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1963 Master Index 1965

1964 Chronology of Aviation History
Major Aviation Events

1964 Events

  • 1964 — Chilean President Jorge Alessandri grants the Chilean Navy the authority to operate all types of aircraft without restriction. It is the first time that the navy has administrative control of all naval aircraft since 1930. [1]

1964 January

  • January 13 — A United States Air Force Boeing B-52D Stratofortress carrying two Mark 53 nuclear bombs loses its vertical stabilizer in turbulence during a winter storm and crashes on Savage Mountain near Barton, Maryland. Only two of the five crewmen survive. The bombs are recovered two days later. [1]

  • January 22 — In its first public violation of the 1959 requirement for all aircraft operating from the aircraft carrier Minas Gerais to belong to the Brazilian Air Force, the Brazilian Navy steams Minas Gerais into Guanabara Bay at Rio de Janeiro with four navy North American T-28 Trojan trainers on her flight deck. [1]

  • January 28 — A Soviet Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-19 Farmer shoots down a North American T-39 Sabreliner which had accidentally entered East German airspace, killing all three men aboard the North American T-39 Sabreliner. [1]

1964 February

  • February 3 — The North Vietnamese Air Force establishes its first jet fighter unit, Fighter Regiment No. 921, equipped with Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17 Frescos. North Vietnamese jet fighter units will be based in the People's Republic of China until August while their pilots undergo training. [1]

  • February 3 — A Turkish Airlines Douglas C-47A-5-DK Skytrain on a cargo flight crashes in Ankara Province, Turkey, while on approach to Esenboga Airport in Ankara, killing the entire crew of three. [1]

  • February 7 — The Canadian Golden Hawks aerobatic team is disbanded. [1]

  • February 15 — The North Vietnamese Air Force scores its first aerial victory against an American aircraft when a North Vietnamese North American T-28 Trojan armed trainer shoots down a Fairchild C-123 Provider transport plane. [1]

  • February 19 — French troops are airlifted to Gabon to put down a coup by the army. [1]

  • February 25 — Eastern Air Lines Flight 304, a Douglas DC-8, crashes into Lake Pontchartrain 20 miles (32 km) northeast of New Orleans, nine minutes after taking off from New Orleans International Airport, killing all 58 people on board. Among the dead is the American opera singer and actor Kenneth Lee Spencer. [1]

  • February 28 — A U.S. Navy helicopter of Utility Helicopter Squadron 1 (HU-1) lands on the deck of the combat stores ship USS Mars (AFS-1), beginning the true incorporation of helicopters into the fleet's logistic support system after experiments dating Back to 1959. [1]

  • February 29 — U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson reveals the existence of the CIA's Lockheed A-12 Oxcart reconnaissance aircraft. [1]

1964 April

  • April — USS Kitty Hawk (CVA-63) becomes the first aircraft carrier assigned to Point Yankee, the U.S. Navy's aircraft carrier operating area in the Gulf of Tonkin off North Vietnam. Point Yankee will become unofficially but universally known as "Yankee Station" and will remain in use until August 1973. [1]

  • April 17 — Jerrie Mock arrives in Columbus, Ohio in a Cessna 180, completing a solo round-the-world flight and becoming the first woman to make such a journey. [1]

  • April 17 — The U.S. Air Force completes Operation Helping Hand, an airlift begun on March 28 that has brought 1,850 short tons (1,678 metric tons) of relief equipment and supplies to Anchorage, Alaska, in the aftermath of a massive earthquake there. [1]

1964 May

  • May — United States Air Force and United States Navy aircraft begin Operation Yankee Team reconnaissance flights over Laos. [1]

  • May — The U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff assign search-and-rescue responsibilities in Southeast Asia to the U.S. Air Force. [1]

  • May 2 — A North Vietnamese frogman sinks the U.S. Navy aviation transport USNS Card (T-AKV-40) - formerly the escort aircraft carrier USS Card (CVE-11) - pier-side while she unloads helicopters at Saigon, South Vietnam. She soon is refloated and repaired. [1]

  • May 7 — Francisco Paula Gonzales shoots both the pilot and copilot of Pacific Air Lines Flight 773, a Fairchild F-27A Friendship, before turning the gun on himself, causing the plane to crash near San Ramon, California. All 44 aboard are killed. The crash is likely the first instance in the United States of an airliner's pilots being shot by a passenger as part of a mass murder/suicide. [1]

  • May 11 — Jackie Cochran sets a new women's airspeed record of 1,429 mph (2,300 km/h) in a Lockheed F-104 Starfighter. [1]

  • May 21 — Pathet Lao antiaircraft artillery damages a U.S. Navy Vought RF-8A Crusader photographic reconnaissance aircraft over Laos. The Vought RF-8A Crusader, flown by Lieutenant Charles F. Klusmann, burns for 20 minutes in the air but lands safely aboard the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk (CVA-63). [1]

1964 June

  • June — The Indian Air Force's Aircraft Manufacturing Depot at Kanpur is incorporated as Aeronautics (India) Ltd. It later will become the Kanpur Division of Hindustan Aeronautics. [1]

  • June 1 — The Kenyan Air Force is established. [1]

  • June 6 — Over Laos, Pathet Lao antiaircraft artillery shoots down a U.S. Navy Vought RF-8A Crusader photographic reconnaissance aircraft piloted by Lieutenant Charles F. Klusmann. It is the first U.S. Navy aircraft and first American fixed-wing aircraft lost over Indochina in the Vietnam War era. [1]

  • June 6 — Silver City Airways announces that it has airlifted its one millionth car between England and continental Europe. [1]

  • June 20 — Civil Air Transport Flight B-908, a Curtiss C-46-CU Commando run by the Taiwanese airline Civil Air Transport, crashes near the village of Shenkang in western Taiwan, killing all 57 people aboard. Among the dead are 20 Americans, one Briton, and members of the Malaysian delegation to the 11th Film Festival in Asia, including businessman Loke Wan Tho and his wife Mavis. [1]

1964 July

  • July 6 — U.S. Marine Corps Sikorsky UH-34D transport helicopters airlift a 93-man relief force during the Battle of Nam Dong in South Vietnam. [1]

  • July 9 — United Airlines Flight 823, a Vickers Viscount 745D, catches fire in flight and crashes two miles (3.2 km) northeast of Parrottsville, Tennessee, killing all 39 people on board. One of the passengers jumps from the burning plane through an escape door and is killed in the fall. [1]

  • July 31 — A. H. Parker sets a new sailplane distance record of 1,000 km (621 mi) in a Sisu-1A. [1]

  • July 31 — Country music star Jim Reeves and his manager die in the crash of a Beechcraft Debonair Reeves is piloting near Brentwood, Tennessee. [1]

1964 August

  • August 2 — The Tonkin Gulf Incident occurs. U.S. Navy aircraft are involved in skirmishes in the Gulf of Tonkin. Vought F-8 Crusaders sink a North Vietnamese torpedo boat. [1]

  • August 5 — In Operation Pierce Arrow, U.S. Navy aircraft from the attack aircraft carriers USS Ticonderoga (CVA-14) and USS Constellation (CVA-64) attack North Vietnamese torpedo boat bases, spearheading direct U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. They are the first bombing raids launched from Yankee Station. [1]

  • August 6 — The first North Vietnamese Air Force jet fighter unit, Fighter Regiment No. 921 (the "Red Star Squadron"), arrives in North Vietnam after training in the People's Republic of China, bringing 36 Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17 Fresco and the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-19 Farmer fighters to Phúc Yên airfield near Hanoi. [1]

  • August 7 — The United States Congress passes the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, authorizing President Lyndon B. Johnson to use conventional military force in Southeast Asia. [1]

  • August 7 — American aircraft begin photographic reconnaissance flights over North Vietnam. [1]

  • August 7-9 — The Turkish Air Force strikes Greek positions on Cyprus. [1]

  • August 23 — Greek Air Force McDonnell F-4 Phantom IIs are recalled while en route to attack Turkish military positions. [1]

1964 October

  • October 1 — Derby Airways changes its name to British Midland Airways. [1]

  • October 13 — The first production Learjet, a Model 23, was delivered. [1]

  • October 16 — The People's Republic of China detonates its first nuclear weapon. [1]

  • October 23 — U.S. Navy aircraft begin providing cover for Laotian government forces. [1]

1964 November

  • November 1 — Viet Cong infiltrators stage a mortar attack on Bien Hoa Air Base in South Vietnam, destroying five U.S. Air Force Martin B-57 Canberra bombers, a U.S. Air Force Kayman HH-43F Huskie helicopter, and four South Vietnamese Air Force Douglas A-1 Skyraider attack aircraft, and damaging 15 Martin B-57 Canberras and some Kayman HH-43F Huskies. [1]

  • November 2 — A U.S. Air Force Kaman HH-43F Huskie helicopter based at Bien Hoa Air Base, South Vietnam, conducts the first night rescue by the Air Force's Air-Sea Rescue Service in Southeast Asia. [1]

  • November 4 — The first automatic blind landing by a passenger aircraft occurs when a British European Airways Hawker Siddeley Trident lands in dense fog. [1]

  • November 15 — Bonanza Air Lines Flight 114, a Fairchild F27 Friendship, crashes near Sloan, Nevada, while on approach to McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas, in poor weather conditions, killing all 29 people on board. It will be the only fatal accident in the 23-year history of Bonanza Air Lines. [1]

  • November 20 — Linjeflyg Flight 277, a Convair CV-340 Metropolitan, crashes at ängelholm, Sweden, during its approach to a Swedish Air Force base which is now ängelholm-Helsingborg Airport. Thirty-one of the 43 people on board die, and all 12 survivors are injured. [1]

  • November 23 — Trans World Airlines Flight 800, a Boeing 707-331, crashes on takeoff from Leonardo da Vinci-Fiumicino Airport in Rome, Italy, due to engine failure, killing 50 of the 73 people on board and injuring all 23 survivors. [1]

  • November 26 — Belgian paratroops are dropped into Congo by the U.S. Air Force. [1]

1964 December

  • December — President Humberto de Alencar Castelo Branco of Brazil ends the impasse over whether the Brazilian Air Force or the Brazilian Navy should control aircraft operated from the aircraft carrier Minas Gerais, assigning the responsibility to the navy. The air minister resigns and his successor is fired, and air force personnel machine-gun a naval helicopter on the ground at Porto Alegre in protest. [1]

  • December 14 — The U.S. Air Force launches Operation Barrel Roll, armed reconnaissance flights attacking the Ho Chi Minh trail in Laos. [1]

  • December 24 — Flying Tiger Line Flight 282, a Lockheed Super Constellation cargo aircraft, crashes in San Bruno, California, shortly after takeoff from San Francisco International Airport, killing the entire crew of three. [1]

1964 First Flights

  • January 5 — Shorts Belfast (XR362) (G-ASKE). [1]

  • January 20 — Beechcraft King Air. [1]

  • March 3 — Sud-Aviation Super Caravelle. [1]

  • March 7 — Hawker Siddeley Kestrel. [1]

  • March 7 — Helwan HA-300. [1]

  • April 9 — de Havilland Canada DHC-5 Buffalo. [1]

  • April 10 — EWR VJ 101C, the world's first supersonic V/STOL aircraft. [1]

  • April 21 — HFB-320 Hansa Jet. [1]

  • April 30 — Northrop F-5 Freedom Fighter with the United States Air Force's 4441st Combat Crew Training Squadron. [1]

  • May 1 — BAC Type 221. [1]

  • May 25 — Ryan XV-5. [1]

  • June 26 — Curtiss-Wright X-19. [1]

  • July 15 — Aviomilano F.250 (I-RAIE), prototype of the SIAI Marchetti SF.260. [1]

  • July 17 — Beagle B.206 Basset Series 1, civil version of the Beagle Basset. [1]

  • September 4 — HAL HJT-16 Kiran. [1]

  • September 21 — North American XB-70, prototype of the B-70 Valkyrie. [1]

  • September 27 — BAC TSR.2 (XR219). [1]

  • September 29 — LTV-Hiller-Ryan XC-142. [1]

  • October 14 — Sikorsky YCH-53. [1]

  • October 19 — Agusta A.101 MM80358 FF. [1]

  • October 24 — Alon A-2 Aircoupe. [1]

  • November 18 — Grumman C-2 Greyhound. [1]

  • December 21 — General Dynamics F-111. [1]

  • December 22 — Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird. [1]

1964 Aircraft Entering Service

  • Mid-1964 — English Electric Lightning F.3, third production model of the English Electric Lightning, with No. 74 Squadron, Royal Air Force. [1]

  • Late 1964 — Beechcraft King Air. [1]

  • February — Dassault Mirage IV with Armée de l'Air. [1]

  • February 1 — Boeing 727 with Eastern Air Lines. [1]

  • April — Vickers VC10. [1]

  • May 13 — Beagle B.206 Basset Series 1, civil version of the Beagle Basset, with Rolls Royce Limited. [1]

  • June — Convair CV-580 Super Convair with Frontier Airlines. [1]

Works Cited

  1. Timeline and History: Wikipedia. 1964 in Aviation. [1]

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