British Civil Aviation in 1948

29-30 January
An Avro Tudor 4 Star Tiger (G-AHNP) is lost on a flight from Santa Maria in the Azores to Bermuda.

23 March
John Cunninham establishes a new world altitude record of 18,119 metres (59,445 feet), flying a de Havilland Vampire.

5 April
British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) announces its Lockheed Constellations have crossed the Atlantic 1,000 times.

14 April
The official opening of Southampton's Flying Boat Terminal.

27 May
The United Kingdom government awards a £100,000 tax-free payment to Air Commodore Frank Whittle for his pioneering work on aircraft turbojet engines.

1 June
British European Airways (BEA) establishes the first public airmail service in the United Kingdom using helicopters. They use Westland S51s between Peterborough in Cambridgeshire and various points in East Anglia.

14 July
Silver City Airways begin the first car ferry operation between Lympne in Kent and Le Touquet in France using a Bristol Freighter (G-AGVC).

16 July
The Vickers Viscount (G-AHRF) aircraft makes its first flight.

6 September
de Havilland test pilot Squadron Leader J.D. Derry becomes the first Briton to break the sound barrier, at the controls of a DH108 Swallow.

4 November
Test pilot Squadron Leader J.D. Derry completes the journey from London to Rome in a record time of 2 hours 50 minutes, flying a de Havilland Vampire FB5.

22 November
In the United Kingdom House of Commons, questions are raised about the sale of Rolls-Royce turbojet engines to the Soviet Union.

30 November
Fog Investigation Dispersal Operation (FIDO) is commercially used for the first time at Blackbushe, to allow a Vickers Viking to take-off in thick fog.