Category: History – Page 6
The Mystery of Flying Tiger Line flight 739
On the 16th of March, 1962, a Lockheed Super Constellation airliner disappeared over the Pacific. The Flying Tiger Line was the first scheduled cargo airline in the US. It was named after the Flying Tigers fighter unit, a World War II group of pilots from the US Army, Navy and Marine Corps whose shark-faced fighter…
Read more… 30 Sep 16
Disaster at the Air Show
ONE OF THE MOST tragic accidents in recent history is hard to reach concrete conclusions about because there are no published investigation results and no final report to be read. The accident took place at Sknyliv Airport, near Lviv in the Ukraine, in July 2002. Fourteen years later, the local community has still not recovered.…
Read more… 5 Aug 16
Wrong Way Corrigan mistakes Ireland for California
The story of how Douglas Corrigan ended up in Ireland while aiming for California is one of my favourites. In fact, I feel sure that I’ve written about him before*. It was seventy-eight years ago, the 17th of July in 1938, when Douglas Corrigan earned the nickname “Wrong Way Corrigan”. He started his aviation career…
Read more… 22 Jul 16
The first supersonic jet bomber
This week, I am away camping in rainy North Wales. However, my friend Tatiana works for Picryl (https://picryl.com), a cross-platform application to find traces of history in photos, rare and ancient books, photos, posters and postcards in hundreds of sources like Library of Congress, the Internet Archive, and NASA. Tatiana is an aviation geek too…
Read more… 24 Jun 16
Another Unsolved Mystery: The Kinross Incident
The Kinross Incident is a famous aviation accident which many still believe shows proof of an extraterrestrial encounter. The story unfolds in late November in 1953 over the Great Lakes. The Air Defense Command was activated in 1946 to offer air warning and air defence for the continental United States. The plan was to extend…
Read more… 3 Jun 16
The Mysterious Disappearance of Foxtrot 94
This is one of my favourite aviation mysteries, in which a military pilot is reported as chasing after an unidentified object in the sky which he describes as glowing in a golden light before disappearing completely. His aircraft was found at the bottom of the lake, with the canopy shut and no trace of the…
Read more… 1 Apr 16
Accident Reports
Mid-air Collision of Wingsuit Flyer and Pilatus PC-6
On the 27th of July 2018, an experienced pilot departed with ten parachutists on board for a routine drop mission. It was the pilot’s fourth flight of the day in…
Unravelling the 2010 Widerøe incident at Svolvær
You may remember this 2010 incident from Aviation Herald’s great reporting which led to international attention to the case. I wrote about Aviation Herald’s work on this in: 83ft above…
Demystifying
Descending into Illusion: The Black Hole Effect
With no moon or city lights to guide you, the runway lights up ahead should be a beacon of safety. However, it might be a trap known as the black…
Sharing a Runway: Fed Ex vs Southwest at Austin
On Monday, two commercial aircraft had a near-miss on the runway at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas. The airport at Austin has two parallel concrete runways which run north-to-south: 18L/36R…
History
The Wright brothers and the dream of flying
I’ve lost most of the day to unexpected research and one of the fascinating items that I discovered was the Air Force Historical Research Agency and their amazing photo collection.…
The Tragic Story of Submarine M-200 Myest
On the 21st of November 1956, the M-200 Myest (Месть, meaning vengeance or revenge) collided with a Russian destroyer and sunk to the bottom of the Baltic. The M-200 Myest…
Fun Stuff
A Few Good Stories
I’m in Dresden at the moment and I’m afraid I haven’t had a free moment to write you a new article. Luckily, lots of other people are on the internet…
Flying Fails and Airshow Considerations
Long-term readings of Fear of Landing know that my favourite aerobatics show of all time is Kyle Franklin’s Ben Whabnoski Comedy act. Just in case some of you haven’t seen…
CHip on Mid-air Collision of Wingsuit Flyer and Pilatus PC-6Another note: I've never heard of a medical certificate requiring that the holder have a copilot. Is this something peculiar…
bany on Mid-air Collision of Wingsuit Flyer and Pilatus PC-6I have a pic of the vertical stabilizer of out pc6 passing between my legs 
Uhtred on The Mysterious Disappearance of Foxtrot 94Good article (even with the North Sea described as a lake). The people the perpetrated the fake transcripts should take…