Northern Aircraft Inc. becomes the Downer Aircraft Company Inc.[2]
January 1 – The British government announces its decision to proceed with development of the
BAC TSR.2 supersonic tactical strike and reconnaissance aircraft.[3]
January 18 – A
United States Air ForceF-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.[4]
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.[7]
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.
Kuwait Airways takes over the assets of British International Airlines (BIA).
April 8 – The Italian
World War Iace 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 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 AviaciónVickers Viscount with 12 people on board and force it to fly to
Key West, Florida.[14]
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 13 – A start of the
Daily Mail race between Marble Arch in London and the Arc de Triomphe in Paris on the 50th anniversary of
Louis Blériot's flight (the 1st prize was won by S/L Charles Maughan, in 40 min 44 sec, using a motorcycle, helicopter and
Hawker Hunter).[20]
July 14 –
Major V. Ilyushin of the
Soviet Union sets a new altitude record of 28,852 m (94,659 ft) in the
Sukhoi T-431.
A
United States Air ForceConvair B-58 Hustler flies 1,680 miles (2,700 km) in 80 minutes with one refueling, maintaining a speed of more than
Mach 2 for more than an hour. The B-58 is the world's first bomber capable of
Mach 2 flight.[26]
October 30 – The
Piedmont AirlinesDouglas DC-3Buckeye Pacemaker, operating as
Flight 349, crashes on
Bucks Elbow Mountain near
Crozet,
Virginia, killing 26 of the 27 people on board and seriously injuring the sole survivor, a passenger who is found near the wreckage still strapped into his seat.
November 24 –
TWA flight 595, a cargo flight operated in a
Lockheed L-1049H Super Constellation crashed after entering an excessive bank while turning back to
Chicago-Midway Airport due to a suspected engine fire. All 3 crewmembers in board the plane and 8 people on the ground died in the crash. The NTSB report concluded that there was no actual fire and determined the cause to be
pilot error.
^Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, p. 311.
^Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, p. 283.
^Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987,
ISBN0-517-56588-9, p. 105.
^
abcdef"World Air News: First Flights" Air Pictorial August 1959, p. 301.
^Taylor, John W. R.Jane's All The World's Aircraft 1965–66. London: Sampson Low, Marston & Co, 1965. p. 126.
^Donald, David, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997,
ISBN0-7607-0592-5, p. 23.
^Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987,
ISBN0-517-56588-9, p. 372.
^Donald, David, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997,
ISBN978-0-7607-0592-6, p. 98.
^"World Air News: First Flights". Air Pictorial, December 1959, p. 448.