1947 in aviation - Definition and Overview

This is a list of aviation-related events from 1947:

Events

March

• March 14 - Saudi Arabian Airlines begins regular services.

May

• May 28 - BSAA trials non-stop flights from London to Bermuda using aerial refueling over the Azores

June

• June 17 - Pan Am begins a New York to San Francisco service flying west-to-east around almost the entire globe.
• June 19 - Col Albert Boyd sets a new official world airspeed record of 623.62 mph (1,003 km/h) in a Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star. (This is still marginally slower than unofficial German speed records in rocket-powered aircraft during World War II).

August

• August 10 - BEA began the world's first regular cargo-only airline service.
• August 20 - a new world airspeed record of 640 mph (1,031 km/h) is set in the Douglas Skystreak.
• August 25 - the Douglas Skystreak is flown to another airspeed record of 650 mph (1,047 km/h).

September

• September 18 - the United States Air Force becomes its own fully independent military command.

October

• October 1 - Los Angeles Airways begins the first scheduled carriage of airmail by helicopter
• October 1 - George Welch allegedly breaks the sound barrier during a dive in his XP-86 Sabre.
• October 14 - Chuck Yeager took the rocket-powered Bell X-1 past the speed of sound, the first controlled, supersonic, level flight.

First flights

June

• June 22 - Martin XB-48

July

• July 2 - Mikoyan-Gurevich I-310, prototype of the MiG-15
• July 8 - Boeing 377
• July 16 - Saunders-Roe SR.A/1
• July 21 - Aero 45
• July 24 - Ilyushin Il-22
• July 27 - Tupolev Tu-12, first Soviet jet bomber
• July 27 - Bristol Sycamore, first British helicopter

October

• October 1 - North American XP-86

November

• November 2 - Hughes H-4 "Spruce Goose"

December

• December 17 - Boeing XB-47

Entered service