1969 in aviation

Events

The Canadian Snowbirds aerobatic team is formed.

March
March 18-19 - the Royal Air Force airlifts 300 troops to Anguilla in response to the civil unrest that had broken out on the island.

May
May 4-11 - the Daily Mail Transatlantic Air Race commemorates the 50th anniversary of Alcock and Brown's crossing. It is won by a Royal Navy F-4 Phantom, taking 4 hours 47 minutes.

May 26 - the US Army cancels the Lockheed AH-56 Cheyenne program, worth $US 900 million.

June
June 5 - US bombing of North Vietnam recommences, after a seven month ceasefire.

July
No. 1 Squadron RAF became the first operational fixed wing VTOL squadron in the world
July 20 - Neil Armstrong is the first man to walk on the moon.

August
August 16 - Darryl Greenamyer sets a new piston-engine airspeed record in a heavily modified F8F Bearcat named Conquest I. His record speed of 478 mph (769 km/h) topples a record that had stood for 30 years.

August 31 - World champion boxer Rocky Marciano dies when the plane in which he was a passenger crashes.

October
October 20 - Finnair introduces an inertial navigation system on its aircraft, becoming the first airline to dispense with the need for a navigator aboard.

December
December 18 - the England-Australia Commemorative Air Race is flown in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Smith brothers' flight. It is won by W. J. Bright and F. L. Buxton in a Britten-Norman Islander

First flights

February
February 9 - Boeing 747
February 12 - Mil Mi V-12

March
Aero Boero AB-115
March 2 - BAC-Aérospatiale Concorde

April
April 24 - Anderson Kingfisher

June
June 27 - Interceptor 400

August
August 30 - Tupolev Tu-22M

September
September 15 - Cessna FanJet500, the prototype which led to the Cessna Citation.

Entered service

October
October 2 - Hawker-Siddeley Nimrod