• During the year,
Aeropostal Alas de Venezuela (LAV) introduces the
Douglas DC-8 into service to replace its
Lockheed Super Constellations.
January • January 1 •
East Germany establishes its national
civil aviation authority, the
Hauptverwaltung der Zivilen Luftfahrt (Central Administration for Civil Aviation). • Two
hijackers commandeer a
Cubana de Aviación Bristol Britannia 318 after it departs
Havana, Cuba, and force it to fly them to
New York City. • January 3 –
Aero Flight 311, a
Douglas DC-3C (registration OH-LCC) of the
Finnish airline
Aero, crashes near
Kvevlax (Koivulahti) on approach to
Vaasa Airport in
Finland killing all 25 people on board. An investigation determines
pilot error to be the cause of crash, finding that the
captain and
first officer were both exhausted for lack of sleep and were intoxicated at the time of the crash. It remains the deadliest air disaster to have occurred in Finland. • January 12 – At the
Air Force Flight Test Center at
Edwards Air Force Base,
California, the crew of a
United States Air Force Strategic Air Command B-58 Hustler led by
Major E. J. Deutschendorf – the father of singer-songwriter
John Denver – breaks six world records in a single flight, including five held by the
Soviet Union. The B-58 sets a new world speed record for a flight carrying a 2,000-kilogram (4,409-pound)
payload over a course, achieving an average speed of . The flight also breaks the world speed records for average speed over the same distance carrying a 1,000-kilogram (1,610-pound) payload and carrying no payload and smashes the previous records for the distance in all three payload categories, which had been held by Soviet
Tupolev Tu-104s flying at about half the average speed the B-58 achieves. The flight also sets a new record for average speed over a 1,000-km (621 mph) course, averaging . • January 14 – At the Air Force Flight Test Center at Edwards Air Force Base, California, a U.S. Air Force Strategic Air Command B-58 Hustler sets a new world speed record for a flight carrying a 2,000-kilogram (4,409-pound) payload over a course, averaging . The flight also breaks the world speed records for average speed over the same distance carrying a 1,000-kilogram (1,610-pound) payload and carrying no payload. • March 14 – A U.S. Air Force B-52F Stratofortress carrying two nuclear weapons
crashes in
Sutter County, California, west of
Yuba City. The weapons do not arm and the eight-man crew ejects safely, although a
firefighter responding to the crash is killed and several people are injured in a road accident. • March 28 •
Air Afrique is formed. •
President John F. Kennedy cancels the
North American B-70 Valkyrie bomber program. The production order for B-70s is cut to three (later reduced to two) XB-70A aircraft for experimental use in studying sustained flight at speeds of greater than
Mach 3 and in the advanced study of
aerodynamics,
propulsion, and other subjects related to large supersonic transports.
April • Seaboard & Western Airlines changes its name to
Seaboard World Airlines. • April 1 •
VIASA – the flag carrier of
Venezuela – commences operations. • The
United States Air Force redesignates its Air Research and Development Command as the
Air Force Systems Command. It also redesignates the
Air Materiel Command as the
Air Force Logistics Command, with some of its functions transferred to the Air Force Systems Command. • April 3 – In
Chile's worst air disaster in history at the time,
LAN Chile Flight 210, a
Douglas DC-3 carrying 24 people, including eight members of the Chilean
football (soccer) team
Club de Deportes Green Cross, disappears over the
Andes Mountains in Chile during a domestic flight from
Osorno to
Santiago. Its wreckage will remain undiscovered until
February 2015. • April 7 – Moisture condensing in a connector plug causes a
GAR-8 Sidewinder air-to-air missile carried by a
New Mexico Air National Guard F-100A Super Sabre of the
188th Fighter Interceptor Squadron to fire accidentally while the F-100A is practicing bomber interception tactics against the U.S. Air Force
B-52B Stratofortress Ciudad Juarez of the
Strategic Air Commands
95th Bombardment Wing. The missile blows off the B-52Bs port wing, and the bomber crashes on
Mount Taylor in
New Mexico, killing three members of its crew. • April 12 –
Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin makes the first
human spaceflight, orbiting the Earth once in 108 minutes in
Vostok 1. • April 15 – In Operation Puma, eight
Douglas B-26B Invaders painted in
Cuban Air Force markings manned by anti-
Castro Cuban exiles of the
Fuerza Aérea de Liberación ("Liberation Air Force") fly from
Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua, to
attack airfields at
San Antonio de los Baños and
Ciudad Libertad, Cuba, and
Antonio Maceo Airport at
Santiago de Cuba. They destroy a mixture of Cuban Air Force aircraft – a
C-47 Skytrain, a
PBY Catalina, five B-26 Invaders, a
Hawker Sea Fury, a
T-33 Shooting Star, and two
P-47 Thunderbolts, among others – and a number of civilian aircraft, including a
Douglas DC-3. One attacking B-26 is shot down by antiaircraft fire at
Havana and its crew is lost; two B-26s land in
Florida, and one in the
Cayman Islands and are not returned to the Cuban exiles. • April 17 – Anti-Castro Cuban exiles
invade Cuba at the
Bay of Pigs. Five
C-46 Commandos and one
C-54 Skymaster drop a battaltion of their paratroopers into Cuba, losing one C-46, and later parachute supplies to exile troops ashore, while the remaining B-26 Invader bombers of their
Fuerza Aérea de Liberación – some flown by
Central Intelligence Agency contractors and personnel of the
Alabama Air National Guard – provide close air support near the beachhead. The invading exiles shoot down two Cuban Sea Furies and two Cuban B-26 Invaders with antiaircraft fire. The Cuban Air Force has only six operational aircraft, but two of its
Hawker Sea Furies sink two of the exiles five ships and drive off the rest and its only two jets –
T-33 Shooting Star trainers – shoot down four
Fuerza Aérea de Liberación B-26 Invaders. The exiles B-26s and C-54s continue to support the beachhead the following day.
United States Navy ships supporting the exiles include the
anti-submarine warfare carrier and the
helicopter assault carrier , and the
attack aircraft carrier is active near the
Cayman Islands, but their aircraft see no combat, limiting their activities to
combat air patrol, reconnaissance, and
search and rescue flights. • April 19 – Six
A4D-2 Skyhawk attack aircraft from
Attack Squadron 34 (VA-34) aboard USS
Essex fly a combat air patrol over the exiles beachhead at the Bay of Pigs, to protect
Fuerza Aérea de Liberación B-26 Invaders providing close air support there, but a mix-up over
time zones leads two of the B-26s – manned by Central Intelligence Agency contractor personnel – to arrive after the Skyhawks have departed; they are shot down by two Cuban T-33 Shooting Stars, with their crews killed. The exiles in the beachhead surrender later in the day. The Cuban Air Force has suffered four aircraft shot down and at least five destroyed on the ground during the invasion, while the exiles have lost seven B-26 Invaders with the loss of 10 Cubans and four Americans aboard them, and one C-46 and its crew. • April 24 – The
Tupolev Tu-114 airliner makes its first passenger flight, a domestic
Aeroflot flight in the
Soviet Union from
Moscow's
Vnukovo Airport to
Khabarovsk.
May • May 1 – The first
hijacking of an American
airliner – and first aircraft hijacking inside the United States – takes place, when Antulio Ramirez Ortiz, flying under the pseudonym "Elpirata Cofresi" – a reference to
Puerto Rican pirate Roberto Cofresí – and armed with a gun and a steak knife, commandeers
National Airlines Flight 337, a
Convair CV-440 bound from
Miami International Airport in
Miami, Florida, to
Key West, Florida, with 10 people on board. He explains that the
president of the Dominican Republic,
Rafael Trujillo, has offered him
US$100,000 to assassinate
President of Cuba Fidel Castro, and that he must fly to
Havana, Cuba, to warn Castro. It is the first time that an American airliner has been forced to fly to Cuba, and surprised and confused Cuban
air traffic controllers at first threaten to have the plane shot down if it enters Cuban
airspace, but they eventually allow it to land at a military base outside
Havana. Ortiz receives
political asylum in Cuba. • May 3 – The
Boeing Airplane Company changes its name to
Boeing Company. • May 4 –
United States Navy Commander Malcolm Ross and
Lieutenant Commander Victor A. Prather set a new world balloon altitude record while testing
pressure suits, ascending to over the
Gulf of Mexico in a
helium balloon before making a planned landing at sea. A helicopter retrieves Ross from the water and transports him safely to the
anti-submarine warfare carrier , but Prather subsequently slips from a helicopter's sling and drowns after his pressure suit floods. • May 10 – A
United States Air Force B-58 Hustler sets a record for sustained supersonic flight, flying in 30 minutes 45 seconds at an average speed of 1,302 miles per hour (1,132
knots; 2,097 km/h). or 24 – To celebrate the 50th anniversary of
naval aviation in the United States, five
United States Navy McDonnell F4H-1F Phantom II fighters fly across the United States in less than three hours in
Operation LANA. The fastest, flown by
Lieutenants
Richard F. Gordon, Jr., (pilot) and Bobbie Long (
radar intercept officer), sets a new record for a transcontinental flight across the
United States, flying from
Ontario, California, to
Floyd Bennett Field in
New York City in 2 hours 47 minutes at an average speed of with three
in-flight refuelings. • June 21–22 – A
Royal Air Force Avro Vulcan makes the first non-stop flight from
England to
Australia. • June 23 – U.S. Air Force Major
Robert M. White becomes the first pilot to achieve
hypersonic – speeds higher than
Mach 5 – flight, reaching Mach 5.27 in
North American X-15 56-6671. • July 11 –
United Airlines Flight 859, a
Douglas DC-8, strikes several ground vehicles and catches fire while landing at
Stapleton International Airport in
Denver, Colorado. Of the 122 people on board, 18 are killed and 84 injured. One person on the ground also dies. • July 12 – Flying at
Vnukovo in the
Soviet Union, a
Tupolev Tu-114 (
NATO reporting name "Cleat") airliner piloted by Ivan Sukhomlin and copiloted by Piotr Soldatov sets a world altitude record for a
turboprop landplane carrying a payload of between , reaching . • July 19 •
Trans World Airlines becomes the first airline to show regularly scheduled movies during its flights, presenting
By Love Possessed to first-class passengers. •
Aerolíneas Argentinas Flight 644, a
Douglas DC-6, encounters severe turbulence during climbout 30 minutes after takeoff from
Buenos Aires, Argentina, and crashes west of Pardo, Buenos Aires, killing all 67 people on board. • July 21 –
Alaska Airlines Flight 779, a
Douglas DC-6 cargo plane operating under contract to the
United States Air Force′s
Military Air Transport Service,
strikes an embankment just before landing at
Shemya Air Force Base on
Shemya in the
Aleutian Islands in
Alaska and crashes, killing the entire crew of six. • July 24 • A
hijacker commandeers
Eastern Air Lines Flight 202, a
Lockheed L-188 Electra bound from Miami to
Tampa, Florida, with 38 people on board and forces it to fly to
Havana, Cuba. A
United States Air Force fighter aircraft from
Homestead Air Force Base, Florida, tails the airliner until it enters Cuban
airspace. • Deliveries of the
McDonnell CF-101 Voodoo to the
Royal Canadian Air Force commence. • July 31 – As
Pacific Air Lines Flight 327 – a
Douglas DC-3 – prepares for departure at
Chico Airport in
Chico, California, for a flight to
San Francisco, California, a drunken man, 40-year-old Bruce Britt, runs across the
tarmac and enters the plane without showing a ticket. He pulls out a .38-caliber
revolver and shoots a ticket agent in the back, wounding him, then fires two more shots in the airliner's cabin before the pilots admit him to the
cockpit. He says he wants to be flown to
Smackover, Arkansas, to see his estranged wife and demands that the pilot take off. When the pilot refuses to do so until the cockpit door is closed, Britt shoots him in the face, blinding him for life. The copilot then disarms him and subdues him with the help of three passengers.
August • August 3 – Armed with handguns, Leon Bearden – a convicted bank robber with many financial and psychological problems who wishes to present
Cuba′s leader
Fidel Castro with a
Boeing 707 and make a fresh start in Cuba – and his 16-year-old son Cody
hijack Continental Airlines Flight 54, a Boeing 707-124 (registration N70775) with 73 people on board while it is flying from
Phoenix, Arizona, to
El Paso, Texas, where the Beardens release all the passengers except for four who volunteer to remain aboard as hostages. Under orders from
President John F. Kennedy to prevent the airliner from leaving Texas, the
Federal Bureau of Investigation and Continental Airlines make sure that refueling the plane faces endless delays, until Leon Bearden fires a shot and orders the flight crew to take off. Federal agents spray the plane with
machine gun fire as it begins to roll, shredding its tires and disabling one of its engines. An FBI negotiator then boards the plane and subdues the Beardens. • August 4 – The
United States Senate holds an emergency hearing on the recent outbreak of aircraft hijackings in the
United States. Asked whether the
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had considered searching all airline passengers before boarding, FAA head
Najeeb Halaby rejects the idea as impractical, saying "Can you imagine the line that would form from the ticket counter in
Miami if everyone had to submit to police inspections?" • Five hijackers attempt to take control of a
Cubana de Aviación Curtiss C-46 Commando about five minutes after it takes off from Havana with 53 people on board for a flight to
Nueva Gerona, Cuba. Two guards aboard try to stop them, and the pilot, a guard, and a hijacker die in an exchange of gunfire. The copilot then makes an
emergency landing in a
sugar cane field near Havana, during which the airliner's
landing gear collapses, and the four surviving hijackers flee. • August 10 – The United States Senate votes 92–0 in favor of a bill making airplane hijacking a crime punishable by death. • August 13 – A Curtiss C-46F transport plane operated by the
CIA's
Air America airline suffers a mechanical problem and crashes near Pha Khao in
Laos, killing all 5 crew members on board while they were on a mission to drop supplies for General
Vang Pao's Hmong army. • August 15 –
Beagle Aircrafts first completely original design – the B.206X, an early prototype of the
Beagle Basset – flies for the first time. • August 16 – The
British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) sells its ownership stake in
Middle East Airlines. • August 21 – A
Canadian Pacific Air Lines Douglas DC-8 sets two world records during a single test flight. First, it reaches at a weight of , a new altitude record for a loaded transport jet. Then, in a dive from that altitude, it reaches
Mach 1.012 with a true air speed of at an altitude of , becoming the first
airliner to break the
sound barrier. • August 28 – In
Operation Sageburner, a
United States Navy McDonnell F4H-1F Phantom II fighter (BuNo. 145307) sets a low-altitude speed record, averaging over a 3-mile (4.82-km) course flying below at all times. • August 29 – A French military aircraft clips a cable of the
aerial tramway connecting
Pointe Helbronner and the
Aiguille du Midi in the
French Alps. Three cars of the tramway fall, killing five people. The pilot lands his plane safely. • August 31 •
Tunisair takes delivery of its first jet airliner, a
Sud Aviation Caravelle III. • Chance Vought Incorporated and
Ling-Temco Electronics merge to form
Ling-Temco-Vought, Inc. September • September 1 –
Trans World Airlines Flight 529, a
Lockheed L-049 Constellation, crashes near
Hinsdale, Illinois, shortly after takeoff from
Midway Airport in
Chicago, Illinois, killing all 78 people on board after a bolt works free, causing an elevator failure, the aircraft to pitch up, stall and part of the horizontal stabilizer to detach. It is the deadliest single-aircraft aviation accident in American history at the time. • September 5 –
President of the United States John F. Kennedy signs legislation making
aircraft hijacking a federal crime in the United States. • September 10 –
President Airlines (a US
supplemental air carrier)
DC-6B N90773 taking off from
Shannon Airport on its way to
Gander Airport, en route from
Duesseldorf to
Chicago, made a steep left hand turn immediately after takeoff (a right hand turn had been cleared), with bank angle reaching 90 degrees before it crashed into the
River Shannon. Probable cause was either a defective
artificial horizon or possible defective right hand
aileron. Crew fatigue may also have played a role. All 77 passengers and 6 crew perished. • September 12 • The experimental
V/STOL Hawker Siddeley P.1127 makes its first transitions from vertical to horizontal flight and back, using
thrust vectoring. •
Air France Flight 2005, a
Sud Aviation Caravelle, crashes short of the runway while on approach to land in bad weather at
Rabat-Salé Airport in
Morocco, killing all 77 people on board. • September 14 – Two
West German Air Force F-84F Thunderstreak fighters
stray off course into
East German airspace. Pursued by a large number of
Soviet Air Force fighters, the two West German planes manage to evade them in heavy cloud cover and land in
West Berlin unharmed. • September 17 – Due to a maintenance error,
Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 706, a
Lockheed L-188 Electra, crashes on takeoff from
O'Hare International Airport in
Chicago, Illinois, killing all 37 people on board. • September 18 – On approach to
Ndola Airport in
Ndola in the
Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, a
United Nations Douglas DC-6B (registration SE-BDY) strikes trees at
above sea level and
crashes in the jungle, killing all 16 people on board including
Secretary General of the United Nations Dag Hammarskjöld. At the time, it is the deadliest aviation accident ever to have taken place in what would later become
Zambia. • September 23 – A
Turkish Airlines Fokker F27 Friendship 100 crashes into the hill Karanlıktepe in
Ankara Province while on approach to
Esenboğa Airport in
Ankara, Turkey, killing 28 of the 29 people on board. • September 24 – During an
air show at
Wilmington, North Carolina, a
United States Air Force C-123 Provider carrying members of the
United States Army Parachute Team (the Golden Knights) crashes on take-off and burns. Three of the 15 servicemen on board die.
November • The
United States Air Force begins its
Farm Gate counterinsurgency training mission in
South Vietnam, teaching
Republic of Vietnam Air Force personnel at
Bien Hoa Air Base to fly
T-28 Trojan trainer aircraft. • November 1 – The first
Hawker Siddeley 748 to be built in
India flies for the first time. It has been assembled at
Kanpur by the
Indian Air Forces Aircraft Manufacturing Depot as India seeks to replace its fleet of
Douglas Dakotas. • November 8 – The crew of
Imperial Airlines Flight 201/8, a
Lockheed L-1049 Constellation chartered by the
US Army to carry new recruits to
Columbia, South Carolina, for training, mishandles fuel flow problems to the starboard engines, crashing after attempting an emergency landing at
Byrd Field in
Richmond, Virginia. Although all 79 people on board survive the impact, all but the
captain and
flight engineer die of
carbon monoxide poisoning after they are trapped in the
fuselage during a post-crash fire. The incident results in significant changes in the US airline industry. • November 9 • A
North American X-15 flown by U.S. Air Force
test pilot Major
Robert M. White becomes the first airplane to exceed
Mach 6, achieving Mach 6.04 (4,094 mph, 6,593 km/h) at an altitude of 102,000 feet (31,090 meters) during a flight of under 8 minutes between
Mud Lake,
Nevada, and
Edwards Air Force Base,
California. • Flying the
SUMPAC (Southampton University Man-Powered Aircraft) at
Lasham Airfield in
Hampshire, England,
Derek Piggott makes the first officially documented takeoff and landing in a
human-powered aircraft. During the flight – which also is the first flight of the SUMPAC – Piggott covers a distance of and reaches an altitude of . • November 10 – Six opponents of
Prime Minister of Portugal António de Oliveira Salazar hijack a
TAP Portugal Lockheed L-1049G Super Constellation with 39 people on board during a flight from
Casablanca, Morocco, to
Lisbon, Portugal, and force it to circle over Lisbon while they drop propaganda leaflets urging the Portuguese people to revolt against Salazar. They then force the airliner's crew to fly them to
Tangier, Morocco. • November 14 – A
Zantop Air Transport Douglas DC-4 cargo aircraft on
final approach to
Greater Cincinnati Airport in
Hebron, Kentucky,
crashes in a wooded area near the airport. Two of the three-man crew are injured. • November 22 • The first aircraft carrier designed as such to be completed in France,
Clemenceau, is completed at the
Brest Arsenal at
Brest. • In
Operation Skyburner,
United States Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel Robert B. "Bob" Robertson sets a new world absolute speed record for a non-rocket-powered aircraft of in a
McDonnell F4H-1 Phantom II. • November 30 –
Ansett-ANA Flight 325, a
Vickers Viscount Type 720, crashes into
Botany Bay just after takeoff from
Sydney, Australia, killing all 15 people on board.
December • December 5 – A U.S. Navy
McDonnell F4H-1 Phantom II sets a sustained altitude record of . • December 11 – The first American military aircraft are based in Vietnam, as the
U.S. Armys 8th and 57th Transportation
Companies (Light Helicopter), arrive at
Saigon,
South Vietnam. They are equipped with 32
H-21C Shawnee transport helicopters. • December 22 – U.S. Army helicopters engage in their first combat operation in Vietnam as the 8th Transportation Company makes several airlfits of
South Vietnamese ground troops to landing zones in South Vietnam south of Saigon. • December 23 – In
Operation Chopper, U.S. Army helicopters airlift 1,000 South Vietnamese
paratroopers to attack a suspected
Viet Cong headquarters in South Vietnam west of Saigon. == First flights ==