AviTech Reader

 

 

 

 

 

Today is a great day, it was also a great day then. Let us go back to 1928 (England/France) — The first rotating-wing aircraft to fly the English Channel, the Cierva C-8L “Autogyro” was flown by its designer, Spaniard, Juan de la Cierva.

In the same year in South Africa — Col. Sir Pierre van Ryneveld and Gen. A.J. Brink flying a 450-hp “Jupiter” engine powered DH-9, made a nonstop flight from Pretoria to Cape Town, South Africa, in 7 hours 25 minutes.

Still in 1928 (England/France) — Juan de la Cierva flew his autogyro from London to Paris.and in Germany/Japan) — Swedish pilot, Lindner, and Baron von Huenefeld flew a Junkers monoplane from Berlin to Tokyo, Japan.

On this same day in 1940 (Germany) — The first flight of the Zeppelin LZ-127 “Graf Zeppelin” was made. This was the most successful rigid airship ever built, flown commercially on a regular basis from Europe to South America. It flew over a million miles and carried some 13,100 passengers before its demise in 1940.

We also commemorate a special event in 1948 (USA) — The first flight of a delta-wing jet airplane was made with the Convair XF-92A.