1981 in aviation

Years in aviation:	1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984
Centuries:	19th Century · 20th century · 21st century
Decades:	1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s
Years:	1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984

This is a list of aviation-related events from 1981:

Events

January

• January 3 – Pan American World Airways makes its final Boeing 707 flight.
• January 7 – A Boeing 747 of CAAC lands at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, marking the first flight from the mainland of China to the United States time since 1949.
• January 11–13 – Max Anderson and Don Ida make a failed attempt to circumnavigate the world by balloon, although their craft, the Jules Verne, makes a flight of 2,900 miles (4,667 km) from Luxor, Egypt, to New Delhi, India, in 48 hours before they give up.
• January 18 – Bell Helicopter delivers its 25,000th production helicopter.
• January 28 – Pan Am commences a weekly New York-Beijing service.

February

• February 1 – American aircraft industrialist Donald Douglas, founder of the Douglas Aircraft Company, dies at the age of 88.
• February 18 – American aircraft designer and industrialist Jack Northrop, founder of the Northrop Corporation, dies at the age of 85.

March

• March 2 – Japan Air Lines is the first airline to use a computerised flight simulator to train its crews.
• March 26 – The keel of the first aircraft carrier designed as such to be built in Italy, Giuseppe Garibaldi, is laid by Italcantieri in Monfalcone.
• March 28 – Members of the group Komando Jihad hijack the Douglas DC-9 Woyla, operating as Garuda Indonesia Flight 206 with 57 passengers on board, during a flight from Palembang to Medan on Sumatra in Indonesia, ordering the plane to fly to Colombo, Sri Lanka. After refueling at Penang, Malaysia, the aircraft flies to Don Muang, Thailand, where commandos of the Royal Thai Air Force and Indonesian Army Kopassus unit storm it. Four hijackers and a Kopassus commando are killed and two people are injured; the two hijackers who surrender are killed on an aircraft taking them and the Kopassus troops to Djakarta.
• March 28 – Air France pilot Michel Breton flies the airline's last Sud Aviation Caravelle service, from Amsterdam to Paris.
• March 29 – British Airways makes its last Vickers VC10 flight.

April

• April 3 – Pan American World Airways founder Juan Trippe dies in Los Angeles, California.
• April 10 – Japan Air Lines carries its 10 millionth passenger
• April 12 – The Space Shuttle Columbia takes off. It marks the first time an American space shuttle flies operationally. It glides to a landing two days later.
• April 30 – Peoplexpress Airlines commences operations.

May

• May 2 – A 55-year-old Australian man, Laurence James Downey, enters a lavatory aboard Aer Lingus Flight 164, a Boeing 737-200 with 107 other people on board, five minutes before landing at London Heathrow Airport in London, England, douses himself with petrol (gasoline), and walks into the cockpit with a cigarette lighter in his hand. He demands that the airliner fly to Iran, then specifies France when the flight crew tells him that the aircraft lacks the fuel to fly to Iran. The plane lands at Le Touquet – Côte d'Opale Airport in Le Touquet, France, where Downey demands that Pope John Paul II make public the Third Secret of Fatima. After 10 hours, French police storm the plane and arrest Downey without injury to anyone.
• May 9 – After modifications, the British aircraft carrier HMS Hermes reenters service with the Royal Navy as the world's first carrier with a ski-jump ramp. Royal Navy Lieutenant Commander D. R. Taylor had developed the ramp.

June

• June 7 - In Operation Opera, eight Israeli Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcons armed with two 2,000-pound (907-kg) bombs each, escorted by six F-15 Eagles, make a long-range strike into Iraq to destroy the nuclear reactor at Osirak. A French technician and a number of Iraqis are killed. It is the first time any air force uses the F-16 in combat.
• June 26 – Dan-Air Flight 240, a Hawker Siddeley HS 748 series 2A cargo aircraft, crashes near Nailstone, Leicestershire, England, killing the entire crew of three, after the failure of a cabin door causes a major structural failure.

July

• July 7 – Stephen Ptacek flies the solar-powered aircraft Solar Challenger across the English Channel, taking a little over five hours.
• July 17 – The Israeli Air Force attacks Beirut, Lebanon, in retribution for Palestinian terror attacks.
• July 31 – The leader of Panama's military dictatorship, General Omar Torrijos Herrera, dies along with all six other people on board when a Panamanian Air Force de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter crashes into Marta Hill while trying to land at Coclesito, Panama, in bad weather.

August

• August 13 – All 13 people on board die when a Bristow Helicopters Westland Wessex 60 helicopter carrying workers from the offshore Leman Gas Field to Bacton Gas Terminal at Bacton, Norfolk, England, loses power and crashes into the North Sea.
• August 19 – Indian Airlines Flight 557, a HAL 748, is damaged beyond repair when it overruns the runway at Mangalore Airport at Mangalore, India, but all 26 people on board – among them Karnataka state and future Indian government official Veerappa Moily – are uninjured.
• August 19 – Two United States Navy F-14 Tomcats shoot down two Sukhoi Su-22s of the Libyan Air Force over the Gulf of Sidra.
• August 22 – Far Eastern Air Transport Flight 103, a Boeing 737-222, suffers explosive decompression shortly after departure from Taipei Songshan Airport in Taipei, Taiwan, after severe corrosion leads to a pressure hull rupture. The plane breaks up in mid-air and crashes, killing all 110 people on board.

September

• September 3 - McDonnell Douglas delivers the 1,000th DC-9 produced; it was ordered by Swissair.
• September 10 - British Airways CEO Roy Watts announces a financial crisis for the airline. He states that the company is losing £UK 200 per minute.

October

• October 2 - President of the United States Ronald Reagan re-starts the Rockwell B-1 Lancer bomber program by announcing the order of 100 B-1Bs for the United States Air Force.
• October 6 - NLM CityHopper Flight 431 encounters a tornado, loses a wing, breaks up in mid-air, and crashes near Moerdijk, Netherlands. All 17 people aboard the Fokker F28 Fellowship 4000 die.

November

• November 13 – Ben Abruzzo and his crew make the first crossing of the Pacific Ocean by balloon, in the Double Eagle V
• November 21 – The United States bans the Soviet airline Aeroflot from flying in its airspace after an Aeroflot flight strays from its supposed flight path and overflies American military installations.

December

• December 1 – A chartered Yugoslavian McDonnell Douglas MD-81 operating as Inex-Adria Aviopromet Flight 1308 crashes into Mount San Pietro on Corsica, killing all 180 people on board.
• December 12 – Maxie Anderson and Don Ida launch from Luxor, Egypt, in the balloon Jules Verne to begin the first serious attempt at a circumnavigation of the world by balloon. They are forced to end their attempt on December 14 at Hansa, India, after a flight of 2,676 miles (4,316 km).
• December 25 – U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Thomas Tiller is rescued from the Atlantic Ocean by a boat. He had floated at sea for seven days after his plane, an F-4 Phantom II, had crashed on December 18.

First flights

January

• January 1 - LearAvia Lear Fan N626BL

March

• March 27 - Aerotec Tangará
• March 28 - Dornier 228 D-IFNS

April

• April 10 - SIAI Marchetti S.211 I-SITF
• April 15 - Dassault-Breguet Guardian

June

• June 1 - Shorts 360
• June 18 - F-117 Nighthawk

September

• September 3 - BAe 146 G-SSSH
• September 26 - Boeing 767 N767BA

November

• November 5 - AV-8B Harrier II 161396

December

• December 11 - OMAC I
• December 17 - Hughes NOTAR
• December 17 - NAC Fieldmaster

Entered service

• Vympel R-33 AA missile

December

• December 7 – Mitsubishi F-15J with Japan Air Self-Defense Force

Retirements

• Second half of 1981 – Avro Canada CF-100 Canuck by the Canadian Armed Forces