soil during World War II. Confused by auto headlights, fighter hits tree while attacking the airfield at Elvington, crashing at Sutton upon Derwent, Yorkshire, all four KWF. Two other Ju 88s had crashed in separate incidents at 0137 and 0145 hrs. [1]
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.[163]
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.[164]
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.[165]
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, Kyūshū, Japan.[167]
7 July - On the first flight of the prototype Mitsubishi J8M1 Shusui, Japanese derivative of the Me 163B, 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.[168]
12 July - A US Army Air Forces A-26C-35-DT Invader, 44-35553, on a training flight has mid-air collision with Eastern Airlines Flight 45 from Washington, D.C. to Columbia, S.C., a DC-3-201C, NC25647, c/n 2235, at ~3100 feet, 11.9 miles WNW of Florence, South Carolina at 1436 hrs. A-26 vertical fin strikes port wing of airliner, displaces engine of DC-3 which cuts into fuselage; A-26 tail sheared off, two crew parachute, one KWF. DC-3 pilot belly lands in cornfield, one passenger of 24 total on board killed. [169]
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.[170][171]
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.[172]
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.[29]
1 November - First prototype McDonnellXFD-1 Phantom, BuNo 48235 crashes, killing McDonnell's chief test pilot.[173]
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 departs NAS Banana River, Florida, to search for the missing planes, also disappears after a large mid-air explosion is seen near its last reported position.[174]
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. Aircraft impacts at Oxen Hill, Maryland. 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.[175]
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.[176]
1 March - Two SilverplateB-29s written off in taxi accident at Kirtland Army Air Field, New Mexico. Pilot of B-29-60-MO Superfortress, 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 Superfortress, 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.[177]
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.[3]
May - First of three MiGI-300 prototypes (I for Istrebitel, or interceptor), a twin-engined tricycle-geared jet-powered design first flown 24 April 1946, develops uncontrollable pitch during high-speed run and dives into ground, killing pilot Alexei Grinchik. Replacement test pilot Mark Gallai subsequently has two close calls in I-300, with tailplane and elevator suffering distortion, probably the same condition that killed Grinchik. [178]
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.
8 July - First of two XF4U-5 Corsairs, created by mating F4U-4 BuNo 97296 with Pratt & WhitneyR-2800-32W radial engine, first flown 3 July 1946, lost during routine test flight when pilot Bill Horan attempts dead-stick landing at Stratford, Connecticut. Airframe destroyed, pilot killed. [179]
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.[180]
6 September - First prototype of the Avia S-92.1 Turbina, a Czechoslavakian version of the Me 262A-1a, crash lands on its sixth test flight out of a former Luftwaffe base NE of Praha (Prague). During high-speed runs at 13,125 feet (4000 meters), the port engine flames out, pilot Antonin Kraus is unable to get a relight, and he opts for a wheels-up landing in a field. The aircraft breaks in two on landing, and although Kraus is uninjured, it is a total write-off. For reasons of propaganda, the second prototype, S-92.2, is alleged to be the first true prototype, the first one having been an experimental ship, and the first two-seater, the CS-92.3, is declared the first series production aircraft. [181]
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.[182]
27 January - United States Army 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.[185]
21 February - United States Army 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.
22 June - Martin XB-48 makes first flight, a 37-minute, 73-mile hop from Martin's Baltimore, Maryland plant to NAS Patuxent River, Maryland, but blows all four tires on its fore-and-aft mounted undercarriage on landing when pilot Pat Tibbs applies heavy pressure to specially-designed, but very slow to respond, insensitive air-braking lever. Tibbs and co-pilot Dutch Gelvin are uninjured. [186]
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.[182]
29 July - Nine crew are killed and two injured in a failed take-off attempt by a B-29 Superfortress from Eglin Field, Florida at 0813 hrs., the bomber coming down ~300 yards N of the main base near Valparaiso, Florida and burning. Killed were instructor pilot Capt. Gordon W. Barrett, of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, a West Point graduate who was awarded the DFC while flying B-29s in World War II; pilot 1st Lt. Huddie C. Bagley of Braufield, Texas; co-pilot Capt. Robert M. Seldomridge of Lancaster, Pennsylvania; navigator 1st Lt. Joseph A. Anderson, Shalimar, Florida; navigator 1st Lt. Milton Rose, Fort Walton, Florida; engineer Master Sgt. Michele Aulicino, Mary Esther, Florida; scanner Staff Sgt. Hugh T. Mulholland of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; scanner Cpl. Ashley W. Odom, McBee, South Carolina; and scanner Pfc. Donald D. Crawford from Fort Worth, Texas. Injured were scanner S/Sgt. Jeremiah W. Conlon of Worthington, Kentucky, admitted to the Eglin hospital with abrasions of the face and head, and ankle injuries; and radio operator S/Sgt. Lloyd D. Farris of Pensacola, Florida, with minor injuries but admitted for observation. The Superfortress apparently failed to gain much altitude before coming down, said Capt. Robert Gaughan, base public relations officer. [187]
August - 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.[188] This design was the last Curtiss aircraft built for the U.S. Navy.
16 September - A pilot assigned to Eglin Field, Florida, is KWF during an attempted emergency landing in a Lockheed P-80 at that base on Tuesday afternoon. Capt. Lawson L. Lipscomb of Houston, Texas, radioed that he was having difficulty with the jet and was returning to the Eglin main base where emergency preparations had been made on the runways, but the fighter came down just west of the airfield. [189]
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.[190]
18 March: Lt. Roger L. Miller, flying an Marine Corps F4U Corsair, crashes into the sea during dive bombing practice. His body was not recovered. He was the father of Roger L. Miller Jr. and his second son was born the following day. His name was Stephen.
9 April - A six-month fatality-free period at Eglin AFB, Florida, (the longest since the base opened) ends when Capt. William Robbins, 26, is killed in the crash of a P-51 Mustang in a wooded area N of Crestview, Florida. The pilot in the Friday morning accident was father of three and was well-known for his involvement with the Boy Scouts of America. A resident of Cinco Bayou, Florida, Robbins is buried in his hometown of Tampa, Florida on 11 April. [192]
10 April - Eglin AFB, Florida, suffers second accident in two days when A-26 Invader from Biggs AFB, El Paso, Texas, goes down in the Gulf of Mexico S of Destin, Florida. Two of three crew survive by parachuting from stricken bomber, TDY here for firing exercises over the Gulf. First Lieutenant John Kubo and T/Sgt. Joseph A. Riley (ages, hometowns not given) are rescued by Eglin crash boats. KWF is T.Sgt. John E. Brizendine, officially listed as missing. [193]
3 May - Second Douglas D-558-1 Skystreak, BuNo 37971, NACA 141[194], crashes on takeoff on 20th flight for NACA (46th total take-off) at Edwards AFB, California, due to compressor disintegration that cut control runs in fuselage, killing NACA pilot Howard C. Lilly. Lilly is the first NACA pilot to die while on duty, and the first pilot who had flown at supersonic speed, to be killed. [1]
11 May - Maj. Simon H. Johnson, deputy commanding officer of the Eglin AFB, Florida, fighter section, is killed when his RepublicP-84 Thunderjet disintegrates during an air demonstration on the Eglin reservation, in front of some 600 witnesses. The public information officer at Eglin stated that the pilot was "engaged in operational tests on the plane" when the accident occurred. Maj. Johnson, a resident of Shalimar, Florida, was originally from Houston, Texas. He had served a year in Italy flying 50 missions in P-51s with the 31st Fighter Group, earning the Distinguished Flying Cross and the air medal with five clusters. He had attended the University of Texas and graduated from the U.S. Army flying school in 1940. [195]
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. [196]
3 September - The only SilverplateB-29 to be part of the strike package on both atomic missions over Japan, B-29-40-MO Superfortress, 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 USAFXB-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.[198]
5 November - A B-17 Flying Fortress returning to Eglin AFB, Florida from Fort Wayne, Indiana, crashes in woods SE of Auxiliary Field 2, crashing and burning NE of the runway at Eglin main base early Friday. All five on board are KWF, including Lt. Col. Frederick W. Eley, 43, of Shalimar, Florida, staff judge advocate at Eglin for nearly three years - he was returning from his grandmother's funeral in Portland, Indiana; Maj. Bydie J. Nettles, 29, who lived in Shalimar, Florida but was originally from Pensacola, Florida, group adjutant for the 3203rd Maintenance and Supply section; Capt. Robert LeMar, 31, Ben's Lake, Eglin AFB, test pilot with the 3203rd; crew chief M/Sgt. Carl LeMieux, 31, of Milton, Florida; and Sgt. William E. Bazer, 36, assistant engineer, Destin, Florida. Bazer's wife was the Eglin base librarian. [199]
7 November - Second prototype RepublicXR-12 Rainbow, 44-91003, crashes at 1300 hrs. while returning to Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. The number 2 (port inner) engine exploded as the aircraft was returning from a photographic suitability test flight. The pilot was unable to maintain control due to violent buffeting, and he ordered the crew to bail out. Five of the seven crew escaped safely, including pilot Lynn Hendrix, rescued by Eglin crash boats and helicopters. Airframe impacts two miles S of the base, in the Choctawhatchee Bay. Sgt. Vernon B. Palmer, 20, and M/Sgt. Victor C. Riberdy, 30, who lived at Auxiliary Field 5, but was from Hartford, Connecticut, are KWF. [200]
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.
3 June - Sole completed SukhoiSu-15 (Aircraft P) twin-engined jet all-weather interceptor develops severe vibration during 39th test flight, breaks up in mid-air forcing pilot S.N. Anokhin to eject. Project abandoned, second prototype never finished. [203]
9 August - US Navy Lt. J. L. Fruin of VF-101 loses control of his F2H-1 Banshee at 500 mph and 30,000 feet and ejects over Walterboro, South Carolina, becoming the first American pilot to use an ejector seat during an actual in-flight emergency. VF-101 was the first Navy unit to receive the type. [1]
30 September - First Avro 707 delta-wing research aircraft, VX784, first flown 6 September 1949 (one source says 4 September), crashes near Blackbushe on test flight out of Boscombe Down, killing Avro test pilot Flt. Lt. Eric Esler. Cause never never established. [204]
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 Skymaster) 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 1946 National Air Races at Cleveland, Ohio as '48' piloted by Hasson Callaway (did not finish).
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.[205].
^ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzaaabacadaeafBaker, David, "Flight and Flying: A Chronology", Facts On File, Inc., New York, New York, 1994, Library of Congress card number 92-31491, ISBN 0-8160-1854-5, page 32. Cite error: The named reference "Baker" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
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^ abcdefghijklmnopMueller, Robert, "Air Force Bases Volume 1: Active Air Force Bases Within the United States of America on 17 September 1982", United States Air Force Historical Research Center, Office of Air Force History, Washington, D.C., 1989, ISBN 0-912799-53-6, page 267. Cite error: The named reference "Mueller" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
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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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^Bruce, J.M., "War Planes of the First World War, Fighters, Volume Three", Doubleday & Company Inc., Garden City, New York, 1969, Library of Congress card number 65-25323, pages 127-128.
^Connors, John F., "The 11th Hour Sopwiths", Wings, Granada Hills, California, February 1976, Volume 6, Number 1, pages13-14.
^Bruce, J.M., "War Planes of the First World War, Fighters, Volume Three", Doubleday & Company Inc., Garden City, New York, 1969, Library of Congress card number 65-25323, page 21.
^Bruce, J.M., "War Planes of the First World War, Fighters, Volume One", Doubleday & Company Inc., Garden City, New York, 1965, Library of Congress card number 65-25323, page 171.
^Green, William, and Swanborough, Gordon, "Fighter A To Z", AIR International, Bromley, Kent, U.K., September 1974, Volume 7, Number 3, page 152.
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^Green, William, and Swanborough, Gordon, "Fighter A To Z", AIR International, Bromley, Kent, U.K., December 1974, Volume 7, Number 6, page 302.
^Bruce, J.M., "War Planes of the First World War, Fighters, Volume One", Doubleday & Company Inc., Garden City, New York, 1965, Library of Congress card number 65-25323, page 110.
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^ Swanborough, Gordon, and Bowers, Peter M., "United States Navy Aircraft since 1911", Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland, 1976, Library of Congress card number 90-60097, ISBN 0-87021-792-5, page 574.
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^Allen, Richard Sanders, "Revolution In The Sky: The Lockheeds of Aviation's Golden Age, Revised Edition", Orion Books, New York, 1988, Library of Congress card number 88-9839, ISBN 0-517-56678-8, page 227.
^Bowers, Peter M., "Airborne Cobra", Airpower, Granada Hills, California, November 1978, Volume 8, Number 6, page 21.
^Andrade, John M., "U.S. Military Aircraft Designations and Serials since 1909", Midland Counties Publications, Limited, U.K., 1979, page 144.
^Stamford, Lincs., U.K.: FlyPast, Ford, Daniel, "Bulldog Pedigree", June 1999, Number 215, page 44.
^Allen, Richard Sanders, "Revolution In The Sky: The Lockheeds of Aviation's Golden Age, Revised Edition", Orion Books, New York, 1988, Library of Congress card number 88-9839, ISBN 0-517-56678-8, page 226.
^Boyne, Walt, "Test Pilot", Airpower, Granada Hills, California, September 1974, Volume 4, Number 5, pages 38, 52.
^ Swanborough, Gordon, and Bowers, Peter M., "United States Navy Aircraft since 1911", Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland, 1976, Library of Congress card number 90-60097, ISBN 0-87021-792-5, page 155.
^ Swanborough, Gordon, and Bowers, Peter M., "United States Navy Aircraft since 1911", Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland, 1976, Library of Congress card number 90-60097, ISBN 0-87021-792-5, pages 588-589.
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^Boyne, Walt, "B-10: Baltimore's Best", Airpower, Granada Hills, California, May 1972, Volume 2, Number 3, pages 37-38.
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^Bowers, Peter M., "Fortress In The Sky", Sentry Books, Granada Hills, California,1976, Library of Congress Card No. 76-17145, ISBN 0-913194-04-2, page 37
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^de Wulf, Herman, "Renard's Neutrality Fighters", AIR International, Bromley, Kent, U.K., April 1977, Volume 12, Number 4, page 188.
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^"Database", The Aeroplane, Number 431, London, UK, March 2009, Volume 37, Number 3, page 56.
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^Green, William, "War Planes of the Second World War - Fighters, Volume Four", Doubleday & Company Inc., Garden City, New York, 1961, page 205.
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^London, U.K.: Aeroplane, Price, Dr. Alfred, "The Birth of a Thoroughbred", March 2006, Volume 34, Number 3, No. 395, page 53.
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^Green, William, "War Planes of the Second World War - Flying Boats, Volume Five", Doubleday & Company Inc., Garden City, New York, 1962, pages 47-48.
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^Aeroplane Monthly - December 1986 issue - Rudolf Hess article. P. 628
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^ abLake, Jon, "P-47 Thunderbolt Part 1: Early development and combat in the ETO", International Air Power Review, Volume 1, AIRtime Publishing Inc., Westport, Connecticut, Summer 2001, ISBN 1473-9917, page 143. Cite error: The named reference "Lake" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
^Van Alstine, D. Bruce, "Talkback", AIR International, Bromley, Kent, UK, May 1979, Volume 16, Number 5, page 245.
^ Alegi, Gregory, "Return from Extinction", FlyPast No. 128, March 1992, page 24.
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^Price, Dr. Alfred, "Messerschmitt Me 262: Missed Opportunity or Impossible Dream?", International Air Power Review, AIRtime Publishing Inc., Westport, Connecticut, 2007, ISBN 1-880588-99-4, page 130.
^Westburg, Peter W., and Bowers, Peter M., "The Parasols of Santa Monica", Wings, Granada Hills, California, April 1974, Volume 4, Number 2, pages 68-69.
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^Aircraft information - XB-29-BO, serial number 41-003, manufacturers serial number 2481
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^Dean, Jack, "The Charge Of The Light Brigade", Airpower, Granada Hills, California, November 1998, Volume 28, Number 6, page 39.
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^ Boynes, Walt, "Ascender", Airpower, Granada Hills, California, March 1973, Volume 3, Number 2, page 10.
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^Price, Dr. Alfred, "Messerschmitt Me 262: Missed Opportunity or Impossible Dream?", International Air Power Review, AIRtime Publishing Inc., Westport, Connecticut, 2007, ISBN 1-880588-99-4, pages 137-138.
^"Last of the Wartime Lavochkins", AIR International, Bromley, Kent, U.K., November 1976, Volume 11, Number 5, page 247.
^Boyne, Walt, "P-75 Eagle: GM's Flying Frankenstein", Wings, Granada Hills, California, February 1973, Volume 3, Number 1, page 14.
^ Caliaro, Luigino, 51° Stormo: 'Ferruccio Serafini' , "Wings of Fame, Volume 20". London, United Kingdom: Aerospace Publishing Ltd., 2000. ISBN 1-86184-053-5. page 25.
^Nowarra, Heinz J., "The Messerschmitt 109: A Famous German Fighter", Harleyford Publications, Limited, Letchworth, Herts., England / Aero Publishers, Los Angeles, California, 1963, Library of Congress card number 63-14331, page 104.
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^"Last of the Wartime Lavochkins", AIR International, Bromley, Kent, U.K., November 1976, Volume 11, Number 5, pages 245-246.
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^Freeman, Roger, with Osborne, David, "The B-17 Flying Fortress Story: Design - Production - History", London, U.K.: Arms & Armour Press, 1998, ISBN 1-85409-301-0, page 256.
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^ abCrouchman, Alan F., "Last of the 'Colonial Policemen'?", Air Enthusiast No.83, Stamford, Lincs., U.K., September/October 1999, page 22. Cite error: The named reference "Crouchman" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
^Francillon, René J., "From Torpedo and Scout Bombers to Attack Aircraft", AIR International, Stamford, Lincs, U.K., October 1995, Volume 49, Number 4, page 237.
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^Fort Walton, Florida, "P-80 Accident Fatal For Pilot", Playground News, Thursday 18 September 1947, Volume II, Number 33, page 1.
^Stamford, Lincs., UK, FlyPast, "Johnny Squier and the Supersonic 'Bang-Out'", May 2006, No. 298, page 80.
^Fort Walton, Florida, "Captain Robbins Killed When P-51 Crashes in Woods", Playground News, Thursday 15 April 1948, Volume 3, Number 11, page 1.
^Fort Walton, Florida, "Captain Robbins Killed When P-51 Crashes in Woods", Playground News, Thursday 15 April 1948, Volume 3, Number 11, page 1.
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^Fort Walton, Florida, "Major Johnson Killed in Jet Failure at Eglin - Pilot of P-84 Was Deputy CO of Fighter Section at Air Base", Playground News, Thursday 13 May 1948, Volume 3, Number 15, page 1.
^Aeroplane Monthly - May 1984 issue - Unscheduled Arrival article - P. 252-253
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^ Fort Walton, Florida, "Seven Airmen Dead in Eglin Plane Crashes", Playground News, Thursday 11 November 1948, Volume 3, Number 41, page 1.
^Moran, Gerard P., "The Corsair, and other - Aeroplanes Vought", Aviation Heritage Books, Sunshine House, Inc., Terre Haute, Indiana, 1978, Library of Congress card number 77-91434, ISBN 0-911852-83-2, page 106.
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