14 March 1885 (France): Raoul Lufbery, American World War I pilot, was born (d. 1918).

14 March 1889 (Germany): German Ferdinand von Zeppelin patents his “Navigable Balloon.”

14 March 1908 (France): Henri Farman makes the first flight in his modified Voisin-Farman “№I-bis”, the biplane built by Voisin brothers.

14 March 1910 (France): Louis Paulhan flies 146 km in a straight route from Orleans to Trois.

14 March 1927 (UK): First flight of the Parnall “Pike” (N202).

14 March 1927 (USA): The Aviation Corp. of America (AVCO), headed by Juan Trippe, forms Pan American Airways to qualify for a contract for airmail deliveries from the post office and establishes the route between Key West, Florida and Havana, Cuba as the first of several routes it would acquire.

14 March 1936 (UK): Imperial Airways opens a weekly service to Hong Kong.

14 March 1945 (USA): The first prototype of two of the experimental Cornelius XFG-1-CR fuel glider (AF 44-28059) crashes 3 miles W of Wilmington, Ohio during spin testing out of Clinton County Army Air Field, Ohio, killing test pilot Alfred Reitherman of the Spartan Aircraft Company which constructed the design.

14 March 1946 (Canada): The last operation for the Canadian 435 (T) squadron was from Down Ampney England. With 15,681 sorties, 28,792 operational hours and 2,734 non-operational hours.

14 March 1946 (Canada): The Royal Canadian Navy commissions its first aircraft carrier, HMCS Warrior (CVL 20), which the United Kingdom has transferred to Canada.

14 March 1947 (USA): First flight of the Lockheed L-749 “Constellation.”

14 March 1947 (Saudi Arabia): Saudi Arabian Airlines begins regular services.

14 March 1951 (UK): RAF Coastal Command Avro “Lancaster GR.3” (TX264, ’BS-D’) of 120 Squadron RAF Kinloss, off-course in high winds and heavy overcast during a night-time navigation exercise between the Faroes and Rockall, crashes into Beinn Eighe’s Triple Buttress at ~0200 hrs., just 15 feet (4.6 m) below the top of the 2,850-foot (870 m) westernmost gully of the buttress known as Coire Mhic Fhercair in the Scottish Highlands, killing all eight crew. The wreck not found until 17 March, crew remains not recovered until August. Due to remoteness of the crash site the wreckage is still there.

14 March 1957 (UK): British European Airways Flight 411, a Vickers “Viscount” crashes while on approach to Manchester Airport, killing all 20 on board and 2 on the ground.

14 March 1957 (USA): A Sikorsky HO4S-3 (BuNo 55892, c/n 55-892) of the Royal Canadian Navy, ditches off the coast of Key West, Florida. Crew rescued by USS Cromwell.

14 March 1960 (USA): Within a year of completion of a major expansion program, Chicago’s O’Hare International airport has become the busiest terminal in the US, handling 10.2 million passengers in 1959, the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) reports. In the same year it handled 431,600 take-offs and landings.

14 March 1961 (USA): Failure of a cabin pressurization system forces USAF Boeing B-52F-70-BW “Stratofortress” (AF 57-0166, c/n 464155) to fly low, accelerating fuel-burn, bomber has fuel starvation at 10,000 feet over Yuba City, California, crashes, killing aircraft commander. Two nuclear weapons on board tear loose on impact but no explosion or contamination takes place.

14 March 1972 (United Arab Emirates): A Sterling Airways Sud Aviation “Caravelle”, Flight 296, crashed near Kalba in the United Arab Emirates on a flight from Colombo to Copenhagen in Denmark with a stop over in Dubai. The Sud Aviation “Caravelle” (OY-STL) crashed and killed 112 passengers and crew. The crash was attributed to pilot error. It was the deadliest air disaster in the history of the United Arab Emirates. Flight 296 took off from Colombo International Airport in Sri Lanka on the 14 March 1972 on a flight to Copenhagen Airport in Denmark with a refueling stopover in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. There were 106 passengers and 6 crew on board the Sud Aviation Caravelle when after a 2 hour flight the aircraft crashed into a mountain ridge near Kalba at the 1,600 foot level.

14 March 1972 (Spain): Two USAF McDonnell Douglas F-4D “Phantom II” fighter-bombers have a mid-air collision over the town of El Buste, Spain, about 30 miles from the joint US-Spanish base at Zaragoza. All four crewmen are KWF. The debris showered down onto the town, damaging communications and starting several roof fires, but no injuries to townspeople. The aircraft were returning to base in strong winds and broken clouds after a routine gunnery mission.

14 March 1979 (China): A British-built “Trident” jet airliner crashed into a factory in Beijing, China, killing an estimated 200 people, including a dozen crew and passengers and scores of victims in the factory.

14 March 1980 (Poland): LOT Flight 7, an Ilyushin Il-62 “Classic” crashes near Warsaw, Poland, after the No. 2 engine disintegrates and severs the elevator and rudder control lines. All 87 on board are killed.

14 March 1984 (Canada): Marc Garneau named the first Canadian astronaut.

14 March 1995 (Azerbaijan): An Aeroflot Antonov An-12 “Cub” crashes near Baku after running out of fuel. Crew negligence is blamed, and it is suggested that the flight crew were drunk.

14 March 2006 (Cyprus): Helios Airways was renamed to Ajet.

14 March 2008 (USA): An Lockheed Martin F-16C Block 25D “Fighting Falcon” (AF 84-1273), flown by pilot 2nd Lt. David J. Mitchell, 26, of Amherst, Ohio, crashes during training mission in a remote area three miles (5 km) S of Alamo Lake, Arizona. His body is located in a ravine near the aircraft wreckage. Mitchell, of the Ohio Air National Guard’s 180th Fighter Wing at Toledo Express Airport, Swanton, Ohio, was assigned to the 62d Fighter Squadron at Luke AFB, Arizona since November 2007 as a student pilot. He had 237 total flying hours, ~26 in the Lockheed Martin F-16 &ldquo’Fighting Falcon”.