Connecting Skies • Bridging Continents
The five-year deal, with two option years, is part of the Department of War’s Arsenal of Freedom initiative and follows an earlier 2026 agreement supporting
The deal creates what AAR calls the largest heavy maintenance MRO in the world, servicing nearly 3,000 aircraft a year, with an option to acquire
The bill from Senator Eric Schmitt would build on last year’s $12.5 billion air traffic control investment with further funding for ATC modernisation, terminals and
An uncrewed Starliner-1 mission could fly as soon as December, with crewed flights targeted for 2028 once thermal and thruster fixes identified after 2024’s troubled
The deal makes WZL-1 a licensed MRO provider for the T700/CT7 engines powering Poland’s Apache, Black Hawk and Leonardo helicopter fleets, part of the localisation
The transaction splits 17 aircraft into a sale-leaseback with FTAI’s Strategic Capital business and 10 off-lease jets to support its Aerospace Products engine business, marking
Cargo and aircraft movements also reached record levels last year, but ACI’s 2026 Annual World Airport Traffic Report finds growth cooling sharply this year amid geopolitical and economic headwinds. Airports Council International (ACI) World says global airports carried a record
The proposed directive would require inspections on 95 US-registered aircraft after Boeing reported some elevator control bearings may have been installed incorrectly, or without sealant, during production. The FAA has proposed a new airworthiness directive (AD) for certain Boeing 737-8,
The Johannesburg-based University of the Witwatersrand and the Institut Superieur de l’Aeronautique et de l’Espace will align their engineering curricula and run a reciprocal faculty exchange, backed by Airbus Southern Africa. AIRBUS, WITS UNIVERSITY AND ISAE-SUPAERO SIGN AGREEMENT TO BOOST
2009 – Greek state-owned airline Olympic Airlines ceased operation.It was replaced by privately owned Olympic Air, which commenced operations on this day.
2009 – British Airways operates the first transatlantic flight from London City Airport: BA001 (a flight number unused since Concorde retired), an all-business class Airbus A318.
2007 – Dash 8 landing gear incidents: Two separate failures occurred within four days of each other on Bombardier Dash 8-Q400 aircraft, all operated by Scandinavian Airlines (SAS). A third incident, again with an SAS aircraft, occurred in October 2007, leading to the withdrawal of the type from the airline’s fleet.
2004 – The Burt Rutan Ansari X Prize entry SpaceShipOne performed a successful spaceflight, the first of two needed to win the prize.
1988 – Launch: Space Shuttle Discovery STS-26 at 15:37:00 UTC. Mission highlights: TDRS deployment; first post Challenger flight.
1988 – NASA resumes space shuttle flights, grounded after the Challenger disaster, with STS-26.
1971 – A USAF Lockheed C-5A Galaxy of the 443d Military Airlift Wing, Altus AFB, Oklahoma, one of six used for training, had its number one (port outer) engine tear off the pylon while advancing take-off power before brake release, setting the wing on fire. The crew evacuated safely within 90 seconds and the fire was extinguished by emergency equipment. The engine had flown up and behind the Galaxy, landing some 250 yards to the rear. The Air Force subsequently grounded six other C-5s with similar flight hours and cycles. Further investigation found cracks in younger C-5s and the entire fleet was grounded.
1964 – The first take-off and landing of the LTV-Hiller-Ryan XC-142 A vertical take-off transport is made in Dallas, Texas. The aircraft has four 2,850-hp General Electric turboprops mounted on the wings that can pivot 90 degrees to allow for a vertical take-off.
1959 – Braniff Flight 542, a Lockheed L-188 Electra, breaks up in mid-air and crashes 4 miles (6.4 km) from Buffalo, Texas; all 34 on board perish.
1954 – First flight of the McDonnell F-101 Voodoo jet fighter makes its first flight, flown by test pilot Robert C. Little. An advanced design of the XF-88, the Voodoo goes supersonic on its first flight.
1951 – A Royal Air Force Boeing Washington B.1, WF555, of 57 Squadron, RAF Waddington, experiences runaway propeller on number 3 (starboard inner) engine which hits number 4 (starboard outer) causing severe damage. Three crew in rear fuselage ordered to bail out before bomber makes successful wheels-up landing at a disused airfield near Amiens, France – no casualties, but airframe written off. Scrapped 3 January 1952.
1948 – First flight of the Vought XF7U-1 Cutlass, a prototype of the F7U Cutlass
1945 – Silverplate Boeing B-29 Superfortress, 44-27303, named “Jabit III”, of the 509th Composite Group, Wendover Army Air Field, Utah, on cross-country training mission, strikes several objects on landing at Chicago Municipal Airport, Illinois, never flies again. Assigned to the 4200th Base Unit at the airport pending disposition decision, it is salvaged there in April 1946.
Force.
1931 – First flight of the Marinens Flyvebaatfabrikk M.F.11
1931 – Following the Schneider Trophy success, Flt Lt. George Stainforth in S.6 B serial S1596 breaks the 400 mph air speed record barrier at 407.5 miles per hour (655.8 km/h).
1929 – The first flight at Cartierville of Reid Rambler. A Canadian-designed and built trainer; it was intended to fill the needs of flying clubs. It was a sesquiplane with folding wings to facilitate storage and it had incorporated Warren truss bracing that eliminated the need for bracing wires.
1929 – Dieudonne Costes and Maurice Bellonte arrive in Manchuria in a Breguet 19 (right), having set a new distance record of 7,905 km (4,912 miles) from Le Bourget, France.
1927 – Georg Wulf, co-founder of Focke-Wulf, is killed in the crash of the first Focke-Wulf F 19 Ente (“Duck”), D-1960. Second airframe is constructed, eventually put on display in Berlin air museum, destroyed in bombing raid in 1944.
1922 – First flight of the Thomas-Morse R-5, also known as the Thomas-Morse TM-22
1909 – Wilbur Wright begins flights as part of New York City’s Hudson-Fulton Celebration.
1907 – Louis Breguet and Charles Robert Richet demonstrate their Breguet-Richet Gyroplane No. 1, the first rotorcraft to lift a person off the ground. (The craft is still controlled by handlers standing around it on the ground).
1895 – Roscoe Turner, American aviator and racer was born (d. 1970).
