1966 in aviation

yearbox
in?=in aviation
cp=19th Century
c=20th century
cf=21st century
yp1=1963
yp2=1964
yp3=1965
year=1966
ya1=1967
ya2=1968
ya3=1969
dp3=1930s
dp2=1940s
dp1=1950s
d=1960s
dn1=1970s
dn2=1980s
dn3=1990s

This is a list of aviation-related events from 1966:

Events

* Puerto Rican International Airlines begin services.

January

* January 17 - a B-52 Stratofortress collides with a KC-135 Stratotanker during aerial refueling near Palomares, Spain in the Palomares hydrogen bombs incident. Seven crewmembers are killed in the crash, and two of the B-52's nuclear weapons rupture, scattering radioactive material over the countryside. One bomb lands intact near the town, and another is lost at sea. It is later recovered intact 5 miles (8 km) offshore.

* January 24 - An Air India Boeing 707 jet crashes on Mont Blanc, on the border between France and Italy, killing 117.

February

* February 8 - Freddie Laker founds Laker Airways

March

* March 7 - France withdraws from NATO

May

* Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21s start to appear in the skies over Vietnam
* May 23 to May 26 - Round-the-world demonstration flight by a new Learjet 24 to exhibit its capabilities; flight time was 50 hours and 20 minutes.

June

* The Indian Air Force begins re-arming to replace losses from the previous year's skirmishes with Pakistan
* June 7 - Robert and Joan Wallick set a round-the-world flight record
* June 8 - one of the XB-70 Valkyrie prototypes is destroyed in a mid-air collision with a F-104 Starfighter chase plane
* June 20 - Sheila Scott completes a solo round-the-world flight
* June 29 - The U.S. Air Force bombs Hanoi for the first time

July

* July 1 - U.S. Navy aircraft from USS "Constellation" and USS "Hancock" sink three North Vietnamese torpedo boats

eptember

* September 9 - the Concorde's Rolls-Royce Olympus engine begins flight tests underneath an Avro Vulcan bomber
* 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

November

* November 1 - Air Canada begins the first North American air services to the Soviet Union
* 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)

December

* December 6 - the West German Luftwaffe grounds its fleet of F-104s to investigate continuing accidents with the type.

First flights

January

* January 24 - Learjet 24
* January 27 - Fairchild FH-227

February

* February 23 - Dornier Do 28 "D-INTL"

March

* March 5 - Lockheed D-21 Drone
* March 17 - Bell X-22
* March 18 - Wassmer WA-50

April

* April 12 - Pilatus PC-7
* April 29 - Neiva Universal (PP-ZTW)

July

* July 12 - Northrop M2-F2

August

* August 2 - Sukhoi Su-17 prototype Su-7IG
* August 12 - Learjet 25
* August 31 - Hawker Siddeley Harrier

October

* October 21 - Yakovlev Yak-40

November

* November 7 - Pilatus PC-11

December

* December 6 - ChangKong-1
* December 21 - X-23 PRIME
* December 23 - Dassault Mirage F1

Entered service

January
* January 7 - SR-71 Blackbird with the US Air Force
* January 20 - Short Belfast with No. 53 Squadron RAF

July
* Vickers VC10 with No. 10 Squadron RAF
* July 1 - Fairchild FH-227 with Mohawk Airlines

September
* Hawker Siddeley Andover with No. 46 Squadron RAF