World Aviation in 1975

14 January
The United States Government announces that the United States Air Force (USAF) has selected the General Dynamics YF16 as the winner of it’s Light Weight Fighter (LWF) Programme.

20 January
A Boeing 707 is commandeered by three terrorists who take ten travellers hostage and fly to Baghdad.

21 January
Following two terrorist attacks at Orly Airport in Paris, the French Minister of the Interior announces that special new security measures will be introduced to prevent further attacks.

1 February
In the previous sixteen days all eight world time-to-height records have been captured by a specially modified McDonnell Douglas F15 Eagle. The final record sets a time of 3 minutes 27 seconds from standstill on the runway to a height of 30,000 metres (98,425 feet).

1 April
The Republic of Singapore Air Force is formed.

30 April
The last United States Personnel leave Vietnam in a dramatic helicopter air lift from secured locations in Saigon. In total, 7,014 United States and South Vietnamese personnel are evacuated in the days before the North Vietnamese capture the city, ending American involvement in the Vietnam conflict.

30 May
The European Space Agency (ESA) is founded.

8 June
The Soviet Union launches Venera 9. The interplanetary probe later becomes the first artificial satellite of Venus and its data capsule makes a successful landing of the planet’s surface making a 53 minute transmission that includes television pictures.

22 June
A new world speed record for women is established in the Soviet Union by Svetlana Savitskaya, flying a Mikoyan Ye133 at a speed of 2,683kph. (1,667mph)

15- 24 July
A combined United States/USSR space mission is held, during which Soyuz 19 and the Apollo/Soyuz Test Project (ASTP) dock together in Earth orbit. General Thomas Stafford and Colonel Alexei Leonor shake hands 140 miles above Bognor Regis, marking a new era of co-operation in space.

21 July
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Launches Viking 1, which subsequently lands on, and transmits pictures of, the surface of Mars back to Earth.

28 October
To demonstrate the manoeuvrability and short field ability of the Franco-German Alpha Jet, test pilot Jean-Marie Saget lands on and takes off from a stretch of motorway linking Paris and Le Mans.

26 December
The Soviet Tupolev Tu144 supersonic airliner enters service, flying from Moscow to Alma Ata in Kazakhstan. The new service is intended to carry mail and freight between the two destinations, which are 1,864 miles apart.