41 years ago at Mission Control USA "We copy you down Eagle" - reply was "Houston - Tranquillity Base here the Eagle has landed" - Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin had landed on the moon

On July 20 (USA) Neil opened the Luna Module's hatch at 02:51 UTC and began his descent to the surface - after placing his foot on the moon said "That's one small step for man - one giant leap for mankind"

A 41-year-old cattle mustering pilot is lucky to be alive after the Cessna 172S he was in apparently experienced an engine problem when on return to the Austral Downs Station airstrip east of Tennant Creek - the aircraft ended up demolished after the pilot attempted to land near a dry creek bed

Meanwhile an amateur-built Lancair IV with 4 persons on board also reported an engine problem during a Kakadu National Park scenic flight and headed for Jabiru airport - it lost power on approach and crash-landed sliding more than 600m along the airstrip

"The plane slid down the Jabiru airstrip on its rear wheels and its nose and it came to rest in scrub land about 50 metres from the runway"

NT Police advise that all on board were experienced pilots on a visit to the area for aircraft maintenance training...

Sid O'Toole the Chief investigator of Papua New Guinea's Civil Aviation Authority had his contract expire last week where he was in the process of finalising a report into a Twin Otter that crashed into the Owen Stanley Ranges last year killing all on board

Sid now in his 60's learnt to fly at Archerfield in the '70's and went on to be involved in Flight Service and when that was shut down turned to accident investigation with the OZ Government's revamped departments finally moving to PNG a number of years ago

Swiss national - André Borschberg - was at the controls for a record breaking flight in the world's first manned solar powered aircraft to fly at night - the 4-electric motor powered Solar Impulse took off at 6:51 a.m. on 7 July from an airfield in Payerne Switzerland - it returned for a landing the following morning at 9:00 a.m. local time after it had reached a maximum altitude of 8,700m (28,500')

Meanwhile British-based firm QinetiQ had its 50-kilo unmanned Zephyr airborne for 7-days over a US military testing ground in Arizona and is expected to stay aloft for another week - in order to make the Zephyr's new record official a representative of the Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI) is present at the Yuma airbase waiting for the lightweight machine to land