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On This Day in Aviation History March 8 th

1875 - Birth of James Cairn 'Bud' Mars (also known as the Curtiss Daredevil), American aviation pioneer

1879 - Birth of Emile Taddéoli, Swiss aviation pioneer, active as a pilot, instructor, test pilot, and also the probably most prominent pioneer using seaplanes in Switzerland.

1890 - Birth of Kurt Nachod, Austro Hungarian WWI flying ace

1890 - Birth of Awdry Morris "Bunny" Vaucour, British WWI flying ace 

1892 - Birth of Omer Paul Demeuldre, French WWI flying ace

1899 - Birth of Walter Macfarlane Carlaw, Scottish WWI flying ace, who also serevd during WWII.

1910 - Raymonde de Laroche (born Elise Raymonde Deroche) became the 1st woman in the world to receive a pilot licence when the Aero-Club of France issued her licence #36 of the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (International Aeronautics Federation or F.A.I.).

1910 - John Theodore Cuthbert Moore-Brabazon, 1st Baron Brabazon of Tara, became the 1st person to qualify as a pilot in the United Kingdom and was awarded Royal Aero Club Aviator's Certificate number 1

1911 - Birth of Hans-Karl Mayer, German fighter ace of Spanish war and WWII

1911 - 1st flight of The Blackburn Second Monoplane, british early aeroplane strongly influenced by the French Antoinette.

1917 - Death of Ferdinand Adolf Heinrich August Graf von Zeppelin (also known as Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin, Graf Zeppelin and in English, Count Zeppelin), German general and later aircraft manufacturer. He founded the Zeppelin Airship company.

1918 - Death of Willi Kampe, German WWI flying ace, killed in action NW of Gheluvelt.

1922 - Birth of Yutaka Morioka, Japanese WWII flying ace, last japanese pilot to become an ace in WWII.

1924 - Eugene Hoy Barksdale and Bradley Q. Jones flew a DH-4B, powered by a 400 horsepower Liberty engine from McCook Field, OH to Mitchel Field using instruments only.  

1926 - Death of Paul Billik, German WWI fighter ace, killed in a landing accident in Staaken, Berlin, while piloting one of the world's 1st passenger liners, the Junkers F.13

1927 - Huff-Daland Airplanes Inc became the Keystone Aircraft Corporation.

1932 - 1st flight of The Blackburn B-3, single-bay biplane, with a fabric-covered steel tube fuselage, prototype British torpedo bomber.

1935 - The sole prototype Bristol Type 133, british single-seat, single-engine monoplane fighter entered in a flat spin and was destroyed.

1939 - Death of Ambrogio Colombo, Ambrosini's chief test pilot, killed in the crash of the SAI-Ambrosini SS.4 fighter prototype.

1946 - Death of Frederick William Lanchester, Hon FRAeS, English polymath and engineer who made important contributions to automotive engineering, aerodynamics and co-invented the field of operations research.

1946 - 1st helicopter certified for civilian use is the Bell 47, American two-bladed, single engine, light helicopter.

1949 - Captain William Odom lands his Beechcraft 35 Bonanza at Teterboro, New Jersey after a Nonstop flight of 56 hours and 2 minutes from Honolulu, Hawaii, he covers a distance of 4,957.25 miles and gain the world record in Class C-1-c for light aircraft.

1952 - Birth of Vladimir Vladimirovich Vasyutin, Soviet pilot and cosmonaut.

1953 - F-86 Sabre pilot Joseph McConnell destroyed his sixth MiG-15 in aerial combat over Korea. The following month McConnell downed three MiG-15s in one day, becoming the first jet fighter “Triple Ace".

1954 - 1st flight of The Sikorsky H-34 Choctaw (Company designation S-58), piston-engined military helicopter originally designed by American aircraft manufacturer Sikorsky for the United States Navy for service in the anti-submarine warfare (ASW) role.

1958 - Death of Ernest John Elton, British WWI fighter ace

1960 - 1st introduction of The Saab 35 Draken, Swedish fighter aircraft.

1961 - Max Conrad lands his  PA-23 Aztec named New Frontiers (registration N4445P)  in Miami after an Around-the-world flight. His average speed was 123.19 mph (198.26 km/h). He made stops in Long Beach, California, Honolulu, Wake Island, Guam, Manila, Singapore, Bombay, Nairobi, Lagos, Dakar, Amapa, Brazil, Atkinson Field (British Guiana), Port of Spain (Trinidad), and crossed the equator twice.

1962 - A Turkish Airlines Fairchild F-27 flew into the Bolkar Mountains on approach to landing at Adana Airport, turkey, killing all 11.

1962 - 1st flight of the Bell Model 204B 'Iroquois', Commercial and military export version of the american Helicopter UH-1B.

1974 - Charles de Gaulle Airport (IATA: CDG, ICAO: LFPG) at Roissy-en-France is officially opened.

1981 - Death of James A. "Jim" Chamberlin,  Canadian aerodynamicist who contributed to the design of the Canadian Avro Arrow; and NASA's Gemini spacecraft and the Apollo program.

1982 - 1st flight of The Quickie Aircraft Corporation Free Enterprise (also known as the Big Bird), American experimental long-range aircraft single-engined high-winged monoplane of conventional configuration designed to attempt the 1st unrefuelled flight round-the world flight. 

2001 - Launch of STS-102, Space shuttle Discovery mission to the ISS.

2007 - 1st flight of the Aero L 159T1 ALCA (Advanced Light Combat Aircraft), Czech-built multi-role combat aircraft, two-seat trainer derivative from the L 159A.

2014 - Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 Boeing 777-200ER disappeared en route from Kuala Lumpur International Airport to Beijing Capital International Airport with 239 people on board.