This is a list of aviation-related events from 1957.
Events The Douglas AIR-2 Genie ("Ding-Dong") unguided air-to-air missile enters service with the United States Air Force. It mounts a 1.5-kiloton nuclear warhead and has a lethal radius of .Crosby, Francis, The Complete Guide to Fighters & Bombers of the World: An Illustrated History of the Worlds Greatest Military Aircraft, From the Pioneering Days of Air Fighting in World War I Through the Jet Fighters and Stealth Bombers of the Present Day, London: Anness Publishing Ltd., 2006, , p. 46. The United Kingdoms Minister of Defence, Duncan Sandys, states that the crewed fighter jets have become obsolete and will be replaced by missiles.Crosby, Francis, The Complete Guide to Fighters & Bombers of the World: An Illustrated History of the Worlds Greatest Military Aircraft, From the Pioneering Days of Air Fighting in World War I Through the Jet Fighters and Stealth Bombers of the Present Day, London: Anness Publishing Ltd., 2006, , p. 35. His 1957 Defence White Paper proposes ending the use of fighters by the Royal Air Force and concentrating on missile technology. The United States Air Force cancels the Martin XB-68 program. American Airlines opens the American Airlines Stewardess College at Fort Worth, Texas, as the world's first centralized flight attendant training center.Anonymous, "The Last Word - 1957: Ladies First," American Way, March 2015, p. 130. Summer 1957 – For the first time, as many passengers cross the North Atlantic Ocean by airliner as by ocean liner.Maxtone-Graham, John, The Only Way to Cross, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997, , p. 408.
January The Avro Vulcan strategic bomber enters service with the Royal Air Force. It begins to enter squadron service during the summer of 1957.Crosby, Francis, The Complete Guide to Fighters & Bombers of the World: An Illustrated History of the Worlds Greatest Military Aircraft, From the Pioneering Days of Air Fighting in World War I Through the Jet Fighters and Stealth Bombers of the Present Day, London: Anness Publishing Ltd., 2006, , p. 289. January 3 – Trans World Airlines becomes the first airline to offer its passengers freshly brewed coffee in flight.TWA History Timeline January 4 – The Brooklyn Dodgers become the first professional baseball team to purchase its own airplane, buying a Convair CV-440. To reduce the CV-440s price to US$775,000, the team purchases it as part of a larger Eastern Airlines order. January 18 – Three United States Air Force B-52 Stratofortress bombers make the worlds first round-the-world, non-stop flight by turbojet-powered aircraft. They complete the flight in 45 hours 19 minutes, at an average speed of . January 31 – A Douglas DC-7B being operated by the Douglas Aircraft Company on a test flight with a crew of four prior to delivery to Continental Airlines collides in mid-air over Californias San Fernando Valley with a U.S. Air Force F-89J Scorpion with a crew of two on a test flight to check its radar equipment. The F-89J crashes in La Tuna Canyon in the Verdugo Mountains, killing its pilot and injuring the other crew member, who ejects to a parachute landing in Burbank, California. The DC-7B remains airborne for several minutes, dropping debris into neighborhoods below, before crashing into the grounds of a church and the athletic field of Pacoima Junior High School in the Pacoima district of Los Angeles, California, where 220 boys are gathered; the crash kills all four people on the plane and three boys on the ground, and injures an estimated 74 students. Among the dead on the DC-7B is its copilot, test pilot and actor Archie Twitchell.planecrashinfo.com Famous People Who Died in Aviation Accidents: 1950s
February February 1 – Northeast Airlines Flight 823, a Douglas DC-6A, crashes in Queens, New York, shortly after takeoff from LaGuardia Airport in New York City, killing 20 of the 101 people on board and injuring 78 of the 81 survivors. February 5 – The official opening of Salisbury Airport – the future Harare International Airport – in Salisbury (now Harare) in the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland takes place. The federation's government had commissioned the airport in July 1956.
March All 11 of the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arms Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve squadrons are disbanded due to a reduction in British defence expenditures.Sturtivant, Ray, British Naval Aviation: The Fleet Air Arm, 1917-1990, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1990, , p. 189. March 1 – SNCASE (or Sud-Est) and SNCASO (or Sud-Ouest) merge to form Sud Aviation.Donald, David, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997, , p. 20. March 4–15 – A United States Navy blimp sets a duration record for a non-rigid airship, traveling in 264 hours 12 minutes. March 5 – A Blackburn Beverley C Mark I heavy transport aircraft of No. 53 Squadron, Royal Air Force, crashes in the village of Sutton Wick, then in Berkshire, England, killing 18 of the 22 people on board and two people on the ground. March 11 – A Flying Tiger Line Lockheed Super Constellation sets a new payload record for a commercial aircraft, carrying on a flight between Newark, New Jersey, and Burbank, California. March 14 – The Vickers Viscount G-ALWE, operating as British European Airways Flight 411, crashes into a house in Wythenshawe, England, while on approach to Manchester Airport. All 20 people on board die, as do two people in the house. March 17 – The Philippine Air Force Douglas C-47 Skytrain Mt. Pinatubo crashes on the slopes of Mount Manunggal on Cebu in the Philippines, killing 25 of the 26 people on board. Among the dead are President of the Philippines Ramon Magsaysay, other high-ranking Philippine government officials, and former Philippine Senator Tomas Cabili; the only survivor is Philippine Herald newspaper correspondent Nestor Mata. March 22 – A United States Air Force Boeing C-97 Stratofreighter with 67 people aboard disappears during a flight from Wake Island to Japan. No trace of the aircraft has been found.
April April 6 – Olympic Airways is created by the shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis from the ashes of bankrupt Greek state airline T.A.E. April 11 – North American Aviation is issued a preliminary contract to build prototypes of the XF-108 long-range interceptor aircraft for the U.S. Air Force. April 15 – A TAMSA Consolidated C-87 Liberator Express transport aircraft (registration XA-KUN) converted for use as a civilian cargo aircraft crashes into a street in Mérida, Mexico, shortly after takeoff from Mérida-Rejón Airport, killing a child on the ground and the plane's entire crew of three. Among the dead is the Mexican actor and singer Pedro Infante, who had been co-piloting the plane.Aviation Safety Network Accident Description April 22 – The Glenn L. Martin Company renames itself the Martin Company. April 25 – The attack aircraft carriers and are among elements of the United States Sixth Fleet which make a high-speed dash to the eastern Mediterranean Sea to demonstrate support for the government of King Hussein of Jordan against Arab nationalist opposition which the United States believes supports the spread of communism.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, , p. 709. April 28 – The German World War II ace Heinz Bär dies in the crash of an LF-1 Zaunkönig at Braunschweig-Waggum, West Germany. He had finished World War II in May 1945 as its top jet ace with 16 kills in the Messerschmitt Me 262, the eighth-ranking German ace with 220 total victories, and second only to Hans-Joachim Marseille in the number of British and American aircraft shot down.firstworldwar.com Who's Who: Rudolf Berthold
May The national airline of Ecuador, Ecuatoriana de Aviación, is founded. It will begin flight operations in August. May 1 – An Eagle Aviation Vickers VC.1 Viking crashes into trees near Blackbushe Airport in Yateley, Hampshire, England, killing 34 of the 35 people on board. May 10 – The wreckage of Trans-Canada Air Lines Flight 810, a Canadair North Star, is found on Mount Slesse, near Chilliwack, British Columbia, Canada. The airliner had been missing since December 9, 1956. All 62 people on board had died in the crash. May 13 – While returning to Narsarsuaq Air Base in Greenland from a Distant Early Warning Line site in white-out conditions, a United States Overseas Airlines Douglas DC-4, registration N68736, hits the Greenland ice sheet at an altitude of in an area where the air crew's navigation chart indicates the ice sheet's altitude is . Two crew members die; the seriously injured first officer is rescued. May 15 – A Royal Air Force Vickers Valiant drops the first British hydrogen bomb, over Kiritimati. May 22 – A United States Air Force B-36 Peacemaker ferrying a Mark 17 thermonuclear bomb from Biggs Air Force Base in El Paso, Texas, to Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico, accidentally drops the bomb south of the Kirtland control tower and west of Sandia Base while on approach to Kirtland. The weapon is destroyed by the detonation of its high-explosive material, creating a crater deep and in diameter and nuclear material is released into the environment, but no nuclear explosion occurs.
June Middle East Airlines leases an Avro York cargo aircraft. June 1 – East Germany merges the headquarters of its air force, the Luftstreitkräfte der Nationalen Volksarmee ("Air Forces of the National People's Army") with those of its Luftverteidigung (air defense) force, forming a new headquarters called the Kommando LSK/LV ("Air Force/Air Defense Command"). June 2 – In Manhigh I, the first flight of the United States Air Force's Project Manhigh, Air Force Captain Joseph Kittinger sets a new world balloon altitude record of , breaking Auguste Piccard's record set in May 1931. June 7 Executing a zoom climb after a low-altitude pass during a high-speed demonstration flight at Hensley Field in Dallas, Texas, for a graduating class from the Naval Postgraduate School, a Vought F8U-1 Crusader fighter flown by a Chance Vought Aircraft pilot disintegrates, killing the pilot. The aircraft's wreckage explodes violently at low altitude over Main Street in adjacent Grand Prairie, Texas, inflicting minor injuries on several bystanders.Pace, Steve, "Crusader With A Cause", Wings, Granada Hills, California, August 1987, Volume 17, Number 4, page 34. Two pilots making a ferry flight of a Cessna 310 from Oakland, California, to Honolulu, Hawaii, complete the first successful flight from Oakland to Hawaii in a light plane since They complete the flight from Oakland Airport to Honolulu International Airport in 13 hours 51 minutes. June 15 – German-born American pilot Peter Gluckmann, dubbed "The Flying Watchmaker" by the press, takes off from San Carlos, California, and makes an approximately solo flight to Honolulu in a Beechcraft Bonanza in 15 hours 41 minutes. It is the first leg of what he plans as the first-ever round-trip to Hawaii in a light plane. After a weeklong "vacation" in Hawaii, he plans to attempt his return to San Carlos. June 22–23 – After a weeklong "vacation" in Hawaii, Peter Gluckmann completes his round trip with a solo flight from Honolulu to San Carlos, California, in a Beechcraft Bonanza, becoming the first person to make a round trip to Hawaii in a light plane. The return flight to San Carlos encounters strong headwinds and takes 19 hours 2 minutes. June 28 – The Moroccan airline Royal Air Maroc—Compagnie Nationale de Transports Aériens renames itself Royal Air Maroc.
July