1980 in aviation - Definition and Overview

This is a list of aviation-related events from 1980:

Events

January

• January 8 - a Mooney 231 lands in San Francisco, after flying coast to coast non-stop, setting a record by completing the flight in 8 hours and 4 minutes.
• January 16 - British Island Airways and Air Anglia merge to form Air UK.

February

• an Aeroflot Ilyushin Il-18 flies 30,000 km (18,642 miles) from Moscow to the Molodezhnaya observatory in the Antarctic

March

• March 12-14 - two B-52 Stratofortresses make a non-stop round-the-world flight in 42.5 hours
• March 28 - The 1,000th production Learjet is delivered.

April

• April 18 - Air Zimbabwe is formed.
• April 24 - helicopters from USS Nimitz participate in the abortive Operation Eagle Claw, a plan to rescue US hostages from Iran

June

• European Helicopter Industries is formed.
• June 13 - the last produced Concorde (number 16) is delivered to British Airways.
• June 19 - Sikorsky delivers its last of the S-61 commercial helicopeters.
• June 23 - Sanjay Gandhi, son of Indira Gandhi, dies when his private aerobatic biplane has an accident.

July

• July 6 - the largest light airplane meet outside the United States brings 750 small planes to the Popular Flying Associations annual meeting in Leicester.
• July 17 - a Vickers Viscount plane of charter airline Alidair lands safely in Devon after suffering damage to all four engines.
• July 17 - Cathay Pacific begins a Hong Kong-London service
• July 21 - the F-16 is officially nicknamed the Fighting Falcon in a ceremony.

August

• August 7 - Janice Brown pilots the MacCready Gossamer Penguin on its first solar powered flight.
• August 19 - tragedy strikes, as a Lockheed L-1011 of Saudia makes a safe emergency landing in Riyadh, but panicked passengers suffocate and burn in a subsequent stampede. All inside the plane died.

September

• September 22 - Iraq attacks Iran, various military bases and oil wells affected.
• September 28 - Iraqi Tupolev Tu-22s land in Riyadh after bombing Iran

October

• October 2 - a Westland Sea King performs the rescue of 22 passengers from the Swedish ship Finneagle in the North Sea.
• October 20 - first dogfights of the Iran-Iraq War. An Iraqi Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 is shot down by Iranian F-4 Phantoms

November

• November 1 - British Airways terminates Concorde services to Bahrain and Singapore
• November 9 - Dan-Air registers the last commercial flight by a de Havilland Comet. The plane flew enthusiasts on a round-trip flight from London.
• November 12 - Delta Air Lines orders 60 Boeing 757s, the largest single order to this time for a single airliner type.

December

• December 7 - Pan Am's Boeing 747, the China Clipper, arrives from JFK International Airport in New York, to Beijing, after a stop inTokyo. It marks the first time since 1949 that a commercial flight between the United States and mainland China is completed.

First flights

May

• May 13 - Antonov An-3

June

• June 20 - Beechcraft Commuter
• June 24 - Microturbo Microjet 200

July

• July 12 - KC-10 Extender
• July 23 - Aérospatiale Dauphin II

August

• August 11 - Learjet Longhorn 50
• August 16 - EMBRAER Tucano
• August 19 - Boeing Vertol Model 234

November

• November 6 - Macready Solar Challenger

Entered service

November

• November 13 - F/A-18 Hornet with VFA-125 at NAS Leemore.

December

• December 26- Ilyushin Il-86 with Aeroflot