1959 in aviation
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This is a list of aviation-related events from 1959:
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[edit] Events
- The Canadian Golden Hawks aerobatic team is formed.
- The United States Department of the Navy merges its Bureau of Aeronautics and Bureau of Ordnance to form a new Bureau of Naval Weapons.[1]
[edit] January
- January 6 – While on approach to Tri-Cities Regional Airport in Bristol, Tennessee, Southeast Airlines Flight 308, a Douglas DC-3A, strays off course and crashes into Holston Mountain, killing all 10 people on board.
- January 11 – Lufthansa Flight 502, a Lockheed L-1049G Super Constellation, crashes just short of the runway on approach to land at Rio de Janeiro-Galeão International Airport in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, killing 36 of the 39 people on board and leaving all three survivors injured.
- January 25 – American Airlines begins Boeing 707 jet service between New York, New York, and Los Angeles, California.[2]
[edit] February
- February 3 – American Airlines Flight 320, a Lockheed L-188A Electra, crashes into the East River while on approach to New York City's LaGuardia Airport, killing 65 of the 73 people on board. It is the first fatal accident involving the Electra.
- February 3 – Rock music stars Ritchie Valens, Buddy Holly and The Big Bopper die when the Beechcraft Bonanza they are traveling in crashes during a snow storm in Iowa.
- February 17 – A chartered Turkish Airlines Vickers Viscount Type 793 carrying Prime Minister of Turkey Adnan Menderes to London to sign the London Agreement for the constitution of Cyprus strikes trees, loses its wings and engines, and crashes in Jordan's Wood in Newdigate, Surrey, England, while on approach to Gatwick Airport. Fourteen of the 24 people on board die, and nine of the 10 survivors are injured. Menderes survives with only minor scratches on his face and signs the agreement two days later in his hospital bed.
- February 20 – The Canadian government cancels the Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow.[3]
[edit] March
- March 29 – Barthélemy Boganda, the prime minister of the Central African Republic autonomous territory (the future Central African Republic) dies when his plane explodes in mid-air over Boukpoyanga, killing all on board.
- March 31 – BOAC commences its first scheduled round-the-world westbound service from London (UK) via New York City, San Francisco, and Honolulu to Tokyo, Japan and onward to London in the United Kingdom.
[edit] April
- April 8 – The Italian World War I ace and famed seaplane racing pilot Mario de Bernardi is performing aerobatics in a light plane over a Rome airport when he begins to experience a heart attack. He lands the plane safely, but dies minutes later at the age of 65.
- April 23 – An Air Charter Limited Avro Super Trader IV carrying top-secret equipment from the United Kingdom to the rocket range at Australia's Woomera Airfield crashes on Mount Süphan in Turkey, killing all 12 men on board. The wreckage is not found until April 29.
[edit] May
- May 1 – North Vietnam organizes No. 919 Transport Regiment as the first unit of the Vietnam People's Air Force.
- May 12 – Capital Airlines Flight 75, a Vickers 745D Viscount, breaks apart in severe turbulence and crashes in a rural area near Chase, Maryland, killing all 31 people on board.
[edit] June
- June 4 – Max Conrad flies a Piper Comanche from Casablanca to New York, setting a new light plane distance record of 7,683 miles (12,365 km).
- June 8 – The United States Navy submarine USS Barbero (SS-317) and the United States Post Office attempt the delivery of mail via Missile Mail.
- June 16 – North Korean Air Force Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17s attack a United States Navy P4M Mercator off the coast of North Korea. The Mercator's crew returns the aircraft safely to Japan.
- June 30 – A U.S. Air Force North American F-100 Super Sabre fighter suffers an in-flight engine fire over Okinawa. The pilot ejects safely, but the F-100 crashes into Miyamori Elementary School and surrounding houses in Uruma, killing 11 students at the school and six other people in the neighborhood and injuring 210 others, including 156 students at the school.
[edit] July
- July 8 – The Argentine Navy commissions its first aircraft carrier, ARA Independencia (V-1). She is the first aircraft carrier to enter service in Latin America.
- July 9 – A Royal Air Force Vickers Valiant makes the first non-stop flight from England to Cape Town, South Africa.
- July 14 – Major V. Ilyushin of the Soviet Union sets a new altitude record of 28,852 m (94,659 ft) in the Sukhoi T-431.
- July 29 – Qantas introduces the Boeing 707 on its Sydney-San Francisco route, the first transpacific service flown by jet.
[edit] August
- August 19 – A Transair Douglas Dakota chartered by the British National Union of Students and carrying 29 British students and a crew of three strays off course and crashes in the Montseny mountain range in Catalonia, Spain, killing all on board. It is Transair's first accident.
- August 24 – Pan American World Airways inaugurates the first jetliner service between the continental United States and Hawaii, using Boeing 707s.[4]
[edit] September
- September 23 – The United States Air Force officially cancels the North American Aviation XF-108 Rapier.
- September 24 – The Transports Aériens Intercontinentaux (TAI) Douglas DC-7C F-BIAP flies into trees while departing Bordeaux–Mérignac Airport, in Mérignac, France, and crashes, killing 54 of the 65 people on board and leaving all 11 survivors injured.
- September 29 – Braniff Flight 542, a Lockheed L-188 Electra, disintegrates in mid-air and crashes near Buffalo, Texas, killing all 34 people on board.
[edit] October
- October 30 – The Piedmont Airlines Douglas DC-3 Buckeye Pacemaker, operating as Flight 349, crashes on Bucks Elbow Mountain near Crozet, Virginia, killing 26 of the 27 people on board and seriously injuring the sole survivor, a passenger who is found near the wreckage still strapped into his seat.
- October 31 – Colonel G. Mosolov of the Soviet Union sets a new airspeed record of 2,387 km/h (1,483 mph) in the Mikoyan-Gurevich Ye-66
[edit] November
- November 16 – National Airlines Flight 967, a Douglas DC-7B, crashes in the Gulf of Mexico with the loss of all 42 people on board. An in-flight bombing is suspected but never proven.
- November 21 – Two minutes after takeoff from Beirut, Lebanon, Ariana Afghan Airlines Flight 202, a Douglas DC-4, crashes into the side of a hill at Aramoun, killing 24 of the 27 people on board.
[edit] December
- December 6 – Flying a McDonnell F4H-1 Phantom II, U.S. Navy Commander Lawrence E. Flint sets a new world altitude record of 98,556 feet (30,040 meters)[5] in Operation Top Flight.
- December 14 – A U.S. Air Force Lockheed F-104C Starfighter sets a new world altitude record of 103,389 ft (31,513 m).[6]
- December 15 – U.S. Air Force Major J. W. Roberts sets a new world airspeed record of 1,525.93 mph (2,455.74 km/h) in a Convair F-106 Delta Dart.[7]
[edit] First flights
[edit] January
- January 8 - Armstrong Whitworth AW.650 Argosy G-AOZZ
- January 20 - Vickers Vanguard G-AOYW
- January 27 – Convair 880[8]
[edit] February
- February 3 - Agusta-Bell AB.102
- February 28 - Aérospatiale Alouette III
[edit] March
- March 11 – Sikorsky HSS-2 Sea King (redesignated SH-3 Sea King in 1962)[9]
- March 12 – Aero Boero AB-95
[edit] April
- April 5 - Aero L-29 Delfin
[edit] May
- May 4 - Pilatus PC-6
[edit] June
- June 5 – Sud-Aviation SA 3200 Frelon[10]
- June 8 - North American X-15 (unpowered)
- June 8 - Wassmer WA-40
- June 17 - Dassault Mirage IV
[edit] July
- July 14 – Sukhoi T-431, prototype of the Sukhoi Su-9
- July 30 – Northrop N-156F, prototype of the F-5 Freedom Fighter[11]
[edit] September
- September 17 - North American X-15 (powered)
[edit] October
- Agusta A.103
- October 27 - Myasishchev M-50
[edit] November
- November 23 - Boeing 720
[edit] December
- December 13 - Aviamilano Scricciolo I-MAGY
[edit] Entered service
[edit] February
- Aeritalia G91R with the Italian Air Force[12]
[edit] March
- March 26 - Breguet Alizé with the Aéronavale.
[edit] April
- April 20 - Ilyushin Il-18 with Aeroflot.
[edit] May
[edit] June
- June 12 - C-130 Hercules with the 463rd Troop Carrier Wing USAF.
[edit] July
- de Havilland Sea Vixen with the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm.
- July 22 - Sud Aviation Caravelle with Air France.
- July 22 - Antonov An-10 with Aeroflot.
[edit] September
- September 18 - Douglas DC-8 with Delta Air Lines and United Air Lines.
[edit] December
- GAM-77 Hound Dog cruise missile with USAF Strategic Air Command B-52s.
[edit] References
- ^ Swanborough, Gordon, and Peter M. Bowers, United States Navy Aircraft Since 1911, Second Edition, London: Putnam, 1976, ISBN 0-370-10054-9, p. 3.
- ^ "Today in History," Washington Post Express, January 25, 2012, p. 26.
- ^ Donald, David, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997, ISBN 0-7607-0592-5, p. 88.
- ^ Aviation Hawaii: 1950-1959 Chronology of Aviation in Hawaii
- ^ Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, p. 311.
- ^ Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, p. 283.
- ^ Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, ISBN 0-517-56588-9, p. 105.
- ^ Boyne, Walter J., "Unfettered Turkeys," Aviation History, July 2008, p. 49.
- ^ Polmar, Norman, "Historic Aircraft: The King of the Sea," Naval History, February 2012, p. 12.
- ^ Donald, David, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997, ISBN 0-7607-0592-5, p. 23.
- ^ Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, ISBN 0-517-56588-9, p. 372.
- ^ Donald, David, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997, ISBN 0-7607-0592-5, p. 8.
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