January 11–13 –
Max Anderson and
Don Ida make a failed attempt to circumnavigate the world by
balloon, although their craft, the Jules Verne, makes a flight of 2,900 miles (4,700 km) from
Luxor,
Egypt, to
New Delhi,
India, in 48 hours before they give up.
February 12–14 – The American balloonists
Maxie Anderson and
Don Ida attempt a round-the-world balloon flight, setting off from
Luxor, Egypt in the
helium balloon Jules Verne on February 12, and landing 145 kilometres (78 nmi; 90 mi) east of
New Delhi,
India after a flight of 4,667 kilometres (2,520 nmi; 2,900 mi).[4]
February 18 – American aircraft designer and industrialist
Jack Northrop, founder of the
Northrop Corporation, dies at the age of 85.
February 20 - An Aerolineas plane from Argentina to John F Kennedy airport came very close to crashing into the
World Trade Centre towers. An alert air traffic controller saw that the plane had dropped to a lower altitude while on finals. He ordered the plane to turn so that it wouldn't smash into the buildings. [6]
April 10 –
Japan Air Lines carries its 10 millionth passenger
April 12 – The
Space ShuttleColumbia takes off. It marks the first time an American space shuttle flies operationally. It glides to a landing two days later.[11]
April 17 –
Air US Flight 716, a
Handley Page HP.137 Jetstream (registration N11360), collides over
Larimer County,
Colorado, 3 kilometers (1.9 miles) east-southeast of
Fort Collins–Loveland Municipal Airport with a Sky's West Parachute Center
Cessna TU206 (registration N4862F) on a
skydiving flight. The collision kills two skydivers on the Cessna; the other three skydivers on board and the pilot
parachute to safety before the Cessna crashes. The Jetstream crashes almost nose-down in an open field about 4,000 feet (1,200 meters) of the Cessna's wreckage, killing all 11 people on board.[13]
April 28 – Despite forecasted
icing conditions, an
AeroflotAntonov An-2TP (registration CCCP-92864), takes off from
Batagay Airport in
Batagay in the
Soviet Union's
Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic for a flight to
Lazo. While flying over mountainous terrain at an altitude of 1,500 meters (4,900 feet), it encounters snow squalls, begins to descend, and crashes into a cloud-covered mountainside at an altitude of 860 meters (2,820 feet), killing all 12 people on board.[14]
A
United States Air ForceBoeing EC-135N flying at an altitude of 29,000 feet (8,800 meters) pitches over into a dive, suffers an explosion at an altitude of 1,500 feet (460 meters), disintegrates, and crashes 3 kilometers (1.9 miles) north-northeast of
Walkersville,
Maryland, killing all 21 people on board.[16]
May 9 – After modifications, the British aircraft carrier
HMS Hermes reenters service with the
Royal Navy as the world's first carrier with a
ski-jump ramp. Royal Navy
Lieutenant Commander D. R. Taylor had developed the ramp.[17]
American film director
Boris Sagal is partially decapitated during the filming of the
miniseriesWorld War III when he turns the wrong way while disembarking from a
Bell 206B helicopter in the parking lot of the
Timberline Lodge on the south side of
Mount Hood in
Oregon and walks into the helicopter's tail rotor.[20] He dies five hours later.
June 5 –
Dick Rutan sets a world straight-line distance record for FAI Class C-1-b (landplanes with a takeoff weight of 500–1,000 kg (1,100–2,200 lb) of 7,344.56 km (4,563.70 mi; 3,965.75 nmi), flying from
Anchorage, Alaska to
Grand Turk Island in a modified
Rutan Long-EZ.[24][25]
A gradual process for the privatization of the
Peruvian government-owned airline
Aeroperú begins, with the Peruvian government retaining only a 20 percent stake in the company.
During the month,
Iran's religious leaders discover the
Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force's complicity in the escape of former
President of IranAbulhassan Banisadr from the country. They purge half of Iran's American-trained air force officers, causing the air force's operational strength to drop well below 100 aircraft, end virtually all air force training flights, and require religious approval of all Iranian air force operations and the allocation of only enough fuel to allow specific missions to be flown. Through the end of the
Iran–Iraq War in 1988, the Iranian air force will not recover from this purge.[34]
In violation of American law, the
Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization declares a strike by the 17,000
air traffic controllers in the United States. At least 12,000 of them walk off their jobs, resulting in widespread flight delays and cancellations, and 22 of the busiest airports in the United States are directed to reduce their scheduled flights by 50 percent.[36]
August 5 – After only 1,300 air traffic controllers comply with his order to return to work,
PresidentRonald Reagan fires the 11,345 controllers who had ignored the order and bans them from service in the U.S. federal government for life.
August 24 –
Aeroflot Flight 811, an
Antonov An-24RV (registration CCCP-91517), collides in midair with a
Soviet Air ForcesTupolev Tu-16K (
NATO reporting name "Badger") over the Soviet Union at an altitude of 17,000 feet (5,200 meters) 70 kilometers (43 miles) east of
Zavitinsk. Both planes crash, killing 31 of the 32 people aboard the An-24RV and six people aboard the Tu-16. The sole survivor from the An-24RV, 20-year-old passenger Larisa Savitskaya, is rescued from a forest on August 27.[38]
September 2 – An overloaded
Taxi Aéreo El VenadoEmbraer EMB-110P1 Bandeirante (registration HK-2651) fails to gain altitude after takeoff from
Juan Jose Rondon Airport in
Paipa,
Colombia. Maneuvering to avoid trees and buildings, it
stalls, crashes 3 kilometers (1.9 miles) from the airport, and catches fire. The crash and fire kill 17 of the 22 people on board immediately, and four of those pulled alive from the wreckage die of their injuries within a day of the accident.[40]
September 10 – British Airways
CEORoy Watts announces a financial crisis for the airline. He states that the company is losing £UK 200 per minute.
September 11 – a twin-engine airplane crashes into the
Swing Auditorium in San Bernardino, CA. Two people aboard the plane are killed. As a result of the crash, the auditorium is irreparably damaged. [42]
September 18 – An
AeroflotYakovlev Yak-40 (registration CCCP-87455) on approach to
Irkutsk Airport in
Irkutsk collides over the
Soviet Union with an Aeroflot
Mil Mi-8 helicopter (registration CCCP-22268) on a training flight at an altitude of 400 meters (1,300 feet) 11 kilometers (6.8 miles) from
Zheleznogorsk-Ilimskiy. Both aircraft crash, killing all 33 people on the Yak-40 and seven people on the helicopter.[43]
September 22 – An
Ilyushin Il-86, flown by G. Volokhov, sets a series of world speed records for flight over a 2,000 km (1,200 mi; 1,100 nmi) closed circuit for aircraft with payloads of 30,000–65,000 kg (66,000–143,000 lb), with a speed of 975.3 km/h (606.0 mph; 526.6 kn).[44]
September 24 – G. Volokhov sets another set of closed circuit speed records in an Ilyushin Il-86, over a 1,000 km (620 mi; 540 nmi) circuit with payloads of 30,000–80,000 kg (66,000–176,000 lb), at a speed of 962 km/h (598 mph; 519 kn).[44]
October 9 – The helium-filled balloon Super Chicken III, piloted by John Shoecroft and Fred Gorrell, takes off from near Los Angeles. It lands in Georgia 22 hours and 25 minutes later, having carried out the first non-stop trans-America flight in a balloon.[49]
November 21 – The
United States bans the
Soviet airline
Aeroflot from flying in its airspace after an Aeroflot flight strays from its supposed flight path and overflies American military installations.
November 26 – The French balloonists Hélène Dorigny and Michel Arnoud land their Cameron A-530 balloon Semiramis at
St Christophe-en-Boucherie in France, having taken off from
Ballina, County Mayo, Ireland, the previous day. They set a new
hot air balloon distance record of 1,154.74 km (717.52 mi; 623.51 nmi).[53]
December 5 – December 8 –
Jerry Mullins sets a closed-circuit distance record for
piston engined aircraft, piloting the Javelin Phoenix, a modified
Bede BD-2, a distance of 8,695.9 nautical miles (10,007.1 mi; 16,104.8 km) in a circuit between
Oklahoma City and Jacksonville.[54]
December 12 –
Maxie Anderson and
Don Ida launch from
Luxor,
Egypt, in the
balloonJules Verne to begin the first serious attempt at a circumnavigation of the world by balloon. They are forced to end their attempt on December 14 at
Hansa,
India, after a flight of 2,676 miles (4,307 km).[55]
December 25 – U.S. Air Force Lieutenant
Thomas Tiller is rescued from the
Atlantic Ocean by a boat. He had floated at sea for seven days after his plane, an
F-4 Phantom II, had crashed on December 18.
^Gardiner, Robert, Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1947–1982, Part One: The Western Powers, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1983,
ISBN0-87021-918-9, p. 66.
^
abTaylor Jane's 1981–1982 Aviation Annual, p. 36.
^
abCordesman, Anthony H., and Abraham R. Wagner, The Lessons of Modern War, Volume II: The Iran–Iraq War, Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1990,
ISBN0-8133-1330-9, p. 119.
^Cordesman, Anthony H., and Abraham R. Wagner, The Lessons of Modern War, Volume I: The Arab-Israeli Conflicts, 1973-1989, Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1990,
ISBN0-8133-1329-5, p. 187.
^Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, p. 209.
^Brogan, Patrick, The Fighting Never Stopped: A Comprehensive Guide to Global Conflict Since 1945, New York: Vintage Books, 1990,
ISBN0-679-72033-2, p. 262.
^David, Donald, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Nobles Books, 1997,
ISBN0-7607-0592-5, p. 110.
^Donald, David, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997,
ISBN0-7607-0592-5, p. 115.
^Donald, David, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997,
ISBN978-0-7607-0592-6, p. 104.
^Donald, David, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997,
ISBN0-7607-0592-5, p. 88.
Taylor, John W. R., ed. (1981). Jane's All The World's Aircraft 1981–82. London: Jane's Publishing Company.
ISBN0-7106-0729-6.
Taylor, John W. R., ed. (1982). Jane's All The World's Aircraft 1982–83. London: Jane's Yearbooks.
ISBN0-7106-0748-2.
Taylor, Michael J. H., ed. (1981). Jane's 1981–1982 Aviation Annual. London: Jane's Publishing Company.
ISBN0-7106-0138-7.
Mondey, David (1982). "Chronology: June 1, 1981–June 22, 1982". In Taylor, Michael J. H. (ed.). Jane's Aviation Review 1982–83. London: Jane's Publishing Company. pp. 11–24.
ISBN0-7106-0216-2.