The American Section of the International League of Aviators resurrects the National Trophy, a Harmon Trophy awarded from 1926 to 1938 to the outstanding aviator of the year in each of the 21 member countries of the now-defunct League. It will be awarded until 1949 amid much controversy, with the awards going largely unrecognized.
January 10 - a Sikorsky R5 sets an unofficial helicopter altitude record of 6,400 m (21,000 ft) at Stratford, Connecticut.
February 11 - After lengthy negotiations, US and British government representatives reach the Bermuda Agreement, the first bilateral agreement regulating international commercial air transport. Agreement was also reached for IATA, the International Air Transport Association to coordinate and fix international air fares.
March 8 - the Bell 47 receives the first type certificate awarded to a commercial helicopter.
March 21 - The Strategic Air Command of the United States Army Air Force is formed.
May 31 - London Heathrow Airport is officially opened.
June 15 - the US Navy's newly-formed Flight Demonstration Squadron, the Blue Angels, gives its first public performance at Jacksonville-Craig Field, Florida.
June 21 - a USAF P-80 Shooting Star carries the first air mail flown by jet.
July 1 - a B-29 Superfortress drops an atomic bomb on Bikini Atoll in the central Pacific in a nuclear test.
July 21 - a McDonnell XFD-1 Phantom executes the first intentional and controlled landing by a purely jet-powered aircraft aboard a US aircraft carrier, USS Franklin D. Roosevelt.
August 1 - British European Airways established as state-owned corporation.
September 7 - a Royal Air Force Gloster Meteor established a new world absolute air speed record of 615.65 mph (990.79 km/h) flown by Group Captain E.M. Donaldson off the coast of West Sussex, England.
September 16 - Italian airline Alitalia was formed.
September 19 - Portuguese airline Transportes A�reos Portugueses (TAP) is formed.
September 24 - Hong Kong airline Cathay Pacific is founded.
October 3 - The Berlin-bound 4-engine Douglas DC-4 'Flagship New England' of AOA crashed into a mountainside just outside of Stephenville, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. The aircraft was carrying mostly wives and children of US Army personnel serving in post-war Germany. All 39 people on board died. At the time, it was the worst accident of its kind among US civilian airlines.
November 23 - An Avro Lancastrian powered with Rolls-Royce Nene turbojets is credited with the first international passenger jet flight from London to Paris. The flight time was just 41 minutes.