Lex Anteinternet: The Golden Age of Travel Starts with You: The Secretary of Transportation has taken a lot of flak for this, and I'm not fan of the Trump Administration, but you know, I don't...
Lex Anteinternet: The Golden Age of Travel Starts with You: The Secretary of Transportation has taken a lot of flak for this, and I'm not fan of the Trump Administration, but you know, I don't...
Eugene B. Ely took off in an airplane from the USS Birmingham in the first shipboard takeoff.
He landed in Hampton Roads.
He'd follow that up by being the first person to land an airplane on a ship on January 18, 1911.
Not too surprisingly, he died in an aviation accident on October 19, 1911. He received a posthumous Distinguished Flying Cross on February 16, 1933.
The first commercial airplane flight took place when Wright Company pilot Philip Parmalee transported two bolts of silk (worth $1,000) from Dayton, Ohio, to Columbus, for delivery to the Morehouse-Martens Department Store in Columbus.
Predictably, Parmalee died two years later in an airplane crash.
The HMCS Rainbow arrived at Esquimault, British Columbia, to begin her service patrolling the Pacific coast. She was the Royal Canadian Navy's second ship.
President Coolidge directed the Department of War (the real one, not the one that "War Secretary" Pete Hegseth claims to run, to court marital Col. Billy Mitchell for insubordination.
Frankly, Mitchel was clearly insubordinate, albeit correct in his view.
It's admirable, though, that Mitchell was willing to go down for his views. I wonder how many senior officers in the service today would be willing to do so?
Coolidge issued this statement, on this day:
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Orville Wright sold the Wright Company and basically went into retirement at an early age.
The Wright siblings are interesting. Neither aircraft brother married. Wilbur was already dead by this time, but Orville would lead a long life. At this point in time he was still living with his father and sister Katherine. His father, Milton, was a clergyman and would die in 1917. Another brother, Reuchlin Wright, was also living at this time, but was married and somewhat estranged from the family. Yet another brother, Lorin, was also living and was also married. His sister Katherine continued to live with Orville following their father's death, but married in 1926 at which time she was 40 years old. Orville regarded her marriage as a horrible act of betrayal, and did not speak to her again until he was near death in 1948 at age 76.
Two siblings, twins, had died in their childhood.
The dynamics of the family are unusual. They were all well educated, and obviously highly intelligent. For some reason the three younger Wrights had a very close bond with their father and were seemingly dedicated to him, and each other, relatively uniquely. Remaining unmarried for life, as Orville did, was quite unusual at the time, and there's every indication that Wilbur, Orville and Katherine up until her marriage, were celibate and chaste. There's no indication at all of same sex attraction, as such conditions always are speculated upon in our current day and age. Orville commented at one point that he didn't have time for a wife and an airplane, which perhaps was correct, but most men do find time for a wife.
Posthumous modern psychoanalysis has pondered if the two younger Wrights had Asperger's Syndrome, which if possible is impossible to know. It could be that they fit into that rare category of humans who are simply not very interested in sex or family life, something current people have a very hard time grasping.
Honeywell is testing a new surface-alert system, SURF-A, designing to provide pilots with audible and visual warnings when hazards are present on a runway at the Natrona County Airport.
The United States Space Force, the most junior, least needed, and most stupid branch of the American military, is moving to Huntsville, Alabama, in part because Donald Trump is demented vengeful twit.
Trump is responsible for the Space Farce in the first place, creating a new branch of the military for no sensible reason, by taking the Air Force Strategic Command, which did make sense, and making it its own branch of the military. At least initially, it's enlisted members were reassigned from the Air Force to the Farce. Officers may have been as well, but those officers in this role above the very senior level would have had little choice in any event.
The relocation from Colorado Springs will be expensive and may impair the ability of the Farce to perform its mission for a time.
President Biden really missed his chance and should have reassigned the Space Farce to the Air Force. Frankly, if I was President, at this point I'd reassign it to the Coast Guard and put the Coast Guard back in the Department of the Treasury, where it belongs. After commissioned Space Cadets resigned I might move it back to the Air Force.
Last year, the Defense Department released a report of its investigation of decades of claims that Washington was hiding what it knew about extraterrestrial life. The report found allegations of a coverup to be baseless.
In fact, a Wall Street Journal investigation reveals, the report itself amounted to a coverup—but not in the way the UFO conspiracy industry would have people believe.
The public disclosure left out the truth behind some of the foundational myths about UFOs: The Pentagon itself sometimes deliberately fanned the flames, in what amounted to the U.S. government targeting its own citizens with disinformation.
Wall Street Journal.
My guess is a that large majority of the recent reports fit into this category.
Sukarno became the first President of Indonesia.
B-32 crewman Anthony J. Marchione became the last American to die in WWII when the B-32 he was flying in over Tokyo in a photography mission was attacked by Japanese fighter aircraft in spite of the Japanese surrender. The attack on the two B-32s followed an attack the prior day on B-32s in the same locality, which the bombers were investigating. Staff Sergeant Joseph Lacharite was severely wounded and would take years to recover from his injuries.
The plane he was on was named "Hobo Queen"
The Consolidated B-32 Dominator is an almost forgotten World War Two aircraft. A competitor with the B-29, it was produced as a fallback to the B-29, and plans to replace B-17s and B-24s with the Dominator were cancelled due to production delays. 118 were built.
Indian nationalist, who sided with the Japanese during the war, died at age 48 in an airplane crash in Formosa.
The Soviets invaded the Kuril Islands, which was certainly a questionable act given the Japanese having announced their surrender. The resulting Battle of Shumshu was the last battle of the Second World War.
On the other hand, Japanese forces on the Asian mainland continued to resist Soviet advances there, albeit ineffectively.
The Japanese government was clearly having trouble getting some forces to stand down.
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The Aerodrome: The Aerodrome: Canadian government intervenes in A...: The Aerodrome: Air Canada cancels flights (August 15) due to labo... : Air Canada is facing a flight attendants strike and is basically star...
Strike back on.
The Aerodrome: Air Canada cancels flights (August 15) due to labo...: Air Canada is facing a flight attendants strike and is basically starting to shut down.
The Canadian government forced the parties back to work.
The 20th Air Force dropped 720,000 leaflets over twelve Japanese cities. Conventional bombing raids continued.
Gen. LeMay officially confirmed the atomic mission for the next day.
Paul Tibbets named the lead plane in the Hiroshima bombing mission the Enola Gay, after his mother. This was done over the objection of the planes normal designated pilot, Robert Lewis, who wanted to name the plane "The Pearl Harbor," "The Avenger," or "The USS Indianapolis". Lewis also wasn't happy about being moved to the co-pilot's seat for the mission.
Lewis would return to civilian life after the war, and died in 1983 at age 65.
The B-29 that would take photos on the mission would be named Necessary Evil. It featured, as many plans did, a buxom woman, albeit one clothed in a bikini, as nose art.
The Chinese 13th Army captured the town of Tanchuk. The Chinese 58th Division took Hsinning (Changchun).
Paul Ferdonet, the "Radio Traitor" of Stuttgart, was executed in France.
His pro Nazi broadcast had actually dwindled after 1942.
Oddly enough, today would have been Loni Anderson' birthday. She passed away yesterday.
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Max Immelmann shot down his first aircraft.
Like most of the famous aces, he didn't survive the war.
Irish nationalist Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa was buried at Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin. Patrick Pearse delivered a graveside speech including the phrase "Ireland unfree shall never be at peace".
The Endurance broke up.
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South African forces under Louis Botha defeated German colonial forces at the Battle of Otavi in German South West Africa with assistance from Canada, Great Britain, Portugal and Portuguese Angola.
The Battle of Gully Ravine started at Gallipoli. Two Victoria Cross awards would occur due to today's actions.
German fighter pilot Kurt Wintgens became the first person to shoot down a plane using a machine gun equipped with synchronization gear, starting the "Fokker Scourge".
Of the event, he wrote:
Dear Karl:
Unfortunately I gave you the wrong address last time, for during my voyage to Mühlhausen I got a different destination and for the time being I am with the Bavarian (unit) Abteilung 6b. Up to now nothing of real interest happened. In Mannheim I had tested the machine and then from Strasbourg by air to the Front, where lately a (Morane) Parasol fighter monoplane à la Garros had made its presence felt.
I had flown to the Front a couple of times without seeing an opponent, until yesterday evening when the big moment came. Time: 6:00 o'clock. Place: east of Lunéville. Altitude: between 2,000 and 2,500 m. Suddenly I notice a monoplane in front of me, about 300 m higher. And at the same moment he had already dived in front of me, fiercely firing his machine gun decently. But as I, at once, dived in an opposite direction under him, he missed wildly. After four attacks I reached his altitude in a large turn, and now my machine gun did some talking. I attacked at such a close distance that we looked each other into the face.
After my third attack he did the most stupid thing that he could do – he fled. I turned the crate on the spot and had him at once, beautifully, in my (gun)sight. Rapid fire for about four seconds, and down went his nose. I could follow him until 500 meters, then, unfortunately, I was fired upon from the ground too hotly; the fight (now) being far over the French lines. Hopefully, I'll soon meet a biplane.
Cordial greetings and so long,
Your friend,
— Kurt"
He'd be killed in action in September, 1916.
The US Navy started the Office of Naval Aeronautics.
The United States Forest Service combined the Jemez National Forest and Pecos National Forest in northern New Mexico to establish the Santa Fe National Forest, which luckily for us today was not hacked up to be sold by Sen. Mike Lee.
The Moapa National Forest was absorbed into the Toiyabe National Forest in Nevada, which fortunately Mike Lee has to keep his hands off of for the time being.
New York City established in the Child Welfare Board.
Blues great Willie Dixon was born.
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Women could no longer be involuntarily discharged from the United States Armed Forces as a result of pregnancy, by orders of the U.S. Secretary of Defense.
30 June 1975: The last operational Douglas C-47 Skytrain transport in service with the United States Air Force, 43-49507, was retired and flown to the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.
This Day In Aviation.
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