1976 in aviation - Definition and Overview

This is a list of aviation-related events from 1976:

Events

March

• March 17 - a Japan Air Lines Boeing 747 makes the first non-stop flight from Tokyo to New York, taking 11.5 hours for the 10,139 km (6,300 mile) journey.

April

• April 5 - Howard Hughes dies aboard a Learjet, aged 70

May

• May 3 - A Pan Am Boeing 747SP makes a record around-the-world flight, taking 1 day 22 hours.
• May 24 - three hijackers and seven hostages die as Filipino troops storm a hijacked Philippines Airlines Douglas DC-9

July

• July 1 - Clive Canning arrives in the United Kingdom, having flown from Australia in a Thorp T-18 homebuilt aircraft
• July 3 - three Israeli Air Force C-130 Hercules carry commandos to Entebbe, Uganda to rescue the 258 passengers of an Air France Airbus hijacked six days earlier

August

• August 15 - Lt Viktor Belenko defects from the Soviet Union to Japan, bringing his Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25 with him.

September

• September 14 - a F-14 Tomcat rolls off the deck of USS John F. Kennedy and sinks in international waters. A major salvage operation is launched to retrieve the fighter lest it fall into Soviet hands.
• September 10 - in the worst mid-air disaster to this point, 176 people die when a British Airways BAC Trident and a Inex Adria Douglas DC-9 collide over Zagreb

First flights

August

• August 9 - Boeing YC-14
• August 12 - Aermacchi MB-339
• August 13 - Bell Model 222
• August 27 - PZL-Mielec M-18 Dromader

October

• October 10 - EMBRAER EMB-121 Xingu
• October 12 - Sikorsky S-72

December

• December 16 - Shuttle Carrier Aircraft
• December 22 - Ilyushin Il-86

Entered service

January

• January 21 - Concorde, with British Airways and Air France

August

• August 24 - Shorts 330 with Time Air

November

• BAE Hawk with RAF