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A Boeing 747 in 1978 operated by Pan Am

Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. Aircraft includes fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as lighter-than-air aircraft such as hot air balloons and airships.

Aviation began in the 18th century with the development of the hot air balloon, an apparatus capable of atmospheric displacement through buoyancy. Clément Ader built the "Ader Éole" in France and made an uncontrolled, powered hop in 1890. This is the first powered aircraft, although it did not achieve controlled flight. Some of the most significant advancements in aviation technology came with the controlled gliding flying of Otto Lilienthal in 1896; then a large step in significance came with the construction of the first powered airplane by the Wright brothers in the early 1900s. Since that time, aviation has been technologically revolutionized by the introduction of the jet which permitted a major form of transport throughout the world. (Full article...)

Selected article

Gliding is a recreational activity and competitive sport where pilots fly un-powered aircraft known as gliders or sailplanes. Properly, the term gliding refers to descending flight of a heavier-than-air craft, whereas soaring is the correct term to use when the craft gains altitude or speed from rising air. After launching glider pilots search for rising air to gain height. If conditions are good enough, experienced pilots can fly many hundreds, or even thousands, of kilometers before returning to their home airfields. However if the weather deteriorates, they must often land elsewhere, but some can avoid this by using engines. While many glider pilots merely enjoy the sense of achievement, some competitive pilots fly in races round pre-defined courses. These competitions test the pilots' abilities to make best use of local weather conditions as well as their flying skills. Local and national competitions are organized in many countries and there are also biennial World Gliding Championships. Powered aircraft or winches are the most common methods of launching gliders. These and other methods (apart from self-launching motor-gliders) require assistance from other participants. Gliding clubs have thus been established to share airfields and equipment, train new pilots and maintain high safety standards. (Full article...)

More selected articles

Selected image

Airport traffic pattern diagram

airfield traffic pattern

Credit: Ericg

An airfield traffic pattern is a standard path followed by aircraft when taking off or landing at an airport.The pattern (or circuit) is used to coordinate air traffic, and differs from straight-in approaches and departures in that aircraft remain in close proximity to the airport. Circuits are usually employed at small general aviation (GA) airfields and military airbases.

Did you know

...that five USAAF airmen were awarded the Medal of Honor following Operation Tidal Wave, a low-level bombing of Romanian oil refineries on 1 August 1943?

• ...that the Aichi D1A (pictured) was a carrier-borne dive bomber primarily used by the Imperial Japanese Navy during the Second Sino-Japanese War?

...that a Cambridge University society has launched high altitude balloons that have taken a picture of the earth's curvature from a height of 32 km?

General images -

The following are images from various aviation-related articles on Wikipedia.

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  Alberto Santos-Dumont flying the Demoiselle over Paris (from History of aviation)
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  Sailplane, a Rolladen-Schneider LS4 (from General aviation)
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  1843 artist's impression of John Stringfellow's plane Ariel flying over the Nile (from History of aviation)
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  Daedalus working on Icarus' wings (from History of aviation)
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  The Aeroplane of Victor Tatin, 1879. (from History of aviation)
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  Jean-Marie Le Bris and his flying machine, Albatros II, 1868 (from History of aviation)
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  The Biot-Massia glider, restored and on display in the Musee de l'Air (from History of aviation)
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  A Boeing 787 Dreamliner of United Airlines landing at Beijing Capital International Airport in December 2018. (from Wide-body aircraft)
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  First failure of Langley's manned Aerodrome on the Potomac River, 7 October 1903 (from History of aviation)
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  Cathay Pacific's first class cabin on board a Boeing 747-400 (from Wide-body aircraft)
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  French reconnaissance balloon L'Intrépide of 1796, the oldest existing flying device, in the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum, Vienna (from History of aviation)
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  Qantas De Havilland biplane, c. 1930 (from History of aviation)
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  Robinson R22, a light piston-engine helicopter (from General aviation)
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  Maxim's flying machine (from History of aviation)
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  Me 262, world first operational jet fighter (from History of aviation)
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  First female combat pilot, Sabiha Gökçen, reviews her Breguet 19 (from History of aviation)
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  La France flying in 1885 (from History of aviation)
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  German Taube monoplane, illustration from 1917 (from History of aviation)
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  1928 issue of Popular Aviation (now Flying magazine), which became the largest aviation magazine with a circulation of 100,000. (from History of aviation)
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  Santos-Dumont's "Number 6" rounding the Eiffel Tower in the process of winning the Deutsch de la Meurthe Prize, October 1901 (from History of aviation)
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  Apollo 11 lifts off on its mission to land a man on the Moon (from History of aviation)
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  Clément Ader Avion III (1897 photograph) (from History of aviation)
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  Experimental helicopter by Enrico Forlanini (1877), exposed at the Museo nazionale della scienza e della tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci of Milan, Italy (from History of aviation)
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  Cessna CitationJet/M2, part of the Citation family of business jets (from General aviation)
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  Nieuport IV, operated by most of the world's air forces before WW1 for reconnaissance and bombing, including during the Italian-Turkish war (from History of aviation)
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  "Governable parachute" design of 1852 (from History of aviation)
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  Concorde, G-BOAB, in storage at London Heathrow Airport following the end of all Concorde flying. This aircraft flew for 22,296 hours between its first flight in 1976 and final flight in 2000 (from History of aviation)
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  Map of record breaking flights of the 1920s (from History of aviation)
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  Félix du Temple's 1874 Monoplane (from History of aviation)
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  Early Voisin biplane (from History of aviation)
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  Otto Lilienthal, 29 May 1895 (from History of aviation)
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  Planophore model aeroplane by Alphonse Pénaud, 1871 (from History of aviation)
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  The Wright Flyer: the first sustained flight with a powered, controlled aircraft (from History of aviation)
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  General aviation aircraft at Cheb Airfield in Czech Republic (from General aviation)
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  One of Leonardo's sketches (from History of aviation)
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  The 14-bis, or Oiseau de proie (from History of aviation)
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  Leonardo da Vinci's ornithopter design (from History of aviation)
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  The economy class cabin of an Airbus A350 (from Wide-body aircraft)
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  Woodcut print of a kite from John Bate's 1635 book The Mysteryes of Nature and Art (from History of aviation)
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  The business class cabin on an A350 (from Wide-body aircraft)
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  D.H. Comet, the world's first jet airliner. As in this picture, it also saw RAF service (from History of aviation)
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  "Map of Air Routes and Landing Places in Great Britain, as temporarily arranged by the Air Ministry for civilian flying", published in 1919, showing Hounslow, near London, as the hub (from History of aviation)
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  The Wright Military Flyer aboard a wagon in 1908 (from History of aviation)
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  Flagg biplane from 1933 (from History of aviation)

In the news

Wikinews Aviation portal

• May 29: Austrian Airlines cancels Moscow-bound flight after Russia refuses a reroute outside Belarusian airspace
• August 8: Passenger flight crashes upon landing at Calicut airport in India
• June 4: Power firm helicopter strikes cables, crashes near Fairfield, California
• January 29: Former basketball player Kobe Bryant dies in helicopter crash, aged 41
• January 13: Iran admits downing Ukrainian jet, cites 'human error'
• January 10: Fire erupts in parking structure at Sola Airport, Norway
• October 27: US announces restrictions on flying to Cuba
• October 3: World War II era plane crashes in Connecticut, US, killing at least seven
• September 10: Nevada prop plane crash near Las Vegas leaves two dead, three injured
• August 6: French inventor Franky Zapata successfully crosses English Channel on jet-powered hoverboard

Related portals

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The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:

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  Wikidata
  Free knowledge base

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  Wikinews
  Free-content news

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  Wikiquote
  Collection of quotations

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  Wikisource
  Free-content library

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  Wikiversity
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  Wikivoyage
  Free travel guide

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  Wiktionary
  Dictionary and thesaurus

Selected biography

Francis Stanley "Gabby" Gabreski (Franciszek Gabryszewski) (28 January 1919 - January 31, 2002) was the top American fighter ace in Europe during World War II, a jet fighter ace in Korea, and commanded numerous fighter squadrons, groups, and wings during his Air Force career.

Assigned as a P-40 pilot with the 45th Fighter Squadron of the 15th Fighter Group at Wheeler Field, Hawaii, 2nd Lt. Gabreski witnessed the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, but did not become airborne in time to engage the attackers.

In March 1943 Gabreski became part of the 56th Fighter Group, flying the P-47 Thunderbolt, and in May was promoted to Major and named commander of the 61st Fighter Squadron, which included six Polish nationals as pilots in 1944. He made his 28th kill on July 5, 1944, passing Eddie Rickenbacker's record from World War I to become America's top ace (although several pilots passed him by the end of the war).

Col. Gabreski flew combat again during the Korean War, as commander of the 51st Fighter-Interceptor Wing, piloting an F-86 Sabre. He was credited with 6.5 MiG-15 kills, making him one of seven U.S. pilots to be aces in more than one war (the others are Col. Harrison Thyng, Col. James P. Hagerstrom, Major William T. Whisner, Col. Vermont Garrison, Major George A. Davis, Jr., and Lt.Col. John F. Bolt, USMC).

He ended his career as a commander of several tactical and air defense wings, his last assignment being commander of the 52d Fighter Wing at Suffolk County Air Force Base in Westhampton Beach, New York.

Selected Aircraft

The Airbus A340 is a long-range four-engined widebody commercial passenger airplane manufactured by Airbus. The latest variants (-600 & A340E) competed with Boeing's 777 series of aircraft on long-haul and ultra long-haul routes, but it has since been succeeded by the Airbus A350.

The A340-600 flies 380 passengers in a three-class cabin layout (419 in 2 class) over 7,500 nautical miles (13,900 km). It provides similar passenger capacity to a 747 but with twice the cargo volume, and at lower trip and seat costs.

The A340-600 is more than 10 m longer than a basic -300, making it the second longest airliner in the world, more than four meters longer than a Boeing 747-400.

• Span: 63.45 m (208 ft 2 in)
• Length: 75.30 m n(246 ft 11 in)
• Height: 17.30 m (56 ft 9 in)
• Engines: four 56,000 lbf (249 kN) thrust Rolls-Royce Trent 556 turbofans
• Cruising Speed: Mach 0.83 (885 km/h, 550 mph)
• First Flight: October 25, 1991

Today in Aviation

December 27

• 2012 – Syrian rebel forces claim to have shot down a Syrian Air Force in western Syria near Morek with antiaircraft artillery fire.

• 2006 – 2006 Morecambe Bay Helicopter Crash was a fatal air incident that occurred at approximately 18:40 GMT, whilst replacement crew were being transported between the Millom and Morecambe gas platforms situated approximately 24 miles (39 km) from the shoreline of Morecambe Bay, Lancashire, England.

• 1992 – USAF F-16 Fighting Falcons shoot down an Iraqi Air Force Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25 in Southern Iraq's "no fly zone"

• 1991 – Both engines of Scandinavian Airlines Flight 751, a McDonnell-Douglas MD-81, fail shortly after takeoff from Stockholm, Sweden. The pilots successfully make an emergency landing in a nearby field, injuring 25 passengers but incurring not a single fatality.

• 1985 – Members of the Abu Nidal Organization launch coordinated attacks at airports in Italy and Austria. Four gunmen open fire at the El Al and TWA counter at Leonardo Da Vinco-Flumicino Airport in Rome, killing 16 and injured nearly 100 others. At the same time, 3 men do the same at Vienna International Airport while people were getting ready to board a flight to Israel, killing 3 and injuring 40. Of the 7 shooters, 4 were killed and the others arrested.

• 1982 – John Leonard ‘Jack’ Swigert, Jr., American astronaut, dies (b. 1931). Swigert was one of three astronauts aboard the ill-fated Apollo 13 moon mission, which was launched on April 11, 1970. Originally part of the backup crew for the mission, he was assigned to the mission just days before launch, replacing astronaut Ken Mattingly.

• 1972 – The U. S. Marine Corps loses a fixed-wing aircraft over Vietnam for the last time.

• 1968 – Apollo 8 splashes down in the Pacific Ocean, ending humanity’s first manned mission to the Moon.

• 1968 – North Central Airlines Flight 458, a Convair CV-580, crashes into a hangar at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, Illinois, killing 27 of the 45 people on board and one person on the ground.

• 1951 – First flight of the North American FJ-2/-3 Fury

• 1949 – US carriers American Airlines and TWA begin coast-to coast coach-class flights with 60-passenger DC-4 s, charging US $110 one-way.

• 1947 – In the 1947 Korangi Creek crash, an Air India Douglas DC-3 crashes shortly after takeoff, killing all 23 on board.

• 1942 – First flight of the Kawanishi N1K (N1 K1-J)

• 1942 – First flight of the Mitsubishi Ki-67

• 1941 – No. 404 (Coastal Fighter) Squadron provided air support for a Commando raid on Vaagso, Norway.

• 1941 – (27-28) 132 British bombers attack Düsseldorf, Germany.

• 1936 – United Airlines Trip 34, a Boeing 247, crashes at Rice Canyon due to pilot error, killing all 12 on board.

• 1935 – The USAAC uses aerial bombardment to divert a flow of lava from Mauna Loa, Hawaii that is threatening Hilo's waterworks.

• 1922 – The Hosho, Japan's first aircraft carrier is commissioned.

• 1919 – First flight of the Boeing Model 6

• 1773 – George Cayley was born. As a Pioneer of early aviation regarded by many as the father of flight. His glider had taken his coachman on the first manned flight in 1853.

References

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