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This is a list of aviation-related events from 1986:
Events
January
- January 9 - the UK Defence Secretary, Michael Heseltine, resigns amidst a political furore over the future of Westland Helicopters. Two weeks later, Leon Brittan, the Trade and Industry Secretary, will also resign.
- January 28 - the Space Shuttle Challenger is destroyed at launch
- January 31 - Boeing completes purchase of de Havilland Canada
February
- February 12 - US Navy aircraft carriers commence exercises in the Gulf of Sirte, off the coast of Libya, challenging that country's territorial claims to those waters.
April
- April 2 - a bomb planted by a Palestinian terrorist group explodes aboard a TWA Boeing 727 on a flight between Rome and Athens. Four passengers are killed and nine more injured, but the aircraft lands safely.
- April 14 - US Navy jets attack Libya in Operation El Dorado Canyon
- April 18 - Marcel Dassault (real name, Marcel Bloch) dies at 94.
- April 28 - Pan Am returns to the Soviet Union, using a Boeing 747 from JFK International Airport in New York.
May
- May 3 - 20 passengers die after an explosion caused by Tamil Tigers separatists aboard an Air Lanka Lockheed L-1011
- May 7 - Al Mooney dies, aged 80.
- May 16 - Top Gun (film) opens in theaters in United States
- May 26 - Helicopter prison escape from a Parisian jail. Escapee Michel Vaujour was flown to freedom via his wife, a newly graduated helicopter pilot.
August
- August 11 - a modified Westland Lynx sets a new helicopter world speed record of 249 mph (401 km/h)
- August 20 - first test-flight of a propfan engine, the General Electric GE-36
- August 26 - the CFM56 turbofan is flight tested for the first time.
October
- October 21 - British Airways is offered for public sale by the British government
November
- November 3 While attempting to land at Zahedan airport, an Iranian Hercules C-130 army transport plane crashes into a mountain; all 103 passengers are killed.
- November 6 - a Boeing 234 crashes in the Shetland Isles, killing 45 people. It is history's worst helicopter disaster.
December
- December 2 - an Air France Concorde returns to Paris after an 18-day around the world trip with 94 passengers.
- December 14-23: First non-stop flight around the planet without refueling - the Voyager, piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, on a distance of 26,366 statute miles (the FAI accredited distance is 40,212 km)
First flights
February
July
August
September
November
December
Entered service
May
October
- October 1 - AH-64 Apache with the US 6th Cavalry Brigade
"1986 in aviation"