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On This Day: April 2

Aviation events for April 2

1794: The world’s first air force, the Aerostatic Corps of the Artillery Service is formed in France following a demonstration ascent from the gardens of the Chalais-Meudon on the outskirts of Paris in the hydrogen balloon L’Entreprenant, the first used for military tests.
 
1845: H L Fizeau and J Leon Foucault take 1st photo of Sun.
 
1937: Swedish airplane manufacturer Svenska Aeroplan Aktiebolaget (SAAB) is established in Trollhättan, Sweden.
 
1958: National Advisory Council on Aeronautics renamed NASA.
 
1963: Luna 4 - USSR Lunar Probe launched. Lunar 4 was intended to be a lunar lander but missed the Moon. It is now in an Earth Moon orbit.
 
1964: Zond 1 - USSR Venus Flyby launched. Communication lost en route; now in a solar orbit.
 
1966: Soviet Union's Luna 10 becomes 1st spacecraft to orbit Moon.
 
1982: The Falklands War begins as Argentina invades the Falkland Islands and South Georgia Island.
 
1986: A bomb planted by a Palestinian terrorist group explodes aboard a TWA Boeing 727 on a flight between Rome and Athens. Four passengers are killed and nine more injured, but the aircraft lands safely.
 
1987: A Royal Air Force Vickers VC-10 sets a new record time between the United Kingdom and Australia, landing in Perth, Australia, after a flight of 16 hours 1 minute.
 
1992: Space Shuttle STS-45, Atlantis 11, lands.
 
1993: First flight of the Fokker F70.
 
1997: A Boeing 777, powered by twin Rolls-Royce Trent 892 turbofans, returns to Seattle to set a new Eastbound speed around the world record of 553 mph. En route, the twinjet sets a Great Circle distance without landing record of 12,455.34 miles when flying from Seattle to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
 
2012: UTair Flight 120, a twin-engine UTair Aviation ATR-72-201, crashes in western Siberia near the city of Tyumen shortly after takeoff from Roschino International Airport, killing 31 of the 43 people on board and critically injuring all 12 survivors.
 
 
 

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