January ;12 January •
Iran receives the first of 100
Airbus airliners it purchased after signing the
Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action for
its nuclear program in 2015. The first aircraft is an
Airbus A321 that arrives at
Tehran, completing its delivery flight from
Toulouse,
France. The arrival of the A321 is the first step in Iran's plan to recapitalize its aging
civil aviation fleet, which has received few new aircraft since the
Iran's Islamic Revolution of 1979. Plans also call for Iran to begin taking delivery in 2018 of 80
Boeing airliners it ordered. ;16 January • After a missed approach in thick fog while attempting to land at
Manas International Airport in
Bishkek,
Kyrgyzstan,
Turkish Airlines Flight 6491, a
Boeing 747-412F cargo aircraft (registration TC-MCL) belonging to and crewed by
MyCargo Airlines, crashes in the village of
Dachi Suu while attempting a
go-around, killing all four people on the plane and 35 people on the ground, and injuring 36 people on the ground. The plane, breaking into pieces, plows through several hundred meters of the town, destroying at least 32 houses and damaging dozens of buildings. ;17 January •
Australia,
China, and
Malaysia announce that they have suspended indefinitely the underwater search they have led for
Malaysian Airlines Flight 370, a
Boeing 777 that disappeared on
8 March 2014 with 239 people on board. The most complex and expensive search effort in aviation history, searchers using
sonar towfish and unmanned
submarines have covered 120,000 km (46,000 square miles) of the
Indian Ocean about west of Australia over more than 34 months at a cost of between
US$150 million and US$160 million without finding any trace of the airliner or its passengers or crew. Rejecting a December 2016
Australian Transport Safety Bureau suggestion that the search zone move farther north, the three countries announce that they do not plan to resume the search unless convincing new evidence surfaces that identifies the likely location of the aircraft.
February ;17 February •
Boeing rolls out the newest version of its
Boeing 787 Dreamliner airliner, the Boeing 787-10, in a ceremony at
Charleston International Airport in
South Carolina.
March ;4 March • Families of the passengers of
Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 – a
Boeing 777 with 239 people on board missing since
8 March 2014 – announce that they have begun a campaign to raise funds to pay for a private search for the plane, hoping to raise
US$15 million for a search in a area in the
Indian Ocean to the north of previous search areas. Speaking at the remembrance event at a shopping mall near
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, at which the families announce the new effort,
Malaysian Minister of Transport Liow Tiong Lai claims that there is an 85 percent chance that the missing plane will be found in the new search area. The governments of
Australia, the
People's Republic of China, and
Malaysia had called off their two-year, US$160 million search for the airliner on
17 January. ;14 March • A
Sikorsky S-92A helicopter (registration EI-ICR, call sign "Rescue 116") operated by
CHC Helicopter under contract to the
Irish Coast Guard crashes into the
Atlantic Ocean during a rescue mission off
County Mayo,
Ireland, killing two crew members and leaving its other two crew members injured. ;29 March • The largest variant of the
Embraer E-Jet E2 family, the E195-E2, makes its first flight. The flight, previously scheduled for the second half of 2017, takes place ahead of schedule. ;31 March • The A319neo, the smallest variant of the
Airbus A320neo family, makes its first flight, powered by
CFM International LEAP engines. • The
Antonov/Taqnia An-132, an improved version of the
Antonov An-32 twin-
turboprop military transport aircraft, makes its maiden flight. • The Boeing 787-10, the largest variant of the
Boeing 787 Dreamliner, makes its first flight. ;5 April •
Zunum Aero announces that it is working with Boeing HorizonX and JetBlue Technology Ventures to develop electric aircraft that could compete with private automobiles, trains, and buses on trips of up to in terms both of operating costs for airlines and the cost and time of travel for passengers. The company envisions electric aircraft capable of seating 10 to 50 passengers that would operate at lower speeds and altitudes than current commercial aircraft but allow airlines to operate profitably from local airports that had lost airline service as airlines consolidated passengers onto larger aircraft to save on operating costs. The company also envisions the new generation of aircraft drawing people away from cars, buses, and trains by allowing airlines to offer lower fares and by operating from
general aviation airports with passengers loading their baggage into the planes directly from their cars without going through time-consuming security lines or having to change planes at
airline hubs. Zunum Aero hopes its aircraft can begin service by the early 2020s, although some independent observers doubt that such service could begin before 2030 and perhaps not before 2050. ;9 April • After no one volunteers to give up his or her seat to make room aboard
overbooked United Express Flight 3411 – an
Embraer 170 with 70 passengers aboard operated by
Republic Airline boarding at
O'Hare International Airport in
Chicago, Illinois, for a flight to
Louisville, Kentucky – to make room for four
United Airlines employees requiring transportation to Louisville, United employees select four passengers to be involuntarily bumped from the flight. Three comply, but the fourth, David Dao, refuses. After United employees deem Dao "disruptive" and "belligerent," Chicago Department of Aviation security officers board the plane, slam a screaming Dao's head against an armrest, and drag him from his seat, apparently unconscious. After the United employees take the vacated seats, Dao reboards the airliner with a bloody face, collapses, and is removed on a
stretcher. The incident is captured on video and causes outrage. Although United
chief executive officer Oscar Munoz initially defends his employees' actions, he apologizes two days later and promises such an incident will not occur again. ; 13 April • The largest variant yet of the
Boeing 737 MAX, the Boeing 737 MAX 9, makes its first flight, taking off from
Renton Municipal Airport in
Renton,
Washington, and landing at
Boeing Field in
Seattle, Washington, after a flight of 2 hours 42 minutes. It is due to enter service in 2018. ;20 April • Leased by
GECAS, the first
A321neo is delivered in
Hamburg,
Germany, to
Virgin America, configured with 184 seats and
LEAP engines. Virgin America expects to place it in service on 31 May. • AeroMobil s.r.o. unveils the production model of its
AeroMobil flying car at
Top Marques Monaco in
Monte Carlo,
Monaco, and announces that it plans to begin to take preorders for the vehicle before the end of 2017. ;22 April •
Uber announced plans to launch a flying taxi service called Elevate using extremely quiet, pilotless, autonomous, electric-powered
VTOL vehicles capable of carrying four passengers, with takeoffs and landings to take place at "vertiports" located in large cities, perhaps on the tops of buildings. Uber hopes that Elevate will begin operations by 2023 and perhaps as soon as 2020, followed by a full-scale rollout by 2027.
Dallas, Texas, has already committed to hosting the initial Elevate operations, and Uber hopes that
Dubai also will participate when Elevate is introduced. Uber has approached
Aurora Flight Sciences,
Bell Helicopter,
Embraer, the
Mooney International Corporation, and
Pipistrel for designs for the proposed VTOL vehicle. ;27 April • Honolulu International Airport in
Honolulu,
Hawaii, is renamed
Daniel K. Inouye International Airport. ;29 April •
Boeing files a
dumping petition at the
United States International Trade Commission for the sale of 75
Bombardier CSeries CS100 to
Delta Air Lines at $19.6m each, below their $33.2m production cost.
May ;1 May •
Airlink makes the first commercial airline flight with paying passengers in history to
Saint Helena in the
South Atlantic Ocean, a charter flight from
Cape Town,
South Africa, via
Moçâmedes,
Angola, to
Saint Helena Airport using an
Avro RJ85 to pick up passengers stranded when the island's only link with the outside world, the British
Royal Mail Ship RMS St Helena, suffers
propeller damage. The flight returns to Cape Town the same day with a stop at
Windhoek,
Namibia. No commercial airliner lands at Saint Helena Airport again until
October, when Airlink begins the first scheduled commercial airline service in the island's history. ;5 May • At
Shanghai Pudong International Airport in
Shanghai,
China, before a crowd of 3,000 people, the first modern Chinese passenger jet, the
Comac C919 (registration B-001A), makes its first flight, carrying five pilots and engineers. The airliner is intended to compete with the
Boeing 737 and
Airbus A320.
Comac plans a test program of 4,200 flight hours before
China Eastern Airlines introduces the C919 into service in 2019. ;10 May • Five days before it is scheduled to make its first delivery of its new
Boeing 737 MAX airliner to a customer,
Boeing halts test flights and grounds the aircraft due to quality problems in a large metal disc used in the low-pressure turbine at the rear of the aircraft's
CFM International LEAP-1B engines. ;16 May • The first
Boeing 737 MAX, a 737 MAX 8, is delivered to
Malindo Air, which plans to debut it in revenue service. ;27 May •
Goma Air Flight 409, a
Let L-410 Turbolet, registration 9N-AKY, crashes when it lost altitude on final approach in poor visibility on final approach to runway 06 of
Tenzing–Hillary Airport in
Lukla,
Nepal, about 14:04 Local Time (08:19Z) and contacted a tree short of the runway before impacting ground about below runway threshold level. The captain was killed on impact and the first officer died in hospital almost eight hours later. The third crew member received injuries and was evacuated to Kathmandu the following day after the weather had cleared. • A major computer outage blamed on a power failure forces
British Airways to cancel all flights at
Heathrow Airport and
Gatwick Airport in the
London area. The outage prevents departures from and transfer between flights at the airports, disrupting flights worldwide. Although service will resume on 28 May, delays and cancellations will linger into 29 May. ;31 May • The
Scaled Composites Stratolaunch, an aircraft designed to
launch rockets into space from high altitude, is rolled out of its
hangar for the first time at
Mojave Air and Space Port in
Mojave, California. Its 385-foot (117-meter)
wingspan is the largest in history.
June ;7 June • A
Myanmar Air Force Shaanxi Y-8 making a domestic flight in
Myanmar from
Myeik to
Yangon crashes into the
Andaman Sea from an altitude of , killing all 122 people on board. ; 9 June • The
United States International Trade Commission estimate the U.S. industry could be threatened by the
Cseries dumping petitioned by Boeing as the
U.S. Department of Commerce continue to conduct its investigations for initial reports in July 2017 and
antidumping determination due in October 2017. ;16 June • At
Novosibirsk in
Russia, an
Ilyushin Il-2 Sturmovik makes its first flight since 25 November 1943, when it had made a forced landing on frozen
Lake Krivoye near
Murmansk in the
Soviet Union while operating with the
46th Attack Air Regiment of the
Soviet Navy's
Northern Fleet Air Force. It had broken through the ice and sunk, but had been recovered in December 2011 and restored. It becomes one of only two flyable IL-2s. ;19 June • At the
Paris Air Show,
Boom Technology announces plans to develop a 45-passenger
supersonic airliner capable of flying from
New York City to
London in hours, from
San Francisco to
Tokyo in hours, and from
Los Angeles to
Sydney in just under seven hours, in all three cases cutting current flight times in half. Boom hopes to have the new airliner – which will offer only
first- and
business-class seating – in service by no later than 2023 if it receives all required certifications. Boom also announces that
Virgin Atlantic has ordered 10 of the airliners, four other airlines have ordered another 66, and that it will announce orders by an additional four airlines in the next few months. ;21 June • At the Paris Air Show,
Boeing has received orders for or expressions of interest in ordering 370 aircraft worth $52,000,000,000 since 19 June, including a boost in interest in its
Boeing 737 MAX 10 airliner.
Airbus has posted sales of 229 airliners worth $25,000,000,000 at the show over the same period. The combined total of $77,000,000,000 in airliner deals passes the $50,000,000,000 in deals at the 2016
Farnborough Airshow in
England. ;22 June • At
Caldwell Industrial Airport in
Caldwell, Idaho,
Republic P-47 Thunderbolt 42-29150, named
Dottie Mae by its primary
World War II pilot, makes its first flight since 8 May 1945, when it had crashed into the
Traunsee in
Germany, the last P-47 lost in
Europe during World War II. Recovered in June 2005 and restored, it becomes the only flyable P-47 with a combat record.
July ;7 July • In the evening,
Air Canada Flight 759, an
Airbus A320-211 carrying 135 people, nearly lands on a
San Francisco International Airport taxiway occupied by four loaded airliners waiting for takeoff. The Air Canada plane is able to initiate a climb, narrowly missing the planes by metres. The incident spurs a U.S.
National Transportation Safety Board investigation. ;10 July • A
United States Marine Corps Lockheed Martin KC-130T tanker aircraft nicknamed
Triple Nuts of
Marine Aerial Refueler Transport Squadron 452 (VMGR-452) breaks up at an altitude of over
Leflore County, Mississippi, north of
Jackson, Mississippi, and
crashes, spreading debris over a 5-mile (8-km) radius and killing all 16 people – one
United States Navy and 15 U.S. Marine Corps personnel – aboard.
August ; 15 August •
Air Berlin,
Germany's second largest airline, with 85 destinations, 8,000 employees, and 72 aircraft, files for
bankruptcy. ; 16 August • The
CASA C212-derived
Indonesian Aerospace N-219 light aircraft makes its maiden flight in
Bandung,
Indonesia.
September ;2 September • Flying the modified
P-51D-25BA Mustang Voodoo over
Clarks Ranch, Idaho, Steve Hinton Jr., sets a new world speed record for a piston-engine aircraft over a 3-km (1.863-mile) closed circuit, achieving an average speed over four laps of , although the
Fédération Aéronautique Internationale does not accept it as displacing the previous record because of a requirement that a new record exceed the previous one by at least one percent in order to displace it, which would have required an average speed of at least . During one lap, Hinton sets an absolute world speed record for a C-1e-class piston-engine aircraft, reaching . ;3 September • Piloting the
Windward Performance Perlan II, Jim Payne and Morgan Sandercock establish a new absolute
glider world altitude record, reaching an altitude of near
El Calafate,
Argentina. They break the previous record set in
August 2006 by . ;30 September •
Air France Flight 66, an
Airbus A380-861 (
registration F-HPJE) with 520 people on board flying from
Paris,
France, to
Los Angeles,
California, suffers an uncontained
failure of its No. 4 engine while flying near
Greenland at . It makes an
emergency landing at
Canadian Forces Base Goose Bay in
Newfoundland and Labrador,
Canada.
October ;1 October • After the
Cseries dumping petition by Boeing, the
United States Department of Commerce moves to impose an 80 percent
tariff on imported Canadian airliners, based on a
Boeing complaint that
Bombardier Aerospace deliberately violated
international trade law in a 2016 sale of 75
Bombardier CS100 airliners to
Delta Air Lines. The move, which is a separate action from the Commerce Department's 26 September decision to impose a 219 percent tariff on Bombardier Aerospace aircraft, would in combination with the 219 percent tariff quadruple the price of Bombardier Aerospace airliners in the
United States and effectively price Bombardier Aerospace out of the U.S. market. Imposition of the two tariffs requires a favorable ruling by the
United States International Trade Commission in a review scheduled for February 2018. ;14 October • The first scheduled commercial airline service in history to
Saint Helena in the
South Atlantic Ocean begins as an
Airlink Embraer E190-100IGW with 78 passengers aboard arrives at
Saint Helena Airport after a flight of about six hours from
Johannesburg,
South Africa, with a stop at
Windhoek,
Namibia. The flight inaugurates once-a-week scheduled service between Johannesburg and Saint Helena. Previously, with the exception of a single charter flight Airlink made in
May, the island had relied for its connection with the outside world on visits once every three weeks by a British
Royal Mail Ship, the
cargo liner RMS St Helena, making a six-day voyage between South Africa and Saint Helena. Boosters hope the flights will establish Saint Helena as a tourist destination, but critics maintain that more extensive commercial service will be necessary to make the construction of the airport worthwhile. ;16 October •
Airbus and
Bombardier Aerospace announce a partnership on the
CSeries program, with Airbus acquiring a 50.01% majority stake, Bombardier keeping 31% and
Investissement Québec 19%, to expand in an estimated market of more than 6,000 new 100-150 seat aircraft over 20 years. ; 13 December • Austrian leisure carrier
Niki grounded flights and entered insolvency proceedings after the
European Commission did not cleared the acquisition from insolvent
Air Berlin to
Lufthansa on
competition grounds. • Dassault abandons the
Safran Silvercrest turbofan due to technical and schedule risks, ends the
Falcon 5X development and will launch a new Falcon with the same cross section,
Pratt & Whitney Canada engines and a range for a 2022 introduction. •
West Wind Aviation Flight 282, an
ATR 42-320 registered as C-GWEA, crashed immediately after takeoff. One out of the 25 occupants on board were killed. ; 14 December •
Delta Air Lines orders 100
Airbus A321neos, with 100 further options for $25.4 billion at list prices, to be delivered from 2020 to 2023; equipped with Pratt & Whitney
PW1100Gs and seating 197, they will replace ageing
Airbus A320s,
Boeing 757-200s and
MD-90s. ; 18 December • The
Bell V-280 Valor makes its first flight : it takes off vertically, hover momentarily then land, without forward flight, its
General Electric T64 engines remaining upright. ; 21 December •
Boeing and
Embraer confirmed to be discussing a potential combination with a transaction subject to
Brazilian government regulators, the companies' boards and shareholders approvals. ; 22 December • The
General Electric Advanced Turboprop makes its first ground run. • After identifying deficiencies in its Operational Control System,
Transport Canada suspends the
Air Operator Certificate of
West Wind Aviation in the wake of its
13 December accident of an
ATR 42 at
Fond-du-Lac. ; 23 December • Austrian
general aviation manufacturer
Diamond Aircraft Industries is acquired by Chinese
Wanfeng Aviation. ; 24 December • The Chinese
AVIC AG600, the largest
amphibious aircraft, makes its maiden flight from
Zhuhai Airport in the southern province of
Guangdong. ; 25 December • The first
ACAE CJ-1000AX turbofan demonstrator assembly is completed after an 18-month process before 24 more
prototypes support an
airworthiness certification campaign to enter service on the
Comac C919 after 2021. ; 29 December •
IAG announces it will buy assets of
Niki, previously part of the Air Berlin group, for €20 million for up to 15
A320s and slots at Vienna, Düsseldorf, Munich, Palma and Zurich airports; providing up to €16.5 million in liquidity, 740 former NIKI employees will run an Austrian
Vueling subsidiary. ; 31 December • A
Sydney Seaplanes flight
crashes into the
Hawkesbury River north of
Sydney Australia, killing all 6 people on board, including an 11-year-old girl and CEO of British
foodservice company
Compass Group,
Richard Cousins. ==First flights==