2003 in aviation - Definition and Overview

This is a list of aviation-related events from 2003:

Events

February

• 1The Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrates, killing all seven occupants.
• Fina Air begins services.

May

• 25 - Boeing 727 mysteriously disappears in Angola, along with pilot Ben Charles Padilla.

September

• Skip Holm, flying the modified P-51D 'Dago Red', sets a new closed-course piston-engine speed record of 507 mph at the Reno Air Races.

October

• 24, the Concorde makes its last scheduled commercial flight.
• First totally autonomous flight across the Atlantic by a computer-controlled model aircraft.

November

• 26, the last commercial Concorde flight.

December

• 17, on the anniversary of the Wright Flyer's achievement, SpaceShipOne is the first privately built, manned aircraft to fly faster than the speed of sound,
• 25, United Transit 141 crashes in Benin, spreading rumors that it is the Boeing 727 that disappeared earlier during the year.
• December: The 100th birthday of aviation has begun.

First flights

March

• March 7 - HAL HJT-36

May

• May 20 - SpaceShipOne

July

• July 28 - Adam A700 AdamJet

Entered service