*[[June]] - [[Lockheed Altair|Lockheed Y1C-25]], ''32-393'', Altair Model 8A c/n 153, ''NR119W''. Struck off charge after belly landing. Burned in tests [[27 September]] [[1932]].
*June - [[Lockheed Altair|Lockheed Y1C-25]], ''32-393'', Altair Model 8A c/n 153, ''NR119W''. Struck off charge after belly landing. Burned in tests [[27 September]] [[1932]].
*15 November - On first flight of [[Hall XP2H-1]] four-engine flying boat, BuNo 8729, it noses straight up on take-off due to incorrectly rigged stabilizer, test pilot Bill McAvoy and aircraft's designer Charles Ward Hall, Sr., manage to chop throttles, plane settles back suffering only minor damage. This sole prototype was the largest four-engine biplane the [[U.S. Navy]] ever procured.
This is a list of notable accidents and incidents involving military aircraft grouped by the year in which the accident or incident occurred. For more exhaustive lists, see the Aircraft Crash Record Office or the Air Safety Network.
Night of 6 September - The Roland (Luftfahrzeug Gesellschaft mbH, or LFG) Adlershof, Germany, aircraft plant burns, destroying seven complete aircraft, including the prototypeRoland C.III (and only one built), as well as ten fuselages. Assembly jigs and fixtures, models and some drawings are salvaged and production resumes a week later in commandeered Automobile Exhibition Hall.[1]
1917
28 January - Royal Aircraft Factory test pilot Frank Goodden is killed in the second prototype S.E.5, A4562, when it suffers an in-flight structural failure.[2]
7 August - Squadron Commander Edwin H. Dunning, RNAS, during landing attempt aboard HMS Furious, Pennant number 47, in Sopwith Pup, N6452, decides to go around before touchdown, but Le Rhône rotary engine chokes, Pup stalls and falls into the water off the starboard bow. Pilot stunned, drowns before rescuers reach still-floating airframe. Dunning had made two previous successful landings on Furious, the first-ever aboard a moving vessel.[3]
July - Three-engine bomber, designed by Juan de la Cierva, reminiscent of the German Gotha, is destroyed on its first flight. Pilot, Capt. Rios, is shaken up but survives.
1921
23 March - In an all-night training flight, a U.S. Navy free balloon launches from NAS Pensacola, Florida, with five crew and drifts over the Gulf of Mexico. Two messages received by pigeon indicate it first is 20 miles from St. Andrews Bay, then that all ballast had been dropped and that it was at 100 feet and descending. Nothing is ever found of the balloon or Chief Quartermaster E.W. Wilkinson, enlisted men R.V. Wyland, E.L. Kershaw, and J.P. Elder, and Marine Corps member W.H. Tressey.[4]Rescuers scramble across the wreckage of British R-38/USN ZR-2 airship, 24 August1921.
21 February - U.S. Army semi-rigid (blimp with a keel) Roma, bought from Italy, formerly T34, buckled in flight, nosed into the ground, struck power lines at Army supply base, Norfolk, Virginia, and burst into flames, killing 34 of 45 on board. This would remain the worst American aviation accident until the loss of the USS Akron in 1933.[4]22 February 1922 Langley Field base newspaper extra edition about the Roma Tragedy
22 October: 1st Lt. Harold R. Harris becomes the first member of the U.S. Army Air Service to save his life by parachute, when the LoeningPW-2A he is testing out of McCook Field, Ohio, suffers vibration, loses part of left wing or aileron, so he parts company with the airframe, landing safely.[7]
23 September - 1st Lts. Robert S. Olmsted and John W. Shoptaw enter U.S. Army balloon S-6 in international balloon race from Brussels, despite threatening weather which causes some competitors to drop out. S-6 collides with Belgian balloon, Ville de Bruxelles on launch, tearing that craft's netting and knocking it out of the race. Lightning strikes S-6 over Nistelrode, Holland, killing Olmsted outright, and Shoptaw in the fall. Switzerland's Génève is also hit, burns, killing two on board, as is Spain's Polar, killing one crew immediately, second crewman jumps from 100 feet, breaking both legs. Three other balloons are also forced down.[7][4]Middletown Air Depot, Pennsylvania, was later renamed Olmsted AFB.
3 September - The USS Shenandoahairship, ZR-1, crashed after encountering thunderstorms near Ava, Ohio after an in flight break up due to cloud suck about 0445 hrs. Fourteen of 43 aboard are killed. The ship's commanding officer, Lt. Cdr. Zachery Lansdowne is killed on what was to have been his final flight before reassignment to sea duty.[4]
February - RAFCierva C.6J autogyro, J8068, based on an Avro 504K fuselage, constructed by A.V. Roe at Hamble, Hampshire, flown by test pilot Frank T. Courtney, suffers spectacular crash at Hamble in which two opposing rotor blades come loose in flight after failure of tubular rivet fitted in the rotor blade spar root, coming down adjacent to rail line crossing the airfield. Pilot survives.
29 September - Georg Wulf, co-founder of Focke-Wulf, is killed in the crash of the first Focke-Wulf F 19 Ente ("Duck"). Second airframe is constructed, eventually put on display in Berlin air museum, destroyed in bombing raid.[9]
1929
24 January - Surplus RAFS.E.5a, (original serial unknown), presented to Aviación Naval (Argentine Naval arm), E-11/AC-21, written-off in crash landing at Campo Sarmiento, Argentina when pilot Alferez de Fragata Alberto Sautu Riestra approaches field too flat and lands short, collapsing undercarriage. Pilot uninjured. As the airframe was an obsolescent one-only on strength design, with no supporting plans or parts, it is scrapped. [10]
1930
5 October - British rigid airship R101, completed in 1929 as part of the Imperial Airship Scheme. After initial flights and two enlargements to the lifting volume, it crashed this date, in France, during its maiden overseas voyage, killing 48 people. Amongst airship accidents of the 1930s, the loss of life surpassed the Hindenburg, LZ-129, disaster of 1937, and was second only to that of the USS Akron, ZRS-4, crash of 1933. The demise of R101 effectively ended British employment of rigid airships.
June - Lockheed Y1C-25, 32-393, Altair Model 8A c/n 153, NR119W. Struck off charge after belly landing. Burned in tests 27 September1932.
15 November - On first flight of Hall XP2H-1 four-engine flying boat, BuNo 8729, it noses straight up on take-off due to incorrectly rigged stabilizer, test pilot Bill McAvoy and aircraft's designer Charles Ward Hall, Sr., manage to chop throttles, plane settles back suffering only minor damage. This sole prototype was the largest four-engine biplane the U.S. Navy ever procured.
14 June - Curtiss XSBC-1, BuNo 9225, crashed at Lancaster, New York. Redesigned new-build airframe as XSBC-2 received same Navy serial.
3 October - Martin B-12A, 33-171, c/n 545, of the 11th Bomb Squadron, 7th Bomb Group, crashed into Inyo National Forest, California, 3 killed, one bailed out. Surveyed at March Field, California, Jan 7, 1935. This accident resulted in the grounding of all B-12s. Fault traced to wing and aileron flutter and a backlash developed by the props when the engine was shut down.[12]
12 February - The US Navy's last rigid airship, the USS Macon, ZRS-5, loses its upper fin off Point Sur, California, sinks to the surface of the Pacific Ocean in a controlled crash, and is lost, although the inclusion of lifevests on board allows the saving of 81 of 83 crew. The airship's remains lie unfound until 1990 when a fisherman brings up a girder. Wreck is subsequently found by manned Navy submersible Sea Cliff.[4][14]
22 March - Prototype Grumman XF3F-1, BuNo 9727 (1st), c/n 257, company model G.11, disintegrates when pulled sharply out of a terminal velocity dive, killing pilot Jimmy Collins. G-forces in this dive estimated at 12-13. 9727 serial applied to three Grumman prototypes, two of which crashed.[15][16]
17 May - Second of three Grumman XF3F-1 prototypes, BuNo 9727 (2nd), crashes after entering irrecoverable spin - pilot Lee Gelbach bails out safely. A third XF3F-1 prototype will be built, also with BuNo 9727, but pilot Bill McAvoy will be luckier than his two fellow test pilots, and NOT have to evacuate the Flying Barrel during testing.[17][18]
20 June - Douglas Y1O-35, 32-319, c/n 1119, of the 88th Observation Squadron, suffers loss of power on right engine during takeoff from Griffith Park, Los Angeles, California for flight to Rockwell Field, San Diego, California, at approximately 1000 hrs. Pilot, Cadet Tracy R. Walsh, manages to hop over soldiers breaking camp alongside runway but does not have sufficient flying speed. Airplane crashes through a tent, a fence, and into an automobile, demolishing itself, the vehicle, and killing three civilians in the car. Three crew on plane unhurt. O-35 surveyed and dropped from records, 15 October1935.[19]
Summer - Prototype Junkers Ju 87 V1, fitted with a pair of vertical fins, suffers tail section oscillation during medium-angle test dive, loses starboard fin during attempted recovery, crashes at Dessau, Germany. All subsequent Ju 87s have single fin tail unit.[9]
December - Junkers EF 61 V2, second prototype of pressurized bomber, crashes at Dessau, Germany, before high-altitude trials can be conducted. Program is abandoned.[9]
1938
6 February - Junkers Ju 90 V1, D-AALU, "der grosse Dessauer", combination of wings, engines, undercarriage and tail assembly of Junkers Ju 89 V3, Werk Nummer 4913, mated to a new transport fuselage, broke up in flight while undergoing flutter tests out of Dessau, Germany.[9]
May 14 - First prototype Focke WulfFw 187 V1, D-AANA, crashes at Bremen, Germany, when test pilot Bauer, having completed test series, makes high-speed run across airfield, pulls up too sharply, stalls, spins in next to the control tower.[9]
24 July - In the airfield Mars in Santa Ana, Usaquén, Colombia, during an airshow, a F11C Goshawk crashed into the audience and killed 75 people.
October 5 - Blohm und VossBV 141 V3 assymetric reconnaissance design, D-OLGA, plagued with hydraulic problems, makes forced landing in ploughed field with mainwheel undercarriage legs only partly extended, suffers extensive damage to starboard wing.[9]
4 September - SupermarineType 300, F.37/34, the prototype Spitfire, K5054, is wrecked when Flt. Lt. "Spinner" White misjudges his landing approach at Farnborough, bouncing several times before fighter noses over onto its back. Pilot dies in hospital four days later. Spitfire is not repaired.[23]
1940
7 April - Blackburn B-20, experimental flying-boat with retractable lower-hull, lost after suffering severe aileronflutter - 3 crew killed, 2 rescued.
11 April - The XF4F-2 Wildcat prototype, BuNo 0383, c/n 356, suffers engine failure during test flight out of NAS Anacostia, Washington, D.C., force lands causing considerable damage. Aircraft grounded for several weeks for repairs.[24]
27 April - Prototype Yakovlev I-26, first of what became the Yak-1 fighter, crashes, killing pilot.[25]
13 August - Three members of the Australian cabinet, the Chief of the Australian Army's General Staff and six other passengers and aircrew were killed when the Lockheed Hudson they were travelling in crashed near Canberra.[26]
5 September - Flugkapitän Fritz Wendel, Messerschmitt's chief test pilot, performing series of diving trials on Me 210 V2, Werk Nummer 0002, WL-ABEO, loses starboard tailplane in final dive, bails out, twin-engined fighter crashing at Siebentíschwald, Germany. This was the first of many losses of the type.[9]
16 December - The XF4F-3 Wildcat prototype, BuNo 0383, c/n 356, modified from XF4F-2, is lost under circumstances that suggested that the pilot may have been confused by poor lay-out of fuel valves and flap controls and inadvertantly turned the fuel valve to "off" immediately after takeoff rather than selecting flaps "up". This was the first fatality in the type.[28]
5 January - Renowned aviatrix Amy Johnson takes off from an overnight stopover at Squire's Gate, Blackpool in Airspeed OxfordV3540 on an ATA delivery flight from Prestwick, Scotland to RAF Kidlington, in Oxfordshire. The weather is foggy and foul, and, ATA crews flying without radio, Johnson becomes lost. When next seen more than three hours later over the Thames Estuary, Johnson is parachuting into the water, where the Royal Navy destroyer HMS Hazlemere spotting her descent hurries to pick her up. By the time the vessel reaches Johnson she is exhausted and unable to grab the line thrown to her. An officer from the destroyer, Lt Cmdr Walter Fletcher, dives into the sea to help, but numbed by the cold Johnson sinks beneath the surface. Johnson's body is never recovered. Fletcher succumbs to the cold and also dies. Johnson had made headlines in 1930 when she had become the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia. [29]
Post-January - Prototype TupolevANT-58, first of what became the Tupolev Tu-2, crashes after uncontrollable fire in problematic starboard Mikulin AM-37 engine. Pilot Mikhail A. Nyutikov and observer A. Akopyan bail out, but Akopyan's parachute lines entangle in tail structure and he is killed.[30]
4 February - Armstrong Whitworth Albemarle prototype, P1360, written off in crash landing on test flight out of RAF Boscombe Down when six-foot square panel is lost from port wing surface. Norman Sharp bails out successfully, but John Hayhurst's parachute entangles with tail structure and he releases his chute just before touchdown on a flat ridge on top of a quarry SE of Crewkerne, Somerset, landing at ~150 mph in snow and bushes, surviving with serious injuries. Pilot Brian Huxtable survives crash landing.[31]
Wreckage of Hess' Bf 110D, Bonnyton Moor, Scotland
10 May - At 2305 hrs. Messerschmitt Bf 110D, Werknr 3868, 'VJ+OQ', appears over Eaglesham, Renfrewshire. Pilot bails out and when challenged by David McLean, Head Ploughman of a local farm, as to whether he is German, the man replies in good English; "Yes, I am Hauptmann Alfred Horn. I have an important message for the Duke of Hamilton". Horn is taken to McLean's cottage where McLean's wife makes a pot of tea, but the German requests only a glass of water. Horn has hurt his back and help is summoned. Local Home Guard soldiers arrive and Horn is taken to their headquarters at the Drill Hall, Busby, near Glasgow. Upon questioning by a visiting Royal Observer Corps officer, Major Graham Donald, Horn repeats his request to see the Duke. Donald recognises "Hauptmann Horn" to be non-other than Rudolph Hess. The remains of Hess' Messerschmitt Bf 110 are now in the Imperial War Museum.[32]
14 May - Grumman XP-50 Skyrocket, 40-3057, crashed into Long Island Sound during test flight. Pilot bailed out. Built as a company project, it was allocated a USAAF serial, but was destroyed before being taken on charge.
16 June - USAAFDouglas O-38F, 33-324, c/n 1177, first aircraft to land at Ladd Field, Alaska, in October 1940, this aircraft flew various missions until it crashed on 16 June 1941, due to engine failure about 70 miles SE of Fairbanks. Uninjured, the pilot, Lt. Milton H. Ashkins, and his mechanic, Sgt. R.A. Roberts, hiked to safety after supplies were dropped to them. The abandoned aircraft remained in the Alaskan wilderness until the National Museum of the United States Air Force arranged for its recovery by helicopter in June 1968. Despite being exposed to the Alaskan weather for 27 years, the aircraft remained in remarkable condition. Only the wings required extensive restoration.[33]
27 August - Four Boulton Paul Defiants of 256 Squadron on practise formation flight, on NE heading a little W of Blackpool at 2,000 feet, break formation - right into a trio of Blackburn Bothas of 3 School of General Reconnaissance, flying NW at 1,500 feet. First two Defiants avoid Bothas, but third off the break, N1745, 'J-TP', strikes one Botha, L6509, cutting it in two, and losing one of its own wings. Botha comes down on ticket office of the Central Railway Station, setting large gasoline-fed fire. Defiant impacts on private home at No. 97 Reads Avenue. Thirteen killed outright, including all four aircrew, 39 others injured. Of 17 detained in hospital, five later died. All civilian casualties were visitors to the seaside resort, except for one occupant of the house on Reads Avenue. This accident caused more casualties than all the enemy air raids on Blackpool and Fylde during the entire war.[34]
21 December - Curtiss XSB2C-1 Helldiver, BuNo 1758, destroyed after suffering inflight wing failure. Airframe had previously crashed on 8 February 1941 due to engine failure during approach. Sustained damage to fuselage but was repaired.
26 March - The fifth P-47B Thunderbolt, 41-5899, is lost when pilot George Burrell is forced to bail out after fabric-covered tail surfaces balloon and rupture. Future P-47s have enlarged all-metal surfaces.[35]
The HalifaxV9977, which crashed killing Alan Blumlein and several other key British radar technicians 7 June 1942.
16 June - B-17E-BO converted to XB-38-VE, 41-2401, with Allison V-1710 liquid-cooled engines. Wrecked near Tipton, California after engine fire. The pilots bailed out after pointing the aircraft to an uninhabited area. The pilot was killed when his parachute did not deploy, and the other crewmember was seriously injured when his parachute did not deploy properly.
8 August - The sole XP-47B Thunderbolt, 40-3051, operating out of the Republic plant at Farmingdale, New York, is lost when the pilot interrupted wheel retraction, leaving the tailwheel in the superchargers' exhaust gases. This set the tire alight which ignited the magnesium hub. When the burning unit retracted into the fuselage, it severed the tail unit control rods, forcing the pilot, a former naval aviator, to bail out with the airframe crashing in the waters off Long Island.[35]
4 September - On the night of 4-5th, Handley Page Hampden, AE436, of No. 44 Squadron RAF crashes on the remote Tsatsa Mountain in Sweden while en route from Sumburgh in the Shetlands to Afrikanda, Northern Russia, after being forced down to lower altitude by overheating engine. Pilot Officer D.I. Evans and passenger Cpl B.J. Sowerby survive with only slight injuries, three other members of crew die. Evans and Sowerby take three days to cross mountains and reach the village of Kvikkvokk, ~20 miles to the south east. Wreckage of Hampden is re-discovered by three girl hikers at 5,000ft in August 1976, with remains of dead crew still in wreckage.[37]
12 September - Martin-Baker MB 3, prototype fighter crashes after engine failure while trying to land. Captain Valentine Baker (Company manager, aircraft-designer and test pilot) killed.
21 October - B-17D, 40-3089, of the 5th Bomb Group/11th Bomb Group, with Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker, America's top-scoring World War I ace (26 kills), aboard on a secret mission, is lost at sea in the central Pacific Ocean when the bomber goes off-course. After 24 days afloat, he and surviving crew are rescued by the U.S. Navy after having been given up for lost.
23 October - Mid-air collision at 9,000 feet altitude between American AirlinesDC-3, NC16017, “Flagship Connecticut,” Flight 28 out of Lockheed Air Terminal (now Burbank Airport) en route to Phoenix, Arizona and New York City, and USAAFLockheed B-34Ventura II bomber on ferry flight from Long Beach Army Air Base to Palm Springs Army Air Field. Pilot of B-34, Lt. William N. Wilson and copilot Staff Sergeant Robert Leicht, were able to make emergency landing at Palm Springs, but DC-3, carrying nine passengers and a crew of three, its tail splintered and its rudder shorn off by B-34’s right engine, went into a flat spin, clipped a rocky ledge in Chino Canyon below Mount San Jacinto, and exploded in desert, killing all on board. Among the passengers killed was Academy Award-winning Hollywood composer Ralph Rainger, 41, who had written or collaborated on such hit songs as “Louise,” “Love in Bloom” (comedian Jack Benny’s theme song), “Faithful Forever,” “June in January,” “Blue Hawaii” and “Thanks for the Memory,” which entertainer Bob Hope adopted as his signature song. Initial report by Ventura crew was that they had lost sight of the airliner due to smoke from a forest fire, but closed-door Congressional investigation revealed that bomber pilot knew the first officer on the DC-3, Louis Frederick Reppert, and had attempted to wave to him in mid-air rendezvous. However, Wilson misjudged the distance between the two aircraft and triggered the fatal collision when, in pulling his B-34 up and away from the DC-3, its right propeller sliced through the airliner’s tail. The Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) placed the blame directly on the “reckless and irresponsible conduct of Lieutenant William N. Wilson in deliberately maneuvering a bomber in dangerous proximity to an airliner in an unjustifiable attempt to attract the attention of the first officer (copilot) of the latter plane.” Lt. Wilson subsequently faced manslaughter charges by the U.S. Army but about a month after the accident a court martial trial board acquitted him of blame. In a separate legal development, a lawsuit seeking $227,637 was filed against American Airlines on behalf of crash victim Ralph Rainger’s wife, Elizabeth, who was left widowed with three small children. In June 1943 a jury awarded her $77,637.[38]
1943
13 January - JunkersJu 290 V1, (Ju 90 V11), modified from Ju 90B-1, Werk Nummer 90 0007, D-AFHG, "Oldenberg", crashed on takeoff evacuating load of wounded troops from German 6th Army at Stalingrad. The need for large capacity transports was so dire at this point that the Luftwaffe was taking Ju 290As straight from the assembly line into operation.[9]
9 April - P-38G-10-LO, 42-12937, flown by Col. Ben Kelsey, gets into inverted spin during dive flap test, loses one wing and entire tail section. Kelsey bails out, suffers broken ankle, while P-38 hits flat on hillside near Calabasas, California.[22]
4 August - North AmericanXB-28A-NA, 40-3058, c/n 67-3417, crashes into the Pacific Ocean off California after the crew bails out. Project not proceeded with.[43]
1944
24 March - RAFFlight SergeantNicolas Alkemade jumps without a parachute from a burning Avro Lancaster flying at 18,000ft during a raid on Germany. Alkemade falls into a forest and is decelerated by fall through tree branches before landing in deep snowdrift. Alkemade survives fall with severe bruising and a sprained leg. Captured and unable to show them his parachute, his captors disbelieve his story and suspect him of being a spy until he shows them bruising and indentation in snowdrift. Alkemade finishes war in Stalag Luft III and dies in 1987.
31 July - Noted aviation pioneer and author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry vanishes without a trace while flying a Free French ForcesLockheedF-5B-1-LO, 42-68223, c/n 2734, of II/33 Squadron, out of Borgo-Porreta, Bastia, Corsica, a variant of the P-38 Lightning, over the Mediterranean Sea; his fate remains a mystery until 2004 when the wreckage of his plane is discovered. While the cause of the crash is unknown, analysis of the wreckage and enemy wartime records suggests that the crash was an accident unrelated to enemy action.[44] A former Luftwaffe pilot has published a volume in which he claims to have shot down a French-marked Lightning, but his claim is largely discounted.
28 February - First manned flight test of Bachem Ba 349 Natter, '23', a vertically-launched bomber interceptor, fails when Oberleutnant Lothar Siebert, a volunteer, is killed as rocket-powered aircraft reaches ~1,650 feet, cockpit canopy detaches, Ba 349 noses over onto back, then falls from ~4,800 feet, killing pilot. No cause for crash determined but it was thought that improperly latched canopy may have knocked Siebert unconcious. Three successful manned flights subsequently flown and a group of the fighters readied for intercept mission, but advancing U.S. 8th Army armoured units overrun launchsite before Natters can be used.[9]
20 March - Lockheed test pilot Tony LeVier is forced to bail out of first XP-80A prototype, 44-83021, c/n 080-1001, '01', after catastrophic turbine blade failure slices off tail, coming down on Highway 99 near Rosamond, California.[46]
4 June - Aichi E13A "Jake" floatplane, c/n 41116, of 634 Kokutai-Teisatsu, 302 Hikotai, crashed into the sea during night time search mission. Salvaged from waters off Kaseda city, Kagoshima prefecture on 22 August 1992, it is displayed in unrestored condition at the Kasedo Peace Museum, Kyushu, Japan.[48]
28 July – A US Army Air Forces B-25D-20-NC Mitchell bomber, 41-30577, "Old John Feather Merchant", crashes into the 79th floor of the Empire State Building in fog at 0949 hrs., killing 3 on aircraft plus 11 on ground and causing over $1 million in damage [3].
5 August - First production MartinJRM-1 Mars flying boat, BuNo 76819, c/n 9263, "Hawaii Mars", crashes on test flight in the Chesapeake Bay after porpoising during landing - never delivered to the US Navy.[49][50]
17 August - During Operation Dodge, the RAF airlift of troops home from Italian deployment, Avro Lancaster, ME834, 'K-OG', of 115 Squadron, based at RAF Graveley, struck HK798, 'K-OH', of the same squadron, and PB754, 'TL-A', of Graveley-based 35 Squadron when it swerves off runway while taking off from Bari, Italy.[51]
17 August - Two B-29 Superfortress bombers collide over Weatherford, Texas during a bomber training exercise. 18 crew members were killed, 2 managed to escape from the falling wreckage and parachute to safety.
14 September - Hurricane destroys several wooden hangars at NAS Richmond, Florida, southwest of Miami, with 140 mph winds. Fire consumes twenty-five blimps, 31 non-Navy U.S. government aircraft, 125 privately-owned aircraft, and 212 Navy aircraft. Thirty-eight Navy personnel injured, civilian fire chief killed.[4]
29 September - SilverplateB-29-36-MO, 44-27303, "Jabit III", of the 509th Composite Group, Wendover Army Air Field, Utah, on cross-country training mission, strikes several objects on landing at Chicago Municipal Airport, Illinois, never flies again. Assigned to the 4200th Base Unit at the airport pending disposition decision, it is salvaged there in April 1946.
5 December – Flight 19, a training flight of 5 TBM Avengertorpedo bombers, manned by 14 US Navy and Marine personnel from Ft LauderdaleNaval Air Station, Florida, USA, vanishes over the Bermuda Triangle under mysterious circumstances. Avengers were four TBM-1Cs, BuNo 45714, 'FT3', BuNo 46094, 'FT36', BuNo 46325, 'FT81', BuNo 73209, 'FT117', and TBM-3, BuNo 23307, 'FT28'. A US NavyPBM-5 Mariner, BuNo 59225, carrying 13 sailors searching for the missing planes also disappears after a large mid-air explosion is seen near its last reported position.[52]
1946
28 January - First prototype Short Shetland I, DX166, the largest British-built flying boat, burns out at its mooring from fire in galley before flight testing can be completed.[53]
1 March - Two SilverplateB-29s written off in taxi accident at Kirtland Army Air Field, New Mexico. Pilot of B-29-60-MO, 44-86473, of the 509th Composite Group, assigned to Roswell AAF, New Mexico, attempts to taxi without energizing the hydraulic brake system, cannot stop bomber which collides with B-29-36-MO, 44-27296, "Some Punkins", also of the 509th. "Some Punkins" stricken in August 1946 and destroyed in fire-fighting training. 44-86473 dropped from inventory, April 1946, after salvage.
7 March - SilverplateB-29-30-MO, 42-65387, from Kirtland Army Air Field, New Mexico, on practice mission to Los Lunas bombing range, releases 10,150 pound Fat Man shape, and then disintegrates for unknown reasons and spins in from 32,000 feet. Ten crew die, wreckage strewn up to 16 miles from main portion. B-29 that drops the weapon in Operation Crossroads test Able on 1 July 1946, is named "Dave's Dream" for bombardier Dave Semple, killed in this accident.[54]
7 July - Eccentric, iconoclastic millionaire and aviator Howard Hughes is gravely injured when he mishandles a propeller pitch control failure and crashes his controversial XF-11 reconnaissance plane, 44-70155, during its maiden flight.
1 October - RAFBristol Brigand TF.1, RH744, failed to develop sufficient power on takeoff from RAE Farnborough, overran into soft ground and flipped over, without injuries to crew. This was the first Brigand written off.[55]
27 January - United States Air ForceSilverplateB-29-36-MO Superfortress, 44-65385, of the 428th Base Unit, Kirtland Army Air Field, New Mexico, for Los Alamos bomb development testing, crashed immediately after take-off from Kirtland on routine maintenance test flight. No specific cause is documented , a fire in one engine and the pilot's failure to compensate for loss of power is believed to have caused the accident. Twelve crew KWF.
21 February - United States Air ForceB-29-95-BW Superfortress, 45-21768, "Kee Bird", of the 46th/72nd Reconnaissance Squadrons, on mission out of Ladd Field, runs out of fuel due to a navigational error and is forced to land in a remote area of northern Greenland. The aircrew is rescued unharmed 3 days later, but the plane is abandoned in place. The accident achieves continuing notability for the exceptionally fortuitous rescue and later for a well-publicized and ultimately disastrous 1994 recovery attempt.
19 July - RAFBristol Brigand TF.1, RH742, assigned to the A&AEE, piloted by F/L T. Morren, failed to pull out of firing pass during exercise in the Lyme Bay area off the Dorset coast, entered slow roll and lost speed while inverted, into spiral dive into sea, killing both crew. It was thought that one of the dive brakes may have failed. This was the first fatal accident in the type.[55]
3 November - English Electric test pilot Johnny W.C. Squier takes off from Salmesbury, Lancs. in EE-built Vampire F.3, VP732, intended for the RCAF as 17043, experiences engine failure, force lands on a farm, narrowly missing trees. Fighter is wrecked but pilot survives.[58]
1948
23 May - In the early evening, ex-RAFHandley Page Halifax C.MK 8, registered G-AIZO, ex-PP293, and operated by Bond Air Services Ltd. carrying a cargo of apricots from Valencia, Spain, crashes at Studham, Bedfordshire while on a Standard Beam Approach (SBA) to Bovingdon in bad weather. After a steep turn to port and losing height rapidly, the Halifax sideslips towards the ground until, seeming to recover and flying straight and level and with engines at full power, the aircraft strikes the ground flat and disintegrates, breaking into its component sections. Miraculously, the crew escape alive. After initial suspicions that the cargo may have shifted in flight, the subsequent AAIB report blames loss of control by the pilot whilst the aircraft was too close to the ground for recovery. [59]
3 September - The only SilverplateB-29 to be part of the strike package on both atomic missions over Japan, B-29-40-MO, 44-27353, "The Great Artiste", of the 509th Composite Group, deployed to Goose Bay Air Base, Labrador for polar navigation training, aborts routine training flight due to an engine problem, makes downwind landing, touches down half way down runway, overruns onto unfinished extension, groundloops to avoid tractor. Structural damage at wing joint so severe that Superfortress never flies again. Despite historicity, airframe is scrapped at Goose Bay in September 1949.
20 September - First prototype USAF XB-45 Tornado, 45-59479, in a dive test at Muroc Air Force Base, California, to test design load factor, suffers engine explosion, tearing off cowling panels that shear several feet from the horizontal stabilizer, aircraft pitches up, and both wings tear off under negative g load. Crew has no ejection seats, and George Krebs and Nick Piccard are killed.[61]
1949
25 May - SilverplateB-29-36-MO Superfortress, 44-27299, of the 97th Bomb Group, Biggs AFB, Texas, suffers fire in number 4 (starboard outer) engine shortly after take-off for routine navigation and radar training mission. Unable to extinguish blaze, crew bails out but navigator's parachute does not open and he is killed - believed that he had struck his head on nosegear operating assembly while departing bomber. B-29 makes two-mile circle, then comes down 35 miles NE of El Paso, Texas, exploding on impact.
9 August - US Navy Lt. J. L. Fruin loses control of his F2H-1 Banshee and ejects, becoming the first American pilot to use an ejector seat during an actual in-flight emergency.
1 November – A P-38 Lightning, 42-26927, c/n 422-7931, NX-26927, flown by a Bolivian Air Force pilot, collides in midair with Eastern Airlines Flight 537, a DouglasDC-4 (C-54B-10-DO) airliner, N88727, (ex-USAAF 43-17165), c/n 18365, on its final approach to National Airport. All 55 people on board the DC-4 die; the P-38 pilot, Eric Rios Bridaux, survived with injuries. Bridaux was considered one of Bolivia's most experienced pilots. Among the dead were Congressman George J. Bates and former Congressman Michael J. Kennedy. DC-4 wreckage comes down on Virginia shoreline of the Potomac River, north of Mount Vernon. It was (at the time) the worst plane crash in the history of civil aviation. The P-38 pilot was accused of causing the accident, later tried and cleared of the charges, which now is believed to have been an ATC error.
^ abcdefghijVaeth, J. Gordon, "They Sailed the Skies: U.S. Navy Balloons and the Airship Program", Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland, 2005, ISBN 1-59114-914-2, page 13. Cite error: The named reference "Vaeth" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
^ abcdefghijMueller, Robert, "Air Force Bases Volume 1: Active Air Force Bases Within the United States of America on 17 September 1982", United States Air Force Historical Research Center, Office of Air Force History, Washington, D.C., 1989, ISBN 0-912799-53-6, page 97. Cite error: The named reference "Mueller" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
^ abcMaurer Maurer, "Aviation in the U.S. Army, 1919-1939", United States Air Force Historical Research Center, Office of Air Force History, Washington, D.C., 1987, ISBN 0-912799-38-2, page 163. Cite error: The named reference "Maurer" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
^London, U.K.: Aeroplane, Jarrett, Philip, "Lost & Found: Mistaken Identity", October 2006, Volume 34, Number 10, No. 402, page 12.
^ abcdefghijkGreen, William, "The Warplanes of the Third Reich", Galahad Books, New York, 1986, Library of Congress card number 86-80568, ISBN 88365-666-3, page 172. Cite error: The named reference "Green" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
^London, U.K.: Aeroplane, Jarrett, Philip "Skywriters", October 2006, Volume 34, Number 10, No. 402, page 22.
^Stamford, Lincs., U.K.: FlyPast, Ford, Daniel, "Bulldog Pedigree", June 1999, Number 215, page 44.
^Pelletier, Alain J., "Bombers As Postmen", Air Enthusiast No.122, Stamford, Lincs., U.K., March/April 2006, pages 38-40.
^Bowers, Peter M., "Fortress In The Sky", Sentry Books, Granada Hills, California,1976, Library of Congress Card No. 76-17145, ISBN 0-913194-04-2, page 37
^ abFreeman, Roger, with Osborne, David, "The B-17 Flying Fortress Story: Design - Production - History", London, U.K.: Arms & Armour Press, 1998, ISBN 1-85409-301-0, page 71.
^ abc Bodie, Warren M. "The Lockheed P-38 Lightning". Hayesville, North Carolina.: Widewing Publications, 1991, ISBN 0-9629359-5-6, pages 33-42. Cite error: The named reference "Bodie" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
^London, U.K.: Aeroplane, Price, Dr. Alfred, "The Birth of a Thoroughbred", March 2006, Volume 34, Number 3, No. 395, page 53.
^Editors, "Grumman's Willing Wildcat", Air Enthusiast Quarterly, Bromley, Kent., U.K., Number 3, 1976, page 51.
^Kosminkov, Konstantin Y., "Red Star Rising", Wings, Granada Hills, California, October 1996, Volume 26, Number 5, page 42.
^Stamford, Lincs., U.K.: FlyPast, Moran, Peter, and Brown, Russell, "Seaside Tragedy", August 2004, Number 277, pages 40-45.
^ abLake, Jon, "P-47 Thunderbolt Part 1: Early development and combat in the ETO", International Air Power Review, Volume 1, AIRtime Publishing Inc., Westport, Connecticut, Summer 2001, ISBN 1473-9917, page 143. Cite error: The named reference "Lake" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
^Stamford, Lincs., UK, FlyPast, "Flying-Boats of the RAF: From 'Shrimp' to Shetland ", November 1994, No. 160, pages 28-29.
^
Richard H. Campbell (2005). The Silverplate Bombers: A History and Registry of the Enola Gay and Other B-29s Configured to Carry Atomic Bombs. McFarland & Company, Inc. pp. 48, 59. ISBN 0-7864-2139-8.
^ abCrouchman, Alan F., "Last of the 'Colonial Policemen'?", Air Enthusiast No.83, Stamford, Lincs., U.K., September/October 1999, page 22. Cite error: The named reference "Crouchman" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
