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On This Day: 1952

Aviation events for 1952

January 4: Pan American World Airways inaugurates the first all-cargo service across the North Atlantic with its recently acquired Douglas DC-6A cargo carrier.
 
January 5: Pan Am commences trans-atlantic freight services.
 
January 21: The Saab 210 experimental delta-winged research aircraft makes its first flight in Sweden.
 
January 22: The de Havilland Comet 1 became the first turbojet-powered civil airliner to be awarded a certificate of airworthiness.
 
February 10: Maj George A. Davis Jr is killed while attacking a group of 12 Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15s that were about to attack other US aircraft over Korea for which he is posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.
 
March 18: Two USAF F-84 Thunderjets land in Neubiberg, Germany after the longest sustained jet flight; they flew 2,800 miles from the USA in 4 hours 48 minutes, without refueling.
 
March 22: A Maritime Central Airways Douglas C-47 disappears two hours after departing St. John’s Airport in Newfoundland, Canada with four people on-board. The wreckage is found almost a year and a half later on August 27, 1953.
 
March 22: A Douglas DC-6 (PH-TBJ) being operated by KLM Royal Dutch Airlines crashes into a forest while navigating its approach to Frankfurt International Aircraft in Germany. There are 3 survivors among the 47 on-board.
 
April 15: First flight of the Boeing YB-52 49-231. Read more...
 
April 18: The biggest jet bomber ever built, the Convair YB-60, makes a successful first flight at Carswell Air Force Base at Fort Worth, Texas.
 
May 1: Trans World Airways (TWA), British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) and Air France launch the world’s first scheduled tourist-class flights on their transatlantic routes from New York, London and Paris.
 
May 2: The world’s first regularly scheduled, fare-paying, jet passenger service opens with the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) Comet 1 flight from London to Johannesburg.
 
May 3: The first landing at the North Pole is made by Americans Lt. Col. William P. Benedict and Lt. Col. J. O. Fletcher on a ski-and-wheel equipped Air Force Douglas C-47.
 
July 8: New York Airways begins inter-airport helicopter services to link Idlewild, La Guardia, and Newark airports.
 
July 29: A USAF North American RB-45 completes the first non-stop transpacific flight by jet aircraft.
 
August 9: Four Royal Navy piston-engined Hawker Sea Furies encounter eight MiG-15s near Pyongyang, Korea, and Lieutenant Peter Carmichael of No. 802 Squadron FAA aboard HMS Ocean shoots one down. It is the Fleet Air Arm's first kill of the Korean War and first MiG-15 kill.
 
August 11: British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) inaugurates its new weekly service between London and Colombo, the capital of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka).
 
August 16: The prototype Bristol Type 175 Britannia (G-ALBO) makes its first flight from Filton, Bristol, England.
 
August 22: First flight of the Saunders-Roe Princess G-ALUN
 
August 30: First flight of the Avro Vulcan.
 
September 6: The de Havilland DH.110 prototype, WG236, disintegrates at the Farnborough Airshow, killing 28 spectators as well as its pilot.
 
September 20: First flight of the Douglas X-3 Stiletto.
 
October 16: First flight of the Sud Aviation Vautour.
 
October 28: First flight of the Douglas XA3D-1
 
November 3: The first combat between jets at night occurs, when a United States Marine Corps F3D Skyknight night fighter piloted by Major William T. Stratton and crewed by radar operator Master Sergeant Hans C. Hoglind shoots down an enemy jet aircraft over Korea they identify as a Yak-15.
 
November 12: First flight of the Tupolev Tu-95 (NATO:Bear).
 
December 4: First flight of the Grumman XS2F-1 Tracker.
 
December 20: A United States Air Force C-124 Globemaster crashes on takeoff from Larson Air Force base in Moses Lake, Washington, killing 91 of the 118 on-board.
 
December 24: First flight of the Handley Page Victor.
 
December 27: All Nippon Airways founded.---Apollo Program: Apollo 8 splashes down in the Pacific Ocean,ending the first manned orbital mission to the moon.
 
 
 

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