This is a list of
aviation-related events from 1964.
Events
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]
The
North Vietnamese Air Force establishes its first jet fighter unit, Fighter Regiment No. 921, equipped with
MiG-17s. North Vietnamese jet fighter units will be based in the People's Republic of China until August while their pilots undergo training.
The North Vietnamese Air Force scores its first aerial victory against an American aircraft when a North Vietnamese
T-28 Trojan armed
trainer shoots down a
C-123 Provider transport plane.
March 19 – American
Jerrie Mock departs
Columbus,
Ohio, in the
Cessna 180The Spirit of Columbus (registration N1538C), nicknamed "Charlie," in an attempt to become the first woman to fly around the world.[5][6][7]
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.
American
Jerrie Mock arrives in
Columbus,
Ohio, in the
Cessna 180The Spirit of Columbus (registration N1538C), nicknamed "Charlie," completing a solo round-the-world flight and becoming the first woman to fly around the world.[5][6][7] The journey has taken 29 days, required 21 stopovers, and covered almost 22,860 miles (36,790 km).[10]
April 21 – A Middle East Airlines
Vickers 754D Viscount is damaged beyond economical repair while taxiing at
El Arish,
Egypt, when the taxiway collapses beneath it, severely damaging its
fuselage, engines, and
propellers.[12]
May 7 – Francisco Paula Gonzales shoots both the pilot and copilot of
Pacific Air Lines Flight 773, a
Fairchild F27A 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.
May 9 – An
F-105B Thunderchief (serial number 57-5801) operated by the
U.S. Air Force Air Demonstration Squadron (the Thunderbirds) disintegrates during a six-
G tactical pitch-up for landing after an air display at
Hamilton Air Force Base,
California, killing its pilot. The accident prompts the U.S. Air Force to ground all F-105s and retrofit them with a structural brace. The Thunderbirds revert to using the
F-100 Super Sabre and never fly another show in F-105s.[16][17]
The
Portuguese airline Transportes Aéreos Portugueses (TAP) – the future
TAP Portugal – carries its one millionth passenger, 18 years after beginning flight operations.
July 9 –
United Airlines Flight 823, a
Vicker 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.
In Project Tailchaser, the
United States Air Force tests the concept of a fixed-wing
gunship, converting a
Convair C-131B Samaritan to fire a single
GAU-2/A Minigun at a downward angle out of the left side of the aircraft at ground targets. Tests of the gunship at
Eglin Air Force Base,
Florida, demonstrate that such an aircraft flying a
pylon turn easily can hit a stationary area with great accuracy even when using only a primitive targeting system.
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
MiG-17 and
MiG-19 fighters to
Phúc Yên Air Base near
Hanoi.[32]
Kingdom of Libya Airlines – the future
Libyan Airlines – is founded. It will begin flight operations in
August 1965.
September 21 – The
United States Air Force′s first
North American XB-70A Valkyrie – named Air Vehicle 1 (AV-1) – makes its first flight, flying from
Palmdale to
Edwards Air Force Base,
California. The crew has to shut down one of its six engines shortly after takeoff, and it makes the flight with its
landing gear down due to a landing gear malfunction, limiting the
Mach 3+-capable aircraft to a top speed of 390 mph (628 km/h), only about half what was planned for the flight.
October 13 – The first production
Learjet, a
Model 23, is delivered.
October 16 – The People's Republic of China detonates its first
nuclear weapon.
October 23
U.S. Navy aircraft begin providing cover for
Laotian government forces.[34]
American rock musician
David Box dies in a
Cessna 172 Skyhawk which crashes nose-first and overturns at
Houston,
Texas. The other three people aboard the plane also die.[3]
October 24 – On its fourth test flight, the U.S. Air Force's first
North American XB-70A Valkyrie – Air Vehicle 1 (AV-1) – flies at speeds above Mach 1 for 40 minutes.
November 2 – A U.S. Air Force HH-43F 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.[36]
November 18 – The U.S.
Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, provides 105
United States Army helicopters to assist in transporting 7,000
South Vietnamese Army troops to attack a concentration of Viet Cong guerrillas believed to occupy a forest in South Vietnam 40 miles (64 km) northwest of
Saigon near
Thủ Dầu Một in the largest attack thus far of the
Vietnam War. The South Vietnamese troops find no Viet Cong in the area and assess that they had withdrawn at least three days earlier.[37]
November 19 – Seventeen U.S. helicopters transport 54 South Vietnamese troops to attack Viet Cong guerrillas in South Vietnam's
Quảng Nam Province. The South Vietnamese reportedly kill 17 Viet Cong and capture 21.[37]
December 23–24 (overnight) – The first combat use of a fixed-wing
gunship takes place when a U.S. Air Force
minigun-armed Douglas FC-47 is called in to defend a
United States ArmySpecial Forces camp at
Tranh Yend in
South Vietnam's
Mekong Delta that is under attack by the
Viet Cong. It drops
parachute flares and fires 4,500 rounds, scattering the attackers. Twenty minutes later, it breaks up a Viet Cong attack against another camp at
Trung Hung. The success of the FC-47 results in the deployment of additional aircraft of its type, redesignated as the
AC-47 and widely nicknamed "Spooky" and "Puff the Magic Dragon."[39]
^
abcdNichols, CDR John B., and Barret Tillman, On Yankee Station: The Naval Air War Over Vietnam, Annapolis, Maryland: United States Naval Institute, 1987,
ISBN978-0-87021-559-9, p. 151.
^Chinnery, Philip D., Vietnam: The Helicopter War, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1991,
ISBN978-1-55750-875-1, p. 29.
^Chinnery, Philip D., Vietnam: The Helicopter War, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1991,
ISBN978-1-55750-875-1, p. 35.
^Thompson, Warren E., "F-105 Thunderchief", Combat Aircraft, Ian Allan Publishing, Hersham, Surrey, UK, February–March 2009, Volume 10, Number 1, page 68.
^
abPolmar, Norman, "Historic Aircraft: The Last Photo Plane," Naval History, October 2010, p. 64.
^Mondey, David, ed., The Complete Illustrated History of the World's Aircraft, Secaucus, New Jersey: Chartwell Books, Inc., 1978,
ISBN0-89009-771-2, p. 74.
^Handleman, Philip, "Discovering Purpose in the Sky," Aviation History, July 2017, p. 13.
^Chinnery, Philip D., Vietnam: The Helicopter War, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1991,
ISBN978-1-55750-875-1, p. 35, claims the battle occurred on 7 July 1964, although the
Battle of Nam Dong Wikipedia article gives a date of 6 July 1964.
^Nichols, CDR John B., and Barret Tillman, On Yankee Station: The Naval Air War Over Vietnam, Annapolis, Maryland: United States Naval Institute, 1987,
ISBN978-0-87021-559-9, p. 152, which also claims that this event occurred on August 7.
^Wilkinson, Stepha, "The Sky′s Their Canvas," Aviation History, November 2017, p. 44.
^Nichols, CDR John B., and Barret Tillman, On Yankee Station: The Naval Air War Over Vietnam, Annapolis, Maryland: United States Naval Institute, 1987,
ISBN978-0-87021-559-9, p. 152.
^Chinnery, Philip D., Vietnam: The Helicopter War, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1991,
ISBN978-1-55750-875-1, p. 36–37
^Chinnery, Philip D., Vietnam: The Helicopter War, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1991,
ISBN978-1-55750-875-1, p. 14.
^Miskimon, Christopher, "Weapons: The AC-47 Gunship Proved the Concept of the Aerial Gunship As a Close-Support Weapon in the Skies Over Vietnam," Militar Heritage, November 2015, pp. 17–18.
^
abDonald, David, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997,
ISBN978-0-7607-0592-6, p. 102.
^Donald, David, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997,
ISBN978-0-7607-0592-6, p. 20.
^Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987,
ISBN978-0-517-56588-9, p. 374.
^Donald, David, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997,
ISBN978-0-7607-0592-6, p. 8894.
^Donald, David, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997,
ISBN978-0-7607-0592-6, p. 92.
^Donald, David, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997,
ISBN978-0-7607-0592-6, p.46.
^Polmar, Norman, "It's a Plane...a Helicopter...a Phrog!", Naval History, October 2016, p. 64.
^Donald, David, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997,
ISBN978-0-7607-0592-6, p. 90.
^Mondey, David, ed., The Complete Illustrated History of the World's Aircraft, Secaucus, New Jersey: Chartwell Books, Inc., 1978,
ISBN0-89009-771-2, p. 55.
^Donald, David, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997,
ISBN978-0-7607-0592-6, p. 94.
^Donald, David, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997,
ISBN978-0-7607-0592-6, p. 273.
Taylor, John W. R. (1964). Jane's All The World's Aircraft 1964–65. London: Sampson Low, Marston & Company, Ltd.
Taylor, John W. R. (1965). Jane's All the World's Aircraft 1965–66. London: Sampson Low, Marston & Company, Ltd.
This is a list of
aviation-related events from 1964.
Events
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]
The
North Vietnamese Air Force establishes its first jet fighter unit, Fighter Regiment No. 921, equipped with
MiG-17s. North Vietnamese jet fighter units will be based in the People's Republic of China until August while their pilots undergo training.
The North Vietnamese Air Force scores its first aerial victory against an American aircraft when a North Vietnamese
T-28 Trojan armed
trainer shoots down a
C-123 Provider transport plane.
March 19 – American
Jerrie Mock departs
Columbus,
Ohio, in the
Cessna 180The Spirit of Columbus (registration N1538C), nicknamed "Charlie," in an attempt to become the first woman to fly around the world.[5][6][7]
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.
American
Jerrie Mock arrives in
Columbus,
Ohio, in the
Cessna 180The Spirit of Columbus (registration N1538C), nicknamed "Charlie," completing a solo round-the-world flight and becoming the first woman to fly around the world.[5][6][7] The journey has taken 29 days, required 21 stopovers, and covered almost 22,860 miles (36,790 km).[10]
April 21 – A Middle East Airlines
Vickers 754D Viscount is damaged beyond economical repair while taxiing at
El Arish,
Egypt, when the taxiway collapses beneath it, severely damaging its
fuselage, engines, and
propellers.[12]
May 7 – Francisco Paula Gonzales shoots both the pilot and copilot of
Pacific Air Lines Flight 773, a
Fairchild F27A 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.
May 9 – An
F-105B Thunderchief (serial number 57-5801) operated by the
U.S. Air Force Air Demonstration Squadron (the Thunderbirds) disintegrates during a six-
G tactical pitch-up for landing after an air display at
Hamilton Air Force Base,
California, killing its pilot. The accident prompts the U.S. Air Force to ground all F-105s and retrofit them with a structural brace. The Thunderbirds revert to using the
F-100 Super Sabre and never fly another show in F-105s.[16][17]
The
Portuguese airline Transportes Aéreos Portugueses (TAP) – the future
TAP Portugal – carries its one millionth passenger, 18 years after beginning flight operations.
July 9 –
United Airlines Flight 823, a
Vicker 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.
In Project Tailchaser, the
United States Air Force tests the concept of a fixed-wing
gunship, converting a
Convair C-131B Samaritan to fire a single
GAU-2/A Minigun at a downward angle out of the left side of the aircraft at ground targets. Tests of the gunship at
Eglin Air Force Base,
Florida, demonstrate that such an aircraft flying a
pylon turn easily can hit a stationary area with great accuracy even when using only a primitive targeting system.
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
MiG-17 and
MiG-19 fighters to
Phúc Yên Air Base near
Hanoi.[32]
Kingdom of Libya Airlines – the future
Libyan Airlines – is founded. It will begin flight operations in
August 1965.
September 21 – The
United States Air Force′s first
North American XB-70A Valkyrie – named Air Vehicle 1 (AV-1) – makes its first flight, flying from
Palmdale to
Edwards Air Force Base,
California. The crew has to shut down one of its six engines shortly after takeoff, and it makes the flight with its
landing gear down due to a landing gear malfunction, limiting the
Mach 3+-capable aircraft to a top speed of 390 mph (628 km/h), only about half what was planned for the flight.
October 13 – The first production
Learjet, a
Model 23, is delivered.
October 16 – The People's Republic of China detonates its first
nuclear weapon.
October 23
U.S. Navy aircraft begin providing cover for
Laotian government forces.[34]
American rock musician
David Box dies in a
Cessna 172 Skyhawk which crashes nose-first and overturns at
Houston,
Texas. The other three people aboard the plane also die.[3]
October 24 – On its fourth test flight, the U.S. Air Force's first
North American XB-70A Valkyrie – Air Vehicle 1 (AV-1) – flies at speeds above Mach 1 for 40 minutes.
November 2 – A U.S. Air Force HH-43F 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.[36]
November 18 – The U.S.
Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, provides 105
United States Army helicopters to assist in transporting 7,000
South Vietnamese Army troops to attack a concentration of Viet Cong guerrillas believed to occupy a forest in South Vietnam 40 miles (64 km) northwest of
Saigon near
Thủ Dầu Một in the largest attack thus far of the
Vietnam War. The South Vietnamese troops find no Viet Cong in the area and assess that they had withdrawn at least three days earlier.[37]
November 19 – Seventeen U.S. helicopters transport 54 South Vietnamese troops to attack Viet Cong guerrillas in South Vietnam's
Quảng Nam Province. The South Vietnamese reportedly kill 17 Viet Cong and capture 21.[37]
December 23–24 (overnight) – The first combat use of a fixed-wing
gunship takes place when a U.S. Air Force
minigun-armed Douglas FC-47 is called in to defend a
United States ArmySpecial Forces camp at
Tranh Yend in
South Vietnam's
Mekong Delta that is under attack by the
Viet Cong. It drops
parachute flares and fires 4,500 rounds, scattering the attackers. Twenty minutes later, it breaks up a Viet Cong attack against another camp at
Trung Hung. The success of the FC-47 results in the deployment of additional aircraft of its type, redesignated as the
AC-47 and widely nicknamed "Spooky" and "Puff the Magic Dragon."[39]
^
abcdNichols, CDR John B., and Barret Tillman, On Yankee Station: The Naval Air War Over Vietnam, Annapolis, Maryland: United States Naval Institute, 1987,
ISBN978-0-87021-559-9, p. 151.
^Chinnery, Philip D., Vietnam: The Helicopter War, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1991,
ISBN978-1-55750-875-1, p. 29.
^Chinnery, Philip D., Vietnam: The Helicopter War, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1991,
ISBN978-1-55750-875-1, p. 35.
^Thompson, Warren E., "F-105 Thunderchief", Combat Aircraft, Ian Allan Publishing, Hersham, Surrey, UK, February–March 2009, Volume 10, Number 1, page 68.
^
abPolmar, Norman, "Historic Aircraft: The Last Photo Plane," Naval History, October 2010, p. 64.
^Mondey, David, ed., The Complete Illustrated History of the World's Aircraft, Secaucus, New Jersey: Chartwell Books, Inc., 1978,
ISBN0-89009-771-2, p. 74.
^Handleman, Philip, "Discovering Purpose in the Sky," Aviation History, July 2017, p. 13.
^Chinnery, Philip D., Vietnam: The Helicopter War, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1991,
ISBN978-1-55750-875-1, p. 35, claims the battle occurred on 7 July 1964, although the
Battle of Nam Dong Wikipedia article gives a date of 6 July 1964.
^Nichols, CDR John B., and Barret Tillman, On Yankee Station: The Naval Air War Over Vietnam, Annapolis, Maryland: United States Naval Institute, 1987,
ISBN978-0-87021-559-9, p. 152, which also claims that this event occurred on August 7.
^Wilkinson, Stepha, "The Sky′s Their Canvas," Aviation History, November 2017, p. 44.
^Nichols, CDR John B., and Barret Tillman, On Yankee Station: The Naval Air War Over Vietnam, Annapolis, Maryland: United States Naval Institute, 1987,
ISBN978-0-87021-559-9, p. 152.
^Chinnery, Philip D., Vietnam: The Helicopter War, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1991,
ISBN978-1-55750-875-1, p. 36–37
^Chinnery, Philip D., Vietnam: The Helicopter War, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1991,
ISBN978-1-55750-875-1, p. 14.
^Miskimon, Christopher, "Weapons: The AC-47 Gunship Proved the Concept of the Aerial Gunship As a Close-Support Weapon in the Skies Over Vietnam," Militar Heritage, November 2015, pp. 17–18.
^
abDonald, David, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997,
ISBN978-0-7607-0592-6, p. 102.
^Donald, David, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997,
ISBN978-0-7607-0592-6, p. 20.
^Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987,
ISBN978-0-517-56588-9, p. 374.
^Donald, David, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997,
ISBN978-0-7607-0592-6, p. 8894.
^Donald, David, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997,
ISBN978-0-7607-0592-6, p. 92.
^Donald, David, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997,
ISBN978-0-7607-0592-6, p.46.
^Polmar, Norman, "It's a Plane...a Helicopter...a Phrog!", Naval History, October 2016, p. 64.
^Donald, David, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997,
ISBN978-0-7607-0592-6, p. 90.
^Mondey, David, ed., The Complete Illustrated History of the World's Aircraft, Secaucus, New Jersey: Chartwell Books, Inc., 1978,
ISBN0-89009-771-2, p. 55.
^Donald, David, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997,
ISBN978-0-7607-0592-6, p. 94.
^Donald, David, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997,
ISBN978-0-7607-0592-6, p. 273.
Taylor, John W. R. (1964). Jane's All The World's Aircraft 1964–65. London: Sampson Low, Marston & Company, Ltd.
Taylor, John W. R. (1965). Jane's All the World's Aircraft 1965–66. London: Sampson Low, Marston & Company, Ltd.