Frank Beacham's Journal

Twelve years ago today, 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 12th 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 — 78 years ago — Franklin Roosevelt became the first U.S. president to travel on official business by airplane

On this day in 1943 — 78 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 three years ago at age 87

John Young (right foreground) gives a news conference. Frank Beacham is in the far left.

Photo by Ron Lindsey

John Young, the first space shuttle commander, died on this day three 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.

Frank Beacham

Photo by Ron Lindsey

On this day in 1903 — 117 years ago — Orville Wright piloted the first powered airplane 20 feet above a wind-swept beach in North Carolina

On this day in 1903 — 117 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.

A Russian soldier playing an abandoned piano in Chechnya, 1994

Photo by drugoi

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

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, now 97, is an avid Twitter user. He was recently asked how many U.F.O.s he had encountered. “None,” he said. “I don’t drink before I fly.”

Thanks History.com and the New York Times!