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On This Day: 1943

Aviation events for 1943

January 9: First flight of the Lockheed Constellation prototype NX67900.
 
January 21: Pan Am flight 1104, a Martin M-130 Flying Boat ("Philippine Clipper", reg. NC-14715), crashes in Ukiah, California, killing all 19 on-board. The aircraft, flying in very poor weather, descended for improved visibility, causing it to crash into a mountain after drifting off-course. The 10 passengers on the aircraft were all naval officers enroute to San Francisco.
 
January 27: The USAAF makes its first daylight raid on Germany.
 
January 30: The Royal Air Force de Havilland Mosquito made its first flight.
 
February 13: The Vought F4U Corsair naval fighter makes its operational debut in Solomon Island, escorting PB4Y-1 Liberators (the US Navy’s version of the B-24) raiding Bougainville.
 
March 5: First flight of the Gloster Meteor prototype
 
April 18: Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto is killed when T1-323, his Mitsubishi G4M, is ambushed by USAAF P-38 Lightnings over Bougainville.
 
June 15: The first operational jet-bomber, the German-built Arado Ar-234 Blitz, makes its first flight.
 
July 13: First flight of the Curtiss-Wright XP-55 Ascender.
 
July 18: US Navy airship K-74 is shot down by a German submarine, the only airship lost to enemy fire during World War II.
 
July 24: The Royal Air Force (RAF) use “Window,” metal foil dropped to confuse enemy radar, for the first time.
 
November 29: The Essex-class aircraft carrier USS Hornet is commissioned. Today she is a floating museum docked in San Francisco Bay at the former NAS Alameda.
 
December 2: First flight of the Grumman XF7F Tigercat.
 
 
 

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