the farnborough international airshow (11. 809)

The biggest aerospace exhibition behind Paris, the showcase of civilian and military aircraft hosted on even years in Hampshire (the French take the odd) has debuted the Concorde, the Vickers, Airbus 380, the F-35 and the Eurofighter. The week-long event for clientele and only open to the public on the ending weekend on this day in 1974 hosted the arrival of a US Air Force reconnaissance jet setting a new transatlantic crossing record (still unbroken), from the environs of New York to London in just under two hours for a subsonic flight. Unfortunately this achievement was overshadowed by a fatal accident by a prototype Sikorsky Blackhawk attack helicopter that crashed with attempting an aerobatics demonstration. Both test pilots were killed and development of the aircraft ceased afterwards. A later model was eventually chosen in 1976 for the programme, named after the epithet and nom-de-guerre of Native American Sauk leader Mahkatêwe-meshi-kêhkêhkwa, whom fought alongside British forces during the War of 1812 in hopes of ridding his tribe’s lands of American settlers.