1988 in aviation

January
January 26 - the French defence ministry approves full-scale development of the Dassault Rafale

January 30 - a Boeing 747 sets a new around-the-world record of 36 hours 54 minutes

March
Spanair commenced operations.

April
April 8 - Pacific Southwest Airlines shut down operations and was integrated to USAir (now US Airways).

April 23 - Kanellos Kanellopoulos recreates the mythical flight of Daedalus by flying a pedal-powered aircraft, the MIT Daedalus from Crete to Santorini, covering the 119 km (74 miles) in 3 hours 54 minutes

May
May 23 - Shamu One, a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-300 painted like and named after a SeaWorld whale, begins flying for the airline.

May 24 - British Airways takes over British Caledonian

June
June 26 - An Air France Airbus A320 on a low-and-slow demonstration flight at an airshow at Mulhouse-Habsheim crashes and kills three passengers.

July
July 3 - USS Vincennes allegedly mistakes an Iran Air Airbus A300 airliner (flight 655) for a hostile military plane, shooting it down and killing all 290 people on board.

July 8-13 - 11-year old Chris Marshall flies a Mooney M20 from San Diego to Paris

August
August 28 - an accident by a Frecce Tricolori pilot at an airshow at Ramstein Airbase kills 33 people.

October
October 12 - a Bar Harbor Airlines ATR-42 misses Air Force One by less than 1,000 feet

November
November 10 - the US Air Force publicly unveils the F-117 Nighthawk

December
December 21 - Pan Am flight 103, a Boeing 747 flying from London to New York City, and carrying many passengers back home for Christmas, explodes over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 258 persons. Libyan terrorists are blamed for the tragedy.

First flights

April
April 21 - Boeing 747-400

June
June 14 - Schweizer 330
June 28 - Sukhoi Su-35

July
July 12 - Scaled Composites/Beechcraft Model 143 Triumph, also first flight of the Williams International FJ44 turbofan engine.
July 14 - Socata TBM700

October
October 15 - Eurocopter EC 135
October 27 - ATR-72

December
December 9 - JAS 39 Gripen

Entered service

April
April 29 - Airbus A320 with British Airways