Editing 2452: Aviation Firsts

| The {{w|Hughes H-4 Hercules}} (the "Spruce Goose") was a prototype wooden airplane, known for being the largest flying boat ever constructed. The Hercules was designed by aviation pioneer (and, latterly, famed recluse) Howard Hughes. The design was intended as a lightweight transoceanic transport for the military, but the prototype, built out of wood because of aluminum shortages during World War II, was not completed until well after the end of the war and flew only a single time in 1947. Since 1991, it has been on permanent display at the {{w|Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum}} in McMinnville, Oregon, USA.

| In 1971, {{w|Northwest Orient Airlines}} Flight 305 was famously hijacked by an enigmatic man who is best known by the pseudonym [[D. B. Cooper]] (although Dan Cooper was the name he actually used to buy his ticket). After being given a $200,000 ransom by the plane's crew, Cooper proceeded to parachute jump out of the plane using the rear {{w|airstair}} and was never confirmed to have been heard from again; many experts agree that the parachute jump was very risky and it's unlikely that Cooper survived. (Cooper was previously mentioned in [[1400: D.B. Cooper]] and [[1501: Mysteries]].)

| {{w|Amelia Earhart}} was a famous aviator who, along with her navigator {{w|Fred Noonan}}, went missing over the Pacific Ocean in 1937 while attempting a global circumnavigation flight and has never been found. It was previously believed the skeleton of one of them had been found on Nikumaroro island (then called Gardner Island), but this theory is contentious and most scholars reject it today. While there's still a remote possibility that the remains of Earhart and Noonan will eventually be discovered somewhere in the Pacific, the notion of them somehow ending up on the surface of Mars is practically impossible outside the remit of certain conspiracy theories. (Earhart was previously mentioned in [[1501: Mysteries]], [[950: Mystery Solved]], and [[2197: Game Show]].)

| The {{w|US Airways Flight 1549|Miracle on the Hudson}} was a 2009 aviation incident in which an A320 operating US Airways Flight 1549 struck a flock of geese shortly after takeoff from LaGuardia Airport in New York City. Despite the plane losing all its engine power as a result of the bird strike, Captain Chesley Sullenberger successfully crash-landed in the nearby Hudson River with minimal injuries to the passengers onboard. Of course, it would be highly impractical for a powered flight that encounters a problem in the sky above Mars to then fly all the way to Earth just for an emergency landing in the New York area. It is much more likely that a location on mars would, at some point in the future, be named "The Hudson River" and an aircraft land there safely.{{Citation needed}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Amelia Earhart]]

[[Category:Comics featuring D. B. Cooper]]