This is a list of aviation-related events from 1956.
Events
January Vietnam Civil Aviation is founded as the national civil aviation authority of North Vietnam, functioning as an element of the Vietnam People's Air Force responsible for state management, national defense, and commercialization of civilian air transportation. It also operates as North Vietnam's national airline, with a fleet that consists initially of two Lisunov Li-2 aircraft. Lebanese International Airways begins flight operations. January 15 – The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force acquires its first aircraft, taking delivery of Lockheed P2V-7 Neptune maritime patrol planes from the United States Navy.
February February 4 – The East German national airline Deutsche Lufthansa (DLH) begins scheduled passenger flights, offering service between East Berlin and Warsaw. February 8 – Eight Hawker Hunter fighters of the Royal Air Forces Central Fighter Establishment are caught in suddenly deteriorating weather with little fuel left and try to land at RAF Marham, England. Two land safely, but the other six are destroyed in crashes in the vicinity of Swaffham and RAF Marham, with one of the pilots killed. February 18 – An engine fire breaks out on a Scottish Airlines Avro York just after takeoff from RAF Luqa, Malta. The aircraft stalls as the crew attempts to turn back to the airport and crashes into the ground near Zurrieq, Malta, killing all 50 people on board.
March The Piasecki Helicopter Corporation is renamed Vertol Aircraft Corporation.Polmar, Norman, "Historic Aircraft: The Flying Banana," Naval History, August 2010, p. 17. The United Kingdom′s Marine Aircraft Experimental Establishment shuts down. Its surviving activities are split among the British Air Ministry, the Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment, and the Royal Aircraft Establishment. March 1 – East Germany establishes its air force, the Luftstreitkräfte der Nationalen Volksarmee (LSK) or Air Forces of the National People's Army. March 2 – Practising for an upcoming air show, four Canadair Sabre Mk. 6 fighters of the Sky Lancers aerobatics team of No. 4 Wing, Royal Canadian Air Force, based at RCAF Station Baden-Soellingen in West Germany, fly into the ground in the Upper Rhine Valley southwest of Strasbourg, France, while performing a loop in formation, killing all four pilots. The accident brings a halt to RCAF aerobatic flying for several years. March 10 A United States Air Force B-47E-95-BW Stratojet on a nonstop flight from MacDill Air Force Base, Florida, to an overseas base with two nuclear weapon cores aboard disappears over the Mediterranean Sea after descending into dense clouds at an altitude of to prepare for in-flight refueling. No trace of the aircraft, its three-man crew, or the cores are ever found. Fairey Aviation test pilot Peter Twiss sets a new airspeed record in the Fairey Delta 2, also becoming the first person to exceed in level flight. His top speed is . March 24 – Aeropostal Alas de Venezuela (LAV) introduces its first turboprop airliner – a Vickers Viscount 701, into service.
April April 1 – Trans World Airlines Flight 400, a Martin 4-0-4, crashes on takeoff from Greater Pittsburgh International Airport in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, killing 22 of the 36 people on board. April 2 A Lockheed F-104 Starfighter piloted by Joe Ozier exceeds Mach 2 for the first time, becoming the first production fighter to do so.Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, pp. 282, 283. Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 2 ditches in Puget Sound shortly after takeoff from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in King County, Washington. All 38 people aboard escape the plane; seven of them are injured, and five of the seven later die of their injuries. April 13 – The Soviet Union cancels the Ilyushin Il-40 (NATO reporting name "Brawny") program.
May May 15 – The "Convent Crash" occurs when a Royal Canadian Air Force CF-100 Canuck fighter crashes into Villa St. Louis, a convent in Orleans, Ontario, Canada. The crash kills both members of the CF-100's crew and 13 people in the building. May 21 – A U.S. Air Force B-52 Stratofortress drops a 3.75-megaton hydrogen bomb on Bikini Atoll in the Central Pacific Ocean. It is the first air drop of a hydrogen bomb. May 23 – Piloted by Joseph A. Walker, the Douglas X-3 Stiletto makes its 51st and final flight.Guttman, Jon, "Douglas X-3 Stiletto," Aviation History, November 2016, p. 15.
June The first two United States Navy Grumman F11F-1 Tiger supersonic fighters fitted with the more powerful General Electric J79-GE-3A make their first flights. The new engine gives the F11F-1 a Mach 2 capability.Polmar, Norman, "A Limited Success," Naval History, August 2015, p. 64. June 1 – Colonial Airlines merges with Eastern Air Lines. June 2 – German-born American pilot Peter Gluckmann, dubbed "The Flying Watchmaker" by the press, takes off from San Francisco, California, to make a clockwise, seven-week, five-continent, solo flight in the Cessna 190 Businessliner City of San Francisco with a engine, with stops in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and South America. June 20 – The U.S. Navy commissions its first helicopter carrier, , redesignated CVHA-1 on July 1. June 24 – The BOAC Canadair C-4 Argonaut G-ALHE strikes a tree and crashes on departure from Kano Airport in Kano, Nigeria, killing 32 of the 45 people on board. Four of the 13 survivors are seriously injured. June 30 – A United Airlines Douglas DC-7 and a Trans World Airlines Lockheed Super Constellation collide in mid-air over the Grand Canyon in Arizona, USA, killing all 128 passengers and crew aboard both airplanes in the deadliest air disaster in history at the time; the crash triggers sweeping changes in the regulations governing cross-country flight over the United States, which would include the creation of the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA, later renamed Federal Aviation Administration).
July July 1 – The government of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland commissions Salisbury Airport – the future Harare International Airport – in Salisbury (now Harare). The airport's official opening will not take place until February 1957. July 9 – The No. 4 propeller of a Trans-Canada Air Lines Vickers Viscount 700 carrying 35 people tears loose from its engine over Flat Rock, Michigan, and strikes the planes passenger cabin, killing one person and injuring five. The airliner lands safely at Windsor, Ontario, Canada. It is the first propeller loss on a turboprop aircraft and the first accident involving a Viscount. July 13 – Seven hijackers commandeer a Malev Hungarian Airlines Lisunov Li-2T (registration HA-LIG) with 20 people on board during a domestic flight in Hungary from Szombathely to Budapest and force it to fly to Ingolstadt Air Base in Manching, West Germany. July 15 – The United States Air Force establishes the Sixteenth Air Force. It operates from bases in Spain.afhra.af.mil Fact Sheet: SIXTEENTH AIR FORCE (USAFE) July 20 – German-born American pilot Peter Gluckmann, dubbed "The Flying Watchmaker" by the press, returns to San Francisco, California, at the end of a 48-day, five-continent, solo flight in the Cessna 190 Businessliner City of San Francisco with a engine. During the flight, he has made stops at several places in North America, including New York City; in Iceland at Keflavik; in the United Kingdom, including a 10-day stay in London; and in Switzerland; Italy; Greece; Israel; Egypt; Sierra Leone; Brazil; and the Caribbean, before again heading back to San Francisco across the United States. During the flight he has made his third crossing of the North Atlantic Ocean (all in light aircraft), made the first direct flight from Israel to Egypt, taking off from Lod Airport and landing at Cairo, and become the first pilot to make a solo flight across the South Atlantic Ocean in a light plane, flying from Freetown, Sierra Leone, to Natal, Brazil. July 27 – A United States Air Force B-47 Stratojet crashes into a storage igloo at RAF Lakenheath in the United Kingdom. The crash spreads burning fuel over three Mark 6 nuclear bombs in the igloo, one of which has an exposed detonator, but the fire does not a cause the exposed detonator to fire, and no nuclear material spreads into the environment.
August
August 21 – Flying a Vought F8U-1 Crusader fighter, U.S. Navy Commander R. W. "Duke" Windsor sets a U.S. national speed record over a course, averaging at China Lake, California.Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, , p. 451. August 22 A fighter aircraft of the 6th Regiment of the 2nd Fighter Division of the People's Republic of China's People's Liberation Army Air Force shoots down a Japan-based U.S. Navy P4M Mercator aircraft of Electronic Countermeasures Squadron One (VQ-1) while the Mercator is on a night reconnaissance mission over the Taiwan Strait, killing all 16 men aboard the Mercator. The Chinese claim the Mercator was flying in the airspace of Zhoushan.Isenberg, Michael T., 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, , p. 615.Official U.S. Navy Web site for Fleet Air Reconnaissance Squadron One (VQ-1): History: A New Navy Squadron The last passenger flight by a Martin JRM Mars flying boat is completed when U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander Virgil Solomon lands the Marianas Mars at Alameda, California, at the end of a flight from Honolulu, Hawaii. August 23–24 – A United States Army H-21C Shawnee makes the first non-stop helicopter flight across the continental United States, flying from San Diego, California, to Washington, D.C.Haulman, Daniel L., One Hundred Years of Flight: USAF Chronology of Significant Air and Space Events, 1903-2002, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama: Air University Press, 2003, no ISBN, p. 79.
September A U.S. Navy Convair R3Y-2 Tradewind flying boat sets a world record for the number of aircraft refueled in flight simultaneously, refueling four U.S. Navy Grumman F9F-8 Cougar fighters at the same time. September 7 – U.S. Air Force Captain Iven C. Kincheloe becomes the first pilot to climb above 100,000 feet, flying the Bell X-2 research aircraft to a new world altitude record of . He receives the MacKay Trophy for the flight. September 15 – The Tupolev Tu-104 jet airliner makes its first passenger flight, a domestic Aeroflot flight in the Soviet Union from Moscow's Vnukovo Airport to Omsk and then on to Irkutsk. September 20 – Piloting an ERCO Ercoupe, American professional baseball player Tom Gastall, a catcher for the Baltimore Orioles, dies when the plane crashes while he is attempting to make an emergency water landing in the Chesapeake Bay. His body will be found on September 25. September 21 – In an unusual incident during a test flight over Long Island Sound near Calverton, New York, a U.S. Navy Grumman F11F Tiger supersonic fighter is badly damaged after it fires its 20-millimeter guns, then is struck by the rounds it fired when it overruns them in flight during subsequent maneuvers. It crashes one-half mile (0.8 km) short of the runway at Naval Weapons Industrial Reserve Plant, Calverton, while attempting to return for an emergency landing; its pilot is injured, but survives. September 24 – The West German Air Force is formed in the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany).