This is a list of aviation-related events from 1959.
Events The Canadian Golden Hawks aerobatic team is formed. The United States Department of the Navy merges its Bureau of Aeronautics and Bureau of Ordnance to form a new Bureau of Naval Weapons.Swanborough, Gordon, and Peter M. Bowers, United States Navy Aircraft Since 1911, Second Edition, London: Putnam, 1976, , p. 3.
January Northern Aircraft Inc. becomes the Downer Aircraft Company Inc.Donald, David, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997, , p. 119. January 1 – The British government announces its decision to proceed with development of the BAC TSR.2 supersonic tactical strike and reconnaissance aircraft.Donald, David, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997, , p. 92. January 6 – While on approach to Tri-Cities Regional Airport in Bristol, Tennessee, Southeast Airlines Flight 308, a Douglas DC-3A, strays off course and crashes into Holston Mountain, killing all 10 people on board. January 11 – Lufthansa Flight 502, a Lockheed L-1049G Super Constellation, crashes just short of the runway on approach to land at Rio de Janeiro–Galeão International Airport in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, killing 36 of the 39 people on board and leaving all three survivors injured. January 18 – A United States Air Force F-100C Super Sabre parked at a secret base somewhere in the Pacific Ocean with a nuclear bomb on board catches fire after its external fuel tanks are dropped and explode during a practice alert. The fire is put out in seven minutes and no nuclear explosion takes place.Maggelet, Michael H., and James C. Oskins. Broken Arrow: A Disclosure of Significant U.S., Soviet, and British Nuclear Weapon Incidents and Accidents, 1945-2008. Volume II. Raleigh, NC: Lulu, 2010. January 25 – American Airlines begins its first jet service with a Boeing 707 flight between New York, New York, and Los Angeles, California."Today in History," Washington Post Express, January 25, 2012, p. 26. January 31 – The United States deactivates its Ground Observer Corps.
February February 3 American Airlines Flight 320, a Lockheed L-188A Electra, crashes into the East River while on approach to New York Citys LaGuardia Airport, killing 65 of the 73 people on board. It is the first fatal accident involving the Electra. Rock music stars Ritchie Valens, Buddy Holly and The Big Bopper die when the Beechcraft Bonanza they are traveling in crashes during a snowstorm in Iowa. February 4 – Flying a Cessna 172 Skyhawk (registration N9172B), Robert Timm and John Cook land at McCarran Airfield in Las Vegas, Nevada, after remaining airborne continuously for 64 days 22 hours 19 minutes 5 seconds. The flight sets a new world record for manned flight endurance. They had taken off from McCarran Airfield to begin the flight on December 4, 1958. February 17 – A chartered Turkish Airlines Vickers Viscount Type 793 carrying Prime Minister of Turkey Adnan Menderes to London to sign the London Agreement for the constitution of Cyprus strikes trees, loses its wings and engines, and crashes in Jordans Wood in Newdigate, Surrey, England, while on approach to Gatwick Airport. Fourteen of the 24 people on board die, and nine of the 10 survivors are injured. Menderes survives with only minor scratches on his face and signs the agreement two days later in his hospital bed. February 20 – The Canadian government cancels the Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow and requires that all nine Arrows completed or under construction be destroyed. The cancellation results from the belief of Canadian politicians that missile technology had made manned interceptor aircraft unnecessary.Donald, David, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997, , p. 88.
March March 15 – In the Soviet Union, a commercial jet aircraft, a Tupolev Tu-104 (registration CCCP-42419), takes off from Leningrad′s Shosseynaya Airport (the future Pulkovo Airport) for the first time. Construction work had been undertaken at the airport since the mid-1950s to lengthen its runways so that it could accommodate jet aircraft. March 20 – Trans World Airlines initiates its first jet service between San Francisco, California, and New York City, using the Boeing 707-131.TWA History Timeline March 29 – Barthélemy Boganda, the prime minister of the Central African Republic autonomous territory (the future Central African Republic) dies when his plane, a UAT Nord Noratlas, explodes in mid-air over Boukpoyanga, killing all nine people on board.planecrashinfo.com Famous People Who Died in Aviation Accidents: 1950s March 31 – BOAC commences its first scheduled round-the-world westbound service from London in the United Kingdom via New York City, San Francisco, and Honolulu to Tokyo, Japan, and onward to London.
April Kuwait Airways takes over the assets of British International Airlines (BIA). April 8 – The Italian World War I ace and famed seaplane racing pilot Mario de Bernardi is performing aerobatics in a light plane over a Rome airport when he begins to experience a heart attack. He lands the plane safely, but dies minutes later at the age of 65. April 10 – Six rebels hijack a Compagnie Haitienne de Transports Aériens (COHATA) Douglas DC-3 with 32 people on board during a domestic flight in Haiti from Les Cayes to Port-au-Prince, shoot and kill the pilot, and force the copilot to fly the airliner to Santiago de Cuba in Cuba.Aviation Safety Network Hijacking Description April 16 – Ten minutes after an Aerovías Cubanas Internacionales airliner (possibly a Curtiss C-46 Commando) with 22 people on board takes off from Havana, Cuba, for a domestic flight to Isla de la Juventud, four men draw guns and force plane to fly to Miami, Florida.Aviation Safety Network Hijacking Description April 23 – An Air Charter Limited Avro Super Trader IV carrying top-secret equipment from the United Kingdom to the rocket range at Australias Woomera Airfield crashes on Mount Süphan in Turkey, killing all 12 men on board. The wreckage is not found until April 29. April 25 – During the last leg of a Miami, Florida-to-Varadero, Cuba-to-Havana, Cuba, flight, two men and two women who had boarded at Varadero hijack a Cubana de Aviación Vickers Viscount with 12 people on board and force it to fly to Key West, Florida.Aviation Safety Network Hijacking Description April 29 – An Iberia Douglas C-47A-75-DL Skytrain (registration EC-ABC) crashes into the east slope of the Sierra de Valdemeca about from the top of Telegraph Hill in Cuenca, Spain, during a flight from Barcelona to Madrid, killing all 28 people on board.Aviation Safety Network Accident Description Spanish gymnastics champion Joaquín Blume and his pregnant wife are among the dead.
May May 1 – North Vietnam organizes No. 919 Transport Regiment as the first unit of the Vietnam People's Air Force. May 5 – The United States Armys Doak VZ-4 Vertical Takeoff and Landing (VTOL) prototype aircraft transitions from vertical to horizontal flight and vice versa for the first time.Stevenson, Roy, "Doak's One-Off", Aviation History, July 2014, p. 15. May 12 – Capital Airlines Flight 75, a Vickers 745D Viscount, breaks apart in severe turbulence and crashes in a rural area near Chase, Maryland, killing all 31 people on board.
June June 4 – Max Conrad flies a Piper Comanche from Casablanca to New York, setting a new light plane distance record of . June 8 The United States Navy submarine and the United States Post Office attempt the delivery of mail via Missile Mail. Continental Airlines inaugurates Boeing 707 service with non-stop flights between Chicago and Los Angeles. June 16 – Two North Korean Air Force Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17s (NATO reporting name "Fresco") fighters attack a United States Navy P4M-1Q Mercator off the coast of North Korea, heavily damaging the Mercator and seriously wounding its tail gunner. The Mercators crew returns the aircraft safely to Japan.Dorr, Robert F., "Cold Warrior," Aviation History, January 2015, p. 47, 49.Dorr, Robert F. and Richard R. Burgess. "Ferreting Mercators". Air International, October 1993, Vol.45, No. 4. ISSN 0306-5634. pp. 221–222. June 30 – A U.S. Air Force North American F-100 Super Sabre fighter suffers an in-flight engine fire over Okinawa. The pilot ejects safely, but the F-100 crashes into Miyamori Elementary School and surrounding houses in Uruma, killing 11 students at the school and six other people in the neighborhood and injuring 210 others, including 156 students at the school.
July July 1 – Belgian International Air Services (BIAS) is founded. July 6 – A United States Air Force C-124 Globemaster II transporting two nuclear weapons without fissile cores crashes during take-off from Barksdale Air Force Base in Bossier City, Louisiana, and catches fire. The bombs′ high-explosive detonators do not explode and all seven people on board the plane survive, but the aircraft's wreckage and the area surrounding it suffer limited radioactive contamination.Accident description, Aviation Safety Network. July 8 A hijacker commandeers a JAT airliner with 27 people on board during a domestic flight in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from Tivat to Beograd and forces it to fly to Bari, Italy.Aviation Safety Network Hijacking Description Belgian International Air Services (BIAS) begins flight operations with a flight between Rotterdam and London. The Argentine Navy commissions its first aircraft carrier, ARA Independencia (V-1). She is the first aircraft carrier to enter service in Latin America. July 9 – A Royal Air Force Vickers Valiant makes the first non-stop flight from England to Cape Town, South Africa. July 13 – The Daily Mail race between Marble Arch in London and the Arc de Triomphe in Paris takes place on the 50th anniversary of Louis Blériot's first flight across the English Channel. Squadron Leader Charles Maughan wins the race in 40 minutes 44 seconds using a motorcycle, helicopter, and Hawker Hunter.K.T.O. The Bleriot Race. Wings, wheels, water and fleet feet in a memorable contest, "Flight", 21 August 1959, p.52 July 14 – Major V. Ilyushin of the Soviet Union sets a new altitude record of 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.
August August 3 – Flying at an altitude of over Utah in a Lockheed U-2 on the seventh flight of his United States Air Force U-2 training program, Republic of China Air Force Major Hsichun "Mike" Hua experiences a surprise flameout due to fuel exhaustion. Unable to return to his base at Laughlin Air Force Base in Texas, he glides the U-2 to a deadstick night landing at Cortez Municipal Airport in Cortez, Colorado, ground-looping the U-2 but landing it intact. The U.S. Air Force awards him the Distinguished Flying Cross for the achievement.Wilkinson, Stephan, "Dragon LAdy Down," Aviation History, January 2015, pp. 34-38. August 19 – A Transair Douglas Dakota chartered by the British National Union of Students and carrying 29 British students and a crew of three strays off course and crashes in the Montseny Range in Catalonia, Spain, killing all on board. It is Transairs first accident. August 21 – The United States Navy cancels the Martin P6M SeaMaster program after the construction of 16 aircraft. The P6M is the last aircraft manufactured by the Martin Company, which subsequently leaves the aircraft business to focus on missiles and electronics.