1946 in aviation

This is a list of aviation-related events from 1946:

Events

January

• January 1 – a British South American Airways Avro Lancastrian becomes the first commercial flight to depart Heathrow Airport
• January 10 – a Sikorsky R5 sets an unofficial helicopter altitude record of 6,400 m (21,000 ft) at Stratford, Connecticut.
• January 26 – Col William Councill sets a new US transcontinental speed record of 4 hours 13 minutes in a Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star

February

• February 6 – TWA makes its first international flight, from New York to Paris
• March 8 – the Bell 47 receives the first type certificate awarded to a commercial helicopter.
• February 11 – U.S. and British negotiators reach the Bermuda Agreement, the first bilateral agreement regulating air transport. The two countries agree to fix transatlantic air fares through the International Air Transport Association.

June

• June 21 – a USAF P-80 Shooting Star carries the first airmail flown by jet

July

• July 1 – a B-29 Superfortress drops an atomic bomb on Bikini Atoll in a nuclear test.
• July 21 – a McDonnell FH Phantom makes the first landing by a jet aboard a US aircraft carrier, USS Franklin D. Roosevelt

September

• September 27 – Sir Geoffrey de Havilland is killed when the de Havilland DH.108 breaks up in mid-air
• September 29 – a Lockheed P2V Neptune sets a new distance record of 11,235 miles (18,082 km)

First flights

January

• January 19 – Bell X-1 (unpowered)

April

• April 24 – Mikoyan-Gurevich I-300, the Soviet Union's first jet
• April 24 – Yakovlev Yak-15 (three hours after the I-300)

May

• May 17 – Douglas XB-43, first US jet bomber

June

• June 7 – Short Sturgeon prototype RK 787
• June 25 – Northrop XB-35 flying wing bomber

July

• July 7 – Hughes XF-11
• July 27 – Supermarine Attacker prototype TS 409

August

• August 8 – Convair XB-36

November

• November 11 – Sud-Ouest SO-6000 Triton, France's first jet
• November 13 – Sukhoi Su-9
• November 16 – Saab Scandia prototype SE-BCA

December

• December 12 – Westland Wyvern

Entered service

September

• September 30 – Short S.26 with BOAC Golden Hind (G-AFCI)