4 May 1883 (Belgium) — Birth of Jan Olieslagers, Belgian motorcycle racer, aviation pioneer (who set world records with both types of machinery) and World War I flying ace.

4 May 1890 (France) — Birth of François Marie Noel Battesti, French World War I flying ace

4 May 1892] (Germany) — Birth of Otto Rosenfeld, German World War I flying ace.

4 May 1899 (Germany) — Birth of Fritz Adam Hermann Opel (Von Opel) German pilot and engineer remembered mostly for his spectacular demonstrations of rocket propulsion that earned him the nickname “Rocket Fritz”.

4 May 1899 (England) — Birth of Reginald Carey Brenton Brading, British World War I flying ace.

4 May 1901 (Poland) — Birth of Jerzy Bajan, prominent Polish sports and military aviator, winner of the “Challenge 1934” contest.

4 May 1904 (Spain) — Birth of Joaquín García-Morato y Castaño, leading Nationalist fighter ace of the Spanish Civil War. He is credited with 40 air victories, four gained while flying Heinkel He.51’s and 36 with the Italian Fiat CR.32.

4 May 1911 (USA) — The U.S. War Department approves a suggestion that S.C. №1 (the Wright Flyer accepted by the Army August 2, 1909) be put at the disposal of the Smithsonian Institution for exhibition purposes following refurbishment.

4 May 1916 (North Sea) — Zeppelin LZ-32 is shot down and destroyed by British naval gunfire.

4 May 1917 (Poland) — Birth of Siegfried Freytag “The Malta Lion”, World War II German fighter ace and member of the French Foreign Legion during the French Indochina war.

4 May 1918 (France) — Death of Karl Patzelt, Austro-Hungarian World War I flying ace, killed in action.

4 May 1922 (USA) — The fastest time ever between Kelly Field, San Antonio, Texas, and the Pacific Coast was negotiated by Lts. James H. Doolittle and Leland S. Andrews, USAS. The 1,200 mile flight was covered in 13 hours and 25 minutes.

4 May 1924 (France) — The first helicopter flight in a closed circle is made in France by Etienne Oehmichen’s helicopter № 2. In the previous month, it established a world record by flying 1,182 feet (360 meters).

4 May 1924 (USA) — First flight of the Sikorsky S-29-A. The Sikorsky S-29-A was an all-metal, Twin-engine biplane airliner, first flown in 1924. It was the first aircraft that aviation pioneer Igor Sikorsky designed and built after coming to the United States, hence the special “-A” suffix signifying “America”. The pilot and mechanic sat in an open cockpit between the upper wing and the tail, while up to 16 passengers were accommodated within the streamlined fuselage. With the airline industry only just emerging in the United States at that time, the S-29 failed to attract the customers that Sikorsky had hoped. It was eventually sold, however, and had a varied career in merchandising (“Curlee Clothing”), acting (among other roles) as a flying cigar store. After being bought by Roscoe Turner in 1929, it appeared in the Hollywood movie Howard Hughes’ Hell’s Angels, taking the part of a Gotha bomber. The S-29-A crashed during filming and was damaged beyond repair.

4 May 1926 (USA) — Birth of Milton Orville ‘Milt’ Thompson, NASA research pilot, first person to fly a lifting body.

4 May 1927 (USA) — A free balloon reached an unofficial altitude of 42,470 feet.

4 May 1927 (USA) — First flight of the Boeing TB. The Boeing TB (or Model 63) was an American torpedo bomber biplane designed by the US Navy and built by Boeing in 1927. The TB was an improved version of the Martin T3M. It was constructed of all dural, with a fabric covering. The equal-span wings were large and unstaggered, and could be folded aft, reducing the span to 21 feet 8 inches (6.60 m) for storage. The wheeled undercarriage was a conventional configuration that could be interchangeable with floats. As a landplane, the main gear units carried twin wheels. The underside of the fuselage incorporated a glazed station for the bombardier. Even before the three XTB-1’s were delivered, the Navy’s Bureau of Aeronautics had changed its opinion about what was needed in a torpedo bomber, and based on experience with the NAF XTN-1 had decided that a Twin-engine aircraft would better suit the role. Having thus been made redundant, no TB’s past the three prototypes were built.

4 May 1927 (Northern Ireland) — First flight of the Short “Crusader”, a British racing seaplane. The Short “Crusader” also called the “Short-Bristow Crusader” and “Short-Bristol Crusader” was a British racing seaplane of the 1920’s built by Short Brothers, built to compete in the 1927 Schneider Trophy race.

4 May 1928 (USA) — Death of Leonard Warden Bonney, pioneering aviator, while making the first flight of his “Bonney Gull”.

4 May 1928 (USA) — Ninety machines flown in military maneuvers of U. S. Air Corps at Langley Field, Virginia.

4 May 1933 (USA) — The USN airship USS Akron crashes during a storm, killing 76 of its 79 crew.

4-7 May 1936 (England/South Africa) — Amy Johnson sets a new England-South Africa speed record of 3 days 6 hours 26 min in a Percival “Gull Six”.

4 May 1937 (Germany) — Die Heinkel-Werke Oranienburg, important factory for aircraft construction, is inaugurated.

4-8 May 1942 (Pacific Ocean) — The Battle of the Coral Sea is fought between U.S. Navy and Imperial Japanese Navy aircraft carriers. The Japanese light carrier Shōhō is sunk and the Shokaku is badly damaged, and the USS Lexington is sunk.

4 May 1942 (European Theater) — The first Republic P-47 “Thunderbolt” fighters fly a combat mission over Europe.

4 May 1942 (Libya) — Three Bristol “Blenheims” of № 15 Squadron, South African Air Force, on a familiarization flight from Kufra, Libya, become lost over the Libyan Desert and are forced to land due to fuel exhaustion. One of them is found on May 9 with its entire crew of three dead of exposure, and the other two on May 11 with eight of the nine men with them dead of gunshots or exposure.

4 May 1943 (West Atlantic Ocean) — S/L BH Moffit and crew in Consolidated “Canso” of № 5 (BR) Squadron, Eastern Air Command, sunk the German submarine U-630 in the West Atlantic Ocean.

4 May 1944 (Bay of Biscay) — F/L LJ Bateman and crew in a Vickers “Wellington” of № 407 Squadron sank the German submarine U-846 west of the Bay of Biscay.

4-5 May 1945 (Japanese Archipelago) — Carrier aircraft of the British Pacific Fleet strike airfields on the Sakishima Gunto.

4 May 1945 (Norway) — The British Home Fleet carries out its last operation of World War II, a raid by 44 Grumman “Avengers” and Grumman “Wildcats” from the aircraft carriers HMS Queen, HMS Trumpeter, and HMS Searcher against Kilbotn, Norway, sinking a German depot ship and submarine. It is the last air raid against Norway of World War II.

4 May 1949 (Belgium) — The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is formed.

4 May 1949 (Italy) — The Avio Linee Italiane (Italian Airlines) Fiat G212CP carrying the Torino A. C. football squad flew into a thunderstorm on the approach to Turin and encountered conditions of low cloud and poor visibility. It crashed into the hill of Superga near Turin killing all 31 aboard.

4 May 1949 (Canada) — The Canadian “Blue Devils” aerobatic team is formed.

4 May 1949 (USA) — USAF North American F-82F “Twin Mustang” (AF 46-468) out of Mitchel Field crashes into an unfinished house on Fulton Avenue near Duncan Road, a residential neighborhood of Hempstead, New York near Hofstra University. The aircraft burst into flames but neither the pilot, 2nd Lt. Andrew Wallace, nor his radar observer, 1st Lt. Bryan Jolley, were killed. In fact, Wallace used a brick from the house to smash the right canopy and rescue Jolley.

4 May 1950 (USA) — First flight of the prototype reconnaissance Northrop YRB-49A “Flying Wing” jet bomber.

4 May 1953 (UK) — An English Electric “Canberra” B.2 (WD952), fitted with Rolls-Royce “Olympus” engines set a world altitude record of 63,668 ft (19,406 m).

4 May 1955 (France) — Death of Louis Charles Breguet, French aircraft designer and builder, one of the early aviation pioneers.

4 May 1956 (USA) — Birth of Michael Landon Gernhardt, NASA astronaut.

4 May 1959 (Italy) — Birth of Maurizio Cheli, Italian engineer, air force officer, a European Space Agency astronaut and a veteran of one NASA space shuttle mission.

4 May 1959 (Switzerland) — First flight of the Pilatus PC-6 “Porter”, civilian utility aircraft built by Pilatus Aircraft of Switzerland.

4 May 1961 (USA) — “Project Strato-Lab” a test of the Navy’s Mark IV full-pressure suit, sets a world balloon record of 113,739.9 feet in a two-place open gondola balloon “Strato Lab V” by U. S. Navy Commander Malcolm David Ross and Lieutenant Commander Victor A. Prather. The flight lasted 9 hours 54 min and covered a horizontal distance of 140 miles (230 km). Unfortunately, Victor Prather drowned during the helicopter transfer after landing.

4-5 May 1962 (Venezuela) — During the Carupanazo revolt against Venezuelan President Rómulo Betancourt, Venezuelan Air Force aircraft attack rebel positions at Carúpa№

4 May 1963 (France) — The first Dassault “Falcon 20” prototype (F-WLKB) makes its first flight at Bordeaux-Merignac.

4 May 1966 (England) — Death of William Edward George “Pedro” Mann, British World War I flying ace, one of the first to fly an inverted formation at Hendon. He also served in World War II and helped to develop mobile radar and signals units that served as models for the entire RAF.

4 May 1967 (Moon) — The “Lunar Orbiter 4” is launched on a 180-day mission to take photographs of the Moon for research purposes. It would take over 500 photos before striking the surface.

4-11 May 1969 (UK) — The Daily Mail TransAtlantic Air Race commemorates the 50th anniversary of Alcock and Brown’s crossing. It is won by a Royal Navy McDonnell Douglas F-4 “Phantom II”, taking 4 hours 47 minutes.

4 May 1972 (Russia) — An Aeroflot Yakalov Yak-40 (CCCP-87778) crashes due to windshear at Bratsk, Russia, killing all 18 on board.

4 May 1976 (USA) — Launch of LAGEOS 1, or Laser Geodynamics Satellites, scientific research satellites designed to provide an orbiting laser ranging benchmark for geodynamical studies of the Earth.

4 May 1978 (USA) — The first prototype Lockheed “Have Blue” stealth test bed (c/n 1001), on its 37th flight, hits the runway a little too hard at Groom Lake, Nevada, and had to lift off for another pass rather than go into a skid, but had bent the right main gear strut. The landing gear had been retracted after the “touch and go”, and now the right main gear leg wouldn’t extend. Despite many attempts, there was no way to get the gear down. Critically low on fuel, Lockheed test pilot Bill Park decided to eject and let the aircraft crash into the desert. Park suffered a serious back injury and concussion, ending his career as a test pilot. The airframe was bulldozed under the desert. News of the crash leaked to the press, and some vague comments were made about the possible existence of “stealth” aircraft.

4 May 1982 (Falkland Islands) — Argentinian Navy Super Étendard aircraft fatally damage the British destroyer HMS Sheffield with an “Exocet” missile southeast of the Falkland Islands. HMS Sheffield sinks on May 10.

4 May 1982 (Falkland Islands) — The British lose their first “Sea Harrier” of the Falklands War. The aircraft was shot down by ground fire during a bombing raid over Goose Green. The pilot is killed.

4 May 1986 (Puerto Rico) — American “Eagle” Flight 5452, a CASA C-212 operated by Executive Airlines, crashes on landing at Eugenio María de Hostos Airport in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, killing both pilots. The other four people on board, all passengers, survive with minor injuries.

4 May 1989 (USA) — The Space Shuttle “Atlantis” STS-30 is launched at 14:48:59 EDT. Mission highlights include: Magellan Venus probe deployment.

4 May 2002 (Nigerian) — EAS Airlines Flight 4226, a BAC “One-Eleven” 500 series, crashes into the Gwammaja neighborhood at Kano, Nigeria shortly after takeoff. The ensuing crash resulted in the deaths of 75 passengers and at least 73 civilians on the ground.

4 May 2002 (USA) — Launch of “Aqua” (EOS PM-1), multi-national NASA scientific research satellite in orbit around the Earth, studying the precipitation, evaporation, and cycling of water.

4 May 2002 (USA) — The “Spot-5” satellite is launched with 2.5 m, 5 m and 10 m capability.

4 May 2003 (USA) — Frontier Airlines increases service to Atlanta, Dallas/Fort Worth, Los Angeles, Portland, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, San Diego, San Francisco and Seattle. Their regional operation Frontier JetExpress also adds regional jet service to Boise, Oklahoma City and Tucson, while discontinuing service to Oakland.

4 May 2004 (USA) — US Airways becomes the 15th member of the airline coalition Star Alliance.

4 May 2006 (USA) — Hawaiian Airlines announces service to the mainland destinations of San Diego, Seattle and Portland with their four additional Boeing 767-300 airliners.

4 May 2009 (Baltic Sea) — A Russian Navy Kamov Ka-27 “Helix” helicopter while landing on the Baltic Fleet Frigate Yaroslav Mudryi, the main-rotor made contact with the ship superstructure, and crashes on the deck and then rolled over the side into the sea. The five crew from the Kamov helicopter were successfully rescued from the sea.

4 May 2009 (USA) — Northwest Airlines Flight 557, an Airbus A320-211 (N311US), is substantially damaged in a heavy landing at Denver International Airport, United States. A vertical deceleration in excess of 3-g is recorded. The aircraft may be written off.

4 May 2012 (USA) — A United States Air Force Lockheed-Martin F-16 “Fighting Falcon” of the 421 Fighter Squadron crashed at the Utah Test and Training Range. The pilot ejected safely.