This is a list of aviation-related events from 1961.
Events During the year, Aeropostal Alas de Venezuela (LAV) introduces the Douglas DC-8 into service to replace its Lockheed Super Constellations.
January January 1 East Germany establishes its national civil aviation authority, the Hauptverwaltung der Zivilen Luftfahrt (Central Administration for Civil Aviation). Two hijackers commandeer a Cubana de Aviación Bristol Britannia 318 after it departs Havana, Cuba, and force it to fly them to New York City.Aviation Safety Network Hijacking Description January 3 – Aero Flight 311, a Douglas DC-3C (registration OH-LCC) of the Finnish airline Aero, crashes near Kvevlax (Koivulahti) on approach to Vaasa Airport in Finland killing all 25 people on board. An investigation determines pilot error to be the cause of crash, finding that the captain and first officer were both exhausted for lack of sleep and were intoxicated at the time of the crash. It remains the deadliest air disaster to have occurred in Finland. January 12 – At the Air Force Flight Test Center at Edwards Air Force Base, California, the crew of a United States Air Force Strategic Air Command B-58 Hustler led by Major E. J. Deutschendorf – the father of singer-songwriter John Denver – breaks six world records in a single flight, including five held by the Soviet Union. The B-58 sets a new world speed record for a flight carrying a 2,000-kilogram (4,409-pound) payload over a course, achieving an average speed of . The flight also breaks the world speed records for average speed over the same distance carrying a 1,000-kilogram (1,610-pound) payload and carrying no payload and smashes the previous records for the distance in all three payload categories, which had been held by Soviet Tupolev Tu-104s flying at about half the average speed the B-58 achieves. The flight also sets a new record for average speed over a 1,000-km (621 mph) course, averaging . January 14 – At the Air Force Flight Test Center at Edwards Air Force Base, California, a U.S. Air Force Strategic Air Command B-58 Hustler sets a new world speed record for a flight carrying a 2,000-kilogram (4,409-pound) payload over a course, averaging . The flight also breaks the world speed records for average speed over the same distance carrying a 1,000-kilogram (1,610-pound) payload and carrying no payload. On February 28, the crew will receive the Thompson Trophy for the flight. January 24 – A United States Air Force B-52G Stratofortress carrying two Mark 39 nuclear bombs breaks up in mid-air over Faro, North Carolina, and crashes, killing three of its eight-man crew. The bombs do not arm themselves and one bomb is recovered. Travelling at over , the second bomb lands in a swamp and buries itself to a depth of over ; flooding prevents its recovery.
February February 1 – Trans-Canada Air Lines becomes the first sustained operator of the Vickers Vanguard. February 3 – Operation Looking Glass commences, giving the United States Air Force′s Strategic Air Command a permanent, airborne command post. February 15 – Sabena Flight 548, a Boeing 707, crashes at Brussels, Belgium. All 72 aboard (including the entire 18-member United States Figure Skating team), as well as one person on the ground, are killed. It is the first fatal accident involving the Boeing 707 and the deadliest accident in the history of Sabena.
March March 7 – Flying a North American X-15, U.S. Air Force Major Robert M. White becomes the first pilot to exceed Mach 4.Hallion, Richard P., "Across the Hypersonic Divide," Aviation History, July 2012, p. 41. March 14 – A U.S. Air Force B-52F Stratofortress carrying two nuclear weapons crashes in Sutter County, California, west of Yuba City. The weapons do not arm and the eight-man crew ejects safely, although a firefighter responding to the crash is killed and several people are injured in a road accident. March 28 Air Afrique is formed. President John F. Kennedy cancels the North American B-70 Valkyrie bomber program. The production order for B-70s is cut to three (later reduced to two) XB-70A aircraft for experimental use in studying sustained flight at speeds of greater than Mach 3 and in the advanced study of aerodynamics, propulsion, and other subjects related to large supersonic transports.
April Seaboard & Western Airlines changes its name to Seaboard World Airlines. April 1 VIASA – the flag carrier of Venezuela – commences operations. The United States Air Force redesignates its Air Research and Development Command as the Air Force Systems Command. It also redesignates the Air Materiel Command as the Air Force Logistics Command, with some of its functions transferred to the Air Force Systems Command. April 3 – In Chile's worst air disaster in history at the time, LAN Chile Flight 210, a Douglas DC-3 carrying 24 people, including eight members of the Chilean football (soccer) team Club de Deportes Green Cross, disappears over the Andes Mountains in Chile during a domestic flight from Osorno to Santiago. Its wreckage will remain undiscovered until February 2015.Anonymous, "Chile mountaineers: We found plane missing for half century," Associated Press, February 8, 2015. April 7 – Moisture condensing in a connector plug causes a GAR-8 Sidewinder air-to-air missile carried by a New Mexico Air National Guard F-100A Super Sabre of the 188th Fighter Interceptor Squadron to fire accidentally while the F-100A is practicing bomber interception tactics against the U.S. Air Force B-52B Stratofortress Ciudad Juarez of the Strategic Air Commands 95th Bombardment Wing. The missile blows off the B-52Bs port wing, and the bomber crashes on Mount Taylor in New Mexico, killing three members of its crew.Hollway, Don, "'One of My Missiles is Loose!'", Aviation History, March 2013, p. 60. April 12 – Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin makes the first human spaceflight, orbiting the Earth once in 108 minutes in Vostok 1. April 15 – In Operation Puma, eight Douglas B-26B Invaders painted in Cuban Air Force markings manned by anti-Castro Cuban exiles of the Fuerza Aérea de Liberación ("Liberation Air Force") fly from Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua, to attack airfields at San Antonio de los Baños and Ciudad Libertad, Cuba, and Antonio Maceo Airport at Santiago de Cuba. They destroy a mixture of Cuban Air Force aircraft – a C-47 Skytrain, a PBY Catalina, five B-26 Invaders, a Hawker Sea Fury, a T-33 Shooting Star, and two P-47 Thunderbolts, among others – and a number of civilian aircraft, including a Douglas DC-3. One attacking B-26 is shot down by antiaircraft fire at Havana and its crew is lost; two B-26s land in Florida, and one in the Cayman Islands and are not returned to the Cuban exiles.Mets, David R., Land-Based Air Power in Third World Crises, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama: Air University Press, July 1986, no ISBN, p. 72. April 17 – Anti-Castro Cuban exiles invade Cuba at the Bay of Pigs. Five C-46 Commandos and one C-54 Skymaster drop a battaltion of their paratroopers into Cuba, losing one C-46, and later parachute supplies to exile troops ashore, while the remaining B-26 Invader bombers of their Fuerza Aérea de Liberación – some flown by Central Intelligence Agency contractors and personnel of the Alabama Air National Guard – provide close air support near the beachhead. The invading exiles shoot down two Cuban Sea Furies and two Cuban B-26 Invaders with antiaircraft fire. The Cuban Air Force has only six operational aircraft, but two of its Hawker Sea Furies sink two of the exiles five ships and drive off the rest and its only two jets – T-33 Shooting Star trainers – shoot down four Fuerza Aérea de Liberación B-26 Invaders. The exiles B-26s and C-54s continue to support the beachhead the following day.Mets, David R., Land-Based Air Power in Third World Crises, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama: Air University Press, July 1986, no ISBN, pp. 72-76, 79-80. United States Navy ships supporting the exiles include the anti-submarine warfare carrier and the helicopter assault carrier , and the attack aircraft carrier is active near the Cayman Islands, but their aircraft see no combat, limiting their activities to combat air patrol, reconnaissance, and search and rescue flights. April 19 – Six A4D-2 Skyhawk attack aircraft from Attack Squadron 34 (VA-34) aboard USS Essex fly a combat air patrol over the exiles beachhead at the Bay of Pigs, to protect Fuerza Aérea de Liberación B-26 Invaders providing close air support there, but a mix-up over time zones leads two of the B-26s – manned by Central Intelligence Agency contractor personnel – to arrive after the Skyhawks have departed; they are shot down by two Cuban T-33 Shooting Stars, with their crews killed. The exiles in the beachhead surrender later in the day. The Cuban Air Force has suffered four aircraft shot down and at least five destroyed on the ground during the invasion, while the exiles have lost seven B-26 Invaders with the loss of 10 Cubans and four Americans aboard them, and one C-46 and its crew.Mets, David R., Land-Based Air Power in Third World Crises, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama: Air University Press, July 1986, no ISBN, pp. 81-83. April 24 – The Tupolev Tu-114 airliner makes its first passenger flight, a domestic Aeroflot flight in the Soviet Union from Moscow's Vnukovo Airport to Khabarovsk.
May May 1 – The first hijacking of an American airliner – and first aircraft hijacking inside the United States – takes place, when Antulio Ramirez Ortiz, flying under the pseudonym "Elpirata Cofresi" – a reference to Puerto Rican pirate Roberto Cofresí – and armed with a gun and a steak knife, commandeers National Airlines Flight 337, a Convair CV-440 bound from Miami International Airport in Miami, Florida, to Key West, Florida, with 10 people on board. He explains that the president of the Dominican Republic, Rafael Trujillo, has offered him US$100,000 to assassinate President of Cuba Fidel Castro, and that he must fly to Havana, Cuba, to warn Castro. It is the first time that an American airliner has been forced to fly to Cuba, and surprised and confused Cuban air traffic controllers at first threaten to have the plane shot down if it enters Cuban airspace, but they eventually allow it to land at a military base outside Havana. Ortiz receives political asylum in Cuba."Today in History," The Washington Post Express, May 1, 2012, Page 34.McCabe, Scott, "Crime History," The Washington Examiner, May 1, 2013, Page 8.Aviation Safety Network Hijacking Descriptionskyjackeroftheday.tumblr.com "Skyjacker of the Day #30: Antulio Ramirez Ortiz," May 20, 2013. May 3 – The Boeing Airplane Company changes its name to Boeing Company.Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, p. 66. May 4 – United States Navy Commander Malcolm Ross and Lieutenant Commander Victor A. Prather set a new world balloon altitude record while testing pressure suits, ascending to over the Gulf of Mexico in a helium balloon before making a planned landing at sea. A helicopter retrieves Ross from the water and transports him safely to the anti-submarine warfare carrier , but Prather subsequently slips from a helicopter's sling and drowns after his pressure suit floods. May 10 – A United States Air Force B-58 Hustler sets a record for sustained supersonic flight, flying in 30 minutes 45 seconds at an average speed of 1,302 miles per hour (1,132 knots; 2,097 km/h). Its pilot, Major Elmer E. Murphy, will receive the Aéro-Club de France′s Blériot Cup for the flight. Air France Flight 406 a Lockheed L-1649 Starliner is destroyed by a bomb in-flight over the Sahara Desert near Debdeb, Algeria, killing all 78 on board.