On This Day in Aviation History

January 6, 2013
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Lufthansa Is Founded, Ted Is Grounded: January 6 In Aviation History

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By: NYCAviation Staff
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A Lufthansa Airbus A330-300 (reg D-AIKI) touches down at JFK Airport in New York. Photo by Tom Alfano.
A Lufthansa Airbus A330-300 (reg D-AIKI) touches down at JFK Airport in New York. Photo by Tom Alfano.
2009: Ted, an all economy sub-brand of United Airlines, ends operations after just under 5 years of service.

2008: A midair collision between two US Navy F/A-18′s over the Persian Gulf kills one pilot while the other ejects safely.

1993: Lufthansa CityLine Flight 5634, a Bombardier Dash 8-300, crashes 1.1 miles short of the runway at Paris Charles De Gaulle Airport in thick fog, killing 4 of the 23 passengers and crew onboard.

1984: Hughes Helicopters merges with McDonnell Douglas.

1982: The Myasishchev VM-T Atlant, a variant of Myasishchev’s M-4 Molot bomber designed to carry Energiya rocket boosters for the USSR Buran space shuttle, makes its first flight carrying a payload. It was even used to carry the Buran vehicle itself until the introduction of the massive Antonov An-224. Only two Atlants were built.

1979: Death of Rear Admiral Kenneth Russell Unger, World War I flying ace, US Airmail pilot, and WWII transport pilot, dies in Florida at the age of 80.

1977: First flight of the Indian Air Force HAL HPT-32 Deepak prop trainer.

1971: The first McDonnell Douglas AV-8 Harriers are delivered to the United States Marine Corps.

1969: Allegheny Airlines Flight 737, a Convair CV-580 (N5825), hits tree tops and crashes while attempting to land at Bradford Regional Airport, Pennsylvania, killing 11 of the 28 passengers and crew onboard. Investigators would not be able to determine a definite cause. The accident came just two weeks after the Christmas Eve crash of Allegheny Airlines Flight 736 which killed 20 people, also while approaching Bradford.

1968: NASA’S Surveyor 7 lands on the moon, and is the last in its series.

1960: National Airlines Flight 2511, a Douglas DC-6B (N8225H), explodes over North Carolina while from flying from JFK to Miami. A bomb had detonated on the aircraft, which ultimately killed all 34 people on-board. It was suspected—though never proven—that passenger Julian A. Frank from New York City had smuggled the bomb on board. Frank was being investigated for embezzlement at the time, and had purchased life insurance for himself right before the crash.

1959: Southeast Airlines Flight 308, a Douglas DC-3 (N18941), crashes into the Holston Mountains while approaching Tri-Cities Regional Airport in Bristol, Tennessee, killing all 10 people onboard. The probable cause is determined to be pilot error.

1944: First flight of the McDonnell XP-67 Moonbat, an advanced design, twin-engine, long range, single-seat interceptor aircraft for the United States Army Air Forces. Beset by performance issues, the program is cancelled after the only prototype is destroyed by an engine fire.

1942: Pan Am schedules the first ever round-the-world flight.

1931: First ever formation flight across the Atlantic: Italian Gen. Italo Balbo leads a dozen Savoia-Marchetti S.55 flying boats from Portuguese Guinea (now known as Guinea-Bisseau) to Brazil.

1926: Deutsche Luft Hansa Aktiengesellschaft is born in Berlin, out of a merger between Deutsche Aero Lloyd and Junkers Luftverkehr. The name would be shortened to its modern form, Lufthansa, a few years later.