1980 in aviation

January
January 8 - a Mooney 231 lands in San Francisco, after flying coast to coast non-stop, setting a record by completing the flight in 8 hours and 4 minutes.

January 16 - British Island Airways and Air Anglia merge to form Air UK.

February
an Aeroflot Ilyushin Il-18 flies 30,000 km (18,642 miles) from Moscow to the Molodyozhnaya observatory in the Antarctic

March
March 12-14 - two B-52 Stratofortresses make a non-stop round-the-world flight in 42.5 hours

March 28 - The 1,000th production Learjet is delivered.

April
April 3 - Crash of the prototype Bombardier Challenger 600 in the Mojave desert kills the pilot

April 18 - Air Zimbabwe is formed.

April 24 - helicopters from USS Nimitz participate in the abortive Operation Eagle Claw, a plan to rescue US hostages from Iran

May
May 1 - Spectacular crash of USMC AV-8A Harrier at MCAS Cherry Point, NC. During a vertical takeoff the aircraft rolled, dropped to the runway, bounced into a ditch, burst into flames, flipped, slid through a hangar and into a parking lot, where it damaged more than twenty vehicles.

June
European Helicopter Industries is formed.

June 13 - the last produced Concorde (number 16) is delivered to British Airways.

June 19 - Sikorsky delivers its last of the S-61 commercial helicopeters.

June 23 - Sanjay Gandhi, son of Indira Gandhi, dies when his private aerobatic biplane has an accident.

July
July 6 - the largest light airplane meet outside the United States brings 750 small planes to the Popular Flying Associations annual meeting in Leicester.

July 17 - a Vickers Viscount plane of charter airline Alidair lands safely in Devon after suffering damage to all four engines.

July 17 - Cathay Pacific begins a Hong Kong-London service

July 21 - the F-16 is officially nicknamed the Fighting Falcon in a ceremony.

August
August 7 - Janice Brown pilots the MacCready Gossamer Penguin on its first solar powered flight.

August 19 - a Saudi Arabian Airlines Lockheed L-1011 makes a safe emergency landing in Riyadh, but panicked passengers suffocate and burn in a subsequent stampede. All inside the plane die.

August 28 - 31 - the 3rd FAI World Rally Flying Championship in Aschaffenburg, West Germany. Individual winners: 1. Witold Świadek / Andrzej Korzeniowski (Poland), 2. Otto Höfling / Michael Amtmann (FRG), 3. Luckerbauer / Meszaros (Austria). Team results: 1. Poland, 2. FRG, 3. Austria.

September
September 9 - Island Air, an Hawaiian airline, started operations.

September 22 - Iraq attacks Iran, various military bases and oil wells affected.

September 28 - Iraqi Tupolev Tu-22s land in Riyadh after bombing Iran

October
October 2 - a Westland Sea King performs the rescue of 22 passengers from the Swedish ship Finneagle in the North Sea.

October 12 - Mesa Airlines commenced operations.

October 20 - first dog fights of the Iran–Iraq War. An Iraqi Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 is shot down by Iranian F-4 Phantoms

November
November 1 - British Airways terminates Concorde services to Bahrain and Singapore

November 9 - Dan-Air registers the last commercial flight by a de Havilland Comet. The plane flew enthusiasts on a round-trip flight from London.

November 12 - Delta Air Lines orders 60 Boeing 757s, the largest single order to this time for a single airliner type.

December
December 7 - Pan Am's Boeing 747, the China Clipper, arrives from JFK International Airport in New York, to Beijing, after a stop in Tokyo. It marks the first time since 1949 that a commercial flight between the United States and mainland China is completed.

December 19 - New York Air began airline operations.

First flights

May
May 13 - Antonov An-3

June
June 20 - Beechcraft Commuter
June 24 - Microturbo Microjet 200 F-WZJF

July
July 12 - KC-10 Extender 79-0433
July 23 - Aérospatiale Dauphin II

August
August 11 - Learjet Longhorn 50
August 16 - EMBRAER Tucano 1300
August 19 - Boeing Vertol Model 234

September
September 26 - Shanghai Y-10

November
November 6 - Macready Solar Challenger

Entered service

October
The MD-80 series enters airline service.

November
November 13 - F/A-18 Hornet with VFA-125 at NAS Lemoore.

December
December 26- Ilyushin Il-86 with Aeroflot