This Week in Aviation History: D.B. Cooper & Apollo 12

Filed in archive Aviation History on November 27, 2007

This week in aviation history features the first Free flight in a balloon and the only unsolved domestic skyjacking in history.

November 12, 1981: The space shuttle Columbia was launched for the second time. It was the first time a space vehicle was used more than once.

November 14, 1969: Apollo 12, the second manned lunar expedition, was launched.

November 14, 2003: The most distant object ever found in our solar system, named Sedna, was discovered by astronomers at the Mount Palomar Observatory.

November 21, 1783: With the Marquis d'Arlandes, Pilâtre de Rozier made the first free flight in a balloon, reaching a peak altitude of about 3,000 ft and traveling about 5 1/2 mi in 20 min.

November 24, 1971: D. B. Cooper parachuted from a Northwest Airlines flight with $200,000.

On the night before Thanksgiving in 1971, a man identifying himself as Dan Cooper boarded a flight from Portland, Ore. to Seattle and passed a note to the flight attendant that he had a bomb. His demands for $200,000 cash and two sets of parachutes were granted when the plane landed in Seattle.

Thanks Infoplease!