The U.S. State Department angrily accused the Soviet Union of
shooting down an unarmed T-39 Sabreliner aircraft of the United
States Air Force (similar to above) while on a training mission
over Erfurt, East Germany, by a MiG-19 jet fighter of the Soviet
Air Force. Three U.S. officers aboard the plane were killed in the
incident.

According to the U.S. military, the jet became disoriented by a
violent storm that led the plane to veer nearly 100 miles off
course.

The Soviet attack on the plane provoked angry protests from
the Department of State and various congressional leaders,
including Senator Hubert H. Humphrey, who charged that the
Soviets had intentionally downed the plane “to gain the
offensive” in the aggressive Cold War maneuvering.

For their part, the Soviets refused to accept U.S. protests and
responded that they had “all grounds to believe that this was
not an error or mistake…It was a clear intrusion.”

Hubert Horatio Humphrey Jr.
(May 27, 1911 – January 13, 1978)

Con Edison security camera captures U.S. Airways flight
1549 landing on the Hudson River.

On January 15, 2009, a potential disaster turned into a heroic
display of skill and composure when Captain Chesley Burnett Sullenberger III safely landed the plane he was piloting on New
York City’s Hudson River after a bird strike caused its engines
to fail. David Paterson, governor of New York at the time, dubbed
the incident the “miracle on the Hudson.”

Sullenberger, a former Air Force fighter pilot with decades of
flying experience, received a slew of honors for his actions,
including an invitation to Barack Obama’s presidential
inauguration and resolutions of praise from the U.S.
Congress.

Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger III, pilot of US Airways Flight
1549.

(FOX NEWS) – Aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart departed on a
journey to become the first pilot to successfully fly solo from
Hawaii to mainland United States on this day in history, Jan.
11, 1935.

The daring flight across a vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean
had claimed the lives of 10 previous aviators. She earned
$10,000 from promoters in Hawaii for her death-defying
achievement.

 
Amelia Earhart on Jan. 12, 1935, after the first Hawaii-to-California flight. She was the first pilot to succeed at
flying the route.

Near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Orville and Wilbur Wright made
the first successful flight in history of a self-propelled, heavier-
than-air aircraft.  Orville piloted the gasoline-powered, propeller-
driven biplane, which stayed aloft for 12 seconds and covered
120 feet on its inaugural flight.

               Orville Wright                         Wilbur Wright

National Air and Space Museum, Washington DC.

Glenn Miller (March 1, 1904 – December 15, 1944)    
    
    
    
    
    
 

General James Doolittle of the United States Army Air Forces
(USAAF), hero of the daring “Doolittle Raid” on mainland Japan
and later the unified commander of Allied air forces in Europe
in World War II, offered the following high praise to one of his
staff officers in 1944: “Next to a letter from home, Captain Miller,
your organization is the greatest morale builder in the European
Theater of Operations.”