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On This Day: 1953

Aviation events for 1953

January 2: The first of an order of about 430 US Sabre fighters, the RAF’s first supersonic jet, arrives at RAF Abington, England.
 
January 26: The first meeting of the Experimental Aircraft Association takes place at Curtis-Wright Field in Milwaukee.
 
February 1: Chance Vought delivered last propeller-driven fighter, the Navy F4U Corsair, the 12,571st built since first one flew in 1940.
 
March 3: A Canadian Pacific Airlines de Havilland Comet crashes on takeoff from Karachi, Pakistan, killing all 11 aboard. Excessive nose-pitch causes it to stall, resulting in first fatal jetliner crash in history.
 
April 1: BEA (British European Airways) and Air France introduce tourist-class fares on their European routes.
 
April 3: BOAC launches weekly service to Tokyo aboard a de Havilland DH 106 Comet.
 
April 9: Navy XF2Y-1 Sea Dart, an experimental delta-wing jet seaplane with hydroskis, made first flight at San Diego. Read more...
 
May 18: American Jacqueline Cochran becomes the first woman to fly faster than the speed of sound while flying a Canadian-built North American F-86 Sabre. On the same day, she sets the world speed record for women at 652 mph (1,049 km/h).
 
June 1: The USAF Thunderbirds are activated as the 3600th Air Demonstration Team at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona.
 
June 10: The final experimental test flight for the turbojet powered #3 Douglas D-558-I Skystreak is flown by A. Scott Crossfield.
 
July 8: New York Airways, America’s first scheduled passenger helicopter carrier, begins service.
 
July 8: Sabena begins the first international helicopter services, linking Brussels (Belgium) with destinations in the Netherlands and France.
 
July 17: Lieutenant Guy P. Bordelon scores his fifth aerial victory, becoming the United States Navy's only ace of the Korean War. He had scored all five victories since June 29, using an F4U-5N Corsair night fighter to shoot down North Korean light aircraft making night harassment raids.
 
July 27: The Korean War ends.
 
August 6: Ted Williams returns to the Red Sox after serving a tour of duty as a Marine airman in the Korean War.
 
August 14: The sound barrier is broken over Australia for the first time by Flight Lieutenant Bentleigh, Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), in the first Australian-built Sabre fighter at Avalon, Victoria.
 
September 1: The 1st scheduled international helicopter service begins between Belgium and France. The service is operated by Belgian airline Sabena.
 
September 1: The 1st aerial refueling of a jet aircraft by a jet tanker is made with a B-47 Stratojet by a KB-47B tanker.
 
October 20: a TWA Lockheed Constellation makes the first non-stop scheduled passenger flight across the United States.
 
October 24: First flight of the Convair YF-102 Delta Dagger.
 
November 20: The 1st man to exceed Mach 2 (twice the speed of sound) is American test pilot Scott Crossfield in a Douglas D-558-2 Skyrocket. The world airspeed record is now set at 1,291 mph (2,078 km/h).
 
November 29: American Airlines inaugurates the first regular commercial service between New York and Los Angeles. , with the Douglas DC-7.
 
December 12: Mach 2.5 (2 ½ times the speed of sound) is achieved for the first time by Major Charles “Chuck” Yeager in the Bell X-1A. The rocket-propelled experimental aircraft reaches 1,650 mph at 70,000 feet.
 
 
 

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