During his formative years Trenchard struggled academically, failing many examinations and only just succeeding in meeting the minimum standard for commissioned service in the British Army. As a young infantry officer, Trenchard served in India and in South Africa. During the Boer War, Trenchard was critically wounded and as a result of his injury, he lost a lung, was partially paralysed and returned to Great Britain. While convalescing in Switzerland he took up bobsleighing and after a heavy crash, Trenchard found that his paralysis was gone and that he could walk unaided. Some months later, Trenchard returned to South Africa before volunteering for service in Nigeria. During his time in Nigeria, Trenchard commanded the Southern Nigeria Regiment for several years and was involved in efforts to bring the interior under settled British rule and quell inter-tribal violence.

In 1912, Trenchard learned to fly and was subsequently appointed as second in command of the Central Flying School. He held several senior positions in the Royal Flying Corps during World War I, serving as the commander of Royal Flying Corps in France from 1915 to 1917. In 1918, he briefly served as the first Chief of the Air Staff before taking up command of the Independent Air Force in France. Returning as Chief of the Air Staff under Winston Churchill in 1919, Trenchard spent the following decade securing the future of the Royal Air Force. He was Metropolitan Police Commissioner in the 1930s and a defender of the RAF in his later years.

The Yakovlev Yak-42 is a line of tri-jet aircraft produced by the aircraft company Yakolev. The Yak 42 was produced from 1980-2003.

Historically, the yak-42 was competition for older Russian aircraft companies. The Yak-42 was only made in one passenger variant, but it was used in many tests of equipment.

• Crew: 3
• Span: 114 ft 5 in (34.88 m)
• Length: 119 ft 4 in (36.38 m)
• Height: 32 ft 3 in (9.83 m)
• Engines: 3× Lotarev D-36 turbofan
• Cruise Speed: 740 km/h (399 knots, 460 mph) (economy cruise)
• Range: 4,000 km (2,158 nmi, 2,458 mi) (with maximum fuel)

December 26

• 2005 – At around 6 PM local time, a Piper Aztec, Registered N444DA, crashed in shallow water off the coast of the island of South Caicos, Turks and Caicos Islands. Its destination was Providenciales International Airport. All 4 on board (1 pilot 3 passengers) died.

• 2005 – An AH-64D Apache 03-5375 from 1–4th Aviation Regiment collides with another Apache near Baghdad, both crewmembers are killed.^[1][2] Second AH-64 wasn’t destroyed.

• 1989 – United Express Flight 2415 operated by a BAe Jetstream 31 N410UE of North Pacific Airlines was a commuter flight in the United States from Yakima, Washington to Pasco, Washington. The aircraft was approaching Tri-Cities Airport at around 22:30. The crew executed an excessively steep and unstabilized ILS approach. That approach, along with improper air traffic control commands and aircraft icing, caused the aircraft to stall and crash short of the runway. Both crew members and all four passengers were killed.

• 1989 – First flight of the Hongdu N-5

• 1982 – First flight of the Antonov An-124 (“Condor”)

• 1980 – Aeroflot puts the Ilyushin Il-86 into service on its Moscow-Tashkent route.

• 1975 – Introduction: Tupolev TU-144

• 1972 – 117 B-52 Stratofortresses attack Hanoi in Operation Linebacker II, the largest air assault in the Vietnam War to this time.

• 1971 – (26–30) The United States conducts Operation Proud Deep Alpha, which consists of air strikes in three provinces of North Vietnam south of the 20th Parallel.

• 1968 – Two members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine attack El Al Flight 253, a Boeing 707, with a submachine gun and hand grenades as it prepares to depart Athens, Greece, killing one passenger and seriously wounding a flight attendant before being arrested.

• 1967 – The Soviet Union commissions its first helicopter carrier, Moskva.

• 1965 – American air strikes in South Vietnam and Laos resume.

• 1961 – The first missile squadron of the RCAF, No.446 Surface/Air Missile Squadron was formed in North Bay.

• 1956 – First flight of the Convair F-106 Delta Dart

• 1952 – Wisconsin Central Airlines changes its name to North Central Airlines, and moves its headquarters from Clintonville, Wisconsin, to Minneapolis, Minnesota.

• 1948 – I. V. Fedorov becomes the first Soviet pilot to break the sound barrier. He achieves the necessary speed by diving his Lavochkin La-176 jet, powered by a Rolls-Royce Nene engine, at full throttle.

• 1944 – RCAF provided 61 Halifax heavy bombers in a 270-plane raid on St. Vith, France.

• 1943 – 70 to 80 Japanese Rabaul-based aircraft attack U. S. ships supporting the day’s U. S. landing at Cape Gloucester, sinking a destroyer and damaging two others. Minor raids follow on the next two days.

• 1943 – (26-27) Japanese Rabaul-based aircraft raid U. S. forces off Arawe.

• 1939 – The first RAAF squadrons to join the war arrive in Britain

• 1935 – General Rodolfo Graziani requests permission from Benito Mussolini to use poison gas against Ethiopian forces during the Second Italo-Abyssinian War. He receives it, and during the last few days of December Italian aircraft begin dropping mustard gas on Ethiopian troops around the Takkaze River and on the village of Jijiga. Italian planes will drop poison gas for the remainder of the war, and continue to use it against Ethiopian guerrillas after the war ends.

References