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Aviation, or air transport, refers to the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. Aircraft includes fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, parachutes, as well as lighter-than-air craft such as 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. Some of the most significant advancements in aviation technology came with the controlled gliding flying of Otto Lilienthal; then a largest 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 with the introduction of the jet which permitted a major form of transport throughout the world.

Wind shear, sometimes referred to as windshear or wind gradient, is a difference in wind speed and direction over a relatively short distance in the atmosphere. Wind shear can be broken down into vertical and horizontal components, with horizontal wind shear seen across weather fronts and near the coast, and vertical shear typically near the surface, though also at higher levels in the atmosphere near upper level jets and frontal zones aloft.

Wind shear itself is a microscale meteorological phenomenon occurring over a very small distance, but it can be associated with mesoscale or synoptic scale weather features such as squall lines and cold fronts. It is commonly observed near microbursts and downbursts caused by thunderstorms, weather fronts, areas of locally higher low level winds referred to as low level jets, near mountains, radiation inversions that occur due to clear skies and calm winds, buildings, wind turbines, and sailboats. Wind shear has a significant effect during take-off and landing of aircraft due to their effects on steering of the aircraft, and was a significant cause of aircraft accidents involving large loss of life within the United States.

Sound movement through the atmosphere is affected by wind shear, which can bend the wave front, causing sounds to be heard where they normally would not, or vice versa. Strong vertical wind shear within the troposphere also inhibits tropical cyclone development, but helps to organize individual thunderstorms into living longer life cycles which can then produce severe weather. The thermal wind concept explains with how differences in wind speed with height are dependent on horizontal temperature differences, and explains the existence of the jet stream.

Credit: Library of Congress LOT 13403, no. 12 [P&P]. Author unknown.

1786 description of the historic Montgolfier Brothers' 1783 balloon flight. Illustration with engineering proportions and description.

Template:/box-header ...that among the earliest accounts of the use of a man-lifting kite is in the story of Ishikawa Goemon's robbery from Nagoya Castle?

...that Garuda Indonesia flight 152 was the deadliest air disaster of 1997, claiming the lives of over 230 people?

... that Teddy Air was the first airline to win a public service obligation in Norway? Template:/box-footer

The Embraer ERJ-145 is a regional jet produced by Embraer, a Brazilian aerospace company. The ERJ 145 is the largest of a family of airliners, which also includes the ERJ 135, ERJ 140, and Legacy. All aircraft in the series are powered by two turbofan engines. It is one of the most popular regional jet families in the world with primary competition coming from the Canadair Regional Jet.

The first flight of the ERJ 145 was on August 11, 1995, with the first delivery in December 1996 to ExpressJet Airlines (then the regional division of Continental Airlines). ExpressJet is the largest operator of the ERJ 145, with 270 of the nearly 1000 ERJ 145s in service. The second largest operator is American Eagle, with 206 ERJ 145 aircraft. Chautauqua Airlines also operates 95 ERJ 145s through its alliances with American Connection, Delta Connection, US Airways Express and United Express. By some accounts, the ERJ 145 has a cost of ownership of about $2,500,000 per year.

• Span: 20.04 m (65 ft 9 in)
• Length: 29.9 m (98 ft 0 in)
• Height: 6.76 m (22 ft 2 in)
• Engines: 2× Rolls-Royce AE 3007A turbofans, 33.0 kN (7,420 lbf) thrust each
• Cruising Speed: 834 km/h (518 mph, Mach 0.78)
• First Flight: August 11, 1995
• Number built: ≈1000

Infrastructure		Transport		US Air Force		Royal Air Force

Amelia Mary Earhart (July 24, 1897 – missing as of July 2, 1937), daughter of Edwin and Amy Earhart, was an American aviator and noted early female pilot who mysteriously disappeared over the Pacific Ocean during a circumnavigational flight in 1937.

By 1919 Earhart had enrolled at Columbia University to study pre-med but quit a year later to be with her parents in California. Later in Long Beach she and her father went to a stunt-flying exhibition and the next day she went on a ten minute flight.

Earhart had her first flying lesson at Kinner Field near Long Beach. Her teacher was Anita Snook, a pioneer female aviator. Six months later Earhart purchased a yellow Kinner Airster biplane which she named "Canary". On October 22, 1922, she flew it to an altitude of 14,000 feet, setting a women's world record.

After Charles Lindbergh's solo flight across the Atlantic in 1927, Amy Guest, a wealthy American living in London, England expressed interest in being the first woman to fly (or be flown) across the Atlantic Ocean, but after deciding the trip was too dangerous to make herself, she offered to sponsor the project, suggesting they find "another girl with the right image." While at work one afternoon in April 1928 Earhart got a phone call from a man who asked her, "Would you like to fly the Atlantic?" (more...)

Wikinews Aviation portal

Template:/box-header April 25

• 2013 – The Israeli Air Force scrambles an F-16 Fighting Falcon fighter to intercept an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) as it approaches Israel from the coast of Lebanon. The F-16 shoots down the UAV, which Israel suspects belonged to Hezbollah, over the Mediterranean Sea at an altitude of 6,000 feet (1,829 meters) six miles (9.7 km) from Haifa, Israel.

• 2011 – Prime Minister of Italy Silvio Berlusconi approves the use of Italian aircraft in ground-attack missions in Libya as part of NATO's Operation Unified Protector.

• 2010 – A Royal New Zealand Air Force Bell UH-1H Iroquois crashed in heavy fog about 40 km north east of Wellington. Three persons were killed and a fourth seriously injured.

• 2009 – Lockheed P-2 V Neptune N442NA of Neptune Aviation Services crashes into a hill at Stockton, Utah, while on a ferry flight. The aircraft is destroyed and all three crew were killed.

• 1992 – Second prototype Lockheed YF-22A, N22YX, suffers severe damage during start of a go-around when it belly-flops at Edwards AFB, California, following eight seconds of pilot-induced oscillation at an altitude of 40 feet when test pilot Tom Morgenfeld ignored a test-card requiring the 2-D convergent-divergent thrust nozzles to be locked in position during this stage of the PIO tests. Control surface actuators hit rate limiters causing commands to get out of synchronization with their execution, and the test fighter hit the ground, skidded several thousand feet, inducing fire that destroyed 25 percent of the airframe. Crash footage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdfIiZnVhTI Aircraft never flew again, being rebuilt as a shell and subsequently used to test antennae at the Rome Air Development Center, Griffiss AFB, New York.

• 1990 – McDonnell-Douglas F-15 Eagle s/n 81-0049 flown by the 32nd TFS based at Soesterberg AB, Netherlands suffered an engine fire while flying in a three ship formation during Exercise Elder Forest and subsequently lost all hydraulic power. Pilot major George D. Hulsey ejected safely and was picked up by an oil-rig supply vessel. Aircraft crashed into the North Sea, 9 miles off Spurn Point Humberside, United Kingdom.

• 1986 – First flight of the Air Tractor AT-501

• 1983 – NASA exploration spacecraft Pioneer 10 flies past the orbit of Pluto.

• 1980 – Dan-Air Flight 1008, a Boeing 727, crashes into a mountain near Tenerife, Spain; all 138 passengers and eight crew die.

• 1972 – Hans-Werner Grosse sets a new sailplane distance record of 1,460 km (908 miles) in a Schleicher ASW 12

• 1968 – Apollo 6's SIV-B staqe re-enters the Earth's atmosphere and the Apollo 6 command module is recovered.

• 1967 – A USAF Lockheed EC-121H-LO Warning Star, 53-549, of the 551st AEWCW, out of Otis AFB, Massachusetts, ditches in the North Atlantic ~one mile off of Nantucket, Massachusetts, just after having taken off from that base. One survivor, 15 crew KWF. Five bodies were not recovered. Col. James P. Lyle, the Commander of the 551st AEW&C Wing to which all the aircraft and crew members were assigned, was the pilot. Colonel Lyle had been assigned to take over that command nine months earlier. It was he who presented each of the next of kin of 11 November 1966 crash victims with the United States Flag during that memorial service.

• 1962 – The United States Department of Defense announces its choice of the Northrop F-5 Freedom Fighter for its Military Assistance Program.

• 1957 – Northrop SM-64 Navaho, 53-8272, falls back onto launchpad at Cape Canaveral, Florida, a few seconds after liftoff and explodes.

• 1956 – First flight of the Bensen B-8 Gyro-Boat with a basic free-turning rotor system, known as the Roto-sail

• 1955 – First flight of the FFA P-16

• 1952 – John Jay Hopkins founds General Dynamics Corporation.

• 1951 – Cubana de Aviación Flight 493: Douglas DC-4, registration CU-T188, (ex-C-54A-15-DC, 42-72263) c/n 10368, en route from Miami, Florida, United States, to Havana, Cuba, has a mid-air collision with US Navy Beechcraft SNB-1 Kansan, BuNo 39939, which was on an instrument training flight in the vicinity of Naval Air Station Key West at the same time. All 43 aboard the airliner and four on the SNB were killed. Flight 493 departed Miami at 1109 hrs. and was cleared to climb to 4,000 feet (1,200 m) on a direct heading to Key West. Approximately ten minutes later, the SNB-1 took off from NAS Key West for simulated instrument training. Although the flight was not cleared to a specific altitude or heading, standard instrument training procedures were in place. At 1149 hrs. Flight 493, heading south, and the SNB-1, heading west, collided over NAS Key West at an estimated altitude of 4,000 feet (1,200 m).

• 1948 – A North American YP-86 becomes the first jet-powered aircraft to exceed Mach 1.

• 1945 – 275 B-17 s escorted by four groups of P-51 Mustangs attack the Pilzen-Škoda armament factory in Czechoslovakia. It is the last heavy bomber mission by the United States Army Air Forces’ 8th Air Force against an industrial target.

• 1945 – The incomplete German aircraft carrier Graf Zeppelin is scuttled at Stettin to prevent her capture by the Soviet Union.

• 1945 – The last bombing attack was carried out by No. 6 (RCAF) Group with 192 aircraft dropping over 902 tons of bombs on Wangerooge Island.

• 1940 – McGee Airways pioneers the transportation of fresh meat and milk to the Alaskan interior.

• 1940 – Swordfish and Skuas from the British aircraft carriers HMS Ark Royal and HMS Glorious raid targets in the Trondheim area in Norway.

• 1940 – Oberfeldwebel Hermann Förster is the first German night fighter pilot to shoot down a British bomber during World War II. Flying a Messerschmitt Bf 109D-1, he downs a Handley Page Hampden laying naval mines off the coast of Schleswig-Holstein.

• 1939 – First flight of the Arsenal VG-33

• 1928 – Charles A. Lindbergh landed on the Plains of Abraham, Quebec City, in a Curtiss Falcon carrying pneumonia serum for Floyd Bennett.

• 1922 – Known as the Stout ST-1, the first all-metal airplane designed for the U. S. Navy makes its first flight piloted by Eddie Stinson.

• 1918 – Belgium's top-scoring ace, Willy Coppens, claims his first victory.

• 1914 – The first combat flight by a U. S. Navy aircraft takes place. It is a flight to observe Mexican positions during the Veracruz Incident.

• 1868 – John Bevins Moisant, designer, builder and pilot of the first aluminum airplane, is born in Kanakee, Illinois.

References

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