Yes, but wouldn't sell any to Germany or GB, although GB was content to press on with hydrogen as it provided more lift than helium.  

13 January 1942 - The first escape from an aircraft using an ejector seat.

Various methods of escape from a stricken aircraft in flight had been tested as early as 1916, but the first genuine escape took place in 1942 when Helmut Schenk a test pilot flying a prototype Heinkel He 280 ejected when his control surfaces became iced up. He was being towed aloft by two Me 110s prior to testing a new engine. 

14 January 1742 - Edmond Halley died.

Astronomer Royal 1720-42. Among his many scientific discoveries he is best remembered as predicting the return of a comet he observed as a young man in 1682, calculating that it appears to Earth on a 76 year cycle. He was shown to be correct, but only after his death, it reappeared as he predicted in 1758 and was named in his honour.

The largest dozer I drove was a 951 caterpillar, a young man’s machine if ever there was one because your  both arms and both legs were pumping continuously the whole day on the levers and pedals

BX23 with excavator & bucket. 23 h.p. 3 cylinder diesel. A little guy. 

Which just goes to show what an utter idiot he is. Of course climate change is real, the question though is whether it's natural or man-made. To say it isn't happening is a mark of his stupidity.

On the subject of the Supreme Arsehole the worker who heckled Trump at a Detroit car plant and who received an "appropriate and unambiguous" response leading to his suspension has been given $700,000 and rising from a Go Fund Me appeal. That what I call "appropriate and unambiguous". 

15 January 1951 - Maj-Gen Sir Ernest Swinton died.

British Army officer credited with the invention of the tank.

As a Major in the Royal Engineers in 1915 Swinton joined the Landship Committee an Admiralty body tasked with building, for want of a better description, land ironclads. We were already using US built Holt tractors to haul guns etc, but Swinton improvised the design to create an tracked armoured gun. Built by Fosters of Lincoln the first tank, named Little Willie, was constructed by the end of the year. It never saw action, never leaving England, but it was the basis for subsequent tanks on the Western Front in 1916.

Swinton was knighted in 1923. 

16 January 1969 - The first docking of two spacecraft and the first transfer of crew between spacecraft in orbit. 

The Soviet spacecraft Soyuz 4 with three crew was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on 14 January followed the next day by Soyuz 5 also with three crewmen. The following day the two docked above the Earth and two crew from Soyuz 5 completed a spacewalk to enter their sister craft and a return to Earth on 17 January. The lone cosmonaut in Soyuz 5 returned the day after. 

Several people seem to have come up with ideas but never actually constructed a working device. This one I'll concede to the Yanks. 

17 January 1997 - Clyde Tombaugh died. 

US astronomer who in 1930 discovered the planet Pluto. His work as an amateur gained him a position at the Lowell Observatory in Arizona in 1929. There he discovered a moving object at the outer reaches of the solar system which he determined to be a small planet. It was named Pluto at the suggestion of an 11 year old English girl.

In 2006 Pluto was downgraded to a dwarf planet. 

17 January 1997 - Clyde Tombaugh died. 

US astronomer who in 1930 discovered the planet Pluto. His work as an amateur gained him a position at the Lowell Observatory in Arizona in 1929. There he discovered a moving object at the outer reaches of the solar system which he determined to be a small planet. It was named Pluto at the suggestion of an 11 year old English girl.

In 2006 Pluto was downgraded to a dwarf planet. 

Dwarfs have enough problems with "body shaming." And now they are "shaming" planets? I am going to stay out of the showers at the gym. 

17 January 1997 - Clyde Tombaugh died. 

US astronomer who in 1930 discovered the planet Pluto. His work as an amateur gained him a position at the Lowell Observatory in Arizona in 1929. There he discovered a moving object at the outer reaches of the solar system which he determined to be a small planet. It was named Pluto at the suggestion of an 11 year old English girl.

In 2006 Pluto was downgraded to a dwarf planet. 

I still view Pluto as a planet. The Astronomy Picture of the Day for May 18, 2025 is at 

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250518.html .Enjoy the video. 

Pluto will always be a fully-fledged planet for me too. Luckily Tombaugh never lived to see his discovery relegated to minor status. 

18 January 1888 - Sir Thomas Sopwith born.

English engineer, designer and aviator, founder in 1912 of the Sopwith Aviation Company.

His company built over 18,000 aircraft during World War I, including more than 5700 Sopwith Camels, his most successful fighter biplane. 

The dramatic fall in orders after the end of the war resulted in the bankruptcy of the company when it failed in its attempt to diversify into motorcycle manufacture. 

In the 1930s he was a major name in yachting competing in the America's Cup. 

Sopwith was knighted in 1953 and died aged 101 in 1989.

The Sopwith Camel had been retired long before World War II, in 1920 I think. We flew Fairey Swordfish at Taranto.