1959 in aviation
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This is a list of aviation-related events from 1959:
| Contents |
Events
Unknown
- The Canadian Golden Hawks aerobatic team is formed.
February
- February 3 - Rock 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 20 - The Canadian government cancels the Avro CF-105 Arrow.
March
June
- June 4 - Max Conrad flies a Piper Comanche from Casablanca to New York, setting a new lightplane distance record of 7,683 miles (12,365 km).
- June 8 - The first (and only) delivery of Missile Mail.
- June 16 - a US Navy P4M Mercator is attacked by North Korean Air Force Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17s off the North Korean coast. The Mercator's crew returned the aircraft safely to Japan.
July
- July 9 - a Royal Air Force Vickers Valiant makes the first non-stop flight from England to Cape Town
- July 14 - Maj V Ilyushin 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.
September
- September 23 - The USAF officially cancels the North American Aviation XF-108 Rapier.
October
- October 31 - Colonel G. Mosolov sets a new airspeed record of 2,387 km/h (1,483 mph) in the Mikoyan-Gurevich Ye-66
December
- December 14 - Cdr L Flint sets a new altitude record of 103,389 ft (31,513 m) in a F-104 Starfighter
- December 15 - Maj J W Roberts sets a new airspeed record of 1,526 mph (2,456 km/h) in a F-106 Delta Dart
First flights
January
- January 8 - Armstrong Whitworth AW.650 Argosy G-AOZZ
- January 20 - Vickers Vanguard G-AOYW
March
April
May
June
- June 8 - North American X-15 (unpowered)
- June 17 - Dassault Mirage IV
July
- July 14 - Sukhoi T-431, prototype of the Sukhoi Su-9
October
Entered service
March
- March 26 - Breguet Alizé with the Aéronavale
April
- April 20 - Ilyushin Il-18 with Aeroflot
May
- F-106 Delta Dart with the 498th Fighter Interceptor Squadron USAF at Geiger Field
June
- June 12 - C-130 Hercules with the 463rd Troop Carrier Wing USAF.
July
- July 22 - Sud-Aviation Caravelle with Air France
- July 22 - Antonov An-10 with Aeroflot
September
- September 18 - Douglas DC-8 with Delta Air Lines and United Air Lines
December
- GAM-77 Hound Dog cruise missile with USAF Strategic Air Command B-52s
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