1981 in aviation

Partial list of events that marked aviation in 1981:

(See also List of years in aviation)

• January
  • 3, United States: Pan Am makes its final Boeing 707 flight.
  • 7, New York City: A Boeing 747 of CAAC lands at JFK International Airport, marking the first time since 1949 that a flight from mainland China to the United States is performed.
  • 18, United States: Bell helicopters delivers their 25,000th production helicopter.
• February
  • 6, Stratford, Connecticut: The Sikorsky YEH-608 model helicopter flies for the first time.
• March
  • 28, Paris: Air France pilot Michel Breton flies the airline's last Caravelle service, from Amsterdam to Paris.
  • 28, Germany: The Dornier 228 plane makes its first flight.
• April
  • 3, Los Angeles: Pan Am founder Juan Trippe dies.
  • 12, Cape Canaveral: The Space shuttle Columbia, takes off. It marks the first time an American Space Shuttle flies operationally.
  • 14, California: The Columbia lands.
  • 15, Merignac: The first Dassault-Breguet Guardian maritime plane makes its first flight.
• May
• June
• July
  • 1, Aberdeen, Scotland: British Airways flies its first Chinook Model 234 helicopter.
  • 3, Moscow: Aeroflot flies its first international service, on an Il-86 that lands in Berlin.
  • 7, Kent, England: Pilot Stephen Ptacek flies a solar powered airplane for a little over five hours. The plane's nickname is The Solar Challenger.
  • 17, Beirut: Israelian jets attack city center as payback for Palestinian terror attacks.
• August
  • 19, Mediterranean Sea: Two United States Grumman Tomcats shoot down Soviet built Su-22 of Libyas Air Force over the Gulf of Sidra.
• September
  • 3, England: The first British Aerospace 146 plane flies for the first time.
  • 3, United States: McDonnell Douglas delivers the 1,000th DC-9 produced; it was ordered by Swissair.
• October
  • 2, Washington, D.C: United States president Ronald Reagan announces the order of 100 Rockwell B-1B bombers for the USAF.
• November
  • 5, St. Louis: McDonnell Douglas' AV-8B Harrier II makes its first flight.
  • 21, Washington, D.C: Aeroflot is banned to fly to the United States, stemming from an earlier Aeroflot flight that overflew American military installations, strayed from its supposed flight path.
• December
  • 17, United States: The Hughes experimental helicopter, NOTAR, flies for the first time.
  • 25, Atlantic Ocean, USAF lieutenant Thomas Tiller rescued with life by a boat after his plane, a F-4E Panthom had an accident seven days before.