Today In History:  26 September  [1939]   --  The Levasseur PL.108 makes it's first flight

The Levasseur PL.10 was a carrier-based reconnaissance aircraft developed in France in the late 1920s.[1] It was a conventional, single-bay biplane along similar lines to Levasseur's contemporary designs for the French navy, including a watertight, boat-shaped fuselage, small underwing floats, and undercarriage that could be jettisoned in flight in order to improve the chances of a successful ditching.

The PL108 was a later variant  designed a s torpedo bomber and featured an enclosed cockpit, new lower wing, sandpatted undercarriage. Only one prototype was built.

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Photo Attribution:  Public Domain via https://shapingupfutures.net/2019/09/26/pl-108-el-ultimo-avion-embarcado-de-levaseur/

Today In History:  25 September  [1945]   --  First flight of the de Havilland Dove

The de Havilland Dove (and its military variant the Devon) made its first flight on this day. The type was a short-haul airliner developed and manufactured by de Havilland as a monoplane successor to the pre-war Dragon Rapide biplane. It was targeted at the British-designed short-haul airline feeder market.

The Royal New Zealand Air Force acquired 30 Devons between 1948 and 1954, and these remained in service for VIP, crew-training and light transport duties into the 1970s.

PHOTO: RNZAF Devon C.1 of 42 Squadron at Wellington Airport in 1971

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Photo Attribution:  CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia.

Today In History:  24 September  [1929]   --  Lt. James H. Doolittle makes the first blind, all-instrument flight.

Lt. James H. Doolittle makes the first blind, all-instrument flight in a Consolidated N-Y-2 Biplane over Mitchell Field in New York. Later he helped develop blind-flying equipment, and was the first to test the now universally used artificial horizon and directional gyroscope. He attracted wide newspaper attention with this feat of "blind" flying and later received the Harmon Trophy for conducting the experiments. These accomplishments made all-weather airline operations practical.

PHOTO: A U.S. Navy Consolidated NY-2 (BuNo A7795) at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, Langley, Virginia (USA), on 5 May 1928: The Consolidated NY series were the first Consolidated aircraft purchased by the U.S. Navy.

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Photo Attribution:  Public Domain via Wikimedia.

Today In History:  23 September  [1911]   --  The first official flight of airmail in the United States

The first official airmail of the United States by fixed-wing aircraft is flown when Earle Ovington flies 6 miles (9.7 km) from Nassau Boulevard aerodrome to Mineola on Long Island. He circled Mineola at 500 feet and tossed a sack of mail bag over the side of the cockpit and the sack burst on impact, scattering letters and postcards. He delivered 640 letters and 1,280 postcards, including a letter to himself from the United States Post Office Department designating him as "Official Air Mail Pilot #1".

PHOTO: Edward M. Morgan, Frank Harris Hitchcock, and Earle Lewis Ovington

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Photo Attribution:  Public Domain via Wikimedia.

Today In History:  22 September  [1917]   --  RNAS flying boat sinks a German submarine in the North Sea

A Royal Naval Air Service Curtiss H-12 flying boat piloted by Flight Sub-Lieutenant N. Magor sinks the German submarine UB-32 in the North Sea. It is the only confirmed instance of a British aircraft sinking a German submarine without the assistance of surface ships during World War I. The wreck of the submarine was found in the 1980's but only formally identified in 2021.

PHOTO: Curtiss H-12 Large America in RNAS service

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Photo Attribution:  Public Domain  via Wikimedia.

Today In History:  21 September  [1944]   --  Last British paratroopers at bridge of Arnhem surrenders

Operation Market Garden was an Allied military operation during WW2 fought in the German-occupied Netherlands from 17 to 25 September 1944. Its objective was to create a 64 mi (103 km) salient into German territory with a bridgehead over the Nederrijn (Lower Rhine River), creating an Allied invasion route into northern Germany. Vastly outnumbred, British paratroopers held the bridge at Arnhem for several days but were eventually overwhelmed by German forces.

PHOTO: Parachutes open overhead as waves of paratroops land in Holland during operations by the 1st Allied Airborne Army.

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Photo Attribution:  Public Domain via Wikimedia.

Today In History:  20 September  [1944]   --  A bazooka-armed L-4 Grasshopper knocks out two German Pamther tanks

The bazooka-armed L-4 Grasshopper (light observation aircraft)  named Rosie the Rocketer, is flown by its pilot Major Charles Carpenter on a set of pioneering top attacks flown against German tanks and armored cars in the Battle of Arracourt. Using its mount of six bazookas to knock out two Panther tanks and several armored cars from the 11th Panzer Division and 111th Panzer Brigade in the space of at least three sorties, Carpenter savid the lives of many 4th Armored Division personnel trapped in the ground battle.

PHOTO: Bazooka Charlie

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Photo Attribution:  Fair Use via Wikimedia. Unknown, credit given to his Mrs. E Carpenter for the photo, likely a family member

Today In History:  19 September  [1943]   --  Liberator bomber sinks German submarine U-341

The submarine was laid down on 28 October 1941 at the Nordseewerke yard at Emden and finally commissioned on 28 November 1942.

For her second patrol, U-341 departed La Pallice on 31 August 1943 and headed north. On this day, she was sunk by depth charges dropped by a Canadian B-24 Liberator of No. 10 Squadron RCAF southwest of Iceland. U-341 had not sunk or damage any ships.

PHOTO: Consolidated XB-24 prototype in flight.

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Photo Attribution:  Public Domain via Wikimedia. U.S. Air Force photo

Today In History:  18 September  [1948]   --  First flight of the Convair XF-92, the world's first delta-winged airplane

The Convair XF-92A was powered by a Allison J33-A turbojet engine with an afterburner, and was unique in having America’s first delta wing. The delta wing’s large area, thin airfoil cross section, low weight, and structural strength gave this design a great potential for a supersonic airplane.

Very slow landing speeds could be achieved, at the cost of extremely nose-high landing angles and the resulting poor visibility. The combination of good high-speed and low-speed characteristics was very difficult to achieve for other planforms. Although the XF-92 itself was not liked, the design concept clearly had promise and the delta wing was used on several Convair designs through the 1950s and 1960s.

PHOTO: This NACA High-Speed Flight Research Station photograph of the XF-92A was taken around 1953 near Edwards Air Force Base.
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Photo Attribution:  Public Domain via Wikimedia.

Today In History:  17 September  [1939]   --  German submarine U-29 sinks the British aircraft carrier HMS Courageous

Courageous was the lead ship of her class of three battlecruisers built for the Royal Navy in WW1. Very lightly armoured and armed with only a few heavy guns she spent the war patrolling the North Sea and participated in the Second Battle of Heligoland Bight in November 1917 Decommissioned after the war, the ship was rebuilt as an aircraft carrier in the mid-1920s, and could carry 48 aircraft, compared with 36 carried by her half-sister Furious.

As a deck landing training carrier, in early 1939 Courageous embarked the Blackburn Skua and Gloster Sea Gladiator fighters of 801 Squadron and the Swordfish torpedo bombers of 811 Squadron.

PHOTO: Blackburn Skua

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Photo Attribution:  Image from the Charles Daniels Photo Collection album "British Aircraft." SOURCE INSTITUTION: San Diego Air and Space Museum Archive Public Domain via Wikimedia.