January 10

• 2013 – After a Japan Air Self-Defense Force Mitsubishi F-15 fighter intercepts a People's Republic of China Shaanxi Y-8 patrol aircraft operating near the disputed Senkaku (known in China as Diaoyu) Islands, two Chinese Chengdu J-10 fighters arrive and monitor the F-15. Japanese officials state that Japan has scrambled fighters to protect the islands 150 times in the previous year. ^[1]

• 2011 – AirAsia Flight 5218, operated by Airbus A320-216 9M-AHH, sustained substantial damage in a runway excursion accident at Kuching Airport, Malaysia. All 123 passengers and six crew members survived. The Flight from Kuala Lumpur Subang International Airport to Kuching Airport. The flight landed on Kuching's runway 25 in heavy rain around but skidded to the right and went off the side of the runway. It came to rest in the grass with the nose gear dug in or collapsed. ^[2]

• 2010 – United Airlines Flight 634, operated by Airbus A319-131 N816UA made an emergency landing at Newark Liberty International Airport when the right main landing gear failed to deploy. The aircraft sustained some damage when the right engine contacted the runway. The 53 passengers and crew evacuated the aircraft via the emergency chutes without injury. ^[3] Initial fears that the wing had been damaged in the accident later proved groundless, with damage being confined to the engine and nacelle. ^[4]

• 2009 – Zambian airline Zambian Airways suspends operations. ^[5]

• 2008 – Air Canada Flight 190, an Airbus A319 experiences severe turbulence over the Canadian Rocky Mountains, injuring ten (six seriously) of the 88 on board, and is forced to divert and make an emergency landing at Calgary International Airport.

• 2006 – A US Navy North American T-39 Sabreliner of VT-86, en route from Chattanooga, Tennessee to NAS Pensacola, Florida, on a low-level navigation training mission, fails to arrive at ≈1500 hrs. as expected. The wreckage is found late 11 January near LaFayette, Georgia. All four personnel on board, a Navy instructor, a Navy student, an Air Force student and a civilian contract pilot, were killed. Their identities were not immediately released.

• 2000 – Crossair Flight 498, a Saab 340, crashes two minutes after takeoff in Niederhasli, Switzerland, killing all ten people on board.

• 1997 – McDonnell-Douglas F-15C-39-MC Eagle. 85-0099, c/n 0952/C341, of the 58th TFS, 33rd TFW, based at Eglin AFB, catches fire on take-off from Eglin. Pilot returns for an immediate landing and egresses safely on the ground. Aircraft completely destroyed by fire. This aircraft credited with MiG-25 kill by AIM-7M on 19 January 1991 during Operation Desert Storm while flown by Capt. Lawrence E. Pitta.

• 1990 – First flight of the McDonnell Douglas MD-11, a USA three-engine medium- to long-range wide-body jet airliner based on the DC-10.

• 1989 – Death of Valentin Petrovich Glushko or Valentyn Petrovych Hlushko, Soviet engineer, and principal Soviet "Chief Designer" of spacecraft and rockets during the Soviet/American Space Race.

• 1984 – The 1984 Balkan Bulgarian Tupolev Tu-134 crash into a forest near Sofia, Bulgaria during a snowstorm kills all 50 people on board.

• 1982 – A Gulfstream III, Spirit of America, flies around the world in just 43 hours 39 min and 6 seconds, becoming the fastest business jet to fly around the world.

• 1978 – First mail delivery in space: Launch of Soyuz 27, Soviet crewed spacecraft mission to the orbiting Salyut 6 space station.

• 1970 – Death of Pavel Ivanovich Belyayev, Soviet fighter pilot with extensive experience in piloting different types of aircraft and first commander of the cosmonaut corps and the cosmonaut who commanded the historic Voskhod 2 mission which saw the First man walk in space.

• 1970 – Developmental prototype Indian Air Force HAL HF-24 Marut Mk.IR, HF 032, equipped with reheat, crashes just after takeoff, killing India's finest test pilot, Suranjan Das. Failure of one engine and partial failure of the second was rumored, but official inquiry attributes loss to a malfunctioning canopy locking system. Reheat trials do not resume until 1972, using second prototype BD 884. Reheat upgrades are subsequently abandoned.

• 1969 – Launch of Venera 6, Soviet spacecraft, towards Venus to obtain atmospheric data.

• 1968 – Surveyor 7, 7th and last lunar lander of the American uncrewed Surveyor program lands successfully on the moon.

• 1967 – Death of Laura Houghtaling Ingalls, American aviatrix.

• 1967 – Lockheed SR-71A, 61-7950, Item 2001, lost during anti-skid brake system evaluation at Edwards Air Force Base, California. Pilot Art Peterson survives.

• 1966 – First flight of the Bell OH-58 Kiowa (206 A)

• 1964 – A B-52 H Stratofortress, configured as a testbed to investigate structural failures, has its vertical stabilizer sheared off in severe turbulence. The plane landed safely and was repaired. Directorate of Aerospace Safety, Norton AFB, California, film "Flight Without a Fin": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wclfY0Meruw&feature=related

• 1964 – The Dassault Balzac V crashes on its 125th sortie, during a low-altitude hover. During a vertical descent the aircraft experienced uncontrollable divergent wing oscillations, the port wing eventually striking the ground at an acute angle with the aircraft rolling over because of the continued lift engine thrust. The loss was attributed to loss of control because the stabilising limits of the three-axis autostabilisation system's 'puffer pipes' were exceeded in roll. Although airframe damage was relatively light, the Centre D'Essai en Vol test pilot, Jacques Pinier, did not eject and died in the crash.

• 1962 – 10-11 – A B-52 Stratofortress is flown from Okinawa to Madrid, establishing a new distance record of 12,532 miles (20,168 km)

• 1960 – First flight of the Beagle Husky (originally, the Auster D.5/160), three-seat British light aircraft.

• 1956 – The most notorious incident of aircraft pitch-up known as the "Sabre dance (pitch-up)" was the loss of North American F-100C Super Sabre 54-1907 during an attempted emergency landing at Edwards AFB, California which was caught by film cameras set up for an unrelated test. The pilot fought to retain control as he rode the edge of the flight envelope, but fell off on one wing, hit the ground, and exploded with fatal results. These scenes were inserted in the movie The Hunters, starring Robert Mitchum and Robert Wagner.

• 1954 – BOAC Flight 781, a de Havilland Comet flying from Rome to London on the last leg of a flight from Singapore, disintegrates in mid-air, when metal fatigue from repeated pressurization cycles compromises the fuselage, killing the 29 passengers and six crew.

• 1946 – First prototype Douglas XSB2D-1, BuNo 03551, suffers an engine fire 1000 feet over Sunnyvale, California. The aircraft crashes into an orchard and is severely damaged, but the crew of two are uninjured.

• 1946 – A Sikorsky R5 sets an unofficial helicopter altitude record of 6,400 m (21,000 ft) at Stratford, Connecticut.

• 1945 – Northrop P-61B Black Widow, 42-39445, of 550th Night Fighter Squadron, based at Hollandia, New Guinea, on a supposed proficiency flight (but pilot took along three passengers, including a 20-year-old WAAC nurse), ends badly with aircraft coming down largely intact at the 5,000 foot level (1,500 m) of Mount Cyclops just a few miles from its airfield. All aboard survive with only minor injuries. Airframe recovered in 1989 by helicopter and is undergoing restoration at the Mid-Atlantic Air Museum, Reading, Pennsylvania.

• 1944 – The RCAF accepted the first of 229 Avro Lancaster bombers

• 1943 – Introduction: Fairey Barracuda with No. 827 Squadron FAA.

• 1942 – The US Army announces the delivery of its first troop-transport gliders.

• 1941 – Death of Vittorio Suster, Italian aviator, in the mediterranean sea with his Savoia-Marchetti S. M.83.

• 1941 – German aircraft make their combat debut in the Mediterranean theater. German Junkers Ju 87 Stuka dive bombers and Junkers Ju 88 s of Fliegerkorps X join Italian bombers in attacking the British aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious in the Mediterranean Sea while she is escorting the Gibraltar-to-Malta convoy. The Italian attacks are ineffective, but the German aircraft score six hits, knocking Illustrious out of action until the end of November.

• 1941 – Vickers Wellingtons operating from Malta bomb the Italian Fleet anchorage at Naples. The battleship Giulio Cesarei is badly damaged and the Italian Navy withdraws its remaining battleships further north to Genoa.

• 1941 – First RAF 'Circus' operation – daylight raids by small numbers of bombers with large fighter escorts against short-range 'fringe' targets, with the aim of bringing enemy's fighters to battle – Is mounted. Bristol Blenheims of No.114 Squadron, escorted by nine squadrons of fighters, attack the Foret de Guinness.

• 1941 – Introduction: Douglas A-20 Havoc

• 1938 – Northwest Airlines Flight 2, a Lockheed L14 H Super Electra, crashes near Bozeman, Montana, killing all ten on board; the machine with which the manufacturer measured component vibration is found to be inaccurate, causing the aircraft to be more prone to flutter than thought.

• 1936 – Civil transport version of the Heinkel 111 bomber revealed in public for the first time at Berlin Tempelhof airport. Named Dresden, the He 111 V4 carried registration D-AHAO.

• 1935 – First flight of the Latécoère 521, "Lieutenant de Vaisseau Paris", French six-engined flying boat, and one of the first large trans-Atlantic passenger aircraft.

• 1934 – 10-11 – A flight of six US Navy Consolidated P2Y flying boats set a new distance record for formation flying, 2,400 miles (3,862 km) between San Francisco and Pearl Harbor, also setting a new speed record for this crossing of 24 hours 35 min.

• 1929 – First flight of the Consolidated P2Y, an American flying boat maritime patrol aircraft. The plane was a parasol monoplane with a fabric covered wing and aluminum hull.

• 1928 – John Moncrieff and George Hood perish attempting the first trans-Tasman flight between Australia and New Zealand.

• 1927 – A de Havilland Hercules, British seven-passenger, three-engined airliner, struts its return flight from Delhi to flight from Croydon UK to Delhi, India.

• 1921 – Birth of Andrew Henry Humphrey GCB, OBE, DFC, AFC, RAF, British WWII pilot and Marshal of the Royal Air Force, who set some records with the English Electric Canberrea B2 'Aries IV'.

• 1919 – Airco DH.4s of No.2 (Communications) Squadron, RAF are converted for transporting passengers and mail between London and Paris, in support of the Versailles Peace Conference

• 1913 – Birth of Franco Bordoni-Bisleri 'Robur', Italian aviator and racing car driver. He is one of the top-scoring WWII ace of Regia Aeronautica with 19 air victories.

• 1912 – First flight of the Short S.36

• 1912 – Lieutenant commander Charles Samson flies a Short S.38 from the deck of battleship HMS Africa moored in the River Medway, England, becoming the first British naval aviator.

• 1910 – (10-20) The first aviation meet to be held in the United States, the 1910 Los Angeles International Air Meet at Dominguez Field, is held near Los Angeles, California.

• 1896 – Birth of Walter Blume, German WWI fighter ace and aircraft designer.

• 1893 – Birth of Camille Henri Raoul Lagesse, Canadian WWI fighter ace.

• 1883 – Birth of Arthur Charles Hubert Latham, French aviation pioneer, first person to attempt to cross the English Channel in an aeroplane. Due to engine failure during his first attempt, he became the first person to land an aeroplane on a body of water.

References