1946 in aviation - Definition and Overview

This is a list of aviation-related events from 1946:

Events

January

• January 1 - a British South American Airways Avro Lancastrian becomes the first commercial flight to depart Heathrow Airport
• January 10 - a Sikorsky R5 sets an unofficial helicopter altitude record of 6,400 m (21,000 ft) at Stratford, Connecticut.
• January 26 - Col William Councill sets a new US transcontinental speed record of 4 hours 13 minutes in a Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star

February

• February 6 - TWA makes its first international flight, from New York to Paris
• March 8 - the Bell 47 receives the first type certificate awarded to a commercial helicopter.
• February 11 - U.S. and British negotiators reach the Bermuda Agreement, the first bilateral agreement regulating air transport. The two countries agree to fix transatlantic air fares through the International Air Transport Association.

June

• June 21 - a USAF P-80 Shooting Star carries the first airmail flown by jet

July

• July 1 - a B-29 Superfortress drops an atomic bomb on Bikini Atoll in a nuclear test.
• July 21 - a McDonnell FH Phantom makes the first landing by a jet aboard a US aircraft carrier, USS Franklin D. Roosevelt

September

• September 27 - Sir Geoffrey de Havilland is killed when the de Havilland DH.108 breaks up in mid-air
• September 29 - a Lockheed P2V Neptune sets a new distance record of 11,235 miles (18,082 km)

First flights

January

• January 19 - Bell X-1 (unpowered)

April

• April 24 - Mikoyan-Gurevich I-300, the Soviet Union's first jet
• April 24 - Yakovlev Yak-15 (three hours after the I-300)

May

• May 17 - Douglas XB-43, first US jet bomber

June

• June 7 - Short Sturgeon prototype RK 787
• June 25 - Northrop XB-35 flying wing bomber

July

• July 7 - Hughes XF-11
• July 27 - Supermarine Attacker prototype TS 409

August

• August 8 - Convair XB-36

November

• November 11 - Sud-Ouest SO-6000 Triton, France's first jet
• November 13 - Sukhoi Su-9
• November 16 - Saab Scandia prototype SE-BCA

December

• December 12 - Westland Wyvern

Entered service

September

• September 30 - Short S.26 with BOAC Golden Hind (G-AFCI)