This is a list of aviation-related events from 1966.
Events
January
- The United States Army′s helicopter assault-oriented 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) begins Operation Matador to destroy North Vietnamese Army forces in Pleiku and Kon Tum Province, South Vietnam.[1]
- January 1 – The U.S. Military Air Transport Service is redesignated the Military Airlift Command.[2]
- January 1–7 – The U.S. Army's 173rd Airborne Brigade and Australian troops carry out Operation Marauder, a combined helicopter and ground assault against Viet Cong forces in South Vietnam's Mekong Delta and the first time American units operate in the Delta.[3]
- January 3 – The United States Air Force′s second North American XB-70A Valkyrie – named Air Vehicle 2 (AV-2) – reaches Mach 3.05 at an altitude of 72,000 feet (22,000 meters).
- January 4 – Avianca Flight 4, a Douglas C-54 Skymaster, crashes into the Caribbean Sea just after takeoff from Cartagena-Crespo Airport in Cartagena, Colombia, killing 56 of the 64 people on board.
- January 6 – A U.S. Air Force XB-70A Valkyrie remains in the air continuously for 3 hours 40 minutes, the longest flight ever by an XB-70.
- January 8–14 – In Operation Crimp, a U.S. Army 173rd Airborne Brigade helicopter and ground assault destroys a Viet Cong headquarters in the Ho Bo Woods in South Vietnam.[3]
- January 12 – A U.S. Air Force XB-70A Valkyrie reaches 2,020 mph (3,250 km/h), the highest speed ever reached by an XB-70.
- January 17 – A U.S. Air Force B-52 Stratofortress collides with a KC-135 Stratotanker during aerial refueling near Palomares, Spain. Both aircraft crash, killing the entire four-man crew of the KC-135 and three of the seven men aboard the B-52. Two of the B-52's nuclear bombs rupture, scattering radioactive material over the Spanish countryside. One bomb lands intact near Palomares, and another is lost in the Mediterranean Sea. It is later recovered intact 5 miles (8.0 km) offshore.
- January 22 – The U.S. Air Force completes Operation Blue Light, the largest airlift of troops and equipment into a combat zone in history. Since the operation began on December 27, 1965, the Air Force has flown 4,600 short tons (4,173 metric tons) of equipment and over 3,000 troops from Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii, to Pleiku, South Vietnam.[2]
- January 24
- Operation Masher, later renamed Operation White Wing, a helicopter and ground assault by the U.S. Army's 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) and South Vietnamese Army and South Korean Army units, begins against North Vietnamese Army forces in Binh Dinh Province, South Vietnam. The operation concludes on March 6.[4]
- The Boeing 707-437 Kanchenjunga, operating as Air India Flight 101, crashes on Mont Blanc in France, killing all 117 people on board; Indian nuclear physicist Homi J. Bhabha, the father of India's nuclear program, is among the dead.[5] In 1950, Air India Flight 245 had crashed in almost exactly the same spot.
- January 28 – Lufthansa Flight 005, a Convair CV-440 Metropolitan, aborts its landing in heavy rain at Bremen Airport in Bremen, West Germany, then crashes doing a subsequent go around maneuver, killing all 46 people on board. Among the dead are actress Ada Chekhova, daughter of Olga Chekhova and mother of Vera Tschechowa, and seven swimmers of the Italian Olympic Team and their coach.
- January 31 – The United States resumes Operation Rolling Thunder over North Vietnam.[6]
February
- In the 1966 Defence White Paper, the British Labour government announces that the Royal Navy′s planned CVA-01 aircraft carrier will not be built because of its expense. It also declares that the traditional strike, reconnaissance, air defense, and airborne early warning functions of carrier-based aircraft can be carried out more cheaply by shore-based Royal Air Force aircraft, that the use of cruiser- and frigate-based helicopters would be a cheaper means of providing anti-submarine defense of ships, and that ship-launched antiship missiles could replace carrier planes in the anti-ship role.[7]
- February 2
- Nicholas Piantanida launches from Joe Foss Field in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, in the balloon Strato Jump II, hoping to set a new world record for the highest parachute jump. He is forced to give up the attempt when he is unable to disconnect his oxygen system, and he detaches the balloon's gondola and parachutes safely to earth inside it. The flight sets an unofficial world balloon altitude record of 123,500 feet (37,642 meters (23.390 miles),[8][9][10][11] although the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale does not recognize it as official because he returns to earth in the gondola without remaining attached to the balloon. The record will stand until Felix Baumgartner's balloon flight on 14 October 2012.
- Pakistan International Airlines Flight 17, a Sikorsky S-61, experiences an oil leak, strikes a vulture, and then loses power and crashes near Faridpur, East Pakistan (now in Bangladesh), killing 23 of the 24 people on board and injuring the lone survivor.
- February 4 – All Nippon Airways Flight 60 crashes into Tokyo Bay while on night approach to Tokyo's Haneda International Airport, killing all 133 people on board. It is the worst death toll in a single-aircraft accident in history at the time, and will remain so until 1969.
- February 8 – Freddie Laker founds Laker Airways
- February 17 – Aeroflot Flight 65, a Tupolev Tu-114, crashes on takeoff in deteriorating weather at Sheremetyevo International Airport in Moscow, killing 21 and injuring at least 18, after its crew attempts to take off without realizing that snow has not been fully cleared from the runway and its wing strikes a sowban during its takeoff roll, forcing two of its propellers to strike the runway, after which it veers off the runway and catches fire. It is the only fatal crash involving the long-range turboprop Tu-114.
- February 28 – A National Aeronautics and Space Administration T-38 Talon crashes at Lambert Field in St. Louis, Missouri, killing astronauts Elliot See and Charles Bassett, the prime crew for Gemini 9, scheduled to launch in early June.
March
- United States Navy A-4 Skyhawk bombers become the first aircraft to use the AGM-45 Shrike anti-radiation missile in combat, targeting guidance radars at surface-to-air missile sites in North Vietnam.[6]
- United States Marine Corps Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 164 (HMM-164) arrives in South Vietnam with 27 Boeing Vertol CH-46A Sea Knights, becoming the first unit to make a combat deployment with the CH-46.[12]
- March 4 – Canadian Pacific Airlines Flight 402, a Douglas DC-8, strikes the approach lights and a seawall during a night landing attempt in poor visibility at Tokyo International Airport in Japan and crashes on the runway, killing 64 of the 72 people on board.
- March 5
- March 7 – France withdraws from the military structure of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, although it remains a political member of the alliance.
- March 10 – In order to rescue a downed U.S. Air Force A-1E Skyraider pilot, U.S. Air Force Major Bernard F. Fisher of the 1st Air Commando Squadron lands his own A-1E on an airstrip in South Vietnam's A Shau Valley after the airstrip had been overrun by North Vietnamese troops. Fisher later receives the Medal of Honor for this action.[13]
- March 18 – United Arab Airlines Flight 749, an Antonov An-24 (registration SU-AOA), crashes about five kilometers (3.1 miles) short of the runway while attempting to land at Cairo International Airport in Cairo, Egypt, killing all 30 people on board.
- March 19 – A United States Air Force North American XB-70A Valkyrie reaches 74,000 feet (23,000 meters), the greatest altitude ever achieved by an XB-70.
- March 27 – The flight engineer aboard a Cubana de Aviación Ilyushin Il-18B (registration CU-T831) shoots and kills the on-board security guard during a domestic flight in Cuba from Santiago de Cuba to Havana and hijacks the plane, demanding to be flown to Florida. The captain pretends to be flying to Florida but actually lands the airliner at José Martí International Airport in Havana. Seeing an Aeroflot airliner on the tarmac and realizing that captain had tricked him, the flight engineer shoots the captain dead and tries to initiate a takeoff, but the copilot shuts the engines down. The flight engineer jumps out of the plane and flees; he will be apprehended several days later.[14]
- March 31 – The U.S. Air Force's Strategic Air Command retires its last B-47 Stratojet. The first all-jet strategic bomber, the B-47 had served since 1951.[13]
April
May
- Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21s start to appear in the skies over Vietnam.
- May 1
- While ascending in the balloon Strato Jump III to attempt to set a new world skydiving altitude record of over 120,000 feet (37,000 meters), Nicholas Piantanida is fatally injured when his pressure suit depressurizes at an altitude of about 57,000 feet (17,000 meters). Although ground controllers detach the gondola from the balloon at an altitude of 56,000 feet (17,000 meters) and return it to earth in a 25-minute parachute descent with Piantanida on board, Piantanida suffers brain damage and never emerges from a coma. He will die on August 29.
- Jamaica Air Service Ltd. inaugurates service from Jamaica to Miami, Florida, and New York City.
- May 19 – The United States Air Force′s second North American XB-70A Valkyrie – named Air Vehicle 2 (AV-2) – covers 2,400 miles in 91 minutes of flight, flying at Mach 3 for 32 minutes – the longest continuous time at Mach 3 ever achieved by an XB-70 – and reaching a maximum speed of Mach 3.06.
- May 23–26 – A new Learjet 24 makes a round-the-world demonstration flight to exhibit its capabilities. The total flight time for the trip is 50 hours and 20 minutes.
June
- The Indian Air Force begins re-arming to replace losses from the previous year's war with Pakistan.
- The U.S. Army begins testing the Remote Image Intensifier System, a low-light-level television system on UH-1C attack helicopters known as "Batships" in the Mekong Delta of South Vietnam, hoping to improve night capabilities against Viet Cong forces. The test will conclude in November with the system found to be unreliable.[16]
- June 1 – Alisarda begins scheduled service.
- June 3 – A Hawker Siddeley Trident 1C on its first test flight crashes at Felthorpe, Norfolk, England, killing the entire four-man crew.
- June 6 – Outfitted with test sensors, the United States Air Force′s second North American XB-70A Valkyrie – named Air Vehicle 2 (AV-2) – conducts a sonic boom test, reaching Mach 3.05 at an altitude of 72,000 feet (22,000 meters).
- June 7 – Robert and Joan Wallick set a round-the-world flight record.
- June 8 – During a publicity photo shoot of aircraft powered by General Electric engines in which the U.S. Air Force's second XB-70A research aircraft – named Air Vehicle 2 (AV-2) – flies in formation with an F-4 Phantom II, an F-5 Freedom Fighter, an F-104 Starfighter, and a T-38 Talon at an altitude of about 25,000 feet (7,600 meters), the F-104 collides with the XB-70A. The F-104 explodes, killing its pilot, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) chief test pilot Joseph A. Walker. The XB-70A crashes and is destroyed. The XB-70A's copilot is killed, while its pilot, Alvin S. White ejects and suffers serious injuries. The crash leaves only one XB-70A – Air Vehicle 1 (AV-1) – in existence.
- June 12 – Escorting A-4 Skyhawks from the attack aircraft carrier USS Hancock (CVA-19) during a bombing raid northwest of Haiphong, North Vietnam, U.S. Navy Commander Harold L. Marr of Fighter Squadron 211 (VF-211) scores the first kill by an F-8 Crusader, shooting down a North Vietnamese MiG-17 (NATO reporting name "Fresco") with an AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to-air missile.[17]
- June 20 – Sheila Scott completes a solo round-the-world flight.
- June 29
- The U.S. Air Force bombs Hanoi for the first time.
- For the first time, President Lyndon B. Johnson's administration authorizes attacks on industrial targets in northeastern North Vietnam and on North Vietnam's entire petroleum, oil, and lubricants system.[6]
July
August
September
- September 9 – The Concorde's Rolls-Royce Olympus engine begins flight tests underneath an Avro Vulcan bomber.
- September 19 – Using UH-1Bs borrowed from the U.S. Army, the U.S. Navy's first attack helicopter unit begins operations, supporting U.S. Navy riverine forces operating in South Vietnam's Mekong Delta.[26]
- September 22 – Ansett-ANA Flight 149, a Vickers Viscount Type 832, experiences an in-flight engine fire which spreads to the left wing, causing much of the wing to break off. The plane crashes near Winton, Queensland, Australia, killing all 24 people on board.
- September 24 – Marina Solovyeva sets a new women's airspeed record of 2,044 km/h (1,270 mph) in the Mikoyan-Gurevich Ye-76.
- September 28
- September 30 – Frontier Airlines inaugurates jet service, using Boeing 727-100s.
October
November
- The American military command in Vietnam establishes control of all air operations throughout Indochina.[24]
- U.S. Navy attack helicopters in South Vietnam begin using flight-deck-equipped tank landing ships operating in the Mekong Delta as bases.[26]
- November 1 – Air Canada begins the first North American air services to the Soviet Union.
- November 11 – A U.S. Air Force 551st Airborne Early Warning and Control Wing EC-121H Warning Star crashes in the Atlantic Ocean off Nantucket, Massachusetts, killing the entire 19-man crew.
- November 13
- November 14 – A U.S. Air Force 86th Military Airlift Squadron C-141 Starlifter piloted by Captain Howard Geddes becomes the first jet aircraft to land in Antarctica, touching down on the ice at McMurdo Sound after a 2,200-mile (3,543-km) flight from Christchurch, New Zealand.[31]
- November 15 – The Pan American World Airways Boeing 727-21 cargo aircraft Clipper München, operating as Flight 708, crashes during initial approach to Tegel Airport in West Berlin, killing all three crew members.
- November 18 – Captain William J. Knight flies the North American X-15 to a record speed of Mach 6.33 (4,250 mph (6,840 km/h).
- November 24 – TABSO Flight 101, an Ilyushin Il-18B, crashes in the foothills of the Little Carpathians two minutes after takeoff from Bratislava Airport in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia, killing all 82 people on board. Among the dead are the Honduran writer and journalist Ramón Amaya Amador and flight attendant Svetla Georgieva, who 18 days earlier had married the Bulgarian sports official Ivan Slavkov. It remains the deadliest aviation accident in the history of Slovakia.
December
First flights
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
October
November
December
Entered service
January
July
September
Retirements
Deadliest crash
The deadliest crash of this year was All Nippon Airways Flight 60, a Boeing 727 which crashed into Tokyo Bay, Japan on 4 February, as it approached Haneda Airport, killing all 133 people on board; as well as being then the world's deadliest single-aircraft accident, it was also among a string of five major crashes to strike Japan in 1966; 371 people were killed in these incidents.
References
Wikimedia Commons has media related to 1966 in aviation.
- ^ Chinnery, Philip D., Vietnam: The Helicopter War, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1991, ISBN 1-55750-875-5, pp. 60–61.
- ^ a b Haulman, Daniel L., One Hundred Years of Flight: USAF Chronology of Significant Air and Space Events, 1903–2002, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama: Air University Press, 2003, no ISBN, p. 97.
- ^ a b Chinnery, Philip D., Vietnam: The Helicopter War, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1991, ISBN 1-55750-875-5, p. 61.
- ^ Chinnery, Philip D., Vietnam: The Helicopter War, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1991, ISBN 1-55750-875-5, pp. 61–62.
- ^ a b planecrashinfo.com Famous People Who Died in Aviation Accidents: 1960s
- ^ a b c d e f g h Nichols, CDR John B., and Barret Tillman, On Yankee Station: The Naval Air War Over Vietnam, Annapolis, Maryland: United States Naval Institute, 1987, ISBN 0-87021-559-0, p. 154.
- ^ Thetford, Owen, British Naval Aircraft Since 1912, Sixth Edition, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1991, ISBN 1-55750-076-2, p. 27.
- ^ Ryan, Craig (2003). The Pre-Astronauts: Manned Ballooning on the Threshold of Space. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. pp. 258–269. ISBN 1-55750-732-5.
- ^ Ryan, Craig (2003). Magnificent Failure: Free Fall from the Edge of Space. Smithsonian Books. ISBN 978-1588341419.
- ^ Betancourt, Mark (July 2012). "The 120,000-Foot Leap". Air & Space/Smithsonian. Retrieved August 8, 2012.
- ^ "Chutist Changes Mind 123,500 Feet in Sky". The New York Times. February 2, 1966. Retrieved October 13, 2012.
- ^ Polmar, Norman, "It's a Plane...a Helicopter...a Phrog!", Naval History, October 2016, p. 64.
- ^ a b Haulman, Daniel L., One Hundred Years of Flight: USAF Chronology of Significant Air and Space Events, 1903–2002, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama: Air University Press, 2003, no ISBN, p. 98.
- ^ Aviation Safety Network Hijacking Description
- ^ Mondey, David, ed., The Complete Illustrated History of the World's Aircraft, Secaucus, New Jersey: Chartwell Books, Inc., 1978, ISBN 0-89009-771-2, p. 58.
- ^ Chinnery, Philip D., Vietnam: The Helicopter War, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1991, ISBN 1-55750-875-5, pp. 67-68.
- ^ Hollway, Don, "Fox Two!", Aviation History, March 2013, p. 57.
- ^ Aviation Safety Network Hijacking Description
- ^ a b Hammel, Eric, Six Days in June: How Israel Won the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1992, ISBN 0-684-19390-6, p. 11.
- ^ Yearbook of the United Nations 1966 (excerpt), New York: United Nations Office of Public Information, 31 December 1966.
- ^ Aviation Safety Network Hijacking Description
- ^ a b Chinnery, Philip D., Vietnam: The Helicopter War, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1991, ISBN 1-55750-875-5, p. 69.
- ^ Potter, E. B., ed., Sea Power: A Naval History, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1981, ISBN 0-87021-607-4, p. 374.
- ^ a b c d e Nichols, CDR John B., and Barret Tillman, On Yankee Station: The Naval Air War Over Vietnam, Annapolis, Maryland: United States Naval Institute, 1987, ISBN 0-87021-559-0, p. 155.
- ^ Arab-Israeli Wars and Conflicts, The History Guy
- ^ a b Chinnery, Philip D., Vietnam: The Helicopter War, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1991, ISBN 1-55750-875-5, p. 72.
- ^ "Survival at High Altitudes: Wheel-Well Passengers" (PDF). FAA. October 1996. Retrieved 21 April 2014.
- ^ Aviation Safety Network Hijacking Description
- ^ Chinnery, Philip D., Vietnam: The Helicopter War, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1991, ISBN 1-55750-875-5, pp. 69–70.
- ^ Hammel, Eric, Six Days in June: How Israel Won the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1992, ISBN 0-684-19390-6, p. 20.
- ^ Haulman, Daniel L., One Hundred Years of Flight: USAF Chronology of Significant Air and Space Events, 1903–2002, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama: Air University Press, 2003, no ISBN, p. 99.
- ^ David, Donald, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Nobles Books, 1997, ISBN 0-7607-0592-5, p. 111.
- ^ Donald, David, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997, ISBN 0-7607-0592-5, p. 54.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Taylor 1966, p. 2
- ^ Donald, David, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997, ISBN 0-7607-0592-5, p. 116.
- ^ Taylor 1967, p. 247
- ^ Donald, David, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997, ISBN 978-0-7607-0592-6, p. 103.
- ^ a b c d e f Taylor 1967, p. iv
- ^ Komissarov, Sergey (2002). Russia's Ekranoplans: the Caspian Sea Monster and other WiG craft. Hinkley: Midland Publishing. ISBN 978-1857801460.
- ^ Donald, David, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997, ISBN 0-7607-0592-5, p. 10.
- ^ Donald, David, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997, ISBN 978-0-7607-0592-6, p. 101.
- ^ Donald, David, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997, ISBN 978-0-7607-0592-6, p. 102.
- Taylor, John W. R. (1966). Jane's All the World's Aircraft 1966–67. London: Sampson Low, Marston & Company, Ltd.
- Taylor, John W. R. (1967). Jane's All the World's Aircraft 1967–68. London: Sampson Low, Marston & Company, Ltd.