This is a list of aviation-related events from 1960.
Events Evergreen Helicopters is founded. It later will become Evergreen International Aviation. Switzerland′s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau begins operations. Summer – The United States Navy antisubmarine aircraft carrier is stationed off the west coast of Africa to cover the evacuation of American nationals from Congo (Kinshasa).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. 737.
January Transocean Air Lines ceases operations."Transocean Out of Race For Regular Coast Hops," Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 6 February 1960 It will enter bankruptcy later in 1960. January 1 Fiji Airways is reconstituted, becoming equally owned by BOAC, Qantas, and Tasman Empire Airways. Aerlínte Éireann, a branch of Aer Lingus operating transatlantic flights, is incorporated into Aer Lingus and takes the name Aer Lingus – Irish International Airlines. January 6 – A dynamite bomb explodes aboard National Airlines Flight 2511, a Douglas DC-6B, in mid-air over Bolivia, North Carolina, and the aircraft crashes. All 34 people on board die, including retired United States Navy vice admiral and Medal of Honor recipient Edward Orrick McDonnell. Julian Frank is suspected of being the suicide bomber. January 18 – Capital Airlines Flight 20, a Vickers 745D Viscount, suffers the loss of all four engines due to icing and crashes into a farm near Holdcroft, Virginia, killing all 50 people on board. January 19 The Scandinavian Airlines System Sud Aviation Caravelle Orm Viking (tail number OY-KRB), operating as Flight 871, crashes on approach to Esenboğa International Airport outside Ankara, Turkey, killing all 42 people on board. It is the first fatal crash of a Caravelle. A United States Navy P4M-1Q JQ-16 Mercator of Fleet Air Reconnaissance Squadron 2 (VQ-2) crashes while en route to Adana Air Base in Turkey, killing all 16 members of its crew. The Royal Air Force Mountain Rescue Team based at Nicosia, Cyprus, recovers the bodies of 12 crew members before being forced to leave the recovery of the remaining bodies and body parts until the spring. January 21 – Avianca Flight 671, a Lockheed L-1049E Super Constellation, crashes and burns on landing at Montego Bay, Jamaica, killing 37 of the 46 people on board. Among the dead is Thomas C. Capeheart, the son of United States Senator Homer E. Capehart. It is the deadliest aviation accident in Jamaican history.
February February 9 – The United States Air Force opens its National Space Surveillance Control Center at Bedford, Massachusetts. February 13 – France detonates its first nuclear weapon. February 25 – A United States Navy Douglas R6D-1 carrying members of the United States Navy Band to Brazil to perform at a diplomatic reception attended by President of the United States Dwight D. Eisenhower and a Real Transportes Aéreos Douglas DC-3 collide in mid-air 1,600 meters (5,249 feet) over Guanabara Bay close to the Sugarloaf Mountain in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The accident kills 35 of the 38 people aboard the R6D and all 26 people on board the DC-3. February 26 – Alitalia Flight 618, a Douglas DC-7C en route from Rome to New York, crashes into a cemetery at Shannon, Ireland, shortly after takeoff, killing 34 of the 52 persons on board.
March Lufthansa begins jet service between Frankfurt-am-Main and New York City, using Boeing 707s. Pakistan International Airlines wet-leases a Boeing 707 from Pan American World Airways, becoming the second Asian airline (after Air India) to incorporate jet aircraft into its fleet. The Vertol Aircraft Corporation is renamed Boeing Vertol.Polmar, Norman, "Historic Aircraft: The Flying Banana," Naval History, August 2010, p. 17. March 10 – The last flight by a United States Air Force-operated North American B-25 Mitchell takes place, when TB-25J-25-NC 44-30854, the last Mitchell in the U.S. Air Force inventory, lands at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, for preservation.Special, "B-25 Makes Last Flight During Ceremony at Eglin", Playground News, Fort Walton Beach, Florida, Thursday 26 May 1960, Volume 15, Number "17" (actually No. 18), page 2. March 15 – The world's first supersonic bomber, the Convair B-58 Hustler, enters operational service with the U.S. Air Force. The first deliveries are to the 43rd Bombardment Wing at Carswell Air Force Base, Texas. March 17 – Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 710, a Lockheed L-188 Electra, disintegrates in mid-air near Cannelton, Indiana, killing all 63 people on board, after metal fatigue causes its right wing to separate at an altitude of 18,000 feet (5,486 m) . Among the dead is Central Intelligence Agency training commander Chiyoki Ikeda. March 18 – A Northwest Orient Airlines Boeing 377 Stratocruiser makes a 300-foot (91-meter) emergency dive to avoid colliding with two Air National Guard jets over Lansing, Michigan. Among the passengers is Morris Chalfen, producer of the Holiday on Ice skating shows, whose wife and three children had died the previous day on Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 710. March 24 – Flying at the Soviet Union′s Sternberg Astronomical Institute in Moscow, a Tupolev Tu-114 (NATO reporting name "Cleat") airliner piloted by Captain B. Timochuk sets a world speed record for a turboprop landplane over a 1,000-km (621-mile) closed circuit carrying a payload of 25,000 kg (55,116 pounds) or less, averaging 871.38 km/h (541.45 mph).
April Royal Air Maroc takes delivery of its first jet aircraft, a Sud Aviation Caravelle. April 1 Flying at the Soviet Union′s Sternberg Point Observatory, the Tupolev Tu-114 (NATO reporting name "Cleat") airliner 76459 piloted by Ivan Sukhomlin and copiloted by N. Kharitonov sets a world speed record for a turboprop landplane over a 2,000-km (1,242-mile) closed circuit carrying a payload of 25,000 kg (55,115 pounds) or less, averaging 857.277 km/h (532.687 mph). Iraqi Airways, previously a department of the Iraqi State Railways, becomes fully independent of the railroad company. The New York State Commission Against Discrimination faults Capital Airlines for failing to hire an African-American woman, Patricia Banks, despite her meeting all job requirements. Because of the ruling, she becomes one of only two African American flight attendants in the United States. April 6 – The British Short SC.1 VTOL research aircraft makes its first transition from vertical to horizontal flight and back, flying from Belfast Harbour Airport. April 9 – Flying at the Soviet Union's Sternberg Point Observatory, the Tupolev Tu-114 (NATO reporting name "Cleat") airliner 76459 piloted by Ivan Sukhomlin and copiloted by Konstantin Sapelkin sets a world speed record for a turboprop landplane over a 5,000-km (3,105-mile) closed circuit carrying a payload of 25,000 kg (55,115 pounds) or less, averaging 857.212 km/h (532.647 mph). April 10 – BOAC resumes scheduled air service from London to Cairo (Egypt), suspended in October 1956 at the time of the Suez Crisis. April 12 – After a Cubana de Aviación Vickers Viscount arrives with 16 passengers aboard at Miami International Airport in Miami, Florida, at the end of a flight from Havana, Cuba, one of its passengers and its entire crew of three demand political asylum in the United States. April 13 – The United Kingdom terminates ballistic missile research, preferring to simply purchase the U.S.-developed GAM-87 Skybolt missile. April 14 – A Thai C-54 Skymaster crashes into Mount Wu Tse after takeoff from Taipei, Taiwan. Eighteen people die, including the chief of the Air Force of Thailand, Air Marshal Chalermkiat Watanangura, and his wife. April 20–21 – German-born American pilot Peter Gluckmann, dubbed "The Flying Watchmaker" by the press, attempts a new light-plane nonstop distance record, taking off from Hong Kong in a Beechcraft Bonanza for a solo flight to New York City with a flight path taking him over Japan and the Aleutian Islands. He encounters severe weather that forces him to abort the flight and land at Tokyo, Japan. April 27 – Peter Gluckmann takes off from Tokyo in a Beechcraft Bonanza with a revised flight plan for his light-plane distance record attempt that will take him across the Pacific Ocean over Hawaii and then to the continental United States, where he hopes to reach New York City, or at least to fly as far inland as possible before having to land. Eight hours after takeoff, he radios a United States Coast Guard cutter that his engine is failing. He is never heard from again, and no trace of him or his airplane is ever found.
May May 1 – The Soviet Union shoots down a Central Intelligence Agency Lockheed U-2 near Sverdlovsk and captures its pilot, Gary Powers. May 12 – A U.S. Air Force C-130 Hercules drops a record 35,000 lb (15,876 kg) by parachute.
June A Sud-Aviation Alouette III helicopter carrying seven people makes take-offs and landings on Mont Blanc in the French Alps at an altitude of 4,810 meters (15,780 feet), an unprecedented altitude for such activities by a helicopter.Donald, David, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997, , p. 22. The first Fouga Magister aircraft assembled in Israel roll off the assembly line of a former glider manufacturing company, which simultaneously renames itself Israel Aircraft Industries.Hammel, Eric, Six Days in June: How Israel Won the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1992, , p. 128. June 1 – Trans-Canada Air Lines begins transatlantic jet airliner service, operating Douglas DC-8 aircraft between Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and London, England. June 7 – A helium tank explodes and ruptures the fuel tanks of a United States Air Force BOMARC-A nuclear surface-to-air missile at McGuire Air Force Base, New Jersey, igniting a fire that destroys the missile and contaminates the area directly below and adjacent to it with radioactive material. June 9 – United Arab Airlines, the future EgyptAir, takes delivery of its first jet aircraft, a de Havilland Comet 4C. June 10 – Trans Australia Airlines suffers the first passenger fatalities in its 14-year history when its Flight 538, a Fokker F-27 Friendship 100, crashes into the sea while on final approach at night in fog to Mackay, Queensland, Australia, killing all 29 people on board. It remains tied with the 1950 Australian National Airways Douglas DC-4 crash as the deadliest civil aviation accident and second-deadliest aviation accident in Australian history. June 18 – The Government of Colombia establishes the Department of Civil Aeronautics. It is assigned specific technical and administrative duties to define aeronautic policy in Colombia.
July Fidel Castro dissolves Cubas naval air arm.Scheina, Robert L., Latin America: A Naval History 1810-1987, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1987, , p. 207. July 1 British United Airways is formed. A Soviet Air Defense Forces MiG-19 (NATO reporting name "Farmer") shoots down a U.S. Air Force RB-47H Stratojet (s/n 53-4281) reconnaissance aircraft in international airspace with four of the crew killed and two captured by the Soviets. The U.S. Navy commissions Fleet Tactical Support Squadron 40 (VRC-40) as its first carrier onboard delivery squadron. July 2 – Textron Inc. purchases Bell Aerosystems.Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, p. 37.Mondey, David, ed., The Complete Illustrated History of the Worlds Aircraft, Secaucus, New Jersey: Chartwell Books, Inc., 1978, , p. 95. July 5 Bell Aerosystems becomes Bell Aerospace Corporation. Two copilots aboard a Cubana de Aviación Bristol Britannia 318 flying from Madrid, Spain, to Havana, Cuba, with 40 people on board pull guns on the pilot and force him to fly to Miami International Airport in Miami, Florida.