This is a list of aviation-related events from 1947:

Events

January

• January 26, A KLM Douglas Dakota crashed after takeoff from Copenhagen, killing all 22 onboard, including Prince Gustaf Adolf of Sweden.

March

• March 14 - Saudi Arabian Airlines begins regular services.

April

• April 4 - International Civil Aviation Organisation was formed.

May

• May 28 - BSAA trials non-stop flights from London to Bermuda using aerial refueling over the Azores

June

• June 17 - Pan Am begins a New York to San Francisco service flying west-to-east around almost the entire globe.
• June 19 - Col Albert Boyd sets a new official world airspeed record of 623.62 mph (1,003 km/h) in a Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star. (This is still marginally slower than unofficial German speed records in rocket-powered aircraft during World War II).

July

• July 3 - The Philippine Air Force was formed.
• July 15 - Northwest Airlines flies the first commercial passenger flight from the U.S. to Japan, using The Manila, a Douglas DC-4 aircraft, by way of Anchorage. From Tokyo, the flight continued to Seoul, Shanghai, and Manila.

August

• August 3 - a parade in Tushino, USSR, presenting newest Soviet jets, among others: Yak-19, La-150, La-156, La-160, Su-9, Su-11.
• August 10 - BEA began the world's first regular cargo-only airline service.
• August 14 - The Royal Pakistan Air Force formed.
• August 20 - a new world airspeed record of 640 mph (1,031 km/h) is set in the Douglas Skystreak.
• August 25 - the Douglas Skystreak is flown to another airspeed record of 650 mph (1,047 km/h).

September

• September 17 - the United States Air Force becomes its own fully independent military command.

September

October

• October 1 - Los Angeles Airways begins the first scheduled carriage of airmail by helicopter
• October 1 - George Welch allegedly breaks the sound barrier during a dive in his XP-86 Sabre.
• October 14 - Chuck Yeager took the rocket-powered Bell X-1 past the speed of sound, the first controlled, supersonic, level flight.
• October 24 - United Airlines Flight 608 DC-6 (NC37510) en route to Chicago from Los Angeles caught fire and then crashed while attempting an emergency landing at the Bryce Canyon, Utah airport.
• October 26-November 7 - Rhulin A. Thomas made the first solo coast-to-coast flight by a deaf pilot. Calbraith Perry Rodgers was an earlier deaf pilot who flew coast-to-coast in 1911, but was supported by a team on the ground.

First flights

January

• January 8 - Yakovlev Yak-19
• January 11 - McDonnell XF2D-1 Banshee, later redesignated XF2H-1

March

• Lavochkin La-156

May

• May 28 - Sukhoi Su-11 (1947), first aircraft with Soviet-designed jet engines
• May 28 - Douglas Skystreak

June

• Yakovlev Yak-15U, a prototype of Yak-17
• Lavochkin La-160, first Soviet swept-wing fighter
• June 22 - Martin XB-48
• June 25 - Boeing B-50
• June 30 - Avions Fairey Junior - OO-TIT
• June 30 - Vickers Valetta VL249

July

• July 8 - Boeing 377
• July 8 - Yakovlev Yak-23
• July 16 - Saunders-Roe SR.A/1 TG263
• July 21 - Aero 45
• July 24 - Ilyushin Il-22
• July 27 - Tupolev Tu-12, first Soviet jet bomber
• July 27 - Bristol Sycamore, first British helicopter

September

• September 2 - Hawker P.1040 VP401

October

• October 1 - North American XP-86
• October 21 - Northrop YB-49 jet powered Flying Wing

November

• November 2 - Hughes H-4 Hercules ("Spruce Goose")
• November 2 - Yakovlev Yak-25 (1947)

December

• C-119 Flying Boxcar
• December 17 - Boeing XB-47
• December 30 - Mikoyan-Gurevich I-310, prototype of the MiG-15

Entered service

April

• Douglas DC-6 with American Airlines

August

• McDonnell FH Phantom with United States Navy squadron VF-171

October

• October 31 - Avro Tudor 4 with British South American Airways

November

• McDonnell FH Phantom with United States Marine Corps squadron VMF-122, first deployment of a jet by a US Marine combat unit

• Republic F-84B Thunderjet with the United States Air Force 14th Fighter Group.