Portal:Aviation

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.

The de Havilland Canada DHC-8, popularly the Dash 8, is a series of twin-turboprop airliners designed by de Havilland Canada in the early 1980s. They are now made by Bombardier Aerospace which purchased DHC from Boeing in 1992. Since 1996 the aircraft have been known as the Q Series, for "quiet", due to installation of the Active Noise and Vibration Suppression (ANVS) system designed to reduce cabin noise and vibration levels to near those of jet airliners.

Notable features of the Dash 8 design are the large T-tail intended to keep the tail free of propwash during takeoff, a very high aspect ratio wing, the elongated engine nacelles also holding the rearward-folding landing gear, and the pointed nose profile. First flight was in 1983, and the plane entered service in 1984 with NorOntair. Piedmont Airlines (formerly Henson Airlines) was the US launch customer for the Dash 8 in 1984.

The Dash 8 design had better cruise performance than the earlier Dash 7, was less expensive to operate, and more notably, much less expensive to maintain. The Dash 8 had the lowest costs per passenger mile of any feederliner of the era. The only disadvantage compared to the earlier Dash 7 was somewhat higher noise levels, but only in comparison as the Dash 7 was notable in the industry for extremely low noise due to its four very large and slow-turning propellers.

• Length: 107 ft 9 in (32.84 m)
• Wingspan: 93 ft 3 in (32.84 m)
• Height: 27 ft 5 in (8.34 m)
• Powerplant: 2× Pratt & Whitney Canada PW150A turboprops, 5,071 shp (3,781 kW) each
• Cruise speed: 360 knots (414 mph, 667 km/h)
• Maiden Flight: June 20, 1983

June 25

• 2012 – Turkey accuses Syria of firing at a second Turkish Air Force plane while it is searching for crew of the F-4 Phantom II shot down on 22 June.^[1]

• 2009 – Zest Airways Flight 863, a Xian MA60, registration RP-C8892, overruns the runway at Godofredo P. Ramos Airport, Philippines. The aircraft is substantially damaged but is to be repaired.

• 2007 – PMTair Flight 241: Search-and-rescue teams combed the jungles of southern Cambodia after a passenger plane with 22 people on board crashed Monday while flying between two popular tourist destinations, officials said.

• 1997 – First flight of the Ka-52 Alligator combat helicopter.

• 1997 – Third Air Force Academy Slingsby T-3A Firefly crash in 28 months kills senior Cadet Pace Weber, 20, and his instructor, Captain Glen Comeaux, 31, when the engine sputters during a turn at ~500 feet altitude, aircraft enters spin and explodes on impact, two miles E of the Colorado Springs academy airfield. "Their plane had been written up by pilots 10 times for engine problems, including one during the flight immediately before the fatal trip. The Air Force said the engine was running at impact, although it was producing so little power that the propeller was barely turning."Although the Academy continues to fly the type, another incident in which the T-3 engine quits in-flight, forcing a dead-stick landing at the airfield, finally leads to USAF to ground the design on 25 July 1997, with the whole fleet eventually scrapped.

• 1992 – Launch: Space Shuttle Columbia STS-50 at 12:12:23 pm EDT. Mission highlights: Spacelab mission.

• 1972 – First flight of Yakovlev Yak-50 (1975) aerobatic sports airplane, V. I. Loychikov test pilot.

• 1965 – A USAFUSAF Boeing C-135A-BN Stratolifter, 60-0373, c/n 18148, out of McGuire AFB, New Jersey, crashed after 0135 hrs. take off in fog and light drizzle from MCAS El Toro, California, USA. Pilot flew into Loma Ridge at 0146. 84 died. Aircraft was bound for Okinawa.

• 1955 – First flight of the Scottish Aviation Twin Pioneer

• 1950 – Israeli airline El Al begins service.

• 1950 – The Korean War breaks out as North Korea invades South Korea.

• 1950 – The United States Air Force begins evacuating American citizens from South Korea.

• 1947 – First flight of the Boeing B-50 Superfortress

• 1946 – First flight of the Northrop YB-35 Flying Wing.

• 1944 – First flight of the Composite jet and piston engine airplane. Ryan FR Fireball.

• 1942 – No. 425 (Bomber) Squadron was formed in England.

• 1942 – (Overnight) Royal Air Force Bomber Command flies its third “thousand-bomber raid, ” with 1,067 bombers targeting Bremen, badly damaging the city in exchange for the loss of 55 bombers; night fighters of II Gruppe of the Luftwaffe’s Nachtjagdgeschwader 2 alone shoot down 16 of them. The Avro Manchester bomber flies its last combat mission in this raid.

• 1938 – The official public opening of Manchester Airport at Ringway, England, is held with an extensive air display.

• 1936 – First flight of the Bristol Blenheim prototype K7033

• 1935 – United States Coast Guard Lieutenant Richard L. Burke sets a world seaplane speed record carrying a 500-kg (1,102-lb) load over a 100 km (62 mi) course at an average speed of 280.105 km per hour (174.049 mph) flying a Grumman JF-2 Duck.

• 1933 – Boeing Y1B-9A, 32-307, '190', of the 49th Bombardment Squadron, departs Logan Field, Baltimore, Maryland at 2020 hrs. on routine night training mission to Langley Field, Virginia, but experience difficulties at ~2200 hrs., attempts crash landing in the James River ~one mile from Rushmere Island. Bomber strikes water nose first, breaks in half, sinks, killing four crew including pilot 2nd Lt. Lewis Horvath and co-pilot H. W. Macklean.

• 1928 – First flight of the Boeing Model 83 biplane, the last from this company in which wood was used for the wing frame and the last biplane built by Boeing.

• 1928 – First flight of the Boeing P-12 with the United States Army Air Corps.

• 1924 – Westbound from Rangoon to Akyab, the United States Army Air Service flight of Douglas World Cruisers attempting the first aerial circumnavigation of the world unknowingly flies over the Vickers Vulture II amphibian of the Royal Air Force team of MacLaren, Plenderleith, and Andrews, which is sheltering in a coastal bay in Burma while eastbound from Akyab to Rangoon during its own attempt at a circumnavigation.

• 1923 – First flight in the USSR of K. K. Artseulov on a glider.

• 1919 – The world’s most modern airliner, the Junkers F-13, makes its first flight at Dessau, Germany. It is made entirely of metal, with a strong, corrugated outer skin and cantilever wing structure, without struts or bracing wires.

• 1914 – Tom Blakely flies the West Wind in Calgary, Canada. The Curtiss-type biplane was designed by Frank Ellis.

• 1910 – The Hubbard monoplane, also referred to as ‘Mike’, was entered in the Montreal Air Meet of 25 June-5 July, 1910.

• 1894 – Hermann (Julius) Oberth, German scientist who was one of three founders of space flight (with Tsiolkovsky and Goddard), is born.

• 1886 – Henry H. "Hap" Arnold is born at Gladwyne, PA. Arnold, who had received flying instructions from Orville Wright in 1911, was the Commanding General of the U. S. Army Air Force in WW II. Arnold retired in 1946 and died near Sonoma, CA on January 15, 1950.