1952 in aviation

This is a list of aviation-related events from 1952:

Events

• The
  Rear Admiral) Dennis R. F. Campbell.^[1]
• The Royal Navy conducts the world's first trials of a
  Lieutenant Commander (later Rear Admiral) H. C. Nicholas "Nick" Goodhart.^[1]

• United Nations forces in Korea begin Operation Moonlight Sonata, which uses the illumination effect of the moon on snow to allow night-flying aircraft to find enemy trains operating at night and isolate them by bombing the tracks in front of and behind them, with carrier-based naval aircraft destroying the isolated trains the following morning. Several trains are destroyed in this way by the spring of 1952.^[2]
• The
  Westland Dragonfly attempts to rescue two men from the sinking cargo ship SS Flying Enterprise. Although the attempt is unsuccessful, the Dragonfly proves capable of flying in conditions previously thought to preclude helicopter operations.^[3]
• The United States Navy begins Operation Package, an effort to use carrier air power to interdict enemy road and rail traffic in northeastern Korea, in conjunction with Operation Derail, a shore bombardment campaign against coastal roads and railroads by surface warships. The two operations will end in February and be only partially successful.^[4]
• The
  North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).^[5]
• January 1 – Mail subsidies to National Airlines end, and the United States Post Office Department places the airline on a mail service rate that makes it self-sustaining throughout its system.^[6]
• January 5 –
  Pan American World Airways commences transatlantic
  freight services.
• January 10 – An
  Northolt Aerodrome–Dublin flight crashes in Wales due to vertical draft in the mountains of Snowdonia, killing all 23 people on board. It is the airline's first fatal crash in its fifteen-year history.^[7][8][9]
• January 19 –
  McChord Air Force Base in Tacoma, Washington – diverts to Sandspit Airport in Sandspit, British Columbia, after feathering its No. 1 propeller due to a broken oil cooler. The C-54 touches down at Sandspit but then attempts a go-around. It stalls during the attempted climb-out and ditches in water beyond the end of the runway. All or nearly all of the 43 people aboard the plane evacuate without serious injury, but 36 of them die of drowning or exposure in the near-freezing air and water temperatures they encounter outside the plane.^[10]
• January 22
  • The
    de Havilland Comet 1 becomes the first turbojet-powered civil airliner to be awarded a certificate of airworthiness.^[11]
  • Harry S Truman; former war correspondent John F. Chester; and U.S. Civil Aeronautics Administration officials George T. Williams and John D. Rice, both engaged in the development of airport radar systems and navigational aids at the time.^[12]

• Korean Peninsula between 38 degrees 15 minutes North and 39 degrees 15 minutes North, by the United States Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps which had begun in June 1951, ends without success. The similar Operation Saturate begins, but also ultimately will be unsuccessful.^[13]
• February 1 – The first civilian passenger terminal opens at
  Rio de Janeiro–Galeão International Airport in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Previously, civilian passengers had used the Brazilian Air Force facilities at adjoining Galeão Air Force Base
  .
• February 4 – A Sabena Douglas C-47A Skytrain suffers a propeller failure in flight over the Belgian Congo. Debris from the propeller failure cuts some of the aircraft's control cables, causing the crew to lose control. The plane crashes near Kikwit, killing all 16 people on board.^[14]
• February 10 – Major
  George A. Davis Jr. is awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously, after attacking a group of 12 Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15s that were about to bounce other U.S. aircraft. He shot down two before being shot down himself. He had been a World War II flying ace and was Korean War ace of aces
  .
• February 11 – Just after
  Newark International Airport in New Jersey, its No. 3 propeller reverses. Misunderstanding the problem, the crew feathers the No. 4 propeller and attempts to return to the airport, but the aircraft crashes in Elizabeth, New Jersey, narrowly missing an orphanage and killing 29 of the 63 people on board and four people on the ground.^[15][16] It is the third in a string of airliner accidents at Newark International since December 1951 and prompts the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to close the airport until November 15.^[16]
• February 17 – Flying over Sicily, a Hunting Air Transport Vickers Model 614 Viking 1 (registration G-AHPI) strays off course and crashes into Monte la Cinta, killing all 31 people on board. It is the second-deadliest aviation accident in Italy's history at the time.^[17]
• February 18 – The Brazilian airline Paraense Transportes Aéreos is founded. It will begin flight operations in March.
• February 19 – During a night insertion mission over South Korea, a North Korean double agent detonates a grenade aboard a U.S. Air Force Curtiss C-46D Commando (registration 44–78038). The C-46D crashes, killing all 10 people on board.^[17]
• February 26 –
  atomic bomb.^[18]

• March 3 – An
  Nice-le Var Airport in Nice, France, killing all 38 people on board.^[19]
• March 22
  • Temporarily blinded when enemy
    Lieutenant, junior grade, Howard Thayer that he bail out over the ocean, where Navy forces can rescue him from the water. Instead, Thayer, flying only feet away from Schechter's aircraft, coaches Schechter to a safe, blind landing at a United States Army dirt airstrip in Korea. Schechter loses his right eye but recovers the sight in his left eye; he receives the Distinguished Flying Cross in 1995 for his 1952 flight. Thayer dies in a crash in 1961, but receives a posthumous Distinguished Flying Cross in 2009 for assisting Schechter.^[20][21][22]
  • The
    Frankfurt-am-Main, West Germany, killing 45 of the 47 people on board. At the time, it is the deadliest aviation accident in the history of Germany.^[23]
• March 23 – Four hijackers commandeer a CSA Czech Airlines Douglas C-47 Skytrain making a domestic flight in Czechoslovakia from Prague to Brno and force it to land at Frankfurt-am-Main, West Germany.^[24]
• March 24 – A
  Gao Airport in Gao, Mali, killing 17 of the 21 people on board. It is the deadliest aviation accident in the history of Mali at the time.^[25]
• March 26 – An
  Soviet Air Force transport aircraft carrying 34 military academy students that is preparing for takeoff, killing a total of 70 people. It is the second-deadliest aviation accident in the history of the Soviet Union or Russia at the time.^[26][27]
• March 29 – A
  San Felipe, Venezuela, killing all 12 people on board.^[28]
• March 30
  • A
    Philippine Air Lines Douglas C-47A Skytrain (registration PI-C270) crashes on takeoff from Loakan Airport in Baguio in the Philippines, killing 10 of the 29 people on board.^[29]
  • The Brazilian airline Paraense Transportes Aéreos makes its first flight, using a Consolidated PBY-5A Catalina.

April

• The U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff decide that if the Korean War broadens to include war with the Soviet Union in East Asia, the United States will conduct an atomic and conventional air offensive in the region but will fall back into a defensive posture there if the war spreads to Europe.^[30]
• April 9 – A
  Japan Air Lines Martin 2-0-2 (registration N93043) crashes into Japan's Mount Mihara, killing all 37 people on board. It is the second-deadliest aviation accident in Japanese history at the time.^[31]
• April 11 – The
  San Juan-Isla Grande Airport. The plane breaks up and sinks in three minutes, with many panicking passengers refusing to leave the sinking aircraft; 52 of the 69 people on board die, and the United States Coast Guard rescues the 17 survivors. After this accident the implementation of pre-flight safety demonstrations for over-water flights is recommended.^[32]
• April 18
  • Six
    Beograd to Ljubljana and force it to land at Graz, Austria.^[33]
  • Lockheed Air Terminal in Los Angeles County, California – descends below the 3,000-foot (910-meter) altitude directed by air traffic controllers and crashes into a hill at an altitude of 980 feet (300 meters), killing all 29 people on board.^[34]
• April 25
  • The post-World War II prohibition of the production of arms and aircraft in Japan is lifted.
  • General Dynamics Corporation.^[35]
• April 28 – The
  Carolina, Brazil, killing all 50 people on board.^[36]

• The first of 40
  nuclear deterrent to the Soviet Union
  . The last of them will arrive in the United Kingdom in June.
• May 1 – The
  Pan American World Airways on its "Rainbow Service" between New York City and London
• May 2 –
  BOAC introduces the de Havilland DH.106 Comet 1 on its multi-stop London, England-Johannesburg, South Africa route, the first regular service flown by a jet airliner.^[37] G-ALYP makes the first flight, carrying 36 passengers.^[38]
• May 3 – A British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) de Havilland Comet becomes the first jet airliner to arrive in South Africa, landing at Palmietfontein after a 24-hour journey with five refueling stops en route.
• May 5 – A
  Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam to Jarlsberg Airport in Jarlsberg, Norway, strays off course and crashes southwest of Skien, Norway, killing 11 of the 29 people on board.^[39]
• May 12 –
  Squadron Leader P. G. Fisher makes flight from England to Australia in an English Electric Canberra bomber in a record 23 hours 5 minutes flying time.^[40]
• May 15 – The Royal Air Force takes delivery of its last Avro Anson. The Anson had been in production for the RAF since 1934.^[41]
• May 26 – At Palm Springs, California, the Stits SA-2A Sky Baby, a homebuilt aircraft constructed to claim the title of world's smallest airplane, makes its first flight.
• May 29 –
  KB-29 Superfortress on their way back from an attack on Sariwon
  , Korea.

• The Israeli Air Force places its first order for jet aircraft, Dassault Ouragans. The first 25 will not be delivered until October 1954.^[42]
• June 13 –
  electronic intelligence-gathering mission over the Baltic Sea surveying Soviet military facilities in the Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republics. The TP-79 crashes into the sea east of Gotska Sandön, killing all eight members of its crew. The Soviet Union will deny shooting it down until 1991.^[43]
• June 16 – Over the Baltic Sea west of Hiiumaa, two Soviet Air Force MiG-15s attack two Swedish Air Force Tp-47 – the Swedish designation for the Canso A, which in turn was the Canadian version of the Consolidated PBY-5A Catalina – amphibious flying boats searching for survivors of the Douglas Tp-79 shot down on June 13, pursuing them and firing at them as they flee westward. One Tp-47 escapes, but the other makes an emergency landing on the sea near the West German cargo ship Münsterland with only one engine working. Münsterland rescues all five members of its crew, two of whom are injured, but the TP-47 sinks.^[43]
• June 23–27 – United Nations aircraft conduct
  People's Republic of China, some of which last for months.^[44][45]
• June 25 – A Royal Air Force Avro Shackleton MR.1 carrying out dummy attacks against the Royal Navy submarine HMS Sirdar (P226) during exercises in the North Sea crashes during a turn, killing 11 of the 13 people on board.^[46]
• June 26 – Three Yugoslavs armed with revolvers hijack a JAT Douglas C-47 Skytrain making a domestic flight in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from Zagreb to Pula with 27 people on board and force it to land at Foligno Airport in Foligno, Italy.^[47]
• June 28 –
  Dallas, Texas
  . The DC-6 lands with no injuries to any of the 60 people on board, but the Swift crashes, killing both occupants.

• July 1 – The Portuguese Air Force is formed by the amalgamation of the nation's various previous air arms.
• July 8 –
  La Guardia, and Newark
  airports.
• July 11
  • Aircraft from the U.S. Navy aircraft carriers
    U.S. Air Force, and the Royal Australian Air Force conduct a massive attack on industrial targets in and around Pyongyang, Korea.^[44]
  • A
    Galeão International Airport in Rio de Janeiro. After the entire left nacelle, engine, and landing gear detach from the aircraft and fall into the sea, the C-47A ditches in the Atlantic Ocean 200 meters (220 yards) off Maraú. Thirteen of the people on the plane are killed, including a crew member who dies after rescuing several passengers.^[48]
• July 15–31 – A pair of U.S. Air Force
  Sikorsky H-19 Chickasaws make the first transatlantic crossing
  by helicopter.
• July 19–20 (overnight) –
  two major outbreaks of UFO sightings
  over Washington, D.C., seven days apart.
• July 23 – A U.S. Air Force Fairchild C-119C Flying Boxcar crashes into a beer hall in Japan just northeast of Ashiya Air Field, killing its entire crew of five and two people on the ground.^[49]
• July 26–27 (overnight) – The
  Eastern Airlines airliner vectored toward the objects see nothing. Four U.S. Air Force F-94 Starfire fighters arrive from New Castle Air Force Base in Delaware; two of the fighter pilots see nothing, but the other two fighter pilots observe strange lights in the sky, as does a Capital Airlines
  flight departing Washington National Airport. A U.S. Air Force investigation will dismiss the sightings and radar detections as mirages caused by a temperature inversion.
• July 29
  • A U.S. Air Force
    RB-45C Tornado reconnaissance aircraft makes the first non-stop crossing of the Pacific Ocean by jet, refueling in the air twice along the way from KB-29 Superfortress
    tankers.
  • A U.S. Air Force spokesman confirms press reports that Air Force pilots have orders to intercept UFOs and shoot them down if they cannot be talked down.
• July 30 – The No. 1 engine of a
  SNCASE Languedoc (registration SU-AHX) catches fire during a flight from Almaza Air Base outside Cairo, Egypt, to Khartoum in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. The aircraft returns to Almaza and makes a belly landing. All 38 people on board survive.^[50]

• A massive strike by United Nations aircraft against industrial targets in and around Pyongyang, Korea, completes the destruction begun by the similar strike on July 11, 1952.^[44]
• August 4 – Off Korea, the explosion of an aircraft fuel tank causes a fire on the flight deck of the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Boxer (CV-21) which kills nine and injures 30 men and destroys or damages 18 aircraft.^[51]
• August 9 – Four
  HMS Ocean shoots one down. It is the Fleet Air Arm's first kill of the Korean War and first MiG-15 kill.^[52][53]
• August 12 –
  A fire breaks out aboard a Transportes Aéreos Nacional Douglas C-47A while it is in flight near Palmeira de Goiás, Brazil
  . The airliner crashes, killing all 24 people on board.
• August 16 –
  Braniff Airways acquires Mid-Continent Airlines.^[54]
• August 26 – A
  Khewra, Pakistan, killing all 18 people on board.^[55]
• August 28 – The first launch in combat of a guided missile by an aircraft carrier occurs when Guided Missile Unit 90 on board the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier
  F6F-5K Hellcat loaded with explosives as a remote-controlled drone against a railway bridge at Hungnam, Korea. The unit fires five more Hellcat drones at the bridge between August 28 and September 2, scoring two hits and one near-miss.^[53]
• August 30 – At the International Aviation Exposition in
  Detroit, Michigan, one of a pair of Northrop F-89 Scorpion fighters flying together disintegrates in flight, killing its pilot and one spectator.^[56]

• Several
  MiG-15s approach to within 7 nautical miles (13 kilometres) of the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Bradford (DD-545) before she drives them off with gunfire.^[57]
• September 1 – In the largest carrier air strike of the Korean War, 144 U.S. Navy aircraft from the aircraft carriers USS Essex (CV-9), USS Princeton (CV-37), and USS Boxer (CV-21) attack the oil refinery at Aoji, Korea. Attacks on industrial targets at Munsan and electrical plants at Chongjin are also conducted. All U.S. aircraft return safely.^[58]
• September 6 – The
  crashes, killing 29 spectators and both men aboard the plane. About another 60 spectators are injured. The accident is captured on film
  .
• September 10 – During a dogfight between two piston-engined
  MiG-15 jet fighters, Corsair pilot Captain Jesse G. Folmar shoots down a MiG-15 before being shot down himself; he survives and is rescued. It is the only Corsair victory over a MiG-15 during the Korean War.^[59]
• September 15 – Noticing that the damaged
  antiaircraft fire, Risner in an unprecedented maneuver twice places the nose of his own F-86 into the tailpipe of Logan's at 200 mph (320 km/h) to push Logan's powerless plane out of enemy territory. He succeeds, although Logan lands in the ocean after parachuting from the plane and drowns. Risner receives the Silver Star for his effort to save Logan.^[60][61][62]
• September 17 – Flying a Bell 47, Bell Aircraft pilot Elton J. Smith flies nonstop from Hurst, Texas, to Buffalo, New York, setting a nonstop distance record for helicopters of 1,217 miles (1,959 km).^[63]

October

• In an attempt to rescue a downed aviator, a U.S. Navy helicopter from the heavy cruiser USS Helena (CA-75) makes a 105-mile (169-km) flight, often under heavy enemy antiaircraft fire, during which the enemy attempts to jam its communications with Helena and builds fires to lure it closer to antiaircraft guns. The rescue attempt, extremely lengthy for its time, is unsuccessful.^[64]
• The U.S. Navy's
  Task Force 77 begins "Cherokee Strikes," in which aircraft from the task force's aircraft carriers attack enemy supply, artillery, and troop concentrations in Korea. Through January 1953, Cherokee Strikes will constitute a third of the United States Seventh Fleet's air effort in the Korean War.^[45]
• October 1 – The United States Navy reclassifies all of its "aircraft carriers" (CV) and "large aircraft carriers" (CVB) as "attack aircraft carriers" (CVA).[58]
• October 5 – In the
  Douglas TS-62 (registration CCCP-L1055) climbing out from the airport in the opposite direction in the same air corridor. Both aircraft crash near Skvoritsky, killing all 24 people aboard the Il-12 and all seven aboard the TS-62.^[65][66]
• October 8
  • Twelve
    Kowon, Korea. Minutes later, 89 aircraft from USS Essex (CVA-9), USS Princeton (CVA-37), and Kearsarge follow up with a bomb and rocket attack on Kowon.^[58]
  • A Royal Air Force Avro Shackleton MR.1 crashes into the sea off Tarbat Ness, Scotland, during a gunnery exercise, killing all 14 people on board.^[67]
• October 14 – During a flight in
  Salgado Filho Airport in Porto Alegre, an Aerovias Brasil Douglas C-47 Skytrain strays off course in poor weather and crashes near San Francisco de Paula, killing 14 of the 18 people on board.^[68]
• Mid-October – Task Force 77 carrier aircraft attack a 25-mile-long stretch of shoreline along the east coast of North Korea around the town of Kojo, on one day flying 667 sorties and losing five planes, as preparation for an
  amphibious landing. The carrier commanders later are infuriated to discover that no landing was planned, the attack being merely a feint to put pressure on North Korean negotiators to make peace.^[69]
• October 16 – A
  Kangnung, South Korea, killing all 25 people on board.^[70]
• October 26 – A
  Rome-Ciampino airport in Italy
  .

• In the Gulf of Mexico off Panama City, Florida, Piasecki HRP-1 Rescuer helicopters of U.S. Navy Experimental Squadron 3 (VX-3) begin tests which demonstrate for the first time the feasibility of using helicopters in aerial minesweeping.^[71]
• November 2
  Yak-15.^[73][74]
• November 7 – A
  Mount McKinley in the Territory of Alaska, killing all 19 people on board.^[75]
• November 14 – A U.S. Air Force Fairchild C-119C Flying Boxcar (serial number 51-2551) carrying American military personnel back to South Korea after leave in Japan crashes into a 2,000-foot (610-meter) hill near Cho-ok, South Korea, killing all 44 people on board.^[76]
• November 15
  • A U.S. Air Force
    Kangnung, South Korea, killing 11 of the 18 people on board.^[77]
  • Newark International Airport reopens. It had been closed since the crash of National Airlines Flight 101 there on February 11.^[16]
  • A U.S. Air Force Fairchild C-119C Flying Boxcar (serial number 51-2570) disappears in the Territory of Alaska during a flight from
    Naval Air Station Kodiak in Kodiak to Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage, with the loss of all 20 people on board.^[78]
• November 18 – Off northeastern Korea, three U.S. Navy
  North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) country shoot down Soviet or Russian aircraft until November 2015.^[80]
• November 22
  • Flying in snow and poor visibility on a domestic flight in
    TABSO Lisunov Li-2P fails to climb high enough to clear the Balkan Mountains and crashes into 2,198-meter (7,211-foot) Mount Vezhen 20 meters (66 feet) below its summit, killing all 30 people on board.^[81]
  • During a flight from
    McChord Air Force Base, Washington, to Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage, Alaska, a U.S. Air Force Douglas C-124A Globemaster II crashes into Alaska's Mount Gannett, killing all 52 people on board. The wreckage is identified on November 28, but then is buried in ice and snow and is not rediscovered until June 2012.^[82][83]
• November 28 – After the crew of a U.S. Air Force Douglas C-54G Skymaster decides to abort their approach to McChord Air Force Base in Tacoma. Washington, in dense fog and darkness and divert to Malmstrom Air Force Base in Great Falls, Montana, the aircraft strikes trees and crashes just north of McChord, catching fire and killing 37 of the 39 people on board.^[84]

December

• December 6 – A Cubana de Aviación Douglas DC-4 crashes into the Atlantic Ocean shortly after takeoff from Kindley Air Force Base in Bermuda, killing 37 of the 41 people on board and leaving all four survivors injured. It remains the deadliest aviation accident in the history of Bermuda.^[85]
• December 18 – During a dive, an Avro Canada CF-100 Canuck becomes the world's first straight-wing combat aircraft to exceed the speed of sound.^[86]
• December 20 – A United States Air Force Douglas C-124 Globemaster II, 50–100, crashes on take-off from Larson Air Force Base in Moses Lake, Washington, in the United States, killing 87 servicemen, the highest confirmed death toll of any accident in aviation history at the time.
• December 21 – Flying a Sud-Est SE 535 Mistral over a 100-kilometer (62-mile) closed circuit between Istres and Avignon, France, French aviator Jacqueline Auriol sets a women's world speed record of 855.92 km/h (531.84 mph).
• December 22 – A U.S. Air Force
  Royal Hellenic Air Force Douglas C-47D Skytrain carrying six American military patients to a hospital that taxies onto the runway in front of it, killing all 13 people on board the C-47D.^[85]
• December 25 – An
  Mehrabad Airport in Tehran, Iran, killing 24 of the 25 people on board. A child is the only survivor.^[87]
• December 26
  • A Royal Hellenic Air Force Douglas C-47D Skytrain fails to gain height after takeoff from
    Jinhae, South Korea, and crashes, killing all 14 people on board.^[87]
  • Wisconsin Central Airlines changes its name to North Central Airlines, and moves its headquarters from Clintonville, Wisconsin, to Minneapolis, Minnesota
    .
• December 30
  • During a domestic flight in the
    Quemoy, where the hijacker is arrested.^[88]
  • An Avro Lancaster B Mark III GR of No. 37 Squadron RAF crashes in Luqa, Malta after an engine failure. Three crew members and a civilian on the ground are killed.^[89]

First flights

• Piaggio P.150
• Stits Playboy

January

• American Helicopter XH-26 Jet Jeep
• January 3 – Bristol Type 173^[90] G-ALBN
• January 4 – North American XA2J^[90]
• January 14 – SIPA S.200 Minijet^[90]
• January 21 – Saab 210^[90]

February

• Republic RF-84F Thunderflash^[91]

• March 2 –
  Piper Twin Stinson^[90]
• March 3 – Ilyushin Il-46
• March 13 – CASA C-202 Halcón^[90]

April

• April 11 – Piasecki H-21^[90]
• April 15 –
  Boeing YB-52^[90]
  49–231
• April 18 – Convair YB-60^[90]
• April 27 – Tupolev "88" prototype of Tupolev Tu-16

May

• May 19 – Grumman XF10F Jaguar^[92]
• May 20 – Caproni Trento F-5^[90]
• May 26
  • Cessna 180
    N41697
  • Stits SA-2A Sky Baby
• May 30 – Beriev R-1

June

• June 4 – LIBIS KB-6^[93]
• June 5 – Max Plan PF.204 Busard^[93]
• June 19 – Yak-120 prototype of Yakovlev Yak-25
• June 20 – AISA I-115^[93]
• June 27 – Bell X-2 (unpowered)
• June 30 – American Helicopter XH-26 Jet Jeep^[93]

July

• July 3 – Yak-24 twin engine tandem helicopter
• July 11 – Farman F.500 Monitor I^[93]
• July 12 – Beecraft Honey Bee^[94]
• July 23 –
  Fouga Magister^[93]
• July 31 –
  SNCASE SE.3120 Alouette^[95]

• August 6 – Boulton Paul P.120 VT951
• August 16 – Bristol Britannia^[93]G-ALBO
• August 22 – Saunders-Roe Princess^[93] G-ALUN
• August 30 – Avro Vulcan^[93]VX770

September

• Early September – Avro Canuck CF-100 Canuck Mark 3^[96]
• September 5 – OKB-1 150 (or Junkers EF 150)
• September 10 –
  BOMARC surface-to-air missile
• September 20 – Douglas
  X-3 Stiletto
• September 28 – Dassault Mystère IV^[93]
• September 30 – GAM-63 RASCAL surface-to-air missile

October

• October 7 – Macchi M.B.323^[93]
• October 11 – Avro Canada CF-100 Canuck Mark 4 prototype^[96]
• October 15 – Douglas X-3 Stiletto 2892 (unofficial 1-mile (1.6 km) "hop" during high-speed taxi test)^[97]
• October 16 – Sud Aviation Vautour^[93]
• October 20 – Douglas X-3 Stiletto 2892 (first official flight)^[97]
• October 23 – Hughes XH-17^[93]
• October 25 – Piaggio P.150^[93]
• October 28 –
  Douglas XA3D-1^[93]

• November 3 –
  Saab Lansen^[93]
• November 11 – Matra-Cantinieau MC-101^[93]
• November 17 –
  Max Holste 1521 Broussard^[93]
• November 20 – Percival Pembroke^[93]

December

• December 2 – Short SB.5^[93]
• December 4 –
  Grumman XS2F-1 Tracker^[93]
• December 4 – Nardi FN.333^[93]
• December 24 – Handley Page Victor^[93]WB771

Entered service

• Late 1952 – Handley Page Marathon with West African Airways Corporation

January

• January 13 –
  Lockheed Neptune with Royal Air Force
• January 22 –
  BOAC

• March 13 – Airspeed Ambassador with BEA
• March 28 –
  United Air Lines^[98]
  rch

• June 17 – Airship ZPN-1 with the United States Navy

August

• de Havilland Venom with the Royal Air Force

November

• Fighter Squadron 32 (VF-32)^[99]

• Bristol Brabazon by the Bristol Aeroplane Company^[100]

October

• Stits SA-2A Sky Baby

References