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This is a list of aviation-related events from 1958:

Events

• Gulfstream Aerospace founded in Savannah, Georgia, USA.

January

• January 14 - Qantas becomes the first foreign airline permitted to fly across the United States.

February

• February 6 - Munich air disaster: British European Airways Airspeed Ambassador G-ALZU Lord Burghley on Flight 609 crashes on its third attempt to take off from a slush-covered runway at Munich-Riem Airport in West Germany, killing 23 including 8 Manchester United footballers.
• February 13 - British Ministry of Defence White Paper makes Britain's nuclear weapons programme public knowledge.
• February 27 - Winter Hill air disaster: Silver City Bristol 170 Freighter G-AICS, travelling from the Isle of Man to Manchester, crashes into Winter Hill, Rivington Moor, Lancashire (in North West England), in bad weather conditions, killing 35.

March

• March 17 - Air Inter commences operations.

April

• April 6 - Vickers Viscount N7437, operating Capital Airlines Flight 67 stalls and crashes on approach to Saginaw, Michigan, resulting in 49 deaths.The cause was attributed to ice accretion on the horizontal stabiliser.^[1]
• April 21 – United Airlines Flight 736, a Douglas DC-7, collides near Las Vegas, Nevada at 21,000 feet (6,400 m) with a US Air Force F-100 Super Sabre fighter on a training mission. All 47 aboard the airliner and both F-100 crew members are killed.

May

• May 16 - Cpt W. W. Irwin sets a new airspeed record of 1,404 mph (2,259 km/h) in a F-104 Starfighter, the first record over 2,000 km/h.
• May 17 - Four F3H Demons and four F8U Crusaders make a non-stop crossing of the Atlantic.
• May 20 - Vickers Viscount N7410 of Capital Airlines collides in mid-air with a Lockheed T-33 of the Air National Guard. All eleven on board the were killed when it crashed at Brunswick, Maryland, as was one of the two crew members of the T-33.^[2]
• May 23 - Short S.C.1 VTOL aircraft makes its first hovering flight.

June

• June 9 - London Gatwick Airport opens after two years of extensive reconstruction. It is the first multimodal airport in the world, with direct rail connections from the main terminal to London and Brighton.

August

• August 14 - KLM Flight 607-E disaster: KLM Lockheed Super Constellation PH-LKM Hugo de Groot crashes in the Atlantic 180 km west of Shannon, Ireland, perhaps due to mechanical failure, killing all 99 on board.
• August 23 - President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs the Federal Aviation Act of 1958, dissolving the Civil Aeronautics Administration and Civil Aeronautics Board and transferring all authority over aviation operations in the United States to the newly-created Federal Aviation Agency (FAA, later renamed Federal Aviation Administration).

September

• September 30 - Britain's last flying boat is withdrawn from commercial service when Aquila Airways terminated its service on the Southampton--Funchal (Madeira) route.

October

• October 4 - BOAC de Havilland Comet 4 G-APDB makes first commercial transatlantic crossing by jet airliner, London Heathrow Airport to New York International Airport, Anderson Field via Gander.
• October 26 - First commercial flight by Boeing 707 jet airliner, on Pan Am transatlantic service from New York to Paris.

First flights

March

• March 5 - Yakovlev Yak-28
• Aerfer Ariete
• March 25 - Avro CF-105 Arrow (RL201) (at Malton, Toronto, Ontario, Canada)

April

• April 22 - Boeing Vertol 107-II
• April 30 - Blackburn Buccaneer XK 486

May

• May 12 - Dassault Mirage III
• May 27 - McDonnell XF4H-1

June

• June 9 - Agusta AZ8-L

July

• July 30 - de Havilland Canada DHC-4 Caribou CF-KTK-X

August

• August 31 - North American A3J-1 Vigilante

September

• September 16 - North American NA265-40 Sabreliner

November

• Adams-Wilson Hobbycopter

December

• December 4 - Baade B-152 V1 Prototype

Entered service

January

• F-104 Starfighter with the 83rd Fighter Interceptor Squadron USAF at Hamilton AFB

April

• April 9 - Handley Page Victor with No. 10 Squadron RAF at RAF Cottesmore
• April 21 - Vertol Model 44 with New York Airways

May

• May 26 - Republic F-105B Thunderchief with the 335th Tactical Fighter Squadron USAF at Eglin AFB

August

• Boeing 707 with Pan Am

November

• de Havilland Sea Vixen to 700 Naval Air Squadron

December

• Lockheed L-188 Electra with American Airlines

References