Wikipedia

1962 in aviation

Years in aviation: 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965
Centuries: 19th century · 20th century · 21st century
Decades: 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s
Years: 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965

This is a list of aviation-related events from 1962:

Events

  • The United States Navy develops vertical replenishment (VERTREP) techniques to supply ships at sea by helicopter, as Sikorsky HSS-2 Sea King (later redesignated SH-3A Sea King) antisubmarine helicopters from the general stores issue ship USS Altair and fleet oiler USS Mississinewa resupply ships of the United States Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean.[1]
  • On an unrecorded date probably sometime in 1962, scheduled commercial airline flights between the United States and Cuba come to an end. Although historians disagree on the exact date, it apparently occurs after Cuba bans incoming flights during the October 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. Scheduled commercial airline flights between the two countries will not resume until August 31, 2016.[2]
  • The Dominican Republic airline Aerovías Quisqueyana begins operations.
  • Early 1962 – In Operation High Jump, the United States Navy McDonnell F4H-1 Phantom II fighter sets a number of world climb-to altitude records: 34.523 seconds to 3,000 meters (9,842 feet), 48.787 seconds to 6,000 meters (19,685 feet), 61.629 seconds to 9,000 meters (29,527 feet), 77.156 seconds to 12,000 meters (39,370 feet), 114.548 seconds to 15,000 meters (49,212 feet), 178.5 seconds to 20,000 meters (65,616 feet), 230.44 seconds to 25,000 meters (82,020 feet), and 371.43 seconds to 30,000 meters (98,424 feet).

January

  • United States Army H-21C Shawnee transport helicopters deploy to Da Nang Air Base, South Vietnam. They are the first American aircraft to operate from Da Nang.[3]
  • January 1 – Aden Airways and East African Airways enter into an agreement to pool services on the Aden-Nairobi route.
  • January 2 – Piloting Pakistan International Airlines′ first Boeing 720B airliner – a Boeing 720-040B (registration AP-AMG) – on its delivery flight, Captain Abdullah Baig and his copilot, Captain Taimur Baig, set a world record for speed over a commercial air route, flying from London, England, to Karachi, Pakistan, in 6 hours 43 minutes 55 seconds at an average speed of 938.78 km/h (582.98 mph).[4][5]
  • January 9 – The de Havilland DH121 Trident makes its maiden flight from Hatfield in Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom.
  • January 10–11 – A United States Air Force B-52H Stratofortress flies from Okinawa to Madrid, establishing a new unrefueled world nonstop flight distance record of 12,532 miles (20,168 km).
  • January 15 – The U.S. Army suffers its first combat fatalities in an aircraft in Vietnam when an H-21C Shawnee transport helicopter is shot down by Viet Cong ground fire near Dak Roda, South Vietnam, with three killed.[6]
  • January 16 – A Republic of Vietnam Air Force C-47 Skytrain crashes at Pleiku, South Vietnam, killing 33.[6]
  • January 24 – Two United States Navy F4H Phantom IIs are seconded to the United States Air Force as the Air Force plans to adopt the type as the F-4 Phantom II.
  • January 25 – Winds exceeding 100 miles per hour (161 km/hr) shear one of the wings off a Montana Air National Guard Douglas C-47 Skytrain flying in turbulent weather during a snowstorm. It crashes into a mountain canyon near Wolf Creek, Montana, killing all six people on board including Governor of Montana Donald Nutter.[7]

February

  • February 2 – A U.S. Air Force Fairchild C-123 Provider crashes while spraying defoliant near Biên Hòa, South Vietnam, with the loss of three crew members. It is the first U.S. Air Force aircraft lost in Vietnam.[8]
  • February 10 – The Soviet Union exchanges captured American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers – shot down over Soviet territory in 1960 – for Vilyam Genrikhovich Fisher, also known as Rudolf Abel, a Soviet spy held by the United States.[9]
  • February 12 – French troops discover the mummified body of William N. "Bill" Lancaster and the wreckage of his Avro Mark VIA Avian Southern Cross in the Sahara Desert. Lancaster had disappeared on April 12, 1933, during an attempt to set a world speed record for a flight from England to South Africa. He is determined to have died on April 20, 1933, while awaiting rescue.[10] The wreckage of the aircraft will be recovered in 1975 and placed on exhibit in 1979.
  • February 20 – John Glenn becomes the first American astronaut to orbit the earth in Mercury Atlas 6.
  • February 25 – An Avensa Fairchild F27 Friendship crashes into San Juan mountain on Venezuela's Isla Margarita in the Caribbean, killing all 23 people on board.

March

April

  • April 12 – During a test flight in a P-51 Mustang to practice for an attempt to break the speed record for a flight from Sydney, Australia, to London, England, Scottish racing car driver Ron Flockhart is killed when he loses control of the plane and crashes near Kallista, Victoria, Australia.[7]
  • April 15 – The United States Marine Corps' involvement in the Vietnam War begins when Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 362 (HMM-362), equipped with HUS-1 Seahorse transport helicopters, arrives at Sóc Trăng, South Vietnam, to begin Operation Shufly.[6]
  • April 16 – A lone hijacker demands that a KLM Royal Dutch Airlines Douglas DC-7C flying from Amsterdam, the Netherlands, to Lisbon, Portugal, with 52 passengers aboard divert to East Berlin, East Germany. The airliner instead returns to Schiphol Airport outside Amsterdam.[13]
  • April 21 – Flying at the Soviet Union′s Sternberg Point Observatory, the Tupolev Tu-114 (NATO reporting name "Cleat") airliner 76467, piloted by Ivan Sukhomlin and copiloted by Piotr Soldatov, sets a world speed record for a turboprop landplane over a 10,000-km (6,210-mile) closed circuit carrying a payload of between 1,000 and 10,000 kg (2,205 and 22,046 pounds), averaging 737.352 km/h (458.169 mph).
  • April 22 – Flying an Antonov An-10A, Soviet pilot A. Mitronin sets a world speed record over a 500-kilometer (310.5-mile) closed loop for aircraft in the An-10's class, averaging 730.6 km/hr (454.0 mph).
  • April 25 – The United States Department of Defense announces its choice of the Northrop F-5 Freedom Fighter for its Military Assistance Program.[14]
  • April 26 – Louis Schalk pilots the first unofficial flight of the A-12 Article 121.
  • April 30 – Louis Schalk pilots the first official flight of the A-12 Article 121.
  • Late April – The U.S. Army's 57th Medical Detachment (Helicopter Ambulance) arrives at Nha Trang Air Base, South Vietnam, introducing the Bell HU-1 Iroquois helicopter into combat for the first time.[6] Nicknamed the "Huey,"[6] the UH-1 (as the HU-1 will be redesignated in September 1962) will become iconic of the Vietnam War.

May

June

  • June 2 – During the Porteñazo revolt of the Venezuelan Marine Corps against Venezuelan President Rómulo Betancourt, Venezuelan Air Force aircraft attack marine corps positions at Puerto Cabello.[18]
  • June 3 – The Air France Boeing 707-328 Chateau de Sully, operating as Air France Flight 007, crashes shortly after take-off from Paris-Orly Airport in Paris, killing 130 of the 132 people on board.
  • June 6 – A helicopter pilot discovers the wreckage of the Fairchild 24 floatplane of Canadian National Hockey League player Bill Barilko of the Toronto Maple Leafs and his dentist, Henry Hudson, who had disappeared while flying back to Toronto from a weekend fishing trip on the Seal River in northern Ontario, Canada, on August 26, 1951. The wreckage is about 100 kilometers (62 miles) north of Cochrane, Ontario, about 56 kilometers (35 miles) off course.
  • June 18 – To reduce the chances of Viet Cong forces slipping away from large South Vietnamese ground units by fleeing operations areas in small groups, U.S. Marine Corps helicopters operating in South Vietnam begin to use the "Eagle Flight" tactic, in which Marine transport helicopters circle contested areas and drop off South Vietnamese troops when and where they are needed to block escaping Viet Cong forces.[6] It will become a proven tactic by the middle of July.[19]
  • June 19 – Four West German Air Force Lockheed F-104 Starfighters collide and crash, killing all four pilots.
  • June 22
  • June 30 – An errant anti-aircraft missile that has gone astray during a Soviet air defense exercise accidentally shoots down Aeroflot Flight SSSR-42370, a Tupolev Tu-104, over Beryozovsky District, Krasnoyarsk Krai, in the Soviet Union's Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic. All 84 people on board die in the subsequent crash.

July

  • The Portuguese airline Transportes Aéreos Portugueses (TAP) – the future TAP Portugal – acquires three Sud Aviation Caravelles, its first jet airliners.
  • July 7 – A Soviet Air Force Mikoyan-Gurevich Ye-152 sets a new airspeed record of 2,681 km/h (1,666 mph)
  • July 8 – Alitalia Flight 771, a Douglas DC-8-43, crashes 11 km (6.8 mi) northwest of Junnar, India, while on approach to a landing at Bombay 84 km (52 mi) to the northeast. All 94 people on board die.
  • July 17 – U.S. Air Force Major Robert M. White pilots a North American X-15 to a record altitude of 314,750 feet (59.6 miles, 96 km). He reaches a maximum speed of 3,784 mph (6,093 km/hr) during the flight.[20]
  • July 19 – United Arab Airlines Flight 869, a de Havilland DH-106 Comet 4C, crashes on Khao Yai mountain in Thailand while on approach to Bangkok, killing all 26 people on board.
  • July 22 – The Bristol Britannia Empress of Lima, operating as Canadian Pacific Air Lines Flight 301, experiences problems with an engine just after takeoff from Honolulu International Airport in Honolulu, Hawaii. Returning to the airport on three engines, it aborts its first landing attempt and begins a go around, during which it crashes, killing 27 of the 40 people on board. It is the worst commercial air accident and second-worst aviation accident in the history of Hawaii.[21]
  • July 25 – On Okinawa, the U.S. Army forms its first armed helicopter company, the Utility Tactical Transport Helicopter Company (UTTHCO) using Bell HU-1A ("Huey") helicopters equipped with machine guns and air-to-ground rockets.[22] They are the first attack helicopters.
  • July 28 – Aeroflot Flight 415, an Antonov An-10A on a domestic flight, crashes near Gagra, Abkhaz ASSR due to crew and air traffic control errors killing all 81 passengers and crew on board including nuclear physicist Natan Yavlinsky.

August

  • August 1 – The U.S. Marine Corps loses a helicopter in Vietnam for the first time when a Republic of Vietnam Air Force fighter skids off a runway at Sóc Trăng Airfield, South Vietnam, and damages an HUS-1 Seahorse transport helicopter beyond repair.[19]
  • August 4 – Yemen Airlines, the future Yemenia, receives its operating license, becoming the flag carrier of the Yemen Arab Republic, also known as North Yemen.
  • August 24 – In Iowa, Don Piccard sets a world altitude record for second-class balloons of 17,000 feet (5,182 meters) during a flight of 2 hours 2 minutes from Sioux City to Kennebec.[23]
  • August 29 – An American Lockheed U-2 photographs the entire island of Cuba, revealing for the first time the presence of eight Soviet surface-to-air missile sites along Cuba's northwest coast designed to provide strategic air defense of Cuba from the United States.[24]
  • August 30 – Two Cuban patrol boats fire on a U.S. Navy Grumman S2F Tracker with a crew of three United States Naval Reserve personnel on a training flight 15 nautical miles (28 km) off Cárdenas, Cuba.

September

October

  • The U.S. Army begins a six-month test of the Bell UH-1 Iroquois in an armed escort role, evaluating the operations of the Utility Tactical Transport Helicopter Company's operations escorting CH-21C Shawnee transport helicopters in South Vietnam.[6] It is the first combat evaluation of the value of attack helicopters.
  • Convair delivers the last of 116 B-58 Hustlers to the United States Air Force.
  • October 1
  • October 6
  • October 7 – Clement Miller, a member of the United States House of Representatives representing California's 1st Congressional District, dies during an election campaign flight when his Piper Avalanche crashes into Chaparral Mountain near Eureka, California, during a storm. The other two people on board also are killed.[7]
  • October 9 – A PLUNA Douglas C-47A Skytrain on a test flight crashes during takeoff from Carrasco International Airport in Montevideo, Uruguay, and catches fire, killing all 10 people on board.
  • October 14 – A U.S. Air Force Lockheed U-2 reconnaissance flight over Cuba reveals the presence of launchpads for medium-range ballistic missiles, triggering the Cuban Missile Crisis.
  • October 22 – President John F. Kennedy announces a naval blockade – termed a "quarantine" – of Cuba, and U.S. military forces worldwide are ordered to Defense Condition (DEFCON) 2. The U.S. Navy has 250 aircraft cooperating with 46 ships in blockading Cuba; the attack aircraft carriers USS Enterprise (CVA(N)-65) and USS Independence (CVA-62) and the antisubmarine carriers USS Essex (CVS-9) and USS Randolph (CVS-15) are among the ships taking part. The United States has a combined 156 aircraft in Florida poised to strike targets in Cuba, capable of flying an estimated nearly 1,200 sorties on the first day of such strikes.[28]
  • October 23 – In Operation Blue Moon, six U.S. Navy RF-8 Crusader photographic reconnaissance aircraft flying from Key West, Florida, conduct the first American low-level flights over Cuba, flying at 400 mph (644 km/hr) only a few hundred feet off the ground.[29]
  • October 24
    • The U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff order the U.S. military forces worldwide to Defense Condition (DEFCON) 2, with preparations to strike Cuba, the Soviet Union, or both. The U.S. Air Force has 1,436 strategic bombers and 134 intercontinental ballistic missiles on constant alert, with one-eighth of the bombers airborne at all times.[30]
    • U.S. Chief of Naval Operations Admiral George W. Anderson, Jr., asks the U.S. Air Force to assist in providing aerial surveillance of the sea approaches to Cuba. Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force General Curtis LeMay agrees to do so, adding that Air Force Strategic Air Command crews will find all Soviet shipping in the area in four hours. Several B-52 Stratofortress bombers and RB-47K Stratojet weather reconnaissance aircraft and 16 Boeing KC-97 Stratofreighter aerial tankers make surveillance flights, but their crews' inexperience in maritime reconnaissance leads them to report American, British, and Greek cargo ships as Soviet ones.[31]
  • October 26
    • Boeing delivers the last B-52 Stratofortress off the production line to the U.S. Air Force.
    • Convair delivers the last B-58 Hustler, a B-58A-20-CF, serial number 61-20280, to the U.S. Air Force. The production run ends after the construction of 116 B-58s. The B-58 is the world's only supersonic bomber.[32]
  • October 27 – A U-2 of the U.S. Air Force's 4080th Strategic Wing piloted by Major Rudolf Anderson. Jr., is shot down over Cuba, killing Anderson. Anderson posthumously will become the first recipient of the Air Force Cross.[33]

November

December

  • December 8 – British troops are airlifted to Borneo to quell uprisings in the region.
  • December 15 – The U.S. Navy reports that the last Soviet offensive weapons – 15 crated Ilyushin Il-28 (NATO reporting name "Beagle") bombers – have been removed from Cuba.[38]

First flights

  • Cessna 160

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

  • Kawasaki KH-4
  • August 10 – Bell 533[49]
  • August 12 – Beagle B.206Y, fully developed seven-seat prototype of the Beagle Basset[50]
  • August 13 – Hawker Siddeley HS.125[41] G-ARYA
  • August 19 – Beagle B.218[41] G-ASCK

September

October

  • October 12 – Dassault Balzac (tethered flight) (First non-tethered flight October 18)[52]
  • October 16 – Boeing Vertol CH-46 Sea Knight (a CH-46A model)[53]
  • October 28 – Westland Wasp[54]

December

Entered service

March

June

July

October

Retirements

  • September 12 – McDonnell F2H-3 Banshee by the Royal Canadian Navy, the last F2H Banshee user; the F2H-3 is also the last carrier-based fixed-wing strike aircraft ever deployed by the military of Canada

Notes

  1. ^ Polmar, Norman, "Historic Aircraft: The King of the Sea", Naval History, February 2012, p. 13.
  2. ^ Anonymous, "Historic commercial flight from US lands in Cuba," Associated Press, August 31, 2016, 8:35 PM EDT.
  3. ^ Chinnery 1991, p. 8
  4. ^ FAI Record ID #7679 Archived 2017-09-22 at the Wayback Machine
  5. ^ fai.org via historyofpia.com "1962 - PIA Boeing 720B Record Flight Info on FAI Website"
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Chinnery 1991, p. 10
  7. ^ a b c d Famous People Who Died in Aviation Accidents: 1960s
  8. ^ Haulman 2003, p. 90
  9. ^ "Today in History", The Washington Post Express, February 10, 2012, p. 34.
  10. ^ Donald 1997, p. 78
  11. ^ Haulman 2003, pp. 90–91
  12. ^ The B-58′s Record Flights
  13. ^ Aviation Safety Network Hijacking Description
  14. ^ Angelucci 1987, p. 372
  15. ^ a b TWA History Timeline Archived 2015-04-10 at the Wayback Machine
  16. ^ Taylor 1962, p. 151
  17. ^ Scheina 1987, p. 225
  18. ^ Scheina 1987, p. 229
  19. ^ a b c Chinnery 1991, p. 15
  20. ^ Haulman 2003, p. 91
  21. ^ Aviation Hawaii: 1960–1969 Chronology of Aviation in Hawaii
  22. ^ Chinnery 1991, p. 13
  23. ^ Anonymous, Astronautical and Aeronautical Events of 1962, Washington, D.C.:United States Government Printing Office, 1963, p. 163.
  24. ^ a b Isenberg 1993, p. 797,
  25. ^ This Day in Aviation: 14 September 1962
  26. ^ Isenberg 1993, p. 798
  27. ^ Chinnery 1991, p. 156
  28. ^ Isenberg 1993, pp. 804–805
  29. ^ Polmar, Norman, "Historic Aircraft: The Last Photo Plane", Naval History, October 2010, p. 64.
  30. ^ Isenberg 1993, pp. 809–810
  31. ^ Isenberg 1993, p. 812
  32. ^ This Day in Aviation: 16 October 1963
  33. ^ Haulman 2003, p. 92
  34. ^ Mondey, David, ed., The Complete Illustrated History of the World's Aircraft, Secaucus, New Jersey: Chartwell Books, Inc., 1978, ISBN 0-89009-771-2, pp. 57–58.
  35. ^ Chinnery 1991, p. 14
  36. ^ Chinnery 1991, p. 16
  37. ^ Hallion, Richard P., "Across the Hypersonic Divide", Aviation History, July 2012, pp. 41–42.
  38. ^ a b Isenberg 1993, p. 817
  39. ^ Brotak, Ed, "When Birds Strike," Aviation History, May 2016, p. 47.
  40. ^ Anonymous, "Today in History", The Washington Post Express, November 27, 2012, p. 42.
  41. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Taylor 1962, p. 2
  42. ^ Duffy & Kandalov 1996, p. 136
  43. ^ Angelucci 1987, pp. 288–289
  44. ^ Taylor 1965, p. 318
  45. ^ Taylor 1965, p. 248
  46. ^ Taylor 1965, p. 71
  47. ^ Donald 1997, p. 90
  48. ^ Taylor 1965, p. 210
  49. ^ Taylor 1965, p. 189
  50. ^ Donald 1997, p. 94
  51. ^ Taylor 1965, p. 282
  52. ^ Taylor 1965, p. 39
  53. ^ Polmar, Norman, "It's a Plane...a Helicopter...a Phrog!", Naval History, October 2016, p. 64.
  54. ^ Taylor 1965, p. 170
  55. ^ Taylor 1965, p. 63
  56. ^ "World Air News: Bell 206 Helicopter". Air Pictorial, February 1963. Vol. 25, No. 2. p. 40.
  57. ^ Taylor 1965, p. 49
  58. ^ Donald 1997, p. 56
  59. ^ Donald 1997, p. 74

References

Bibliography
  • Angelucci, Enzo (1987). The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present. New York: Orion Books. ISBN 0-517-56588-9.
  • Chinnery, Philip D. (1991). Vietnam: The Helicopter War. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-55750-875-5.
  • Donald, David, ed. (1997). The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft. New York: Barnes & Noble Books. ISBN 0-7607-0592-5.
  • Dorr, Robert F. (2005). Marine Air - The History of the Flying Leathernecks in Words and Photos. Penguin Books. ISBN 0-425-20725-0.
  • Duffy, Paul; Kandalov, Andrei (1996). Tupolev: The Man and His Aircraft. Shrewsbury, UK: Airlife. ISBN 1-85310-728-X.
  • Haulman, Daniel L. (2003). One Hundred Years of Flight: USAF Chronology of Significant Air and Space Events, 1903-2002 (PDF). Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama: US: Air University Press.
  • Isenberg, Michael T. (1993). Shield of the Republic: The United States Navy in an Era of Cold War and Violent Peace, Volume I: 1945-1962. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-09911-8.
  • Scheina, Robert L. (1987). Latin America: A Naval History 1810–1987. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-295-8.
  • Taylor, John W. R. (1962). Jane's All The World's Aircraft 1962–63. London: Sampson Low, Marston & Company, Ltd.
  • Taylor, John W. R. (1965). Jane's All The World's Aircraft 1965–66. London: Sampson Low, Marston & Company, Ltd.
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