Connecting Skies • Bridging Continents
SpaceX is targeting as early as next week for the thirteenth flight test of Starship, with a 90-minute launch window opening at 5:45pm CT. The
Rolls-Royce, Boeing and Lufthansa have commenced flight testing of two fuel efficiency and noise reduction technologies on Boeing’s 2026 ecoDemonstrator Explorer — a Boeing 787-9
Syensqo has announced its involvement in the US Army’s MV-75 Cheyenne programme, providing advanced composite materials, adhesives and specialty polymers for critical structural and rotorcraft
Texas A&M Forest Service has ordered two SUBARU Bell 412EPX helicopters in a master purchasing agreement that includes options for additional aircraft, marking the first
Basra Airlines, Iraq’s newest private carrier, which commenced commercial operations in April 2026, has selected Maureva’s EDGAR Managed Services platform to manage its revenue accounting
Regional aircraft lessor TrueNoord is celebrating its tenth anniversary having exceeded every major objective set at its founding, with a fleet of more than 100
IATA’s 2025 World Air Transport Statistics, drawn from data covering 1,315 airlines, document a year of broad aviation growth led by a 4.5% increase in international premium-class travel, continued Asian dominance of the world’s busiest airport pairs and a decisive
IATA has published its first edition of Operational Guidelines for In-Cabin Pet Transport, a comprehensive framework for airlines covering the full passenger and pet journey from initial booking to destination clearance, as survey data shows nearly a quarter of passengers
Honeywell Aerospace Technologies’ latest Global Business Aviation Outlook projects operators will acquire 8,500 new business jets worth $283 billion between 2025 and 2034, with deliveries recovering from a pandemic-era trough and fractional ownership emerging as a significant structural force in
2006 – STS-121 space shuttle ‘Discovery’ mission to the International Space Station (ISS) is back on earth
2002 – Midway Airlines (1993–2003) suspends operations.
1997 – STS-94, Space Shuttle Columbia mission, is back on earth.
1991 – Death of Arthur Raymond “Ray” Brooks, American WWI flying ace, pioneer in the development of radio navigational aids (NAVAIDs) and one of the earliest commercial pilots involved with carrying mail (air mail) for the US Post Office Department.
1991 – Launch of ERS-1, European remote sensing satellite (ERS), European Space Agency’s first Earth-observing satellite.
1989 – First flight of the Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit
1984 – Two airships are seen over London for the first time since the WWI when British Airship Industries fly their Skyship 600 and Skyship 500 models on a round trip between Cardington in Bedfordshire and Tower Bridge.
1984 – Launch of Soyuz T-12 (also known as Salyut 7 EP-4), 7 th manned spaceflight to the Soviet space station Salyut 7.
1980 – Cathay Pacific begins a Hong Kong–London service.
1978 – First flight of the Soko G-4 Super Galeb, Yugoslav single engine, advanced jet trainer/light strike aircraft.
1975 – American Apollo capsule links up to a Russian Soyuz capsule in orbit, marking the first space collaboration between the two nations. It would also be the last Apollo mission, as well as the last manned mission for six years until the launch of the first Space Shuttle in 1981.
1970 – Retired: Northrop HL-10
1962 – Maj Robert M. White (USAF), pilots the North American X-15 to a record altitude of 314 750 feet (59 miles, 96 km).
1952 – 58 Republic F84 Thunderjets complete a trans-ocean flight of 10,895 miles, with seven stops, from Georgia in the USA to Yokota in Japan.
1949 – First flight of the Vickers Varsity, a British twin-engine crew trainer.
1947 – First flight of the Sud-Ouest Corse II, French mail and passenger transport aircraft
1939 – First flight of the Bristol Beaufighter prototype R2052
1938 – (17-18) After filing a flight plan to fly nonstop from Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, New York, west to California, Douglas Corrigan instead heads east after takeoff and makes a 28-hour 13-minute solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean to Ireland, claiming to have made a gross navigational error. He goes down in history as “Wrong Way” Corrigan.
1929 – Robert Hutchings Goddard successfully launches a camera equipped rocket.
1928 – Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean.
1926 – Death of Augustus Moore Herring, American aviation pioneer, who flew a compressed-air powered aircraft in 1898, five years before the Wright Brothers made their own powered flight. It has been claimed that he was the first aviator of a motorized heavier-than-air aircraft
1924 – Pelletier d’Oisy completes a flight from Paris to Tokyo. The journey takes 120 hours in the air.
1917 – Ground is broken for the first building of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) Langley Field laboratory.
1914 – First flight of the Vickers F.B.5 (Fighting Biplane 5) (known as the “Gunbus”), British two-seat pusher WWI military biplane, first aircraft purpose-built for air-to-air combat to see service, making it the world’s first operational fighter aircraft
1913 – The Royal Navy introduces the term “seaplane; ” previously, seaplanes had been known as “hydro-aeroplanes. ”
1912 – The first flight by a seaplane in Canada was at Port Stanley Ontario this date. It was also the occasion of the first passenger ride in a seaplane in Canada.
1910 – Mile-High altitude record. Walter Brookins climbed 6,234′ (>6,175′) into the sky over Atlantic City, NJ in his new Wright Model A, for which he was awarded a $5,000 prize.
1908 – The first aviation legislation of the United States is passed: a municipal ordinance requiring an annual license and regulating aircraft within the city limits of Kissimmee, Florida.
