On This Day In Aviation History

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12 years ago today the Sikorsky CH-148 Cyclone, a military variant of the S-92, flew for the first time.

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50 years ago today the Lockheed L-1011 TriStar flew for the first time.

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41 years ago today the PZL W-3 Sokół flew for the first time.

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75 years ago today:

In November of 1945, post-war life began to build steam, and it was #OTD in 1945, that Pan American World Airways resumed commercial seaplane service between California and Hawaii using Boeing Clipper aircraft it had leased to the U.S. Navy during the war. Do you know how many Boeing Clippers survive today?

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73 years ago today:

It was #OTD in 1947 that the Fairchild C-119 "Flying Boxcar" made its first flight. The post-war transport developed from the WWII-era Fairchild C-82 Packet. By the time production ceased in 1955, more than 1,100 C-119s had been built. Check out the bottom image to see just how much hauling capacity the C-119 could handle. Around 15 countries operated Flying Boxcars... can you tell which one was operating the one in that bottom image?

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64 years ago today the Dassault Mirage III flew for the first time.

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56 years ago today the Grumman C-2 Greyhound flew for the first time.

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53 years ago today the Dassault Mirage G flew for the first time.

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42 years ago today the McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing) F/A-18 Hornet flew for the first time.

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90 years ago today:

Here's another historical look at the obscure, for it was #OTD in 1930 that Boeing's first-ever monoplane fighter aircraft first took to the sky. The Boeing XP-9 had several innovative features that informed future Boeing designs, but the placement of its wing inhibited pilot visibility so badly that even a simple landing was dangerous. Test pilots at the Army Test Centre at Wright Field also found it had sever inherent instability, even with after enlarging the vertical tail surface. These problems combined to ground the XP-9 after only 15 hours of test flying. The semi-monocoque construction and landing gear design were eventually incorporated into another early Boeing fighter... do you know which one?