Frank Beacham's Journal

On Jan. 15, 2009, Capt. Chesley Sullenberger safely ditched his US Airways Airbus A320 in the Hudson River after striking a flock of geese while taking off from New York City

Today is the 13th anniversary of a miracle.

On Jan. 15, 2009, Capt. Chesley Sullenberger safely ditched his US Airways Airbus A320 in the Hudson River after striking a flock of geese while taking off from New York City.

All 155 people aboard a US Airways flight that landed in the Hudson River 10 years ago survived. Everybody worked together, so everybody survived. This was the “Miracle on the Hudson.”

Capt. Chesley Sullenberger, the pilot of US Airways Flight 1549, feels we are due for another lesson.

“This lack of civic virtue, this lack of remembering our common humanity, this lack of citizenship, is greatly harmful to our nation, to our democracy, to the world,” Captain Sullenberger, 67, said in an interview.

He added, “I feel that I have yet another mission, to be an advocate for our democracy, be a defender of our democracy, as many others have done.”

As for that flight, he said: “I have even greater appreciation now for what everyone did who pulled together. Especially in light of what’s happening in our nation now.”

Thanks New York Times!

Photo by Steven Day

On this day in 1943 — 79 years ago — Franklin Roosevelt became the first U.S. president to travel on official business by airplane

On this day in 1943 — 79 years ago — Franklin Roosevelt became the first U.S. president to travel on official business by airplane.

Crossing the Atlantic by air, Roosevelt flew in a Boeing 314 Flying Boat dubbed the Dixie Clipper to a World War II strategy meeting with Winston Churchill at Casablanca in North Africa.

With German U-boats taking a heavy toll on American marine traffic in the Atlantic, Roosevelt's advisors reluctantly agreed to send him via airplane. Roosevelt, at a frail 60 years old, gamely made the arduous 17,000-mile round trip.

The secret and circuitous journey began on January 11, with the plane stopping several times over four days to refuel and for its passengers to rest.

Roosevelt and his entourage left Florida, touched down in the Caribbean, continued down the southern coast of South America to Brazil and then flew across the Atlantic to Gambia. They reached Casablanca on January 14.

After a successful meeting with Churchill, as well as some sightseeing and visits to the troops, Roosevelt retraced the route back to the United States, celebrating his 61st birthday somewhere over Haiti.

Thanks History.com

John Young, the first space shuttle commander, died on this day four years ago at age 87

John Young, the first space shuttle commander, died on this day four years ago at age 87.

These photos, taken on Dec. 29, 1980 at Kennedy Space Center, show Young giving a pre-flight interview to NBC News. That’s me to the left, carrying the video recorder. It was an unusually cold day at the space center.

The following April, Young would be launched on the first space shuttle flight aboard Columbia.

Photos by Ron Lindsey

Frank Beacham at the Kennedy Space Center, 1980

On this day in 1968 — 53 years years ago — Apollo 8, the first manned mission to the moon, was successfully launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, with astronauts Frank Borman, James Lovell, Jr. and William Anders on board

Earthrise, the iconic photograph taken from Apollo 8 by astronaut Bill Anders, was among the first images taken by humans of the whole Earth

On this day in 1968 — 53 years years ago — Apollo 8, the first manned mission to the moon, was successfully launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, with astronauts Frank Borman, James Lovell, Jr. and William Anders on board.

On Christmas Eve, the astronauts entered into orbit around the moon, the first manned spacecraft ever to do so. During Apollo 8's ten lunar orbits, television images were sent back home, and spectacular photos were taken of Earth and the moon from the spacecraft.

In addition to being the first human beings to view firsthand their home world in its entirety, the three astronauts were also the first to see the dark side of the moon.

On Christmas morning, Apollo 8 left its lunar orbit and began its journey back to Earth, landing safely in the Pacific Ocean on December 27.

On July 20 of the next year, Neil A. Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, astronauts of the Apollo 11 mission, became the first men to walk on the moon.

The crew of Apollo 8 were the first humans to witness Earthrise, the first view of the whole Earth from a spacecraft.

Thanks History.com

The Apollo 8 launch…

To commemorate Apollo 8's anniversary, NASA Goddard produced this video five years ago, on the 45th anniversary, explaining exactly how the seminal Earthrise image was taken.

On this day in 1903 — 118 years ago — Orville Wright piloted the first powered airplane 20 feet above a wind-swept beach in North Carolina

On this day in 1903 — 118 years ago — Orville Wright piloted the first powered airplane 20 feet above a wind-swept beach in North Carolina.

The flight lasted 12 seconds and covered 120 feet. Three more flights were made that day with Orville's brother, Wilbur, piloting the record flight lasting 59 seconds over a distance of 852 feet.

The brothers began their experimentation in flight in 1896 at their bicycle shop in Dayton, Ohio. They selected the beach at Kitty Hawk as their proving ground because of the constant wind that added lift to their craft.

Alan Shepard, Jr., the first of the original NASA Mercury Seven astronauts to fly in outer space, was born 98 years ago today

Alan Shepard, Jr., the first of the original NASA Mercury Seven astronauts to fly in outer space, was born 98 years ago today.

Though he was the first American to fly in space in May, 1961, Shepard was the second person to fly. The first was Yuri Gagarin, a Russian cosmonaut, who fly in April, 1961.

Shepard’s Freedom 7 Mercury flight was designed to enter space, but not to achieve orbit. Ten years later, at age 47 and the oldest astronaut in the program, Shepard commanded the Apollo 14 mission, piloting the lander to the most accurate landing of the Apollo missions.

He became the fifth and oldest person to walk on the Moon, and the only astronaut of the Mercury Seven to walk on the Moon. During the mission, he hit two golf balls on the lunar surface.

These were his only two space flights, as his flight status was interrupted for five years (1964–69) during the Mercury and Gemini programs by Ménière's disease, an inner-ear disease that was surgically corrected before his Moon flight.

Shepard served as Chief of the Astronaut Office from November, 1963 to July, 1969 (the approximate period of his grounding), and from June, 1971 to August, 1974 (from his last flight to his retirement). He was promoted from Captain to Rear Admiral on August 25, 1971 and retired from the Navy and NASA in 1974.

Shepard died of leukemia in Pebble Beach, California, on July 21, 1998 at the age of 74, two years after being diagnosed with that disease.

Above, Shepard with the Freedom 7 space capsule that took him to space.

On this day in 1947 — 73 years ago today — U.S. Air Force Captain Chuck Yeager became the first person to fly faster than the speed of sound

Chuck Yeager in the Bell X-1, in which he broke the sound barrier 73 years ago today. The “Glamorous Glennis” is named after his wife.

Photo by Jack Ridley

On this day in 1947 — 73 years ago today — U.S. Air Force Captain Chuck Yeager became the first person to fly faster than the speed of sound.

Yeager, born in Myra, West Virginia, in 1923, was a combat fighter during World War II and flew 64 missions over Europe. He shot down 13 German planes and was himself shot down over France, but he escaped capture with the assistance of the French Underground.

After the war, he was among several volunteers chosen to test-fly the experimental X-1 rocket plane, built by the Bell Aircraft Company to explore the possibility of supersonic flight.

For years, many aviators believed that man was not meant to fly faster than the speed of sound, theorizing that transonic drag rise would tear any aircraft apart.

All that changed on October 14, 1947, when Yeager flew the X-1 over Rogers Dry Lake in Southern California.

The X-1 was lifted to an altitude of 25,000 feet by a B-29 aircraft and then released through the bomb bay, rocketing to 40,000 feet and exceeding 662 miles per hour (the sound barrier at that altitude).

The rocket plane, nicknamed "Glamorous Glennis," was designed with thin, unswept wings and a streamlined fuselage modeled after a .50-caliber bullet. Because of the secrecy of the project, Bell and Yeager's achievement was not announced until June, 1948.

Yeager continued to serve as a test pilot, and in 1953 he flew 1,650 miles per hour in an X-1A rocket plane. He retired from the U.S. Air Force in 1975 with the rank of brigadier general.

Ironically, Yeager had to fly the mission with two cracked ribs because of a horseback riding accident. In an essay published in 1987, he described how it felt to fly past a barrier that some thought couldn’t be survived: “There was no buffet, no jolt, no shock. Above all, no brick wall to smash into. I was alive.”

He retired from the Air Force in 1975 with the rank of brigadier general and later wrote a best-selling autobiography.

On October 14, 2012, on the 65th anniversary of breaking the sound barrier, Yeager did it again at the age of 89, riding in a McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle piloted by Captain David Vincent out of Nellis Air Force Base in southern Nevada.

Yeager died at age 97 on Dec. 7, 2020.

Thanks History.com and the New York Times!

John Denver died in an aircraft accident 24 years ago today

John Denver died in an aircraft accident 24 years ago today.

To those who bought records like “Rocky Mountain High” and “Take Me Home, Country Roads” by the millions in the 1970s, Denver was much more than just a great songwriter and performer.

With his oversized glasses, bowl haircut and down vest, he was an unlikely fashion icon, and with his vocal environmentalism, he was the living embodiment of an outdoorsy lifestyle that many 20-something baby boomers would adopt as their own.

Denver died on this day in 1997 when his experimental amateur aircraft crashed into Monterey Bay on the California coast.

Born Henry John Deutschendorf, Jr., in 1943 — not in the mountains of Colorado but in Roswell, New Mexico — Denver rose to fame as a recording artist in 1971, when "Take Me Home, Country Roads" rose all the way to #2 on the Billboard pop chart.

In fact, Denver already had a share in a #1 hit as the writer of "Leaving On A Jet Plane," a chart-topper for Peter, Paul and Mary in 1969.

But it was his 1971 breakout as a performer of his own material that made him a household name. Over the course of the 1970s, Denver earned five more Top 10 singles, including the #1 hits "Sunshine On My Shoulders" (1974), "Annie's Song" (1974), "Thank God I'm A Country Boy" (1975) and "I'm Sorry" (1975).

He released 11 albums that were certified Platinum, making him one of the most successful recording artists of the 70s. By the 1990s, Denver was still a popular touring musician, though he was no longer recording new material with significant commercial success.

Over the course of his career, he had become an accomplished private pilot with more than 2,700 hours on various single-and multi-engine aircraft, with both an instrument and a Lear Jet rating.

On October 12, 1997, however, he was flying an unfamiliar aircraft with which he had previously experienced control problems, according to a later investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board.

At approximately 5:30 pm local time, after a smooth takeoff from a Pacific Grove airfield and under ideal flying conditions, Denver apparently lost control of his Long-EZ aircraft several hundred feet over Monterey Bay, leading to the fatal crash.

Thanks History.com

Here, Denver sings “Rocky Mountain High”

On this day in 1957 — 64 years ago — the Soviet Union inaugurated the "Space Age" with its launch of Sputnik, the world's first man-made satellite

On this day in 1957 — 64 years ago — the Soviet Union inaugurated the "Space Age" with its launch of Sputnik, the world's first man-made satellite.

The spacecraft, named Sputnik after the Russian word for "satellite," was launched at 10:29 p.m. Moscow time on Oct. 4, 1957 from the Tyuratam launch base in the Kazakh Republic.

Sputnik had a diameter of 22 inches and weighed 184 pounds. It circled the Earth once every hour and 36 minutes. Traveling at 18,000 miles an hour, its elliptical orbit had an apogee (farthest point from Earth) of 584 miles and a perigee (nearest point) of 143 miles.

Visible with binoculars before sunrise or after sunset, Sputnik transmitted radio signals back to Earth strong enough to be picked up by amateur radio operators. Those in the United States with access to such equipment tuned in and listened in awe as the beeping Soviet spacecraft passed over America several times a day.

In January, 1958, Sputnik's orbit deteriorated, as expected, and the spacecraft burned up in the atmosphere.

Officially, Sputnik was launched to correspond with the International Geophysical Year, a solar period that the International Council of Scientific Unions declared would be ideal for the launching of artificial satellites to study Earth and the solar system. However, many Americans feared more sinister uses of the Soviets' new rocket and satellite technology, which was apparently strides ahead of the U.S. space effort.

Sputnik was some 10 times the size of the first planned U.S. satellite, which was not scheduled to be launched until the next year. The U.S. government, military and scientific community were caught off guard by the Soviet technological achievement, and their united efforts to catch up with the Soviets heralded the beginning of the "space race."

The first U.S. satellite, Explorer, was launched on January 31, 1958. By then, the Soviets had already achieved another ideological victory when they launched a dog into orbit aboard Sputnik 2.

The Soviet space program went on to achieve a series of other space firsts in the late 1950s and early 1960s. They included the first man in space, first woman, first three men, first space walk, first spacecraft to impact the moon, first to orbit the moon, first to impact Venus and the first craft to soft-land on the moon.

However, the United States took a giant leap ahead in the space race in the late '60s with the Apollo lunar-landing program, which successfully landed two Apollo 11 astronauts on the surface of the moon in July, 1969.

Thanks History.com

On Sept. 20, 1963 — 58 years ago —an optimistic and upbeat President John F. Kennedy suggested that the Soviet Union and the United States cooperate on a mission to mount an expedition to the moon. The Soviets and many Americans were caught off guard

On Sept. 20, 1963 — 58 years ago —an optimistic and upbeat President John F. Kennedy suggested that the Soviet Union and the United States cooperate on a mission to mount an expedition to the moon. The proposal caught both the Soviets and many Americans off guard.

In 1961, shortly after his election as president, John F. Kennedy announced that he was determined to win the "space race" with the Soviets. Since 1957, when the Soviet Union sent a small satellite — Sputnik — into orbit around the earth, Russian and American scientists had been competing to see who could make the next breakthrough in space travel.

Outer space became another frontier in the Cold War. Kennedy upped the ante in 1961 when he announced that the United States would put a man on the moon before the end of the decade. Much had changed by 1963, however.

Relations with the Soviet Union had improved measurably. The Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962 had been settled peacefully. A "hot line" had been established between Washington and Moscow to help avert conflict and misunderstandings. A treaty banning the open air testing of nuclear weapons had been signed in 1963.

On the other hand, U.S. fascination with the space program was waning. Opponents of the program cited the high cost of the proposed trip to the moon, estimated at more than $20 billion.

In the midst of all of this, Kennedy, in a speech at the United Nations, proposed that the Soviet Union and United States cooperate in mounting a mission to the moon. "Why," he asked the audience, "should man's first flight to the moon be a matter of national competition?"

Kennedy noted "the clouds have lifted a little" in terms of U.S.-Soviet relations. "The Soviet Union and the United States, together with their allies, can achieve further agreements — agreements which spring from our mutual interest in avoiding mutual destruction," Kennedy said.

Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko applauded Kennedy's speech and called it a "good sign," but refused to comment on the proposal for a joint trip to the moon. In Washington, there was a good bit of surprise — and some skepticism — about Kennedy's proposal.

The "space race" had been one of the focal points of the Kennedy administration when it came to office, and the idea that America would cooperate with the Soviets in sending a man to the moon seemed unbelievable. Other commentators saw economics, not politics, behind the proposal.

With the soaring price tag for the lunar mission, perhaps a joint effort with the Soviets was the only way to save the costly program. What might have come of Kennedy's idea is unknown — just two months later, he was assassinated in Dallas.

His successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, abandoned the idea of cooperating with the Soviets but pushed ahead with the lunar program. In 1969, the United States landed the first men on the moon, thus winning a significant victory the "space race."

Thanks History.com

Above, Sputnik digital artwork by Erik Simonsen