15 January Prototype Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation CA-4 Wackett Bomber, A23-1001, crashes on a test flight to assess powerplant performance and evaluate aerodynamic effects of a new fixed leading edge slat. The need for large capacity transports was so dire at this point that the Luftwaffe was taking Ju 290As straight from the assembly line into operation. 13 January Junkers Ju 290 V1, ( Junkers Ju 90 V11), modified from Ju 90B-1, Werknummer 90 0007, D-AFHG, " Oldenberg", crashed on takeoff evacuating load of wounded troops from the German 6th Army at Stalingrad. 6 January Consolidated B-24D-20-CO Liberator, 41-24202, c/n 997, of the 504th Bomb Squadron, 346th Bomb Group, out of Salina Army Airfield, Kansas, suffers fire in flight, crashes 15 miles SW of Madill, Oklahoma, destroyed by fire. All are killed instantly except for Lt Maleckas, who makes it out with a parachute. 6 January At 1735 CWT, three miles W of White City, Kansas, a Consolidated B-24D-13-CO Liberator, 41-23961, c/n 756, of the 469th Bomb Squadron, 333d Bomb Group, out of Topeka Army Air Base, Kansas, piloted by Robert Clyne, suffers a catastrophic structural failure due to ice. Nazaire honored Magee and the crew of his bomber by erecting a 6-foot-tall (1.8 m) memorial to them. Ball turret gunner Alan Eugene Magee (13 January 1919 – 20 December 2003), though suffering 27 shrapnel wounds, bails out (or is thrown from wreckage) without his chute at ~20,000 feet (6,100 m), loses consciousness due to altitude, freefall plunges through glass roof of the Gare de Saint-Nazaire and is found alive but with serious injuries on floor of depot:saved by German medical care, spends rest of war in prison camp. 3 January Boeing B-17F-27-BO Flying Fortress, 41-24620, c/n 3305, "snap! crackle! pop!", 'PU-O', of the 360th Bomb Squadron, 303rd Bomb Group, on daylight raid over Saint-Nazaire, France, loses wing due to flak, goes into spiral. Despite improved performance over the P-38, difficulties with the new engines, as well as the success of the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt and the P-51 Mustang, leads to no additional orders or production.
Repaired, it returns to flight on 16 February 1943, and is sent to Wright Field, Ohio, for further testing. He was taken to the Naval Medical Center at Bethesda, Md., where his condition was reported not serious." 1 January The sole Lockheed XP-49, 40-3055, a development of the P-38 Lightning, first flown 11 November 1942, suffers a crash landing at Burbank, California when the port landing gear fails to lock down due to a combined hydraulic and electrical problem.
McGinnis, East Falls Church, Va., crashed within a block of his own home recently while on a routine training flight from the Naval Air Base at Anacostia.
Information on aircraft gives the type, and if available, the serial number of the operator in italics, the constructors number, also known as the manufacturer's serial number (c/n), exterior codes in apostrophes, nicknames (if any) in quotation marks, flight callsign in italics, and operating units.ġ943 January (?) "Aviation Cadet Henry A.