January 8: The Airbus A300 becomes the world’s first wide-bodied airliner to be certified for operation by a flight crew of two.
January 10: The Gulfstream III Spirit of America sets a round-the-world record for an executive jet of 43 hours, 39 minutes and 6 seconds in Teterboro, New Jersey.
January 13: Air Florida Flight 90, crashed into frozen Potomac River. Seventy-eight people were killed including four motorists on ground.
January 22: An F/A-18 Hornet makes a fully automated landing, its autopilot linked to a ground radar at the Naval Air Test Center Patuxent River.
January 23: World Airways Flight 30, a DC-10 (reg N113WA) flying from Newark, New Jersey (EWR) to Boston Logan (BOS), crashes on landing. The aircraft landed late on the runway, and due to "poor to nil" braking action, the pilots decided to steer the plane off the runway to avoid the approach lights. This sent the aircraft and its 212 souls into the harbor, where it broke apart. A row of seats separated from the plane and two of the passengers were never found and presumed dead.
January 27: Cessna delivers its 1,000th business jet.
February 3: A Mil Mi-26 helicopter sets a world record in the U.S.S.R., lifting 125,153.8 lb. to a height of 6,562 feet.
February 6: Freddie Laker's Laker Airways flies for the last time.
February 9: Japan Airlines Flight 350, a Douglas DC-8 (JA8061) crashes on approach to Tokyo’s Haneda Airport, killing 24 of the 174 passengers on board. Captain Seiji Katagiri is believed to have suffered a mental breakdown, deliberately causing the crash by deploying the thrust reversers on engines number two and three. Katagiri survived and was prosecuted, but was found not guilty by reason of insanity. He had previously taken a year off from flying due to psychological illness.
February 16: The first production Airbus Industrie A310 is rolled out at the factory in Toulouse, France, destined for Swissair as the launch customer.
February 16: Assembled STS-3 vehicle moves from Vandenberg AFB to launch pad.
February 19: The first Boeing 757 takes to the air on its maiden flight. With capacity for between 178 and 239 passengers in a wide variety of configurations, it has a cruising speed of 528 mph and a range of 2,100 mi., or 5,343 mi. at economic cruise.
February 25: American Airlines cancels 15 Boeing 757-200 orders.
March 1: Venera 13 landed on Venus.
March 5: Venera 14 landed on Venus.
March 10: Sygyzy: all 9 planets aligned on same side of Sun.
March 11: Winderoe Flight 933, a Twin Otter (LN-BNK) crashes into the Barents Sea after structural failure of the aircraft’s tail due to severe clear-air turbulence. All 15 on the aircraft perish.
March 22: Space Shuttle Columbia departs on STS-3, its third mission. This is the first Shuttle launch with an unpainted external fuel tank, and the only mission to land at White Sands Space Harbor near Las Cruces, New Mexico.
March 30: 3rd space shuttle mission-Columbia 3 lands at White Sands, NM.
April 1: Air France flies the Concorde over to Rio de Janeiro and Caracas, Venezuela for the last time.
April 2: The Falklands War begins as Argentina invades the Falkland Islands and South Georgia Island.
April 3: First flight of the Airbus A310.
April 5: Royal Navy aircraft carriers HMS Hermes and HMS Invincible depart the United Kingdom for the Falkland Islands.
April 6: Columbia returns to Kennedy Space Center from White Sands.
April 25: Helicopters play a major role as British forces recapture South Georgia Island from Argentine forces.
April 29: An Avro Vulcan bomber deploys to Ascension Island as part of the Falklands War build-up of British forces in the South Atlantic Ocean.
April 30: The United Kingdom declares an air blockade of the Falkland Islands.
May 1: A Royal Air Force Avro Vulcan bomber based on Ascension Island attacks the airfield at Port Stanley on East Falkland Island. It is the first strike of Operation Black Buck, a series of five very-long-range missions to strike Argentinian positions in the Falkland (Malvinas) Islands. Each mission requires a 16-hour round trip of almost 8,000 nautical miles (9,200 statute miles; 15,000 km); they are the longest bombing missions in world history up to that time, and are not exceeded in distance and duration until the 1991 Gulf War.
May 1: BAE Sea Harriers attack Falklands targets for the first time and shoot down two Argentine Mirage III fighters. They are the first air-to-air kills of the Falklands War.
May 1: American Airlines launches AAdvantage, the first frequent flyer program in history. United Airlines launches its own program, Mileage Plus, only a week later.
May 4: Argentinian Navy Super Étendard aircraft fatally damage the British destroyer Sheffield with an Exocet missile southeast of the Falkland Islands. Sheffield sinks on May 10.
May 4: The British lose their first Sea Harrier of the Falklands War, shot down by ground fire during a bombing raid over Goose Green. The pilot is killed.
May 13: Braniff International Airways' president Howard D. Putnam announces the airline has filed for protection under bankruptcy laws, and the airline's fleet of 71 aircraft is grounded.
May 18: American Airlines' 1 millionth passenger is flown.
May 24: British Airways retires the Boeing 707; its last scheduled flight is from Cairo to Heathrow.
May 25: North of the Falkland Islands, Argentinian Air Force A-4 Skyhawk bombers sink the British destroyer Coventry with two 1,000-pound (454-kg) bomb hits and two Argentinian Navy Super Étendard strike aircraft sink the container ship SS Atlantic Conveyor with two Exocet anti-ship missile hits. Eleven helicopters are lost aboard Atlantic Conveyor.
June 12: Operation Black Buck concludes with the last of five very-long range strikes on the Falkland Islands by Royal Air Force Avro Vulcan bombers.
June 14: Argentine forces on the Falkland Islands surrender to British forces. During the war, the British had destroyed 109 Argentinian planes, compared to only 34 lost by the British.
June 24: British Airways Flight 9, a Boeing 747–200, G-BDXH, City of Edinburgh flew through a cloud of volcanic ash and dust from the eruption of Mount Galunggung, causing extensive damage to the aircraft, including the failure of all four engines. The crew managed to glide the plane out of the dust cloud and restart all four of its engines, although one later had to be shut down again. The aircraft made an emergency landing at Halim Perdanakusuma International Airport just outside Jakarta. No-one was injured.
July 9: Pan American Airways flight 759 a Boeing 727-235, N4737 Clipper Defiance, was a regularly scheduled passenger flight from Miami to Las Vegas, with an en route stop at New Orleans. On July 9, 1982 at 4:07:57 PM central daylight time, Flight 759, with seven crew members, one non-revenue passenger in the cockpit jumpseat, and 137 passengers (a total of 145 people on board) crashes after encountering a micro-burst. There were 153 fatalities, eight of them on the ground.
August 11: A bomb explodes in a seat cushion aboard Pan Am Flight 830, killing 16-year-old Toru Ozawa and injuring 15 others. The plane, a 747-100 (Clipper Ocean Rover, N754PA), makes an emergency landing in Honolulu and is repaired. The perpetrator, Mohammed Rashed, is arrested in Greece seven years later and convicted of murder, but freed eight years later. Rashed has also been indicted in the US, and is currently on the FBI’s most wanted list.---In1984…President Ronald Reagan jokes during a radio sound check that he had “signed legislation that would outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in 5 minutes.” The joke is not broadcast live (contrary to some accounts) but when word of it spreads, the Soviet Army is put on high alert for about 30 minutes.
August 30: First flight of the F-20 Tigershark 82-0062.
September 1: The United States Air Force Space Command is founded.
September 13: Spantax Airlines Flight 995, a Douglas DC-10 (EC-DEG), crashes on takeoff at Malaga Airport in Spain, killing 50 of the 294 people onboard. The pilot felt a strong vibration in the nosegear and decided to abort the takeoff even though he had passed Vr (rotation speed). The aircraft overran the runway, bursting into flames on an embankment.
September 30: The 1st round-the-world flight in a helicopter is completed as the Bell Long Ranger II, flown by Americans H. Ross Perot Jr. and Jay Coburn, lands safely.
October 4: Death of Leroy Randle "Roy" Grumman (b.4 January 1895) was an American aeronautical engineer, test pilot, and industrialist.
October 28: The last Air France Boeing 707 service, from Tunis to Paris.
November 4: Pan Am inaugurates service from Los Angeles to Sydney; at 7,487 non-stop miles (11,979 km), it is the longest non-stop flight in the world.
December 13: The Boeing 767 enters service with United Air Lines.
December 21: The last V-bomber squadron of Britain’s RAF, 44, is disbanded at Waddington, Lincolnshire.
December 23: First flight of the Short C-23 Sherpa G-BKMW.
