1968 in aviation

January
January 21 - a US Air Force B-52 Stratofortress crashes in the sea near Thule Air Base Greenland, carrying four nuclear weapons. See Broken Arrow, a type of nuclear weapons incidences.

March
March 27 - Yuri Gagarin is killed in the crash of a Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15

April
April 4 - Apollo Program: Apollo-Saturn mission 502 (Apollo 6) is launched, as the second and last unmanned test-flight of the Saturn V launch vehicle.

April 25 - Apollo 6's SIV-B staqe re-entered the atmosphere and Command Module recovered.

May
May 5 - a Grumman Gulfstream II becomes the first executive jet to cross the Atlantic

August
August 13 - Swedish Count Gustav von Rosen defies Nigerian air defences to fly in supplies to the Biafran rebels

August 14 - Los Angeles Airways Flight 417 crashed Compton, California resulting in the loss of 21 lives. The accident aircraft, N300Y, serial number 61031, was the prototype of the Sikorsky S-61L.

August 31 - the Rolls-Royce RB.211 is successfully ground-tested

September
September 11 - Air New Zealand flies T. H. Williams, Sir Charles Kingsford Smith's navigator to Sydney to commemorate the 40th anniversary of their first trans-Tasman flight

September 30 - the first Boeing 747 is rolled out

December
December 24 - Apollo 8 orbits the moon carrying Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders.

First flights

May
May 25 - Grumman EA-6B Prowler

June
June 30 - C-5 Galaxy

July
Nord N 500 (tethered)

September
September 8 - SEPECAT Jaguar

November
November 13 - Northrop HL-10

December
December 3 - Anahuac Tauro XB-TAX
December 31 - Tupolev Tu-144

Entered service

February
Boeing 737 with Lufthansa