1986 in aviation Details, Meaning 1986 in aviation Article and Explanation Guide

1986 in aviation Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description

This is a list of aviation-related events from 1986:

Table of contents

1 Events
2 First flights
3 Entered service

January 9 - the UK Defence Secretary, Michael Heseltine, resigns amidst a political furore over the future of Westland Helicopters. Two weeks later, Leon Brittan, the Trade and Industry Secretary, will also resign.
January 28 - the Space Shuttle Challenger is destroyed at launch
January 31 - Boeing completes purchase of de Havilland Canada

February

February 12 - US Navy aircraft carriers commence exercises in the Gulf of Sirte, off the coast of Libya, challenging that country's territorial claims to those waters.
February 20 - an Iranian Fokker F28 airliner is downed by an Iraqi Air Force plane, killing all passengers aboard. The aircraft was carrying members of the Iranian parliament.

March

March 6 - The world's heaviest passenger, an 364-kg (800-lb) Austrian man, flies on Japan Airlines to Tokyo. The airline has to remove 16 seats from a Boeing 747 to accommodate him.

April

April 1 - a Boeing 767 lands after a non-stop flight from Seattle to Kuwait, setting a world record for the longest, non-stop flight by a twin-engined jet
April 2 - a bomb explodes aboard a TWA Boeing 727 on a flight between Rome and Athens. Four passengers are killed and nine more injured, but the aircraft lands safely.
April 14 - US Navy jets attack Libya in Operation El Dorado Canyon
April 18 - Marcel Dassault (real name, Marcel Bloch) dies at 94.
April 28 - Pan Am returns to the Soviet Union, using a Boeing 747 from JFK International Airport in New York.

May

May 3 - 20 passengers die after an explosion caused by Tamil Tigers separatists aboard a Air Lanka Lockheed L-1011
May 7 - Al Mooney dies , aged 80.
May 25 - a prisoner in a Parisian jail escapes when his wife rescues him in a helicopter

August

August 11 - a modified Westland Lynx sets a new helicopter world speed record of 249 mph (401 km/h)
August 20 - first test-flight of a propfan engine, the General Electric GE-36
August 26 - the CFM56 turbofan is flight tested for the first time.

October

October 21 - British Airways is offered for public sale by the British government

November

November 6 - a Boeing 234 crashes in the Shetland Isles, killing 45 people. It is history's worst helicopter disaster.

December

December 2 - an Air France Concorde returns to Paris after an 18-day around the world trip with 94 passengers.
December 14-23: First non-stop flight around the planet without refueling - the Rutan Voyager, piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, on a distance of 26,366 statute miles (the FAI accredited distance is 40,212 km)