1946 in aviation

This is a list of aviation-related events from 1946:

Years in aviation: 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949
Centuries: 19th century · 20th century · 21st century
Decades: 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s
Years: 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949

Events

  • The American Section of the International League of Aviators resurrects the National Trophy, a Harmon Trophy awarded from 1926 to 1938 to the outstanding aviator of the year in each of the 21 member countries of the now-defunct League. It will be awarded until 1949 amid much controversy, with the awards going largely unrecognized.
  • The Electric Boat Company purchases Canadair from the Government of Canada, an important step toward the 1952 founding of General Dynamics Corporation.[1]
  • The Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses pour la Sécurité de l'Aviation Civile (BEA), or Bureau of Investigation and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety, is formed as the French government agency responsible for investigating aviation accidents and incidents and making safety recommendations based on what is learned from those investigations.
  • The Nicaraguan airline LANICA begins flight operations.

January

February

March

April

May

  • Pacific Ocean Airlines initiates air passenger service between the continental United States and Hawaii.[16]
  • Misr Airlines, the future EgyptAir, resumes flight operations. It had suspended flights in February because of three accidents in late 1945 and resulting strikes demanding that the airline acquire newer, safer aircraft.
  • May 1 Transcontinental and Western Air inaugurates international service from the United States to Lisbon and Madrid.[6]
  • May 20 A United States Army Air Forces Beechcraft C-45F Expediter flying in fog from Lake Charles Army Air Field in Louisiana to Newark Airport in Newark, New Jersey, crashes into the north side of 40 Wall Street in New York City, striking the 58th floor. The crash creates a 20-by-10-foot (6.1-by-3-meter) hole in the masonry and kills all five people aboard the plane, one of them a Women's Army Corps officer. No one on the street below and none of the 2,000 people in the building are injured.
  • May 27 – In United States v. Causby, the United States Supreme Court rules that the common law doctrine that persons who own real property own it Cuius est solum, eius est usque ad coelum et ad inferos ("from the depths to the heavens") "has no place in the modern world" at least as far as air rights are concerned, but that it remains "fundamental to property rights in land" as a source of law, and therefore a landowner does own "at least as much of the space above the ground as he can occupy or use in connection with the land" and invasions of that airspace "are in the same category as invasions of the surface." The ruling entitles the plaintiff to collect damages from the United States Government under the takings clause of the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution for forcing him out of the business of raising chickens on his farm because of the negative effect on the chickens of U.S. military aircraft operating from a nearby airport, but it does not specifically define where private property rights end and public airspace begins over private property in the United States.[17]
  • May 31 - London Heathrow Airport is officially opened.

June

July

  • The Government of Iran establishes the Iran Civil Aviation Organization as Iran's civil aviation authority.
  • July 1
    • As part of Operation Crossroads, the U.S. Army Air Forces 509th Bombardment Group B-29 Superfortress Dave's Dream drops an atomic bomb on Bikini Atoll in the central Pacific Ocean in nuclear test Able. The bomb detonates at an altitude of 520 feet (128 meters) but inflicts less damage than expected on target ships anchored around the atoll because it misses its aim point by 2,130 feet (649 meters).
    • The U.S. Navy establishes Experimental Squadron 3 (VX-3). Equipped with Piasecki HRP-1 Rescuer helicopters, it probably is the world's first official all-helicopter squadron.[24]
    • With post-World War II demobilization well underway, the U.S. Navy's force of aircraft carriers has dropped to 23 of all types with more decommissionings planned, while its aircraft force has declined from 41,000 to 24,000 within the past year and continues to decline rapidly.[25]
  • July 4 The aircraft carriers USS Antietam (CV-36) and USS Boxer (CV-21) are among ten U.S. Navy ships participating in the celebration at Manila of the independence of the Republic of the Philippines.[26]
  • July 11 A fire begins in the baggage compartment of the Transcontinental and Western Airways Lockheed L-049 Constellation Star of Lisbon during a training flight with no passengers on board designated Flight 513. The fire spreads and the plane crashes near Reading, Pennsylvania, killing five of the six people on board. As a result of the accident, all Constellations are grounded from July 12 to August 23 for the installation of cargo fire detection equipment.
  • July 21 A McDonnell XFD-1 Phantom executes the first intentional and controlled landing by a purely jet-powered aircraft aboard a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier, USS Franklin D. Roosevelt (CVB-42).[27][28]
  • July 26
  • July 31 Philippine Airlines becomes the first Asian airline to cross the Pacific using a chartered Douglas DC-4 on the first of several flights to ferry home 40 US servicemen. Each crossing took 41 hours with fuelling stops at Guam, Wake, Kwajelein and Honolulu.

August

  • The United Kingdom loans the aircraft carrier HMS Colossus to France, which commissions her as Arromanches. Arromanches becomes the French Navy's first non-experimental fleet aircraft carrier. France will purchase the ship outright in 1951.[30]
  • The first peacetime deployment of American naval air power in the Mediterranean Sea in history begins with the arrival there of the aircraft carrier USS Franklin D. Roosevelt (CV-42).[31]
  • August 1 The United Kingdom establishes British European Airways as a state-owned corporation.
  • August 5 The U.S. Joint Warfare Planning Committee predicts that after 1950 the Soviet Union will be able to strike the United States with guided missiles and strategic bombers armed with atomic weapons, seize territory in Alaska and Canada from which to launch air attacks against the United States, and employ airborne forces to attack vital targets. It recommends that the United States develop air warning, air defense, and antiaircraft artillery systems with which to counter such operations.[32]
  • August 9 As three U.S. Army Air Forces A-26 Invader attack aircraft make a low-level pass during an air show at the North Montana State Fair in Great Falls, Montana, two of them collide 750 feet (228 meters) from a grandstand crowded with 20,000 spectators. The wing of one A-26 shears off the tail of the other. The tail-less A-26 crashes into a horse barn, killing three crew members, three people on the ground, and twenty thoroughbred horses; the other A-26 continues to fly for between one and five miles (1.6 and 8 kilometers) (sources differ) before crashing in a field, killing one of its crewmen. The third bomber in the formation lands safely.[33]
  • August 15 The U.S. Joint Warfare Planning Committee submits Plan Gridle for the defense of Turkey against the Soviet Union, which finds that the Turkish Air Force of fewer than 700 aircraft could offer only token resistance against a Soviet offensive and would have to be reinforced by ten American fighter groups, followed by the establishment of U.S. Army Air Forces heavy bomber bases in Turkey.[34]
  • August 23 The U.S. Joint Intelligence Staff assesses that by 1948 the Soviet Union will be able to deploy 2,000 bombers against sea lines of communication in the Mediterranean Sea.[29]

September

October

November

  • November 6 An American intelligence report predicts that by 1956 the Soviet Union will have a strategic air force and as many as 150 atomic bombs, while the United States will have 350 to 400 atomic bombs. It assesses that the Soviet Union would withhold its atomic weapons during a war in order to deter an American nuclear attack on Soviet targets.[29]
  • November 10 A U.S. Army Air Forces C-53 Skytrooper crashes on Switzerland's Gauli Glacier, posing a challenge for an assemblage of rescuers from the United States and the United Kingdom and Swiss aviators in spotting the downed plane. They rescue all twelve people (four crew members and eight passengers), partly through the Swiss use of a pair of Fieseler Fi 156 Storch ski-equipped short-takeoff-or-landing (STOL)-capable aircraft.
  • November 23 An Avro Lancastrian powered by two Rolls-Royce Merlin piston engines and two Rolls-Royce Nene turbojets turns off its Merlins and, operating using only the Nenes, becomes the first commercial aircraft to fly solely on jet power,[42] making the trip from London to Paris in just 41 minutes.[43]
  • November 27 Monarch Airlines begins scheduled air service with a flight from Durango, Colorado, using a Douglas DC-3.

December

First flights

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Entered service

September

November

Retirements

References

  1. Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, p. 204.
  2. Ross, Steven T., American War Plans 1945-1950: Strategies For Defeating the Soviet Union, Portland, Oregon: Frank Cass, 1996, ISBN 0-7146-4192-8, pp. 11, 15-17.
  3. Ross, Steven T., American War Plans 1945-1950: Strategies For Defeating the Soviet Union, Portland, Oregon: Frank Cass, 1996, ISBN 0-7146-4192-8, p. 17-18.
  4. Isenberg, Michael T., Shield of the Republic: The United States Navy in an Era of Cold War and Violent Peace, Volume I: 1945-1962, New York: St. Martin's Press, ISBN 0-312-09911-8, p. 88.
  5. Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, p. 274.
  6. TWA History Timeline Archived 2015-04-10 at the Wayback Machine
  7. "National Airlines history, at Nationalsundowners.com, the Organization of Former Stewardesses and Flight Attendants with the Original National Airlines.". Archived from the original on 2018-10-22. Retrieved 2015-04-18.
  8. O'Connor, Derek, "spitfire vs. Spitfire," Aviation History, November 2014, p. 55.
  9. David, Donald, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Nobles Books, 1997, ISBN 0-7607-0592-5, p. 109.
  10. Maurer, Maurer, ed. (1983) [1961]. Air Force Combat Units of World War II (PDF) (reprint ed.). Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History. p. 12. ISBN 0-912799-02-1. LCCN 61060979.
  11. Ross, Steven T., American War Plans 1945-1950: Strategies For Defeating the Soviet Union, Portland, Oregon: Frank Cass, 1996, ISBN 0-7146-4192-8, p. 18.
  12. Attard, Eddie (4 April 2016). "The air crash disaster in Rabat 70 years ago". Times of Malta. Archived from the original on 2 February 2020.
  13. "Crash of a Vickers 440 Wellington X in Ir-Rabat: 20 killed". Bureau of Aircraft Accidents Archives. Archived from the original on 9 February 2020.
  14. "Accident details". PlaneCrashInfo.com. Archived from the original on 9 February 2020.
  15. Sejarah Indonesia: An Online Timeline of Indonesian History: The War for Independence 1945 to 1950
  16. Aviation Hawaii: 1940-1949 Chronology of Aviation in Hawaii
  17. Peterson, Andrea, and Matt McFarland, "You May Be Powerless to Stop a Drone From Hovering Over Your Own Yard," washingtonpost.com, January 13, 2016.
  18. Ross, Steven T., American War Plans 1945-1950: Strategies For Defeating the Soviet Union, Portland, Oregon: Frank Cass, 1996, ISBN 0-7146-4192-8, p. 12.
  19. Ross, Steven T., American War Plans 1945-1950: Strategies For Defeating the Soviet Union, Portland, Oregon: Frank Cass, 1996, ISBN 0-7146-4192-8, p. 33.
  20. rafmuseum.org.uk Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) 1939 - 1949
  21. RSA Review: Victory Parade of 1946 Archived 2007-01-16 at the Wayback Machine
  22. planespotters.net History of Capitol Airways
  23. globalsecurity.org Venezuelan Air Force: Fuerzas Aereas or Aviacion Aviación Militar Bolivariana
  24. Polmar, Norman, "Historic Aircraft: The Flying Banana," Naval History, August 2010, p. 16.
  25. Isenberg, Michael T., Shield of the Republic: The United States Navy in an Era of Cold War and Violent Peace, Volume I: 1945-1962, New York: St. Martin's Press, ISBN 0-312-09911-8, p. 89.
  26. Marolda, Edward J., "Asian Warm-Up to the Cold War", Naval History, October 2011, pp. 30-31.
  27. The unconventional composite propeller-jet Ryan FR Fireball was technically the first aircraft with a jet engine to land on an American carrier, but it was designed to primarily utilize its piston engine during takeoff and landing. The March 1946 issue of Naval Aviation News, p. 6, shows that an FR-1 made an emergency jet-powered landing on an aircraft carrier on November 6, 1945, when its radial engine failed in the landing path, becoming the first aircraft to make a jet-powered landing on an American aircraft carrier, albeit unintentionally and with damage to the plane.
  28. Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, p. 298, states that the FD Phantom's first carrier landing was on July 26, 1946..
  29. Ross, Steven T., American War Plans 1945-1950: Strategies For Defeating the Soviet Union, Portland, Oregon: Frank Cass, 1996, ISBN 0-7146-4192-8, p. 9.
  30. Chesneau, Roger, ed., Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922-1946, New York: Mayflower Books, 1980, ISBN 0-8317-0303-2, pp. 22, 262.
  31. Isenberg, Michael T., Shield of the Republic: The United States Navy in an Era of Cold War and Violent Peace, Volume I: 1945-1962, New York: St. Martin's Press, ISBN 0-312-09911-8, p. 134.
  32. Ross, Steven T., American War Plans 1945-1950: Strategies For Defeating the Soviet Union, Portland, Oregon: Frank Cass, 1996, ISBN 0-7146-4192-8, pp. 34-35.
  33. "Crowds See Fatal Crash / Seven Bodies Found After Plane Collision". The Spokane Daily Chronicle. United Press. August 10, 1946. Retrieved September 21, 2009.
  34. Ross, Steven T., American War Plans 1945-1950: Strategies For Defeating the Soviet Union, Portland, Oregon: Frank Cass, 1996, ISBN 0-7146-4192-8, p. 35-36.
  35. Polmar, Norman, "Historic Aircraft: The Flying Banana," Naval History, August 2010, pp. 16-17.
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  39. "ASN Aircraft accident Douglas DC-4-1009 OO-CBG Gander, NF". Aviation-safety.net. 1946-09-18. Retrieved 2014-07-23.
  40. uscg.mil United States Coast Guard Historian′s Office: Captain Frank A. Erickson, USCG (1907-1978)
  41. Polmar, Norman, "Historic Aircraft: The God of the Sea's Namesake", Naval History, October 2011, p. 16.
  42. Donald, David, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997, ISBN 0-7607-0592-5, p. 84.
  43. Donald, David, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997, ISBN 0-7607-0592-5, p. 84, states that the flight time was 50 minutes.
  44. Ross, Steven T., American War Plans 1945-1950: Strategies For Defeating the Soviet Union, Portland, Oregon: Frank Cass, 1996, ISBN 0-7146-4192-8, pp. 38-39.
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  46. "Hold Little Hope for Twelve in Plane Crash: Transcript." UP via The Vidette-Messenger, Valparaiso, Indiana, December 26, 1946. Retrieved: May 9, 2012.
  47. Accident description at the Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved on May 9, 2012.
  48. []
  49. Aviation Safety Network: Accident Description
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