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This is a list of aviation-related events from 1981:

Events

January

• January 3 - Pan Am makes its final Boeing 707 flight.
• January 7 - 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.
• January 18 - Bell Helicopter delivers its 25,000th production helicopter.
• January 28 - Pan Am commences a weekly New York-Beijing service

February

• February 1 - Donald Douglas dies, aged 88
• February 12 - Max Anderson and Don Ida make a failed attempt to circumnavigate the world by balloon. Their craft, the Jules Verne only covers 2,900 miles (4,667 km) from Luxor to New Delhi
• February 18 - Jack Northrop dies

March

• March 2 - Japan Air Lines is the first airline to use a computerised flight simulator to train its crews
• March 28 - Air France pilot Michel Breton flies the airline's last Sud Aviation Caravelle service, from Amsterdam to Paris.
• March 29 - British Airways makes its last Vickers VC10 flight

April

• April 3 - Pan Am founder Juan Trippe dies in Los Angeles.
• April 10 - Japan Air Lines carries its 10 millionth passenger
• April 12 - the Space shuttle Columbia takes off. It marks the first time an American Space Shuttle flies operationally. It lands two days later.
• April 30 - Peoplexpress Airlines commenced operations.

June

• June 7 - Israeli Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcons make a long-range strike into Iraq to destroy the nuclear reactor at Osirak

July

• July 7 - Stephen Ptacek flies a solar-powered aircraft Solar Challenger across the English Channel, taking a little over five hours.
• July 17 - the Israeli Air Force attacks Beirut in retribution for Palestinian terror attacks.

August

• August 19 - two United States Navy F-14 Tomcats shoot down two Sukhoi Su-22s of the Libyan Air Force over the Gulf of Sidra.

September

• September 3 - McDonnell Douglas delivers the 1,000th DC-9 produced; it was ordered by Swissair.
• September 10 - British Airways CEO Roy Watts announces a financial crisis for the airline. He states that the company is losing £UK 200 per minute.

October

• October 2 - United States president Ronald Reagan re-starts the B-1 Lancer program by announcing the order of 100 B-1Bs for the USAF.
• October 6 - NLM Cityhopper Flight 431 encounters a tornado, loses a wing, breaks up in air, and crashes near Moerdijk, Netherlands.

November

• November 13 - Ben Abruzzo and crew make the first crossing of the Pacific Ocean by balloon, in the Double Eagle V
• November 21 - Aeroflot is banned from flying to the United States, after an earlier Aeroflot flight that overflew American military installations, straying from its supposed flight path.

December

• December 25 - USAF lieutenant Thomas Tiller is rescued from the Atlantic Ocean by a boat after his plane, a F-4 Phantom had an accident seven days before.

First flights

January

• January 1 - LearAvia Lear Fan N626BL

March

• March 27 - Aerotec Tangará
• March 28 - Dornier 228 D-IFNS

April

• April 10 - SIAI Marchetti S.211 I-SITF
• April 15 - Dassault-Breguet Guardian

June

• June 1 - Shorts 360
• June 18 - F-117 Nighthawk

September

• September 3 - BAe 146 G-SSSH
• September 26 - Boeing 767 N767BA

November

• November 5 - AV-8B Harrier II 161396

December

• December 11 - OMAC I
• December 17 - Hughes NOTAR
• December 17 - NAC Fieldmaster

Entered service

• Vympel R-33 AA missile