Through The Mist Darkly

HM Airship R-100 arrived in St. Hubert Quebec after an Atlantic crossing from Cardigan, Wales.

The picture above shows in floating over the Toronto skyline

The de Havilland Comet flew for the first time.  Plagued by problems with metal fatigue and a poorly designed wing, the world’s first jetliner suffered a number of spectacular crashes.

With all the end of year, end of decade hoopla, I forgot that the ‘00s saw a very momentous event in aviation.

November 26,2003 marked the last flights of the incredible Aerospatiale-BAC Concorde.  In memory, here’s one of my favorite tributes.

When will we see another like her?

On October 4, 1957 RL-201 rolled out of the Avro hanger in Malton Ontario.

The Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow was ready to fly.  Less than 2 years later, the dream died with the cancellation of the project and the destruction of all the aircraft.

Fast forward to 2009.  The Canadian Air & Space Museum’s full size replica on the move.

The crowd may be smaller but they still remember.

The 1^st round-the-world flight in a helicopter is completed as the Bell Long Ranger II, flown by Americans H. Ross Perot Jr. and Jay Coburn, lands safely.  The entire flight took 29 days with 56 refueling stops.

The aircraft, shown above, is on display at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC.

The Ling-Temco-Vought (LTV) XC-142 experimental tiltwing aircraft completes its first flight.

The project never developed commericall but NASA used it for research testing from May 1966 to May 1970.

Canadair in Canada developed something along the same lines, the CL-84 “Dynavert”

This one is on display at the Canadian Aviation Museum in Ottawa.  Like the XC-142, the CL-84 could not attract much interest and was quietly shelved.

Lufthansa, Germany’s national airline flies its millionth customer.  It was probably in a Junkers like the one above.

Dr. Albert Taylor and Leo Young, scientists at the US Naval Aircraft Radio Laboratory, make the 1^st successful detections of objects by "radio observation". They use wireless waves to detect objects not visible due to weather or darkness. This insight leads to the advent of radar.

The theory behind radar was first put forward by Christian Hulsmeyer in 1904 and famed inventory Nikola Tesla worked to develop a system of detection in 1917.

The British were the first to fully exploit radar as a defence against aircraft.  Robert Watson-Watt demonstrated a working prototype in 1935.

The governments of France, West Germany, and Britain sign a memorandum that calls for the development of the Airbus A300 wide-bodied jet airliner.

The Wright brothers arrive at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina to begin test of their 1st powered aircraft.