Connecting Skies • Bridging Continents
ANRA Technologies, Wing, Manna Air Delivery and Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service have demonstrated how multiple drone operators using different traffic management systems can safely
The French defence procurement agency has awarded Airbus Defence and Space and Thales Alenia Space a contract worth more than €1.5 billion to build the
Embraer achieved its highest-ever third-quarter revenue, up 17% year-on-year, prompting the company to raise its 2026 revenue and cash flow guidance on the strength of
Norwegian aerial survey provider Field Geospatial has ordered two DA62 MPP SurveyStar aircraft, marking a new partnership focused on advanced airborne data acquisition and special
The Illinois-based aftermarket specialist becomes an Airbus-approved radome repair station for the Asia-Pacific region, excluding China, deepening a decade-long relationship between the two companies. AAR
The equally owned venture, Thales ELT Naval EW Solutions, combines both companies’ Naval Electronic Warfare product portfolios, with Matthieu Bouquet as Chairman and Gianni Maratta
By Robin Rabec Cape Winelands Airport is taking shape as one of South Africa’s most ambitious aviation developments. Watch our exclusive video interview with CEO Nick Fergusson as he discusses the project’s progress, commercial strategy and vision for the future.
All nine people aboard the Aurora Aviation-operated jet were killed when it crashed near Greenacres and Palm Springs, Florida, on Sunday. This is a developing story which WAN will continue to cover. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said at
The airline’s South Africa country lead points to digital convenience, personalisation and sustainability as the forces reshaping how people choose to fly. As South Africa observes Transport Month in October, Cathay Pacific said evolving traveller expectations around convenience, personalisation and
2023 – First flight of the Northrop Grumman B-21 Raider
2008 – Ryanair Flight 4102 was a flight operated by a Boeing 737-8AS, registered EI-DYG, from Frankfurt-Hahn Airport, Germany, to Rome Ciampino Airport, Italy, that suffered multiple bird strikes. Of the 172 people on board, two crew members and eight passengers were transported to the hospital and received treatment for minor injuries.
2005 – The Boeing 777-200LR establishes a new world record for nonstop distance by a commercial airplane, flying 11,664 nautical miles in 22 hours and 42 min from Hong Kong to London.
2003 – The final flight of British Airways Concorde G-BOAD is flown from London Heathrow (LHR) to New York’s JFK, to deliver the aircraft to the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum. It was JFK’s very last Concorde movement.
1988 – The US Air Force publicly unveils the F-117 Nighthawk
1982 – First flight of the Mil Mi-28
1972 – Southern Airways Flight 49 from Birmingham, Alabama, is hijacked and, at one point, is threatened with crashing into the nuclear installation at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. After two days, the plane lands in Havana, Cuba, where Fidel Castro, the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, jails the hijackers.
1970 – The first of two Russian, unmanned lunar rovers, Lunokhod 1, was launched. As mission Luna 17, the craft was the first remote-controlled robot to land on another celestial body, sending back images and data to Russia until the following September.
1963 – SAC Boeing WB-47E Stratojet, 51-2420, built as B-47E-60-BW and modified to weather reconnaissance variant, making emergency landing at Lajes Air Base, Azores, skids into parking ramp, strikes Boeing C-97C Stratofreighter, 50-0690, loses port inner engine nacelle (numbers 2 and 3), starboard outer nacelle (number 6), and starboard wingtip. The fire damaged the port inner wing above the lost nacelle. Crew survives.
1958 – A TCA Vickers Viscount parked at Idlewild Airport, New York, while awaiting its passengers, was destroyed by fire after it was struck by a Lockheed L-1049D Super Constellation of Seaboard & Western Airlines, which had crashed while taking off. The two crew members on board survived the accident.
1950 – A USAF Boeing B-50 Superfortress of the 43rd Bomb Wing on a routine weapons ferrying flight between Goose Bay, Labrador, and its home base at Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona, loses two of four engines. To maintain altitude, it jettisons an empty Mark 4 nuclear bomb casing just before 1600 hrs. at 10,500 feet (3,200 m) above the St. Lawrence River near the town of St. Alexandre-de-Kamouraska, about 90 miles (140 km) northeast of Quebec, Canada. HE in the casing observed detonating upon impact in the middle of the twelve-mile (19 km)-wide river, blast felt for 25 miles (40 km). Official Air Force explanation at the time is that the Superfortress released three conventional 500-pound HE bombs.
1949 – First flight of the Sikorsky H-19, an improved version of the HRP helicopter, which will also serve as the H-21 Shawnee and H-21 Workhorse.
1945 – First flight of the Yakovlev Yak-11.
1933 – Ronald Evans (Captain, USN Ret.), American astronaut, was born (d. 1990). Evans was the command module pilot of Apollo 17, the last scheduled manned mission to the moon for the United States. As of 2007, he holds the record for the most time in lunar orbit than anyone else in the world. Evans flew F-8 Crusader aircraft from the carrier USS Ticonderoga during a period of seven months in Vietnam combat operations. The total flight time accrued during his career was 5,100 hours, including 4,600 hours in jet aircraft.
1930 – First airline flight from New York to Panama.
1919 – First flight of the Blériot-SPAD S.27
1915 – Theodore Macauly of Toronto was the first to pilot a twin-engined flying boat in Canada.
1907 – Louis Bleriot introduces what will become the modern configuration of the airplane. His Blériot VII has an enclosed (covered) fuselage (body), a single set of wings (monoplane), a tail unit, and a propeller in front of the engine.
1907 – Henry Farman becomes the first European to be airborne in a powered heavier-than-air machine for longer than Wilbur Wright‘s 59 s. on 17 December 1903 when he flies for 1 min. 14 s. He covers a distance of 1030 m (3,379 ft).
1904 – Wilbur Wright flies the Wright Flyer II a distance of 3 miles near Dayton, Ohio, the first flight of longer than five minutes.
