2001 in aviation

This is a list of aviation-related events from 2001:

Events

April

• April 24 - The unmanned aircraft Global Hawk flies automatically from Edwards Air Force Base in the US to Australia non-stop and unrefuelled. This is the longest point-to-point flight ever undertaken by an unmanned aircraft, the first pilotless aircraft to cross the Pacific Ocean, and took 23 hours and 23 minutes.

September

• September 11 - 4 jet-liners, 2 each of American Airlines and United Airlines, are hijacked and crashed in the September 11 terrorist attacks, killing more than 3,000 people.
• bmi begins transatlantic flights from Manchester after a failed attempt to gain transatlantic flights from London Heathrow Airport.
• British Airways aborts a plan to take over KLM due to technical issues in the open skies treaty between the U.S. and the Netherlands.
• British Airways also drops its controversial ethnic tailfins; first adopted in 1997 the process was slowed in 1999, finally Chief Executive Rod Eddington that all aircraft would be painted with the new Union flag livery (one of the "ethnic" designs).

First flights

Entered service