April 24

• 2011 – Libyan rebels claim that coalition airstrikes on Libyan government forces on the Al Zaitoniya–Al Soihat road near Ajdabiya hit 21 military vehicles but NATO does not confirm their claim.^[1]

• 2009 – Senegalese Air Sénégal International suspends all operations.

• 2002 – A Belgian Air Force F-16B collides with an Ikarus PH-3G8 in Sellingen. The pilots of the F-16 and the Ikarus are killed. The pilot in the backseat of the F-16 ejects and survives.

• 2001 – The unmanned aircraft Global Hawk flies automatically from Edwards Air Force Base in the US to Australia non-stop and unrefuelled. This is the longest point-to-point flight ever undertaken by an unmanned aircraft, the first pilotless aircraft to cross the Pacific Ocean, and took 23 hours and 23 min.

• 1996 – The modified McDonnell Douglas F-15 S/TMD becomes the first aircraft to fly supersonic using round, pitch-and-yaw thrust-vectoring nozzles.

• 1993 – (24-25) In Operation Ashwamedh, Indian Army commandos storm a hijacked Indian Airlines Boeing 737 with 141 people on board at Amritsar, India. They kill the lone hijacker and free everyone else on board unharmed.

• 1992 – A USAF C-130 Hercules carrying out an anti-narcotics mission over Peru is attacked by Peruvian Air Force Sukhoi Su-22s.

• 1990 – Launch: Space Shuttle Discovery STS-31 at 12:33:51 UTC. Mission highlights: Hubble Space Telescope deployment.

• 1988 – Marine Corps Colonel Jerry Cadick, then commanding officer of MAG-11, was performing a demonstration at the MCAS El Toro Air Show before a crowd of 300,000 when he crashed his McDonnell-Douglas F/A-18 Hornet at the bottom of a loop that was too close to the ground. The aircraft was in a nose-high attitude, but still carrying too much energy toward the ground when it impacted at more than 300 mph (480 km/h). Col. Cadick was subjected to extremely high G forces that resulted in his face making contact with the control stick and sustaining serious injury. He broke his arm, elbow and ribs, exploded a vertebra and collapsed a lung. Col. Cadick survived and retired from the Marine Corps. The F/A-18 remained largely intact but was beyond repair.

• 1985 – LOT Polish Airlines inaugurates flights to JFK International Airport in New York.

• 1980 – Lockheed U-2R, 68-10333, Article 055, fifth airframe of the first R-model order, first flown 8 May 1968, registered N812X, delivered to the CIA on 28 May 1968. To 100th SRW, mid-1974, to 9th SRW, 1976. Damaged at Akrotiri, Cyprus, this date. Repaired.

• 1980 – Helicopters from USS Nimitz participate with other aircraft in the abortive Operation Eagle Claw, a plan to rescue US hostages from Iran. An unexpected sandstorm forces 2 USMC Sikorsky RH-53D Sea Stallion helicopters to divert before reaching the first rendezvous point in the Great Salt Desert of Eastern Iran, near Tabas, and causes serious mechanical damage to a third, prompting commanders to abort the mission. While attempting to evacuate personnel and equipment that had already arrived at the rendezvous point, the pilot of another Sea Stallion, BuNo 158761, loses situational awareness in a dustcloud during take-off and collides with a USAF Lockheed EC-130E Hercules, 62-1809, c/n 3770, of the 7th ACCS, killing five USAF aircrew aboard the C-130, and three USMC aircrew in the RH-53. Five other RH-53Ds had to be abandoned at the site after suffering shrapnel damage from the collision. These were BuNos. 158686, 158744, 158750, 158753, and 158758. At least one airframe was assembled from the abandoned helicopters, to join six RH-53Ds supplied by the United States to the Iranian Navy in 1978.

• 1972 – First flight of the Partenavia Alpha

• 1972 – Two UH-1 B attack helicopters arrive at Tan Son Nhut Air Base in South Vietnam, becoming the first helicopters equipped with the TOW antitank missile to enter combat.

• 1971 – Soyuz 10 spacecraft docks with the world’s first space station, Salyut 1. The cosmonauts on board are forced to return to earth without entering the station, however, due to a faulty hatch.

• 1970 – The United States begins Operation Patio, involving air strikes up to 18 miles (29 km) inside Cambodia.

• 1970 – China launches its first space satellite, Dong Fang Hong I using a Long March I rocket. The satellite’s weight exceeds that of the first four satellites launched by Russia, the United States, France and Japan combined.

• 1969 – First flight of the Anderson Kingfisher

• 1967 – Cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov dies during reentry of Soyuz 1 – parachute lines tangled during re-entry. Crashed to ground. First person to die while on a space mission.

• 1957 – Wes Lemmatta establishes Columbia Helicopters in Portland, Oregon. Columbia Helicopters is now the largest heavy-lift helicopter company in the world operating Boeing Vertol 107-II and Boeing 234 Chinook tandem rotor helicopters.

• 1956 – Ninth of 13 North American X-10s, GM-52-2, c/n 9, on Navaho X-10 flight number 21, out of Cape Canaveral, Florida, ground control system failure results in missile crashing at sea at Mach 1.25 200 km from the Cape.

• 1953 – USAF Strategic Air Command experimental project MX-1018, Project Tip-Tow, an attempt to extend fighter escort for bombers on long-range missions by coupling a pair of Republic F-84s onto bomber wingtips, suffers setback when EF-84D, 48-641, loses control, rolls upside down, hits wing of Boeing ETB-29A-60-BN Superfortress, 44-62093, sending both aircraft down to crash in Peconic Bay, New York, killing all aboard both aircraft. The program is immediately canceled.

• 1946 – Winged Cargo Inc. opens an unusual freight service in which goods are carried in a Waco CG-4 A glider towed by a DC-3.

• 1946 – First flight of the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-9, the Soviet Union’s first jet

• 1946 – First flight of the Yakovlev Yak-15 (three hours after the I-300)

• 1944 – The first B-29 Superfortress arrives in China, beginning the build-up by the U. S. Army Air Forces’ Twentieth Air Force for a strategic bombing offensive against Japan.

• 1942 – First flight of the Miles Martinet prototype LR241

• 1940 – 24-28 – aircraft carrier HMS Glorious evacuates the Gloster Gladiators of No. 263 Squadron RAF from Norway

• 1933 – First flight of the Grumman JF Duck

• 1929 – 24-26 – Sqn Ldr A. G. Jones-Wiliams and Flt Lt N. H. Jenkins make the first non-stop flight from England to India using a Fairey Long-Range Monoplane

• 1924 – French Captain Georges Pelletier d’Oisy and Adjutant Lucien Besin depart Paris eastbound in a Breguet 19.A.2, beginning an attempt to fly around the world. They will be forced to end their attempt in May in Shanghai.

• 1917 – Lt. Col. William “Billy” Mitchell becomes the first U. S. Army officer to fly over German lines.

• 1913 – O. Gilbert flies 825 km from Villacoublay to Vitoria (8 hours and 23 min).

• 1912 – Billy Stark returned to British Columbia with his pilot’s license and a new Curtis “Flyer. ” Stark took Daily Province sports editor Jim Hewitt up for a flight. Hewitt, who was British Columbia’s first air passenger, related his impression of the flight to his readers. Later that same day, Olive Stark became the first woman airplane passenger in Canada. She sat beside her husband on the lower wing of his Curtis, bundled up against the cold, looking both proud and apprehensive.

• 1911 – Lts. M. Longmore and C. R. Samson are the first British Royal Navy officers to qualify as pilots, after just two month’s training.

• 1909 – Wilbur Wright makes five flights in Centocelle, Italy with King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy present. During one flight, a Universal News Agency cameraman accompanies him and takes the first motion pictures from an airplane in flight.