January in Aviation History

"January Firsts & Records"

• Jan 30 1916 – The first flight of the German dirigible Zeppelin LZ60 (LZ90).

• Jan 29 1926 – John A. Macready set a U. S. altitude record of 38,704 feet in an XC05 A with Liberty 400-horsepower engines at Dayton, Ohio.

• Jan 27 1928 – The first rigid airship-to-aircraft carrier mooring was achieved when United States Navy (USN) dirigible (steerable airship) ‘Los Angeles’ moored to the USS Sagatoga at sea.

• Jan 12 1935 – Amelia Earhart, flying her Lockheed Vega, became the first woman pilot to fly solo between Hawaii and the USA. She took off from Wheeler Field, Oahu, Honolulu, and landed in Oakland, California after 18 hours 15 min.

• Jan 14 1936 – Howard Hughes, in a Northrop Gamma 2G, NR13761, set a transcontinental speed record of 9 hours 27 minutes, averaging 417.0 kilometers per hour (259.1 miles per hour).

• Jan 13 1942 – Heinkel test pilot Helmut Schenk became the first person to escape from a stricken aircraft with an ejection seat after the control surfaces of the first prototype Heinkel He 280 V1, DL+AS, iced up and became inoperable.

• Jan 15 1991 – The 'Virgin Pacific Flyer', became the first hot-air balloon to cross the Pacific Ocean. Taking off from Japan to Northern Canada with Per Lindstrand and Richard Branson, flying in the trans-oceanic jet streams, it recorded the highest ground speed for a manned balloon at 245 mph (394 km/h)

•Jan 5 1949 – Charles "Chuck" Yeager using a Bell X-1 carried out the only conventional (runway) take off performed during the X-1 program, reaching 23,000 ft (7,000 m) in 90 seconds.