2006 – FedEx announces the first cancellation of the Airbus A380. Instead FedEx orders 15 Boeing 777 Freighters.
2002 – Sabena, the national airline of Belgium, operates its final service, Flight 690 from Abidjan to Brussels via Cotonou, using an Airbus A340-300 (OO-SCZ). The carrier’s remnants would be taken over by the newly formed SN Brussels Airlines, now known as Brussels Airlines.
1996 – NASA launches the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) from Cape Canaveral Air Station atop a Delta II rocket.
1950 – BOAC retires its final flying boat from service.
1945 – A Gloster Meteor, the first jet-powered British fighter, sets a new speed record of 606 mph.
1933 – Fiorello La Guardia, future namesake of New York City’s first major airport, is elected the city’s 99th mayor.
1910 – A Model B Wright Flyer makes the first air freight flight, delivering a shipment of silk ribbon from a wholesaler in Dayton, Ohio to the Moorehouse-Marten’s Department Store in Columbus, Ohio. Max Moorehouse, the store’s owner, paid the Wright brothers $5,000 for the service, which was flown by Philip Orin Parmalee. The flight also set a new air speed record of 60 mph, covering the 62 miles in exactly 62 minutes.
