Aeronautical Fun Facts for Each Reed Acting Presidency

As a sequel to the aviation fun facts for the year each Reed president took the reins in the last issue of the Quest, here are aviation fun facts for each of Reed’s acting presidents.

Administrative committee, 1919: Plenty of firsts happen during this year, including the inauguration of the Lithuanian Air Force; the first U.S. international airmail, carried by William Boeing in a Boeing CL-4S from Seattle to Vancouver; and the first kill by the Polish Air Force, scored by Lieutenant Stefan Stec in a Fokker D.VIII during the Polish-Soviet War. The first England-India flight is flown by Royal Air Force Major A. S. C. MacLaren and Captain Robert Halley in a Handley Page V/1500, and the first England-Australia flight is flown by brothers Keith and Ross Macpherson Smith in a Vickers Vimy. Covering much less literal ground but perhaps just as much figurative ground, Jules Védrines wins a prize by landing a Caudron G-3 on a 92 ft x 39 ft department store roof, injuring himself and totalling the aircraft.

In airline news, a Farman F.60 Goliath airliner carries 14 passengers to an altitude of 6,200 meters (20,341 feet) to demonstrate the aircraft as a potential airliner, and KLM is founded, later going on to become the oldest airline still operating under its original name in 2007. The airline Handley Page Transport begins offering the first in-flight meals on its London-Brussels routes; the meals include a sandwich, fruit, and chocolate and cost three shillings each.

Another administrative committee, 1924: The International Commission for Aviation passes a resolution stating that "women shall be excluded from any employment in the operating crew of an aircraft engaged in public transport”; this is prompted by concerns that menstruation might make it difficult to fly a plane. Later, the Women Air Service Pilots (WASP),  female pilots working for an American government program from 1943-44, demonstrate that no such difference exists for non-combat situations. It wasn't until 1991 that there were female combat pilots in the United States. On the civilian side, Lynn Rippelmeyer became the first female Boeing 747 pilot in 1980.

Meanwhile, United States Navy Lieutenants Frank Wead and John D. Price set five seaplane records in a Curtiss SC: distance, covering 963.123 miles; duration, remaining airborne for 13 hours, 23 minutes, 15 seconds; speed over a distance of 500 kilometres (311 miles), averaging 73.41 miles per hour; speed over a distance of 1,000 kilometres (621 mi), averaging 74.27 miles per hour; and speed over a distance of 1,500 kilometres (932 mi), averaging 74.17 miles per hour. The first aerial circumnavigation was also completed by two Douglas World Cruisers operated by the United States military; they traveled 27,534 miles over 175 days with 371 hours in the air and made 57 hops during the trip, averaging 483 miles per hop, and visited 25 U.S. states and 21 foreign countries.

Frank Loxley Griffin, 1954: A beginning and an ending: Kuwait National Airways, which later becomes Kuwait Airways, commences operations with a fleet of two Douglas Dakotas. Meanwhile, the last operational flight by a Royal Air Force Spitfire takes place. It is a photographic reconnaissance mission against bandits in Malaya (which is part of Malaysia today). Aspectacular survival: Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm Lieutenant B. D. Macfarlane successfully ejects from underwater after his plane, an 813 Naval Air Squadron Westland Wyvern, crashes in the Mediterranean Sea due to a mechanical issue shortly after launching from the aircraft carrier HMS Albion. The plane is cut in two by the carrier; Macfarlane suffers only minor injuries.

Byron L. Youtz, 1967: While flying F-4 Phantoms over North Vietnam, U.S. Air Force Captain Robert Pardo notices that his wingman, Captain Earl Aman, has lost all his fuel after taking damage from antiaircraft fire. Despite having an engine fire himself, Pardo then uses the nose of his own plane to push Aman’s powerless plane all the way out of hostile territory and into Laos, 90 miles away, so they can eject without being captured!

On the other side of the world, the Six-Day War erupts with Israel’s surprise attack Operation Focus, in which Israel destroys over 250 out of Egypt’s 430 aircraft and kills over 100 of Egypt’s 350 combat pilots in a series of airstrikes lasting just 80 minutes. Israel has 286 aircrafts to begin with and only loses 19! Later that day, Israel goes on to destroy 71 of Syria’s 127 combat aircraft and all 19 of Jordan’s combat aircraft, for a total of over 340 enemy aircraft destroyed during a single day.

In less exciting news, Trans World Airlines becomes the first all-jet airline after removing its last Lockheed Constellation from its fleet, Boeing delivers its 1,000th jet airliner (a Boeing 707-120B built for American Airlines), and the Douglas Aircraft Company and McDonnell Aircraft Corporation merge to form the McDonnell-Douglas Corporation.

Ross B. Thompson, 1968: The 199th and last flight of the X-15, the first and only aircraft to reach Mach 6.7, takes place. Later that year, the planned 200th and final flight of the X-15 is canceled (and the X-15 thereafter permanently retired) when the personnel at Edwards Air Force Base in California take the unusual weather to be a bad omen and decide to call off the flight when they wake up to find the base covered in snow! Another end of an era occurs when Yuri Gagarin, the first person in space, is killed in a plane crash of a Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15UTI 48 miles east of Moscow. A new era begins when the first Boeing 747 is manufactured. 

Most bizarrely of all, to demonstrate against the government of Prime Minister Harold Wilson and to protest the lack of an aerial display to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Royal Air Force four days earlier, Flight Lieutenant Alan Pollock of the RAF's No. 1(F) Squadron makes an unauthorized display flight in a Hawker Hunter. During this unauthorized flight, Pollock buzzes several RAF airfields and flies low over London, where he circles the Houses of Parliament, dips his wings to the Royal Air Force Memorial, and flies under the top span of Tower Bridge, becoming the first person to fly under the bridge's upper span in a jet aircraft. He is arrested upon his return to base.

Ross B. Thompson again, 1971: The first successful hijacking in Canada happens when Patrick Critton hijacks Air Canada Flight 932, a Douglas DC-9-32 with 89 people on board to Havana, Cuba. The flight was originally from Toronto, Ontario, to Thunder Bay, Ontario. Another potentially successful (and far more famous) hijacking takes place: that of Dan “D. B.” Cooper, who hijacks Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 305, a Boeing 727 bound from Portland, Oregon, to Seattle, Washington. Cooper demands $200,000 and four parachutes before jumping out of the plane’s integral staircase mid-flight. He is never heard from again, nor ever positively identified, and other than $5,800 of the ransom mysteriously washing up in the Columbia River. Most of the money is never found, and this is the only unsolved air hijacking case in history. 

If that wasn’t bizarre enough, LANSA Flight 508, a Lockheed L-188A Electra, is struck by lightning while flying through a thunderstorm and disintegrates in mid-air high over Puerto Inca in eastern Peru. 15 people survive the two mile fall, but 14 of them later die before being rescued. The only survivor is 17-year-old Juliane Koepcke, who survives the fall into the rainforest strapped in her seat, her fall cushioned by the foliage, and walks for ten days before finding help. The lost aircraft was the last one in LANSA's fleet, leading to the airline going out of business eleven days later.

George A. Hay, 1980: Yet another hijacking story: At Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, 18-year-old Glenn Kurt Tripp hijacks Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 608 (a Boeing 727 with 64 people on board bound for Portland, Oregon) and demands a $600,000 ransom, two parachutes, and the assassination of his boss (!). After a 10-hour standoff, police storm the plane and arrest Tripp. While on probation, he later hijacked the same flight in January 1983! In non-hijacking news, the 1,000th Learjet is delivered and Air Zimbabwe is founded.

William R. Haden, 1991: A Boeing KC-135E Stratotanker lost two engines midflight after an accident, but all four crewmembers survived and the aircraft was later repaired and returned to service. And five lives were gained on other flights: during Israel’s Operation Solomon, a secret operation to airlift almost the entire Jewish population of Ethiopia 1,500 miles to Israel, five babies were born onboard the aircraft involved. The operation involved 35 aircrafts—Israeli Air Force C-130 Hercules, El Al airliners, and a single Ethiopian airliner—making 40 flights over the course of 36 hours, with 28 aircraft in the air simultaneously at one point overnight. On May 24 of this year, an El Al Boeing 747 cargo plane participating in the operation sets the record for the largest number of people transported in one flight by any single aircraft of any type in history, carrying 1,087 people; three babies are born aboard the 747 during the flight. 

More gains and some losses: Lithuanian Airlines is founded and Pan American World Airways shuts down. Julie Ann Gibson becomes the first woman to qualify as a pilot with the Royal Air Force, and Arthur Raymond Brooks, the last surviving American World War I ace to have served in a U.S. squadron, dies at age 95.

Peter J. Steinberger, 2001: Disaster is narrowly averted when two Japan Air Lines airliners—a Boeing 747-446 operating as Flight 907 and a Douglas DC-10-40D operating as Flight 958—pass within 330 feet of one another over Suruga Bay, Japan due to a miscommunication with air traffic control. Aboard the 747, a hundred people are injured when the aircraft takes violent evasive action. Had the two planes collided, with a combined 677 people on board, it would have been the worst aviation disaster in history. Another close shave happens when Comair Flight 5054, an Embraer EMB 120 Brasilia, experiences severe atmospheric icing in flight near West Palm Beach, Florida. After a rapid loss of altitude, the crew regains control of the aircraft and makes an emergency landing at West Palm Beach Airport without injury to any of the 27 people on board. A third one happens when Air Transat Flight 236, an Airbus A330-243 flying from Toronto, Ontario, Canada, to Lisbon, Portugal, with 306 people on board, runs out of fuel over the Atlantic Ocean due to a fuel leak in the number two engine. The aircraft performs the world's longest recorded glide by a jet airliner, covering 65 nautical miles (75 statute miles) without power to an emergency landing at Lajes Air Base in the Azores. Eighteen people are injured, two of them seriously, while evacuating the aircraft, but there are no fatalities.

It is also a big year for world records set by unmanned aircraft: During a single flight, an RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned surveillance aircraft flying from Edwards Air Force Base in California sets both a world endurance record for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) of 30 hours, 24 minutes, 1 second, and a world absolute altitude record for UAVs of 65,381 feet. Also, an unmanned RQ-4 Global Hawk surveillance aircraft flies automatically from Edwards Air Force Base, California, in the United States to Royal Australian Air Force Base Edinburgh in Edinburgh, Australia, non-stop and unrefuelled, becoming the first pilotless aircraft to cross the Pacific Ocean. At 8,214.44 miles, it is the longest point-to-point flight ever undertaken by an unmanned aircraft, and takes 23 hours and 23 minutes. And on a single flight, the NASA Helios Prototype sets the absolute world record for altitude by an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and the world record for altitude for sustained flight by a winged aircraft, reaching 29,524 meters (96,864 feet). It spends 40 minutes flying above 96,000 feet.

In airline news, Air Somalia is founded, Uganda Airlines ceases operations, and Trans World Airlines (TWA) merges with American Airlines. British Airways goes back to using the UK flag on their aircraft tails, after experimenting in 1997 with unique artworks for every aircraft designed by artists around the world.

Hugh Porter, 2018: A big hodgepodge of fun facts during our final year! Yet another averted disaster happens with United Airlines Flight 1175, a Boeing 777-222, suffers an in-flight separation of a fan blade on the right engine over the Pacific Ocean. The pilots continued flying for 120 miles and then executed an emergency landing at its destination airport, with no fatalities. The first Airbus Beluga is built, as is the 10,000th Boeing 737, a MAX 8 for Southwest Airlines. The first Gulfstream G500 is delivered, and the Airbus A330neo and Airbus A319neo type certificates (aircraft designs) are approved by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). The United Kingdom celebrates the 100th anniversary of the Royal Air Force, the oldest air force in the world. More records are set during the Airbus Perlan Mission II from El Calafate, Argentina: The Perlan II sets a new unofficial flight altitude record without an engine of 60,669 ft using a GPS altimeter (61,982 ft based on air pressure). The aircraft is piloted by Jim Payne and Morgan Sandercock. Also during the Airbus Perlan Mission II, Jim Payne and Tim Gardner reach an altitude of 76,124 ft and set the record for the highest subsonic flight, surpassing the 73,737 ft attained by Jerry Hoyt on April 17, 1989, in a Lockheed U-2. Finally, a mid-air collision between an unmanned aerial vehicle and a hot air balloon occurs in Driggs, Idaho. This is the first such incident ever reported to the NTSB.

Stay tuned for potential future fun facts about the Reed presidents themselves!