1968 in aviation

yearbox
in?=in aviation
cp=19th Century
c=20th century
cf=21st century
yp1=1965
yp2=1966
yp3=1967
year=1968
ya1=1969
ya2=1970
ya3=1971
dp3=1930s
dp2=1940s
dp1=1950s
d=1960s
dn1=1970s
dn2=1980s
dn3=1990s

This is a list of aviation-related events from 1968:

Events

January
* January 21 - a US Air Force B-52 Stratofortress crashes in the sea near Thule Air Base Greenland, carrying four nuclear weapons. See "Broken Arrow", a type of nuclear weapons incidences.

March
* March 27 - Yuri Gagarin is killed in the crash of a Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15

April
* April 4 - Apollo Program: Apollo-Saturn mission 502 ("Apollo 6") is launched, as the second and last unmanned test-flight of the Saturn V launch vehicle.
* April 25 - Apollo 6's SIV-B staqe re-entered the atmosphere and Command Module recovered.

May
* May 5 - a Grumman Gulfstream II becomes the first executive jet to cross the Atlantic

August
* August 13 - Swedish Count Gustav von Rosen defies Nigerian air defences to fly in supplies to the Biafran rebels
* August 14 - Los Angeles Airways Flight 417 crashed Compton, California resulting in the loss of 21 lives. The accident aircraft, airreg|N|300Y|disaster, serial number 61031, was the prototype of the Sikorsky S-61L.
* August 31 - the Rolls-Royce RB.211 is successfully ground-tested

September
* September 11 - Air New Zealand flies T. H. Williams, Sir Charles Kingsford Smith's navigator to Sydney to commemorate the 40th anniversary of their first trans-Tasman flight
* September 30 - the first Boeing 747 is rolled out

December
* December 24 - Apollo 8 orbits the moon carrying Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders.

First flights

May
* May 25 - Grumman EA-6B Prowler

June
* June 30 - C-5 Galaxy

July
* Nord N 500 (tethered)

September
* September 8 - SEPECAT Jaguar

November
* November 13 - Northrop HL-10

December
* December 3 - Anahuac Tauro "XB-TAX"
* December 31 - Tupolev Tu-144

Entered service

February
* Boeing 737 with Lufthansa