Portal:Aviation

Elbert Leander "Burt" Rutan (born June 17, 1943 in Estacada, Oregon) is an American aerospace engineer noted for his originality in designing light, strong, unusual-looking, energy-efficient aircraft. He is most famous for his design of the record-breaking Voyager, which was the first plane to fly around the world without stopping or refueling, and the suborbital rocket plane SpaceShipOne, which won the Ansari X-Prize in 2004.

NASA's Space Shuttle, officially called the Space Transportation System (STS), was the spacecraft which was used by the United States government for its human spaceflight missions. At launch, it consisted of a rust-colored external tank (ET), two white, slender Solid Rocket Boosters (SRBs), and the orbiter, a winged spaceplane which was the space shuttle in the narrow sense.

The orbiter carried astronauts and payload such as satellites or space station parts into low Earth orbit, into the Earth's upper atmosphere or thermosphere. Usually, five to seven crew members rode in the orbiter. The payload capacity was 22,700 kg (50,000 lb). When the orbiter's mission was complete, it fired its Orbital Maneuvering System (OMS) thrusters to drop out of orbit and re-enter the lower atmosphere. During the descent and landing, the shuttle orbiter acted as a glider, and made a completely unpowered ("dead stick") landing.

• Span: 78.06 ft (23.79 m)
• Length: 122.17 ft (37.24 m)
• Height: 58.58 ft (17.25 m)
• Engines: 3 Rocketdyne Block 2 A SSMEs
• Cruising Speed: 25,404 ft/s (7,743 m/s, 27,875 km/h, 17,321 mi/h)
• First Flight: August 12, 1977 (glider), April 12, 1981 (powered).
• Operational Altitude: 100 to 520 nmi (185 to 1,000 km)
• Number built: 6 (+2 mockups)

November 23

• 2012 – The People's Republic of China conducts its first carrier flight operations with fixed-wing aircraft, when the People's Liberation Army Navy aircraft carrier Liaoning launches and recovers the Shenyang J-15 fighter for the first time.^[1]

• 2012 – Two military OV-10 Broncos collide in the air during a demonstration flight near military El Libertador Air Base in the state of Aragua, Venezuela. One of the pilots is killed, guiding the aircraft away from a populated area. Three soldiers are also injured in the crash.

• 2009 – An Aeronautica Militare Italiana Lockheed Martin C-130J Hercules, MM62176, c/n 5497, '46-41', engaged in a training mission crashes on nearby train tracks bordering the Pisa airport, while climbing and performing a left turn immediately after take-off from Galileo Galilei Airport. The aircraft immediately burst into flames, killing its five-member crew.

• 2002 – Launch: Space Shuttle Endeavour STS-113 at 19:38:25 UTC. Mission highlights: ISS assembly flight 11A: P1 truss, crew rotation, last successful mission before STS-107 (the Columbia Disaster).

• 1978 – Royal Navy McDonnell-Douglas Phantom FG.1 XT598, used for trials installations at HSA Holme and A&AEE, Boscombe Down, then passed to 111 Squadron, was written off on approach to RAF Leuchars.

• 1996 – Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961, a Boeing 767, is hijacked over Kenya. The aircraft runs out of fuel, and the pilot attempts to ditch the aircraft in the ocean off Moroni, Comoros. Of the 175 people on board, 125 were killed (including the 3 hijackers).

• 1989 – An Airbus A310-300 opens Air France’s new direct Lyon/New York service.

• 1985 – EgyptAir Flight 648, a Boeing 737, is hijacked by Palestinian militants. Egyptian special forces storm the plane on the island of Malta. The incident kills 58 out of 90 passengers and all but one of the hijackers.

• 1973 – First flight of the AIDC T-CH-1

• 1973 – Argo 16, an Italian Air Force C-47 used by the Italian Secret Service and the Central Intelligence Agency in covert operations, crashed in Marghera, Italy after an improvised explosive device detonated. The explosion and the subsequent crash killed the four operatives on board.

• 1964 – TWA Flight 800, a Boeing 707, suffers engine failure and crashes at Leonardo da Vinci-Fiumicino Airport, killing 50 of 73 on board; the cause is an inoperative thrust reverser.

• 1962 – United Airlines Flight 297, a Vickers Viscount 745D, crashes near Ellicott City, Maryland, following a bird strike; all 17 people on board died.

• 1961 – Aerolíneas Argentinas Flight 322, a de Havilland Comet 4, crashes in Campinas, Brazil shortly after takeoff, killing all 12 crew and 40 passengers on board.

• 1959 – First flight of the Boeing 720

• 1953 – USAF pilot 1st Lt. Felix Moncla and radar operator 2nd Lt. Robert L. Wilson take of in a F-89C Scorpion from Kinross Air Force Base, Kincheloe, Michigan investigating an unusual target on radar operators. Wilson had problems tracking the object on the Scorpion's radar, so ground radar operators gave Moncla directions towards the object as he flew. Flying at some 500 miles per hour, Moncla eventually closed in on the object at about 8000 feet in altitude. Ground radar showed both the unidentified craft and the Scorpion suddenly disappearing from screen after intersecting. It is presumed the Scorpion crashed into Lake Superior, though no confirmed traces of the craft or Moncla and Wilson have been found.

• 1949 – Introduction: Convair XC-99

• 1947 – First flight of the Convair XC-99

• 1946 – An Avro Lancastrian powered by two Rolls-Royce Merlin piston engines and two Rolls-Royce Nene turbojets returns from Paris to London in just 41 minutes. The flight from London to Paris was made on November 17. The "Nene Lancastrian" only uses its Merlins for takeoff and landing, becoming the first transport aircraft to fly solely on jet power.

• 1943 – The Deutsche Luftfahrt Sammlung (Berlin Air Museum), at Lehrter Bahnhof, is destroyed in an RAF bombing raid by 383 aircraft: 365 Avro Lancasters, 10 Handley Page Halifaxes, and 8 de Havilland Mosquito bombers. Many exhibited aircraft are destroyed, including the Dornier Do-X, and the Focke-Wulf Cierva C.19a demonstrator, Wrke Nr. 35, D-1960 / D-OBIR. Surviving types are moved E from Berlin where they are discovered post-war. Most of these survivors are now in the Muzeum Lotnictwa Polskiego w Krakowie, the Polish Aviation Museum, at Kraków, Poland.

• 1942 – First flight of the Vought XF5U

• 1942 – First flight of the Vought V-173

• 1937 – During the Great Purge, Soviet Air Force commander-in-chief Comandarm Yakov Alksnis is arrested.

• 1934 – First flight of the Bloch MB.210

• 1923 – First of only three Bristol Jupiter Fighters, essentially adaptations of the Bristol F.2B airframe converted with 425 hp (317 kW) Bristol Jupiter IV engines and oleo-type undercarriage, crashes due to an engine seizure at high altitude. Second conversion was sold to Sweden in May 1924, and third was converted to a dual-control trainer.

• 1916 – British ace Lanoe Hawker VC is shot down by Manfred von Richthofen.