1966 In Aviation

Events

• Puerto Rican International Airlines begin services.

• January 17 - a B-52 Stratofortress collides with a KC-135 Stratotanker during aerial refueling near Palomares, Spain. Seven crewmembers are killed in the crash, and two of the B-52's nuclear weapons rupture, scattering radioactive material over the countryside. One bomb lands intact near the town, and another is lost at sea. It is later recovered intact 5 miles (8 km) offshore.

• February 8 - Freddie Laker founds Laker Airways

• March 7 - France withdraws from NATO

• April 14 - Pan Am places the first order for the forthcoming Boeing 747

• Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21s start to appear in the skies over Vietnam

• The Indian Air Force begins re-arming to replace losses from the previous year's skirmishes with Pakistan
• June 8 - one of the XB-70 Valkyrie prototypes is destroyed in a mid-air collision with a F-104 Starfighter chase plane
• June 20 - Sheila Scott completes a solo round-the-world flight
• June 29 - The U.S. Air Force bombs Hanoi for the first time

• July 1 - U.S. Navy aircraft from USS Constellation and USS Hancock sink three North Vietnamese torpedo boats

• September 9 - the Concorde's Rolls-Royce Olympus engine begins flight tests underneath an Avro Vulcan bomber
• September 24 - Marina Solovyeva sets a new women's airspeed record of 2,044 km/h (1,270 mph) in the Mikoyan-Gurevich Ye-76

• November 1 - Air Canada begins the first North American air services to the Soviet Union
• November 18 - Captain William J. Knight flies the North American X-15 to a record speed of Mach 6.33 (4,250 mph, 6,840 km/h)

• December 6 - the West German Luftwaffe grounds its fleet of F-104s to investigate continuing accidents with the type.

First flights

• January 27 - Fairchild FH-227

• February 23 - Dornier Do 28 D-INTL

• March 17 - Bell X-22
• March 18 - Wassmer WA-50

• April 12 - Pilatus PC-7

• July 12 - Northrop M2-F2

• August 2 - Sukhoi Su-17 prototype Su-7IG
• August 31 - Hawker Siddeley Harrier

• October 21 - Yakovlev Yak-40

• November 7 - Pilatus PC-11

• December 6 - ChangKong-1
• December 21 - X-23 PRIME
• December 23 - Dassault Mirage F1

Entered service

• January 7 - SR-71 Blackbird with the US Air Force
• January 20 - Short Belfast with No. 53 Squadron RAF

• Vickers VC10 with No. 10 Squadron RAF
• July 1 - Fairchild FH-227 with Mohawk Airlines

• Hawker Siddeley Andover with No. 46 Squadron RAF

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