Yester year

Although he failed in his quest to make the first nonstop balloon flight around the world he did establish a new 22,915km absolute distance record for balloons.

• Turkey will provide 20 former Turkish air force F‑5s to the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

• As part of the debt owed to Slovakia, Russia will supply 12 Yak-130 jet trainer aircraft to the Slovakian air force together with an S-300 strategic air defence missile system.

• The first Boeing 757-300, N757X, had its maiden flight from Renton Municipal Airport on August 2.

It landed at nearby Boeing Field, Seattle, from where flight testing will occur.

• On August 3 Bombardier Aerospace announced that Transport Canada had awarded type certification to the ultra long range Global Express on July 31.

US FAA and European type certification should follow soon after.

Deliveries are expected to commence in December.

• The first of up to 45 Boeing MD600N helicopters ordered for the US Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) was unveiled on August 7 at the US Border Patrol’s San Diego Sector headquarters.

25 Years Ago

• The first flight of the futuristic Beech StarShip took place on August 29 from Wichita, Kansas.

The proof-of-concept prototype is 85 per cent of the size of production aircraft and was built by Burt Rutan’s Scaled Composites.

Power is provided by two 1000shp (745kW) PT6A-27s with four-blade pusher propellers mounted at the rear above the wing.

• The 250th and final Lockheed L-1011 TriStar to be built was rolled out at Palmdale, California, on August 19.

The Series 500 aircraft is one of five TriStars which are presently unsold.

• A new world record distance of 7023.

3km for business jets was established by a Canadair Challenger 601 when it landed at London Heathrow on August 24 after a 9hr 4min flight from Calgary, Alberta.

• On August 1 a USMC OV‑10A Bronco landed on the flightdeck of the USS Nassau (LHA 4), the fourth ship of the Tarawa class.

This could lead to a future role for the OV-10A in amphibious operations.

• The Indian government has placed a £250 million order for 12 Westland Sea King Mk.

42B helicopters plus a further eight on option.

They will be equipped with the BAe Sea-Eagle anti-ship missile.

• Tromso Underwater Services and personnel from the Royal Norwegian Navy will attempt to salvage or recover the 11 Luftwaffe Junkers Ju 52 transports that landed on the frozen Hartvigvann Fjord near Narvik on April 13 1940.

The fjord unexpectedly thawed, seeing the aircraft sink to the bottom.

50 Years Ago

• The maiden flight of the first prototype North American YA3J-1 Vigilante, BuNo 145157, took place on August 31.

The Mach 2 Vigilante is powered by two 16,150lb (72kN) General Electric J79-GE-2s.

• The maiden flight of the first Grumman G-159 Gulfstream I executive aircraft, N701G, took off from Bethpage, New York on August 14.

The aircraft suffered a loss of electrical power, causing the fuel boost pumps to become inoperative.

The crew were able to make a safe landing.

• De Havilland DH.

106 Comet 4 G-APDA flew to New York on August 10 for noise monitoring tests.

• Pan American World Airways Boeing 707s and Douglas DC-8s will carry a fifth engine in a pod installed in the port wing between the fuselage and inner engine as a means of carrying a spare engine to disabled aircraft.

• An order has been placed through the RAAF for eight new Cessna 180s to re-equip the Australian Army’s AOP Flight to replace its Austers.

The aircraft will have radios to Army specifications and wing-mounted bomb racks used for cable-laying.

• Federal Treasurer Sir Arthur Fadden unveiled the glasssided memorial building at Brisbane Airport housing Sir Charles Kingsford Smith’s Fokker F.

VII Southern Cross on August 17.

Restored by No 3 Aircraft Depot at Amberley the aircraft carries the markings of its 1928 flight.

Present were surviving crew members from the trans-Pacific journey, navigator Harry Lyon and radio operator James Warner.