Fort Towson

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?"

Aérospatiale-BAC Concorde supersonic transport (SST), along with the Tupolev Tu-144, was one of only two models of supersonic passenger airliners to have seen commercial service.

Concorde had a cruise speed of Mach 2.02 (around 2170 km/h or 1,350 mph) and a maximum cruise altitude of 60,000 feet (18 300 metres) with a delta wing configuration and a reheat-equipped evolution of the engines originally developed for the Avro Vulcan strategic bomber. The engines were built by Rolls-Royce. Concorde was the first civil airliner to be equipped with an analogue fly-by-wire flight control system. Commercial flights, operated by British Airways and Air France, began on January 21, 1976 and ended on October 24, 2003, with the last "retirement" flight on November 26 that year.

Construction of the first two prototypes began in February 1965. Concorde 001 was built by Aerospatiale at Toulouse and Concorde 002 by BAC at Filton, Bristol. Concorde 001 took off for the first test flight from Toulouse on March 2, 1969 and the first supersonic flight followed on October 1. As the flight programme of the first development aircraft progressed, 001 started off on a sales and demonstration tour beginning on September 4, 1971. Concorde 002 followed suit on June 2, 1972 with a sales tour of the Middle and Far East. Concorde 002 made the first visit to the United States in 1973, landing at the new Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport to commemorate its opening.

• Span: 84 ft 0 in (25.6 m).
• Length: 202 ft 4 in[2] (61.66 m)
• Height: 40 ft 0 in (12.2 m )
• Engines: 4× Rolls-Royce/SNECMA Olympus 593 Mk 610 afterburning turbojets 170 kN each.
• Cruising Speed: Mach 2.04 (1,350 mph, 2,170 km/h)
• First Flight: March 2, 1969
• Number built: 20 (including prototypes)

April 28

• 2012 – Jubba Airways Flight 6 J-711, an An-24 blew both right main gear tires on landing, causing the aircraft to veer off the runway at Abdullahi Yusuf International Airport in Galkayo, Somalia. The wing separated from the body of the aircraft. No injuries were reported, although the aircraft was substantially damaged.

• 1991 – Launch: Space Shuttle Discovery STS-39 at 11:33:14 UTC. Mission highlights: First unclassified DoD mission; military science experiments.

• 1988 – Aloha Airlines Flight 243, a Boeing 737, suffers explosive decompression during flight but manages to land safely. Of 95 people on board, one flight attendant is blown out of the plane and killed, and several passengers are injured.

• 1986 – Pan Am returns to the Soviet Union, using a Boeing 747 from JFK International Airport in New York.

• 1983 – USAF LTV A-7D-11-CV Corsair II, 71-0361, of the 149th Tactical Fighter Squadron, of the Virginia Air National Guard, based at Richmond International Airport, crashed near Richmond, Virginia, shearing unoccupied house in half and setting second structure on fire. Pilot Capt. Robert Welch, 30, of Atlanta, Georgia, ejected just before impact, suffering a slight back injury.

• 1977 – An Aviateca Convair 240 crashes near Guatemala City, Guatemala, killing all 28 people on board.

• 1970 – A USAF McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II being ferried from Robins AFB, Georgia to Torrejon Air Base, Spain, was disabled by a severe thunderstorm, forcing the crew to eject at 36,000 feet 150 miles E of Charleston, South Carolina, suffering minor injuries from hail while descending. Pilot Capt. Daniel Heitz, 25, of Grand Rapids, Michigan, and navigator Lt. MacArthur Weston, 28, of Jacksonville, North Carolina are spotted by rescue aircraft, and are recovered after two hours in the water by the oil tanker Texaco Illinois, diverted from 8 miles away.

• 1969 – LAN Chile Flight 160, a Boeing 727, crashes near Colina, Chile; all 60 on board survive.

• 1967 – Douglas Aircraft Company and McDonnell Aircraft Corporation are officially merged to form McDonnell Douglas.

• 1952 – Pan Am Flight 202, a Boeing 377 Stratocruiser, crashes after a propeller failure in a remote area of Brazil on its way from Buenos Aires, Argentina to New York City via Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; all 50 on board are killed in the worst ever accident involving the Boeing 377.

• 1948 – The U.S. Navy launches two P2 V-3 C Neptune aircraft – A version of the P2 V configured for carrier launch carrying a nuclear weapon – From the aircraft carrier USS Coral Sea (CVB-43) off the coast of Virginia. The first carrier launches of any type of P2 V, they establish the U.S. Navy’s first, interim carrier-based nuclear strike capability pending the acquisition of aircraft designed from the outset to be capable of carrying a nuclear weapon from a carrier.

• 1948 – The first non-stop Paris/New York flight is made by an Air France sleeper Constellation; the journey from Orly airport, near Paris, takes 16 hours, 1 min.

• 1948 – (28-29) Leonardo Bonzi and Maner Lualdi set a light plane distance record of 4,170 km (2,590 mi) flying from Campoformido (Italy) to Massawa (Eritrea) in an Ambrosini S.1001.

• 1947 – A Trans-Canada Air Lines Lockheed 18-08A Lodestar [CF-TDF] disappeared in southwestern British Columbia with 15 people onboard with no survivors. The crash site was discovered 47 years later, on Mt. Cheam near Chilliwack, BC.

• 1945 – Douglas A-26C Invader, 43-22644, assigned to the 611 Base Unit at Wright Field, Ohio,[34] crashes into the Choctawhatchee Bay, 3 Miles NE of Fort Walton, Florida after being struck by a test Speedee (Highball) bouncing bomb which tears off tail unit, bomber instantly nosing over into the water. It had taken off from Eglin Field, Florida, on a low level bombing exercise at AAF water range Number 60.

• 1944 – (28–29) U.S. Army Air Forces Fifth Air Force bombers conduct large strikes against Japanese forces at Biak, Wakde, Sarmi, and Sawar.

• 1944 – (April 28-May 6) Arctic Convoy RA 59 steams from the Kola Inlet in the Soviet Union to Loch Ewe, Scotland. Aircraft from the escorting British aircraft carriers HMS Activity and HMS Fencer sink three German submarines, attack eight more, and shoot down a German Bv 138 C flying boat during the voyage.

• 1940 – Aircraft from HMS Ark Royal raid the Trondheim area, causing considerable damage to the German-held airfield at Vaernes, Norway.

• 1939 – Vladimir Kokkinaki and Mikhail Godienko attempt a non-stop flight from the Soviet Union to New York but are forced down on Miscou Island in bad weather the next day.

• 1937 – The first commercial flight across the Pacific is made as a Pan-American Boeing 314 Clipper seaplane arrives in Hong Kong.

• 1932 – Louis T. Reichers flew from Montreal Quebec to Havana, Cuba; 1,786 miles in 9 hrs in Lockheed Altain “Golden Eagle”

• 1927 – The first airmail service north of the Arctic Circle begins between Fairbanks and Wiseman, Alaska.

• 1924 – Imperial Airways inaugurates its London/Paris service.

• 1911 – The first aeroplane flight in the Province of Alberta was made by Hugh Robinson of the Curtiss exhibition flying team of Edmonton, Alberta using a Curtiss pusher biplane.

• 1910 – Frenchman Louis Paulhan completes the Daily Mail’s London to Manchester challenge in less than 24 hours.

References