1968 in aviation
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is a list of aviation-related events from 1968:
[edit] 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, N300Y, 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.
[edit] First flights
May
June
July
- Nord N 500 (tethered)
September
November
December
- December 3 - Anahuac Tauro XB-TAX
- December 31 - Tupolev Tu-144
[edit] Entered service
February
- Boeing 737 with Lufthansa
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