On This Day in Aviation History

2012-02-26

February 26th in Aviation History: First Scheduled Service Between England and Africa and United’s Twitter Gets Hacked

An U.S. Navy Douglas A-4E Skyhawk aircraft (BuNo 151194) from Attack Squadron VA-164 Ghost Riders en route to a target in North Vietnam

2010 – The Twitter account of United Airlines gets hacked and begins posting links to “male enhancement” pills.

2005 – Continental begins codesharing with Air France.

2004 – Boris Trajkovski, the president of Macedonia, is killed in a plane crash while enroute to a conference. The Beechcraft Super King Air 200 (Z3–BAB) crashed into a mountain in southern Herzegovina in foggy weather, killing Trajkovski and eight others onboard.

1979 – The Douglas A-4 Skyhawk, a ground attack aircraft used by the US Navy and US Marine Corps, among others, ends production after 26 years.

1966 – On Apollo test mission AS-201, NASA successfully launches a Block I Apollo Command/Service Module atop a Saturn IB l rocket, the first flight of each element.

1960 – An Alitalia DC-7C stalls and at Shannon Airport, Ireland, shortly after takeoff enroute to New York, killing 34 of the 52 people on board. The cause of the crash is never discovered.

1955 – Test pilot George F. Smith makes the first supersonic ejection. Blasting out of his F-100, he recovers after five days of unconsciousness.

1954 – Piedmont Airlines carries its one millionth passenger after six years of scheduled service.

1949 – The first nonstop, air-refueled flight around the world takes place in a Boeing B-50 flown by Captain James Gallager in 94 hours and 1 minute.

1941 – Eastern Air Lines Flight 21, a Douglas DC-3 (NC28394), crashes less than two miles of Candler Field (now Hartsfield-Jackson Airport) in Atlanta, killing half of the 16 on-board. The crash is attributed to improperly set altimeters. Among the injured is Eastern Air Lines President Eddie Rickenbacker.

1941 – Asia’s oldest airline, Philippine Airlines, is founded.

1940 – The US Air Defense Command is formed at Mitchell Field, NY.

1931 – Imperial Airways begins scheduled services from England to Africa using Armstrong Whitworth Argosys.



About the Author

NYCAviation Staff





 
 

 

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