1958 in aviation

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

Events

* For the first time, the total of transatlantic passengers carried by air this year exceeded the total carried by sea.
* Gulfstream Aerospace was founded in Savannah, Georgia, United States.
* The Argentine Navy acquired its first aircraft carrier by purchasing HMS ''Warrior'' from the United Kingdom.
* The Brazilian Navy acquired aircraft of its own for the first time since the 1941 creation of the Brazilian Air Force, purchasing two Bell 47-J and three Westland Widgeon helicopters.

January

* January 1
**During a revolt against Venezuelan President Marcos Pérez Jiménez, rebel Venezuelan Air Force de Havilland Venom, de Havilland Vampire, and F-86 Sabre aircraft attacked Miraflores Palace, the defense ministry, and other military targets in the Caracas area.
**As a cost-saving measure, the United States Air Force (USAF) inactivated the Eighteenth Air Force and reassigned its forces to the Twelfth Air Force.
* January 14 – Qantas became the first foreign airline permitted to fly across the United States.
* January 26 – British European Airways (BEA) takes over all operation of Cyprus Airways routes, although Cyprus Airways continues to operate under its own name.
*January 31 – While a U.S. Air Force Boeing B-47 Stratojet made a simulated takeoff in Morocco, a wheel casting failure caused its tail assembly to strike the runway. One of the bomber's fuel tanks ruptured, and a fire broke out that damaged an armed nuclear bomb aboard the aircraft, releasing some radioactive material into the environment.

February

* February 1 – United Airlines sets a record commercial Honolulu, Hawaii-to-Los Angeles, California, flight time of 6 hours 21 minutes.Aviation Hawaii: 1950–1959 Chronology of Aviation in Hawaii
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* February 5 – Two USAF aircraft – a B-47B Stratojet and an F-86 Sabre – collided in midair over the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Georgia in the United States. The F-86 crashed after its pilot ejected, but the B-47B remained airborne, jettisoned a Mark 15 hydrogen bomb into Wassaw Sound off Tybee Island, Georgia, and made an emergency landing at Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah, Georgia. The bomb has not been recovered.
* February 6 – The British European Airways Airspeed Ambassador G-ALZU ''Lord Burghley'', operating as Flight 609, crashed on its third attempt to take off from a slush-covered runway at Munich-Riem Airport in West Germany, killing 23, including eight Manchester United footballers.
* February 11 – Mohawk Airlines hired Ruth Carol Taylor as the first African American flight attendant in history. Six months later, Mohawk fired her for getting married, a common airline industry practice at the time.
* February 13 – A British Ministry of Defence White Paper made Britain's nuclear weapons programme public knowledge.
* February 16 – Eight hijackers commandeered a Korean National Airlines Douglas DC-3 with 34 people on board during a domestic flight in South Korea from Busan to Seoul and forced it to fly to Pyongyang, North Korea.
* February 25 – United Airlines set a speed record for a commercial flight from Honolulu, Hawaii, to San Francisco, California, with a flight time of 5 hours 43 minutes.
* February 27 – The Silver City Airways Bristol 170 Freighter ''G-AICS'', travelling from Ronaldsway Airport, Ballasalla, on the Isle of Man to Ringway Airport in Manchester, England, crashed into Winter Hill, Rivington Moor, Lancashire, in North West England in bad weather, killing 35 of the 42 people on board and injuring all seven survivors.

March

* South Vietnams Republic of Vietnam Air Force took delivery of its first helicopters.
* Misrair, the future EgyptAir, renamed itself United Arab Airlines. Egypt and Syria's merger on 1 February to form the United Arab Republic prompted the name change.
* March 6 – Southwest Airways renamed itself Pacific Air Lines.
* March 11 – A crewman aboard a USAF B-47E Stratojet flying as part of a formation of four B-47s from Hunter Air Force Base in Savannah, Georgia, to England to conduct a mock bombing attack in Operation Snow Flurry accidentally released a Mark 6 nuclear bomb at an altitude of . The bomb smashed the closed bomb bay doors open and struck the ground in Mars Bluff, South Carolina. Its high-explosive detonator exploded on impact, creating a crater wide and deep. The bomb's core was not in the weapon, so no nuclear explosion occurred.
* March 16 – Air Inter commenced operations.
* March 22 – ''Lucky Liz'', the private twin-engined Lockheed Lodestar of American theater and film producer Mike Todd, flying grossly overloaded in fog, snow, and thunderstorms, crashed in the Zuni Mountains near Grants, New Mexico, when one of its engines failed in icing conditions. All four people aboard the plane died, including Todd and his biographer, American sportswriter, screenwriter, and author Art Cohn. Todd's wife, American actress Elizabeth Taylor, was not aboard because she had stayed home with a bout of bronchitis.planecrashinfo.com Famous People Who Died in Aviation Accidents: 1950s
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April

* The Handley Page Victor strategic bomber began to enter squadron service with the Royal Air Force.
* April 6 – Vickers Viscount ''N7437'', operating as Capital Airlines Flight 67, stalled and crashed into Saginaw Bay near Freeland, Michigan, while on approach to Freeland-Tri City Airport in Saginaw. All 47 people aboard died. The cause was attributed to ice accretion on the horizontal stabilizer.
* April 9 – A Cubana de Aviación Vickers Viscount with 13 people on board was hijacked during a domestic flight in Cuba from Havana

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