January 12, 1984 The U.S. Marines get the first McDonnell Douglas AV-8B Harrier IIs, which will be used in the Persian Gulf War.
January 21, 1984 The Air Force successfully fires an ASAT (antisatellite) missile from an F-15 over the Pacific.
January 25, 1984 In his State of the Union address, President Ronald Reagan calls for building a space station.
Peter M. Bowers Collection
Voyager was an all-composite aircraft designed by Burt Rutan. His brother Dick Rutan made the first flight on June 22, 1984. See more pictures of flight.
February 3-11, 1984 Space Shuttle Challenger is launched. It tests the Manned Maneuvering Unit, in which astronaut Bruce McCandless orbits, untethered, around the shuttle.
February 24, 1984 The General Dynamics F-16XL is defeated by the McDonnell Douglas F-15E Strike Eagle in competition.
March 6, 1984 The comeback of lighter-than-air craft is signaled by the first flight of the British Airship Industries Skyship.
March 31, 1984 The last Avro Vulcan is removed from RAF service.
April 6-13, 1984 The Space Shuttle Challenger mission makes the first on-orbit satellite repair of Solar Max.
May 15, 1984 A consortium of Aeritalia/Aermacchi/EMBRAER creates the AMX close-support aircraft, which makes its first flight. On a subsequent flight 15 days later, it crashes, killing the pilot.
June 22, 1984 Voyager flies for the first time.
June 22, 1984 Virgin Airlines launches operations.
July 17-19, 1984 The 100th human space flight occurs with the launch of the Soviet Soyuz T-12.
July 25, 1984 Svetlana Savitskaya becomes the first woman to make a space walk, from Salyut 7.
August 4, 1984 European space flight exploration continues with the launch of Ariane 3 from French Guinea.
August 14, 1984 The last of 1,832 Boeing 727s is rolled out in Renton, Washington.
August 29, 1984 A Rockwell International B-1A crashes.
August 30, 1984 The Space Shuttle Discovery is launched on its maiden flight.
September 14-18, 1984 Joe Kittinger, famous for high-altitude parachute drops, makes the first nonstop solo balloon flight across the Atlantic.
October 5, 1984 The Space Shuttle Challenger is launched.
Peter M. Bowers Collection
The Rockwell B-1B bomber had one of the longest and most controversial development periods. After a rocky start, the swing-wing Mach 1.25 B-1B has done an outstanding job.
October 18, 1984 The Rockwell International B-1B makes its first flight. One hundred are ordered.
November 8-16, 1984 The Space Shuttle Discovery makes its second flight.
December 14, 1984 The Grumman X-29 technology demonstrator, with forward swept wings, makes its first flight.
January 24-27, 1985 The Space Shuttle Discovery conducts a classified defense assignment; military aviation has melded with space flight.
March 21, 1985 The RAF selects EMBRAER Tucano as its new basic trainer.
April 12-19, 1985 The Space Shuttle Discovery carries Senator Jake Garn into orbit.
April 29-May 6, 1985 The Space Shuttle Challenger launches with Spacelab 3.
May 29, 1985 The Soviet Union unveils the world's largest airplane, the Antonov An-124 heavy transport, at the Paris air show.
June 11, 1985 The Soviet Vega-1 spacecraft is sent to rendezvous with Halley's Comet.
June 17-24, 1985 The Space Shuttle Discovery is launched with two foreign astronauts, Patrick Baudry of France and Sulton Abdelazizi Al-Saud of Saudi Arabia.
July 29-August 6, 1985 The Space Shuttle Challenger is launched; it experiences the first major in-flight emergency of shuttle history when one main engine shuts down during ascent.
August 12, 1985 The world's worst aircraft disaster to date occurs when a Japan Air Lines Boeing 747 crashes into the mountains. Japan Air Lines later faults Boeing quality control for the accident.
August 18, 1985 The Japanese launch a space probe for a flyby of Halley's Comet.
August 27-September 3, 1985 Space Shuttle Discovery is launched; it deploys three satellites and repairs another.
September 10, 1985 The Lockheed C-5B Galaxy makes its first flight.
September 13, 1985 An ASAT missile fired from an F-15 successfully intercepts an orbiting satellite.
September 30, 1985 Italians acquire a new aircraft carrier for helicopters and VSTOL aircraft, the Giuseppe Garibaldi.
October 3-7, 1985 The Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched on its maiden flight; it sets a new shuttle altitude record with an orbit of 1,725,000 miles.
October 30-November 6, 1985 Space Shuttle Challenger is launched with German and Dutch astronauts as part of the largest (eight-member) crew in history.
November 15, 1985 The last independant general aviation manufacturer -- Cessna -- is purchased by General Dynamics.
November 26-December 3, 1985 Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched in an experiment with space station structures.
December 17, 1985 On the 82nd anniversary of the Wright Brothers flight, the Douglas DC-3 celebrates its 50th birthday. Approximately 400 are still in use.
December 28, 1985 The U.S. Pioneer 12 probe passes within 25,000,000 miles of Halley's Comet.
