AOPA Pilot Magazine - March 2008 - 35

1971 May 21 | The FAA establishes the Ofﬁce of General Aviation. July 1 | The ﬁrst ﬂight of the production model of the Cessna Citation. November 18 | Public Law 92159 prohibits airborne hunting of birds, ﬁsh, and other animals. November 24 | D. B. Cooper parachutes from the Northwest Orient Airlines airplane he hijacked, with $200,000 in ransom money. He was never heard from again. 747 across the Atlantic and Beverly Burns is the ﬁrst woman to captain a 747 cross-country. October 4 | Sixty-one-year-old Elaine Yadwin lands a Piper Cherokee Warrior II safely in Florida after her husband, the airplane’s pilot, dies during the ﬂight. 1985 May 29 | The world’s largest aircraft, the Antonov AN124, makes its ﬁrst appearance. November 18 | General Dynamics purchases Cessna. July 20, 1969 | Neil Armstrong becomes the ﬁrst human to set foot on the moon. December 21 | The FAA deems contact lenses permissible for use by civilian pilots. 1972 May 26 | Cessna completes the company’s 100,000th aircraft. October 16 | A Cessna 310 carrying Rep. Hale Boggs, and three other men, vanishes in Alaska during a ﬂight from Anchorage to Juneau. 1986 January 28 | Space shuttle Challenger explodes killing all seven astronauts aboard. February 15 | The maiden ﬂight of the Beechcraft Starship, designed by Burt Rutan. July 6 | President Ronald Reagan proclaims National Air Trafﬁc Control Day in honor of the ﬁftieth anniversary of air trafﬁc control. 1981 April 12 | Space shuttle Columbia launches for its ﬁrst mission. August 5 | President Ronald Reagan ﬁres striking air-trafﬁc controllers who ignored his back-to-work order. 1977 March 27 | A KLM Boeing 747 and a Pan Am Boeing 747 collide on the runway in Tenerife, Spain. May | John L. Baker is named second president of AOPA. 1973 January 29 | Emily H. Warner becomes the ﬁrst female pilot of a major U.S. scheduled airline, Frontier Airlines. May 14 | Skylab, the ﬁrst American space station, is launched. 1982 January 10 | A Gulfstream III circumnavigates the globe in 47 hours, 39 minutes. 1978 August 17 | The Double Eagle II is the ﬁrst balloon to cross the Atlantic. October 24 | The U.S. airline industry is deregulated. 1987 May 28 | Mathias Rust, a 19year-old German pilot, ﬂies a Cessna 172 undetected to Moscow’s Red Square. 1983 June 18 | The space shuttle Challenger launches. Dr. Sally Ride, aged 32, is the ﬁrst female U.S. astronaut. August 24 | A Canadair Challenger 601 sets a new world distance record for business jets. 1974 June 4 | Sally Murphy is the ﬁrst woman to qualify as an aviator in the U.S. Army. August 5 | President Richard M. Nixon signs the Anti-Hijacking Act into law. 1988 February 8 | The FAA retires airplane registration number NR16020, on the aircraft ﬂown by Amelia Earhart when she disappeared over the Paciﬁc Ocean. August 28 | 75 people are killed and 346 injured in one of the worst air show disasters in history at Germany’s Ramstein Air Base. 1979 June 12 | The human-powered Gossamer Albatross crosses the English Channel and wins the Kremer prize. August 14 | Steve Hinton sets a new speed record in his North American P–51D Mustang Red Baron, at 499 mph. December | AOPA ends the decade with 245,000 members. 1975 April 4 | A regulation governing the installation and safe operation of X-ray devices for screening carry-on luggage at airports becomes effective. July 1 | The FAA establishes Military Operations Areas (MOAs). 1984 July 19 | Lynn Rippelmeyer is the ﬁrst woman to captain a 1980 February 18 | President Jimmy Carter signs the Aviation Safety and Noise Abatement Act. December 3 | Janice Brown ﬂies an the Solar Challenger, to complete the ﬁrst long-distance solar-powered ﬂight. AOPA PILOT • 35 • MARCH 2008 1976 COURTESY NASA (2) April 1 | Piper’s 100,000th airplane, a PA–31T Cheyenne II is rolled out. April 5 | Howard Hughes dies. April 17, 1973 | Federal Express ofﬁcially begins operations.

AOPA Pilot Magazine - March 2008

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - March 2008