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1959 in aviation

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This is a list of aviation-related events from 1959:

Events

February

• February 3 - Rock stars Ritchie Valens, Buddy Holly and The Big Bopper die when the Beechcraft Bonanza they are traveling in crashes during a snow storm in Iowa.

March

• March 31 - BOAC commences its first scheduled around-the-world service

June

• June 4 - Max Conrad flies a Piper Comanche from Casablanca to New York, setting a new lightplane distance record of 7,683 miles (12,365 km).
• June 16 - a US Navy P4M Mercator is attacked by North Korean Air Force Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17s off the North Korean coast. The Mercator's crew returned the aircraft safely to Japan.

July

• July 9 - a Royal Air Force Vickers Valiant makes the first non-stop flight from England to Capetown
• July 14 - Maj V Ilyushin sets a new altitude record of 28,852 m (94,659 ft) 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.

October

• October 31 - Colonel G. Mosolov sets a new airspeed record of 2,387 km/h (1,483 mph) in the Mikoyan-Gurevich Ye-66

December

• December 14 - Cdr L Flint sets a new altitude record of 103,389 ft (31,513 m) in a F-104 Starfighter
• December 15 - Maj J W Roberts sets a new airspeed record of 1,526 mph (2,456 km/h) in a F-106 Delta Dart

First flights

January

• January 8 - Armstrong Whitworth AW.650 Argosy G-AOZZ
• January 20 - Vickers Vanguard G-AOYW

April

• April 5 - Aero L-29 Delfin

May

• May 4 - Pilatus PC-6

June

• June 8 - North American X-15 (unpowered)
• June 17 - Dassault Mirage IV

July

• July 14 - Sukhoi T-431, prototype of the Sukhoi Su-9

October

• October 27 - Myasishchev M-50

Entered service

March

• March 26 - Breguet Alizé with the Aéronavale

April

• April 20 - Ilyushin Il-18 with Aeroflot

May

• F-106 Delta Dart with the 498th Fighter Interceptor Squadron USAF at Geiger Field

June

• June 12 - C-130 Hercules with the 463rd Troop Carrier Wing USAF.

July

• July 22 - Sud-Aviation Caravelle with Air France
• July 22 - Antonov An-10 with Aeroflot

September

• September 18 - Douglas DC-8 with Delta Air Lines and United Air Lines