1980 IN AVIATION

This is a list of aviation-related events from 1980:

Contents

Events

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

First flights

May

June

July

August

September

November

Entered service

October

November

December

Events

January

★ January 8 - a Mooney 231 lands in San Francisco, after flying coast to coast non-stop, setting a record by completing the flight in 8 hours and 4 minutes.

★ January 16 - British Island Airways and Air Anglia merge to form Air UK.

February

★ an Aeroflot Ilyushin Il-18 flies 30,000 km (18,642 miles) from Moscow to the Molodezhnaya observatory in the Antarctic

March

★ March 12-14 - two B-52 Stratofortresses make a non-stop round-the-world flight in 42.5 hours

★ March 28 - The 1,000th production Learjet is delivered.

April

★ April 3 - Crash of the prototype Bombardier Challenger 600 in the Mojave desert kills the pilot

★ April 18 - Air Zimbabwe is formed.

★ April 24 - helicopters from USS ''Nimitz'' participate in the abortive Operation Eagle Claw, a plan to rescue US hostages from Iran

May

★ May 1 - Spectacular crash of USMC AV-8A Harrier at MCAS Cherry Point, NC. During a vertical takeoff the aircraft rolled, dropped to the runway, bounced into a ditch, burst into flames, flipped, slid through a hangar and into a parking lot, where it damaged more than twenty vehicles.

June

★ European Helicopter Industries is formed.

★ June 13 - the last produced Concorde (number 16) is delivered to British Airways.

★ June 19 - Sikorsky delivers its last of the S-61 commercial helicopeters.

★ June 23 - Sanjay Gandhi, son of Indira Gandhi, dies when his private aerobatic biplane has an accident.

July

★ July 6 - the largest light airplane meet outside the United States brings 750 small planes to the Popular Flying Associations annual meeting in Leicester.

★ July 17 - a Vickers Viscount plane of charter airline Alidair lands safely in Devon after suffering damage to all four engines.

★ July 17 - Cathay Pacific begins a Hong Kong-London service

★ July 21 - the F-16 is officially nicknamed the ''Fighting Falcon'' in a ceremony.

August

★ August 7 - Janice Brown pilots the MacCready Gossamer Penguin on its first solar powered flight.

★ August 19 - a Saudi Arabian Airlines Lockheed L-1011 makes a safe emergency landing in Riyadh, but panicked passengers suffocate and burn in a subsequent stampede. All inside the plane die.

★ August 28 - 31 - the 3rd FAI World Rally Flying Championship in Aschaffenburg, West Germany. Individual winners: 1. Witold Świadek / Andrzej Korzeniowski (Poland), 2. Otto Höfling / Michael Amtmann (FRG), 3. Luckerbauer / Meszaros (Austria). Team results: 1. Poland, 2. FRG, 3. Austria.

September

★ September 22 - Iraq attacks Iran, various military bases and oil wells affected.

★ September 28 - Iraqi Tupolev Tu-22s land in Riyadh after bombing Iran

October

★ October 2 - a Westland Sea King performs the rescue of 22 passengers from the Swedish ship ''Finneagle'' in the North Sea.

★ October 20 - first dog fights of the Iran-Iraq War. An Iraqi Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 is shot down by Iranian F-4 Phantoms

November

★ November 1 - British Airways terminates Concorde services to Bahrain and Singapore

★ November 9 - Dan-Air registers the last commercial flight by a de Havilland Comet. The plane flew enthusiasts on a round-trip flight from London.

★ November 12 - Delta Air Lines orders 60 Boeing 757s, the largest single order to this time for a single airliner type.

December

★ December 7 - Pan Am's Boeing 747, the ''China Clipper'', arrives from JFK International Airport in New York, to Beijing, after a stop in Tokyo. It marks the first time since 1949 that a commercial flight between the United States and mainland China is completed.

First flights

May

★ May 13 - Antonov An-3

June

★ June 20 - Beechcraft Commuter

★ June 24 - Microturbo Microjet 200 ''F-WZJF''

July

★ July 12 - KC-10 Extender ''79-0433''

★ July 23 - Aérospatiale Dauphin II

August

★ August 11 - Learjet Longhorn 50

★ August 16 - EMBRAER Tucano ''1300''

★ August 19 - Boeing Vertol Model 234

September

★ September 26 - Shanghai Y-10

November

★ November 6 - Macready Solar Challenger

Entered service

October

★ The MD-80 series enters airline service.

November

★ November 13 - F/A-18 Hornet with VFA-125 at NAS Leemore.

December

★ December 26- Ilyushin Il-86 with Aeroflot