1959 in aviation

This is a list of aviation-related events from 1959:

Events

Unknown

• The Canadian Golden Hawks aerobatic team is formed.

February

• February 3 – Rock stars Ritchie Valens, Buddy Holly and The Big Bopper die when the Beechcraft Bonanza they are traveling in crashes during a snow storm in Iowa.
• February 20 – The Canadian government cancels the Avro CF-105 Arrow.

March

• March 31 – BOAC commences its first scheduled around-the-world service

June

• June 4 – Max Conrad flies a Piper Comanche from Casablanca to New York, setting a new lightplane distance record of 7,683 miles (12,365 km).
• June 16 – a US Navy P4M Mercator is attacked by North Korean Air Force Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17s off the North Korean coast. The Mercator's crew returned the aircraft safely to Japan.

July

• July 9 – a Royal Air Force Vickers Valiant makes the first non-stop flight from England to Cape Town
• July 14 – Maj V Ilyushin sets a new altitude record of 28,852 m (94,659 ft) in the Sukhoi T-431
• July 29 – QANTAS introduces the Boeing 707 on its Sydney-San Francisco route, the first transpacific service flown by jet.

September

• September 23 – The USAF officially cancels the North American Aviation XF-108 Rapier.

October

• October 31 – Colonel G. Mosolov sets a new airspeed record of 2,387 km/h (1,483 mph) in the Mikoyan-Gurevich Ye-66

December

• December 14 – Cdr L Flint sets a new altitude record of 103,389 ft (31,513 m) in a F-104 Starfighter
• December 15 – Maj J W Roberts sets a new airspeed record of 1,526 mph (2,456 km/h) in a F-106 Delta Dart

First flights

January

• January 8 – Armstrong Whitworth AW.650 Argosy G-AOZZ
• January 20 – Vickers Vanguard G-AOYW

March

• March 12 – Aero Boero AB-95

April

• April 5 – Aero L-29 Delfin

May

• May 4 – Pilatus PC-6

June

• June 8 – North American X-15 (unpowered)
• June 17 – Dassault Mirage IV

July

• July 14 – Sukhoi T-431, prototype of the Sukhoi Su-9

October

• October 27 – Myasishchev M-50

Entered service

March

• March 26 – Breguet Alizé with the Aéronavale

April

• April 20 – Ilyushin Il-18 with Aeroflot

May

• F-106 Delta Dart with the 498th Fighter Interceptor Squadron USAF at Geiger Field

June

• June 12 – C-130 Hercules with the 463rd Troop Carrier Wing USAF.

July

• July 22 – Sud-Aviation Caravelle with Air France
• July 22 – Antonov An-10 with Aeroflot

September

• September 18 – Douglas DC-8 with Delta Air Lines and United Air Lines

December

• GAM-77 Hound Dog cruise missile with USAF Strategic Air Command B-52s