On This Day – March 16, 1926 – Robert H. Goddard launches first liquid-filled rocket.

On March 16, 1926 – At 2:30 in the afternoon, Robert Hutchings Goddard, Ph.D., a professor in physics at Clark University, launched the first successful liquid-fueled rocket from his Aunt Effie’s farm (known as “the Asa Ward Farm”) at Auburn, Massachusetts. (1)

On March 16, 1962 – Flying Tiger Line Flight 739, a Lockheed Super Constellation (N6921C) carrying 93 soldiers from Travis Air Force Base, Calif. to Saigon, Vietnam, disappears over the western Pacific Ocean. No wreckage nor bodies are ever found, but the 107 people on board are presumed killed. A cause for the disappearance is never determined.

On March 16, 1983 – A Boeing 767 flies 5,499 miles (8,798 km) nonstop from Lisbon, Portugal to Boeing Field, Wash., setting a distance record for twin-engine airliners. (2)

 

(1) Source: https://www.thisdayinaviation.com/16-march-1926/

(2) http://www.nycaviation.com/2012/03/march-16th-in-aviation-history-boeing-767-sets-twin-engine-distance-record/20952

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