Aviation and space timeline
The milestones of aerospace history, from the pioneers to today.
- April 21, 1918
Death of Manfred von Richthofen
Accident — German ace Manfred von Richthofen, the "Red Baron", was killed on 21 April 1918 while flying a Fokker Dr.I, the aircraft in which he had scored his final 17 victories.
- October 30, 1935
Model 299 crashes at Wright Field, giving rise to the pilot checklist
Accident — On 30 October 1935, during a climb-rate evaluation flight, the Model 299 stalled and crashed shortly after takeoff from Wright Field, killing command pilot Major Ployer Peter Hill and, weeks later, Boeing test pilot Leslie Tower. The investigation found the control-surface gust lock had not been released; the accident — later summed up as "pilot error, not the machine's fault" — led directly to the modern written pre-flight checklist still used by pilots today. It also disqualified the Model 299 from the competition, which the Douglas B-18 went on to win.
- May 6, 1937
Hindenburg disaster
Accident — On 6 May 1937 the German commercial rigid airship LZ 129 Hindenburg caught fire and was destroyed while attempting to dock at Naval Air Station Lakehurst in Manchester Township, New Jersey. Filled with hydrogen, it was the lead ship of its class and the largest airship ever built by envelope volume. The accident killed 35 of the 97 people on board plus one person on the ground, and effectively ended the era of commercial passenger airship travel.
- December 8, 1941
Attack on Clark Field and first B-17 missions in the Pacific
Accident — On the same day as the Pearl Harbor attack (8 December, Philippine time), Japanese aircraft destroyed much of the Far East Air Force's 35 B-17s on the ground at Clark Field, after a chain of contradictory decisions delayed authorization for a counterstrike. Days earlier, on 7 December, a flight of 12 B-17s transiting to the Philippines had arrived over Pearl Harbor in the middle of the attack. On 10 December, Lieutenant Colin Kelly became a war hero after holding his burning B-17 steady so his crew could bail out near Clark Field.
- October 14, 1943
"Black Thursday": second raid on Schweinfurt
Accident — On 14 October 1943 a renewed attack on Schweinfurt became known as "Black Thursday": of 291 attacking B-17s, 60 were shot down over Germany, 5 crashed on approach to Britain and 12 more were written off, a loss of 77 aircraft, with 122 more bombers damaged. The heaviest blow the Eighth Air Force had yet suffered forced a halt to unescorted deep-penetration raids until long-range fighters became available.
- January 27, 1967
Apollo 1 fire
Accident — On 27 January 1967 a cabin fire during a launch rehearsal test at Cape Kennedy Air Force Station Launch Complex 34 killed the three crew members of Apollo 1: Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger B. Chaffee. The mission, initially designated AS-204, had been due to launch on 21 February 1967 as the first crewed low Earth orbital test of the Apollo command and service module. The command module was destroyed, and NASA later made the name Apollo 1 official in the crew's honour.
- March 27, 1977
Tenerife airport disaster
Accident — On 27 March 1977 two Boeing 747 passenger jets collided on the runway at Los Rodeos Airport on the Spanish island of Tenerife. The crash killed 583 people and injured 61 others, making it the deadliest accident in aviation history. It prompted a wholesale review of radio phraseology, cockpit communication and runway procedures.
- January 28, 1986
Space Shuttle Challenger disaster
Accident — On 28 January 1986 the Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart 73 seconds into its flight, killing all seven crew members. The spacecraft disintegrated about 46,000 feet (14 km) above the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 16:39:13 UTC. It was the first fatal accident involving an American spacecraft in flight and grounded the programme for nearly three years.
- February 1, 2003
Space Shuttle Columbia disaster
Accident — On 1 February 2003 the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated as it re-entered the atmosphere over Texas and Louisiana, killing all seven astronauts on board. It was the second of two Space Shuttle missions to end in disaster, after the loss of Challenger and its crew in 1986. The accident set the Shuttle programme on the path to retirement.
- February 23, 2008
Loss of the B-2 Spirit «Spirit of Kansas» at Guam
Accident — On 23 February 2008 the B-2 «Spirit of Kansas» (89-0127), of the 393rd Bomb Squadron, crashed on the runway seconds after takeoff from Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, after moisture in its air data sensors fed the flight control computers bad information, triggering an abrupt pitch-up and stall. Both pilots ejected and survived; it was the first operational loss of a B-2 and, with the aircraft destroyed, the costliest aviation accident in history to that date.
- June 23, 2014
First major damage to an F-35: engine fire at Eglin
Accident — An F-35A of the 58th Fighter Squadron suffered a fire in its rear section during take-off at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. The pilot aborted the roll and evacuated the aircraft unhurt, but the damage exceeded fifty million dollars and forced a fleet-wide flight suspension. The investigation traced the failure to a fractured F135 engine blade caused by rubbing against its stator.
- September 23, 2016
A pilot ejects from a burning F-35A at Mountain Home
Accident — An F-35A of the 61st Fighter Squadron, deployed from Luke Air Force Base, caught fire on the ground while preparing for take-off at Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho. The pilot ejected and suffered minor injuries. The cause was a misrouted battery cooling duct that vented hot air into the weapons bay.
- September 28, 2018
First hull loss of an F-35: an F-35B crashes near Beaufort
Accident — An F-35B of training squadron VMFAT-501 crashed near Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort, South Carolina. The pilot ejected successfully and there were no injuries, but the aircraft was destroyed: it was the first hull loss in the programme's history, a day after the type's combat debut in Afghanistan. The failure was traced to a faulty fuel tube, prompting an inspection of the entire worldwide fleet.
- April 9, 2019
The programme's first fatal accident: a Japanese F-35A is lost over the Pacific
Accident — A Japan Air Self-Defense Force F-35A vanished from radar over the Pacific about 135 kilometres east of Misawa air base during a night air-combat exercise. Its pilot, Major Akinori Hosomi, was killed: the programme's first fatality. The investigation concluded that the pilot had suffered spatial disorientation and never attempted to eject.
- December 24, 2019
Crash of the first production Su-57 near Komsomolsk-on-Amur
Accident — On 24 December 2019, the first production Su-57 (tail number "Blue 01"), not yet delivered to the armed forces, crashed during a test flight about 111 km from its home airfield in the Khabarovsk region, after a flight-control system failure sent it into a spin. The pilot ejected safely and was rescued by helicopter; there were no casualties or damage on the ground. The accident delayed completion of the programme's state trials.
- May 19, 2020
An F-35A crashes on landing at Eglin
Accident — An F-35A of the 58th Fighter Squadron crashed while landing at night at Eglin Air Force Base at the end of a training mission. The pilot ejected and was recovered alive. The investigation pointed to a combination of excessive approach speed, pilot fatigue, a landing-system malfunction and interference from the helmet-mounted display, whose imagery overlapped the visual references.
- September 29, 2020
Mid-air collision between an F-35B and a KC-130J tanker
Accident — A Marine Corps F-35B collided with a KC-130J during air-to-air refuelling over the Imperial Valley desert in California. The fighter's pilot ejected and the tanker made an emergency belly landing in a field, with no casualties among its eight crew. The F-35B was destroyed, the type's second hull loss.
- November 17, 2021
First British loss: an F-35B falls into the Mediterranean from HMS Queen Elizabeth
Accident — A Royal Air Force F-35B plunged into the Mediterranean just after taking off from HMS Queen Elizabeth. The pilot ejected and was recovered aboard the carrier. The cause was a plastic air-intake cover that had not been removed before flight and starved the engine; the wreckage was salvaged from the seabed weeks later to keep it out of foreign hands.
- January 4, 2022
A South Korean F-35A makes a belly landing at Seosan
Accident — A Republic of Korea Air Force F-35A landed without its undercarriage at Seosan air base after a bird strike disabled much of its flight electronics. The pilot was unhurt. South Korea temporarily grounded its fleet and eventually withdrew the aircraft from service, the repair being judged economically unviable.
- January 24, 2022
An F-35C crashes into the deck of USS Carl Vinson
Accident — An F-35C of squadron VFA-147 struck the after ramp of USS Carl Vinson while attempting to land in the South China Sea and fell into the water. The pilot ejected and was rescued, and seven people were injured on deck. The Navy recovered the wreckage from more than 3,700 metres down in an operation lasting weeks.
- October 19, 2022
Wake turbulence downs an F-35A at Hill
Accident — An F-35A of the 388th Fighter Wing crashed at the end of the runway at Hill Air Force Base, Utah, while landing after an exercise. The pilot ejected and survived with injuries. The investigation concluded that wake turbulence from the preceding aircraft in the formation destabilised the jet during the approach.
- December 10, 2022
Fire and loss of the B-2 Spirit «Spirit of Hawaii»
Accident — On 10 December 2022 the B-2 «Spirit of Hawaii», of the 509th Bomb Wing at Whiteman Air Force Base, suffered a hydraulic failure that caused the main landing gear to collapse and sparked a fire upon returning to base. With damage estimated at roughly $300 million, the Air Force judged repair uneconomical and confirmed the aircraft's permanent retirement, reducing the fleet to 19 airframes.
- December 15, 2022
A factory-fresh F-35B crashes at Fort Worth
Accident — An F-35B crashed during an acceptance flight at Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth, next to the plant where it had been built. The aircraft bounced off the runway in hover mode and the Lockheed Martin test pilot ejected at very low altitude with minor injuries. Video of the mishap circulated widely and the episode was attributed to an oscillation in the propulsion system.
- September 17, 2023
The South Carolina "ghost jet": an F-35B flies on after its pilot ejects
Accident — The pilot of an F-35B of squadron VMFAT-501 ejected in bad weather near Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort, and the aircraft flew on unmanned for more than a hundred kilometres before coming down in rural Williamsburg County. The Marine Corps publicly asked the population for help in locating the wreckage, and the episode became famous as the "ghost jet". The investigation found the pilot had ejected because of a cascading electrical failure that led him to believe the aircraft was lost.
- May 28, 2024
An F-35B crashes at Kirtland during a ferry flight
Accident — A factory-fresh F-35B crashed on take-off from Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico, during a refuelling stop on its ferry flight from Fort Worth. The Lockheed Martin test pilot ejected and was seriously injured. The accident briefly halted deliveries and disrupted local electricity supply when the aircraft struck nearby infrastructure.
- January 28, 2025
An F-35A crashes at Eielson and the pilot ejects in full view of the base
Accident — An F-35A of the 354th Fighter Wing crashed close to Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska, after a failure on approach. The pilot ejected and was recovered alive; footage of the aircraft coming down while the parachute drifted over the runway travelled the world. The investigation pointed to hydraulic fluid in the landing gear freezing in the extreme conditions of interior Alaska.
- July 30, 2025
An F-35C is lost near Naval Air Station Lemoore
Accident — A U.S. Navy F-35C crashed near Naval Air Station Lemoore, in California's Central Valley, at around half past six in the evening local time. The pilot ejected and was taken to hospital for observation. Several outlets dated the event to 31 July because of their publication time, but the base's official release places it on the 30th.
- March 19, 2026
A U.S. F-35 makes an emergency landing after a combat mission against Iran
Accident — A U.S. F-35 was forced into an emergency landing on returning from a combat mission related to Iran, as confirmed by military command. It is the first documented case of a Lightning II damaged in the course of a real combat operation. Details of the cause and extent of the damage were not made public.
- July 31, 2026
An F-35 crashes at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar
Accident — An F-35 crashed at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego. It is the most recent recorded mishap involving the type and again drew attention to the accident rate of a fleet that already exceeds a thousand aircraft in service across some twenty countries.