Aeronautics and Astronautics Chronology 1915-1960/Part 1
From the Founding of NACA to the Dawn of the Space Age
January 1915—October 1957
The full history of man's exploration of space might logically begin with the legend of Icarus, or with the flight of the Wright brothers in 1903, or more appropriately with their wind tunnel experiments conducted at Dayton between September and December 1901. Or, it could begin with the notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci, the laws of Johannes Kepler, not to mention the contributions of the Montgolfier brothers, Sir George Cayley, Otto Lilienthal, Octave Chanute, or Count von Zeppelin.
Regarding the early interest of governments, as such, in the promotion and exploitation of aeronautics, a chronology could start with the specifications laid down by the U.S. War Department for a military "flying machine" in 1907. Two years later, the United States became the first nation in the world to possess a military airplane, the "Wright Flyer." When the international conflict erupted in the 1914-18 war in Europe, however, the relative plight of U.S. aviation as compared to war-stimulated technical progress abroad, was clearly self-evident.
This U.S. chronology begins with the year in which the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics was created. There was also geometric buildup of U.S. military and naval aviation as involvement in military conflict approached. Wartime progress in aeronautics was subsequently applied to the pursuits of peace. Rocket development was also to be stimulated in parallel fashion at a later date when military missile development created the propulsion necessary for the scientific exploration of space.
As is clearly self-evident, events in the history of scientific research and technical development are not isolated from organizational, political, military, or other general events, which are occasionally cited to remind the render of the broader historical contest, A chronology is, after all, but a mere recital of known calendar-located events and equal significance cannot be accorded all events listed in sequence.
1915
January 15: New official American one-man duration record of 8 hours 53 minutes set by Lt. B. Q. Jones in a Martin tractor biplane at San Diego, Calif.
: First transcontinental telephone conversation, New York to San Francisco, by Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas A. Watson.
January 19-20: First German aerial bombing of Britain, by two Zeppelins, thereby opening up a new era in the exploitation of aeronautics. During World War I, a total of 56 tons of aerial bombs was dropped on London and 214 tons on the rest of Britain.
During January: First air-to-air combat, German airman killed by rifle fire from Allied aircraft. In February a machine gun mounted on a French aircraft, Lieutenant Garros as pilot, first shot down a German aircraft.
February 24: Macy automatic pilot tests were begun at San Diego, Calif.
During February-March: Anthony H. G. Fokker perfected synchronizing gear to allow machinegun to be fired through rotating propeller.
March 3: The Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (later the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics or NACA) was established by a rider to the Naval Appropriations Act, "…to supervise and direct the scientific study of the problems of flight, with a view of their practical solution." The sum of $5,000 a year was appropriated for 5 years. The total appropriation for naval aeronautics was $1 million.
March 4: Congress passed an appropriation bill of $300,000 for Army aeronautics for fiscal year 1916.
April 2: President Wilson appointed the first 12 members of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). Throughout the entire history of the NACA until October 1958, members served without compensation.
April 16: Navy AB-2 flying boat successfully catapulted from a barge, Lt. P. N. Bellinger as pilot.
April 23: The Secretary of War called the first meeting of the NACA in his office. Brig. Gen. George P. Scriven, Chief Signal Officer, was elected temporary Chairman, and Dr. Charles D. Walcott, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, was elected first Chairman of the important NACA Executive Committee.
: American altitude record of 10,000 feet for seaplanes was established in Burgess-Dunne AH-10 by Lt. P. N. Bellinger over Pensacola, Fla.
May 31: First German Zeppelin raid on London. British employed rockets in their defenses around London.
June 1: Navy let first contract for lighter-than-air craft in ordering one nonrigid airship from Connecticut Aircraft (later the DN-1).
June 8: U.S. Patent Office granted patent (No. 1142754) to Glenn H. Curtiss covering the arrangement of a step or ridge incorporated in the hull of flying boats.
During June: First year of formal graduate study in aeronautical engineering was completed at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and one master of science degree was awarded.
July 7: Secretary of the Navy, Josephus Daniels, in a letter to Thomas A. Edison said that the Navy required "machinery and facilities for utilizing the natural inventive genius of Americans to meet the new conditions of warfare." This letter prompted creation of Naval Consulting Board of civilian advisers which functioned throughout World War I, and which included in its organization a "Committee on Aeronautics, including Aero Motors."
July 10: Naval Aeronautic Station, Pensacola, tested sextant equipped with a pendulum-type artificial horizon and reported that pendulum type was unsatisfactory for aircraft use, but that a sextant with a gyroscopically stabilized artificial horizon might be acceptable.
August 11: Naval Observatory requested Eastman Kodak to develop an aerial camera with high-speed lens suitable for photography at 1,000 or 2,000 yards' altitude.
September 1: Congress supplemented appropriation of Army aeronautics to $13,281,666 from $300,000 of previous fiscal year.
October 15: Secretary of the NACA was instructed by the committee to communicate with the Government departments, the result of investigation with regard to aeronautical activity, and to recommend or advise the Secretaries of the separate departments of the Government to continue and foster experimental development.
November 6: First catapult launching from a ship underway, made from the U.S.S. North Carolina in Pensacola Bay, by Lt. Cmdr. H. C. Mustin.
December 3: Lt. R. C. Saufley reached 11,975 feet over Pensacola in a Curtiss AH-14, an American altitude record for hydroaeroplanes.
December 9: NACA Report No. 1 was issued, a two-part "Report on Behavior of Aeroplanes in Gusts," by Jerome C. Hunsaker and E. B. Wilson of MIT.
December 12: An all-steel frame, fabric-covered combat plane successfully flown, one designed by Grover C. Loening and built by Sturtevant Aeroplane Co.
During December: All-metal fully cantilever-wing monoplane produced by Hugo Junkers in Germany, the J-1 powered by a 120-hp Mercedes, made its first successful flights.
During 1915: Elmer A. Sperry developed and demonstrated his drift indicator for which he received the Robert J. Collier Trophy for 1916.
: General Vehicle Co., Long Island City, contracted with French Government to build Gnome engines, the first radial engine produced in the United States.
: Robert H. Goddard proved validity of rocket propulsion principles in a vacuum at Clark University, Worcester, Mass.
1916
March 15: First U.S. tactical air unit in the field, the 1st Aero Squadron commanded by Capt. B. D. Foulois, began operations with General Pershing's expedition into Mexico.
April 2: American altitude record of 16,072 feet set by Lt. R. C. Saufley in a Curtiss hydroaeroplane.
During April: French employed first air-to-air combat rockets, four Le Prieur rockets attached to each strut of Nieuport fighter, credited with downing of German hydrogen-inflated Zeppelin LC-77. The Belgian, Willy Coppens, and Briton, Albert Ball, reportedly used rockets effectively against German balloons until incendiary bullets were developed.
May 22: French airmen successfully destroyed five of six German balloons using Le Prieur rockets on their Nieuport fighters.
June 8: The NACA called the first meeting of representatives of the aircraft industry and of interested Government agencies.
July 19: Navy Gallauder 59A, an airplane with propeller mounted amidships in the fuselage, made preliminary flights at Norwich, Conn., Lt. (jg) G. D. Murray as pilot.
July 22: Navy requested Aluminum Co. of America to develop a suitable alloy for fabrication into Zeppelin-type girders.
August 22: President Wilson signed Navy appropriation bill, which included $3,500,000 for naval aviation.
August 29: The NACA requested $85,000 and received $82,515.70 for fiscal year 1917 as a part of the naval appropriation bill. $68,957.35 later went toward laboratory construction at Langley Field.
: U.S. Army appropriations approved, which included $14,281,766 to the Signal Corps for military aeronautics.
September 2: Plane-to-plane radio demonstrated over North Island, Calif., at a distance of about 2 miles.
September 2-3: First German Zeppelin shot down by RFC aircraft over Britain; five Zeppelins were brought down over Britain during 1916.
September 12: Piloted hydroaeroplane equipped with automatic stabilization and direction gear developed by the Sperry Co. and P. C. Hewitt was demonstrated by Amityville, Long Island, before naval observers.
September 21: The National Research Council, formed at the request of President Wilson by the National Academy of Sciences, held its first meeting in New York.
During September: Wright-Martin Aircraft Corp. contracted with French company to manufacture the Hispano-Suiza engine in the United States.
October 5: The NACA first recommended inauguration of airmail service, and William F. Durand was elected Chairman of the NACA.
October 9: Subcommittee of the NACA appointed to consider the needs of the committee as to a site for experimental work, with authority to visit and inspect sites, and to secure the cooperation of the War and Navy Departments and the Weather Bureau.
November 23: The NACA recommended purchase of land north of Hampton, Va., for use as an aircraft proving ground by the Army and Navy. This site became known as Langley Field, and the location of the first NACA laboratory.
November 28: First airplane raid on London, by a German seaplane.
During November: "Design Requirements for Airplanes" (A.P. 970), a basic six-page pamphlet, was issued by the British Royal Aircraft Factory of Farnborough.
December 20: Army Balloon School established at Fort Omaha, Nebr.
During 1916: Radio-controlled pilotless monoplane, the "Aerial Target," designed by H. P. Folland with radio gear by A. M. Low, flown at the British Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough.
: Development work on air cooling of aircraft engines by means of spacing, depth and thickness of fins, and the effects of airflow, were conducted by Professor Givson at Royal Aircraft Factory at Farnborough.
: Nine U.S. aircraft companies delivered only 64 out of 336 aircraft ordered by the Army, the performance of which compared unfavorably with European aircraft.
1917
January 10: Comptroller of the Treasury Department ruled that the NACA was an independent agency and was not an appendage of the Navy Department in spite of the fact it was originally funded under the naval appropriations bill.
During January: The NACA, after considering high-cost complaints of Army and Navy, recommended creation of Manufacturers Aircraft Association to effect cross-licensing of aeronautic patents. This was a milestone in preventing a virtual deadlock in aircraft construction because of patent infringement suits.
February 2: The NACA recommended to the President, for transmittal to Congress for approval, that the Government acquire basic aeronautical patents.
February 13: Aircraft Manufacturers Association formed, Frank H. Russell as president.
March 8: Naval Act carried appropriation of $1 million for purchase of basic aeronautical patents by the Federal Government.
March 29: The NACA recommended preparation of 3-year programs for aircraft production to the Secretaries of War and the Navy.
April 6: The United States declared war on the Central Powers. The Aviation Section of the Signal Corps consisted of 35 pilots, 1,987 enlisted men, and 55 training airplanes. Navy Aviation and Marine Corps combined had 48 officer-pilots, 239 men, 54 airplanes, 1 airship, 3 balloons, and 1 air station.
April 10: The NACA recommended the organization of an Aircraft Production Board, to be appointed by the Council of National Defense. Such was created on May 16.
April 14: Naval Consulting Board recommended to the Secretary that $50,000 be granted to carry on experimental work on aerial torpedoes in the form of automatically controlled aeroplanes or aerial machines carrying high explosives. This was origin of the Navy N-9 "flying bomb," later considered the Navy's first guided-missile effort.
May 7: First aerial bombing of London by German bombers at night.
May 12: Capt. W. A. Robertson established new American altitude record of 17,230 feet over North Island Flying School, San Diego, Calif.
May 20: First aircraft sinking of a submarine, the German U-36, in the North Sea by a British flying boat.
June 2: Aviation Section became the Airplane Division of the Army Signal Corps, and Maj. B. D. Foulois was appointed officer-in-charge on July 23.
June 4: Aircraft Production Board and the Joint Technical Board on Aircraft authorized the construction of five prototype models of 8- and 12-cylinder Liberty motors. Engine designs had been worked out in a Washington hotel room by J. G. Vincent of Packard Motor Car Co. and E. J. Hall of the Hall-Scott Motor Car Co. during the previous week, applying current engineering practices to mass production techniques.
July 4: First 8-cylinder Liberty aircraft engine arrived in Washington, D.C., for test by the National Bureau of Standards. Design, manufacture, and assembly of this motor had required less than 6 weeks.
July 24: Manufacturers Aircraft Association formed to handle cross-licensing patents between all manufacturers.
: $640 million aviation bill became law, the largest U.S. appropriation for aviation to date.
July 27: Secretary of the Navy authorized a naval aircraft factory in Philadelphia.
: First British DH-4 arrived in United States and became model for the first combat aircraft produced in volume in the United States.
August 17: Field Marshal Jan Christian Smuts, Chairman of a Sub-committee on Imperial Defence, submitted classic proposal for creation of an autonomous air force in the British military structure.
August 21: First airplane powered by Liberty engine successfully flown, the L. W. F. Engineering Co.'s "Model F" biplane.
August 25: Navy "NC" flying boat development was initiated by Chief Constructor of the Navy, D. W. Taylor, in a memo outlining general requirements of such an aircraft to combat the submarine menace and "to fly across the Atlantic to avoid difficulties of delivery, etc." Acting Secretary of the Navy, F. D. Roosevelt, authorized development of "NC" flying boats capable of flying the Atlantic.
: 12-cylinder Liberty motor passed a 50-hour test with power output of over 300 hp prior to being ordered into mass production.
During August: The NACA recommended funds be given Weather Bureau to promote safety in aerial navigation.
September 3: Brig. Gen. W. L. Kenly appointed Chief of the Air Service, AEF, the first time control of Army air activities was placed under a single head.
September 7: Radio signals sent from a Navy R-6 seaplane flying from NAS Pensacola, were received by Naval Radio Station New Orleans, 140 miles distant, in tests.
October 1: Congress created the Aircraft Board.
October 16: Final tests of Army's airplane radiotelephone at Langley Field, Va., achieved 25 miles for plane-to-plane communication and 45 miles airplane-to-ground.
October 18: McCook Field, Dayton, Ohio, was established as an aeronautical experimental station by the Signal Corps.
: British De Havilland DH-4 ordered into series production in the United States 6 months after U.S. entry into World War I. By the end of the war, about 4,500 had been built, and of the total of 1,216 American-built planes to reach the Western Front, all but three (two Le Peres and one experimental DH-9) were DH-4's.
: The Aviation Medical Research Board was established by the Signal Corps.
October 21: First flight test of 12-cylinder Liberty engine in Curtiss HS-1 flying boat at Buffalo, N.Y.
October 29: First DH-4 completed, flown at Dayton, Ohio.
November 15: Committee on Light Alloys established within NACA to intensify efforts to develop new metals for aeronautical use, Constructor Jerome C. Hunsaker was Navy member.
November 21: A modified Navy N-9 "Flying Bomb" was demonstrated to Army, Navy and civilian observers at Amityville, Long Island.
December 15: U.S. Navy airplane design placed under LCdr. W. Starling Burgess, Bureau of Construction and Repair.
December 26: First test-run of altitude laboratory constructed at the Bureau of Standards for the NACA, one capable of testing engine performance up to one-third an atmosphere.
During 1917: U.S. Weather Bureau aerological specialist, William R. Blair, prepared NACA Report No. 13, "Meteorology and Aeronautics," which was widely circulated as a basic handbook.
: At request of War Department, a member of NACA technical staff assigned to supervise altitude performance tests of the first Liberty engines at Detroit, Mich., and Pikes Peak, Colo.
: Development work at the British Royal Aircraft Factory at Farnborough included a measured-injection carburetor, prototype design of 14-cylinder, double-row, static-radial, air-cooled engine (RAF-8), and design and construction of the SE-5 fighter.
: Curtiss JN-4 "Jenny" became basic training airplane for thousands of American pilots.
1918
January 19: U.S. School of Aviation Medicine began operations under Maj. Williams H. Wilmer, Signal Corps, Hazelhurst Field, Mineola, N.Y. A low-pressure tank was constructed to simulate altitudes up to 30,000 feet, and some studies were conducted at Pikes Peak.
January 23: First American military balloon ascension in the AEF took place at Cuperly, Marne, France.
During January: The NACA established Office of Aeronautical Intelligence at the suggestion of the Aircraft Board to col- lect and distribute scientific and technical data on aeronautics.
February 7: The Joint Army and Navy Technical Aeronautical Board (JAN-TAB) passed resolution on Instrument Standardization in Army and Navy planes for incorporation in general specifications.
February 16: Plant for assembly of American-made airplanes began operations at Romorantin, France.
March 6: Navy unmanned "flying bomb" successfully launched by catapult and flown for 1,000 yards at Sperry Flying Field, Long Island.
March 8: Majs. E. C. Schneider and J. L. Whitney (USA) reached an artificial altitude of 34,000 feet in 24 minutes, at Signal Corps Laboratory, Mineola, N.Y.
March 21: "Dunkirk fighter" or Navy HA seaplane made its first flight at Port Washington, Long Island, with Curtiss pilot Roland Rohlfs as pilot.
March 27: First aircraft built at the Naval Aircraft Factory, the H-16 seaplane, was flown for the first time, and was later used for the antisubmarine patrol from United States and European stations.
March 29: Curtiss 180-T or "Kirkham" triplane fighter ordered by Navy from Curtiss Engineering.
April 6: Night aerial photographs taken with use of magnesium flares by Lt. J. C. McKinney (USA) and civilian pilot Norbert Carolin.
April 15: First Marine Aviation Force formed at NAS Miami, commanded by Capt. A. A. Cunningham.
April 23: First oversea shipment of Liberty motors arrived at assembly and repair station at Pauillac, France.
April 25: Loening M-3 first flown, equipped with Lawrence three-cylinder, air-cooled engine.
April 27: French-built airship AT-1, commanded by Lt. F. P. Culbert (USN), completed a 25-hour 23-minute flight out of Paimboeuf, France, longest flight on record for airship of this type.
April 29: Plans approved for construction of first wind (5-foot) tunnel at Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory of NACA.
May 11: First American-made DH-4, with Liberty engine, received in the AEF.
May 15: Navy Bureau of Steam Engineering reported that Marconi SE-I100 radio transmitter designed for use on H-16 flying boat, had proven capable of reliable voice communications from plane to shore up to 50 nautical miles and code communications up to 120 nautical miles.
: The Post Office's first regular airmail route, Washington to New York, was inaugurated by Army pilots.
May 17: First flight made in France of an American-built military aircraft, a DH-4, built by Dayton Wright Co. adapted from English design.
May 20: Army Aeronautics was divorced from the Signal Corps and two air departments were created: Bureau of Military Aeronautics and Bureau of Aircraft Production.
May 24: First consignment of American-built flying boats, six HS-1's, arrived at Pauillac, France.
During May: At instigation of Dr. W. F. Durand, Chairman of the NACA, General Electric assembled an experimental turbo supercharger on a Liberty engine at Dayton.
June 19: Naval Air Station Pensacola began taking upper atmosphere weather soundings to provide wind velocity and direction. Recording instruments were carried aloft by a kite balloon, a technique developed by the station meteorological officer Lt. W. F. Reed.
During July: Standard Aircraft Corp. requested to build Italian Caproni and English Handley-Page bombers.
August 17: American-designed bomber, Army Martin MB-1, made its first flight with T. E. Springer as pilot. It became the first standard bomber of the Air Service but did not enter combat, while later modifications of it were used by the Post Office Department.
September 18: Altitude world record of 28,899 feet established by Maj. R. W. Schroeder (USA) at Dayton, Ohio.
September 23: Flywheel catapult used successfully to launch Navy "flying bomb" at Copiague, Long Island, a development undertaken by Sperry Co.
September 28: One JN4 aircraft maneuvered another JN4 in flight solely by means of radio at Langley Field, Va.
October 1: First bombing using electrical releases, Allied bombers in an attack on German infantry counterattack.
October 2: First successful flights of Army's Kettering pilotless aircraft with preset controls, "The Bug," at Dayton, Ohio; often called a "guided missile" in later years.
October 3: Flight refueling demonstrated in a seaplane by Lt. Godfrey L. Cabot (USNR), by snatching 155 pounds of weight from a moving sea sled.
October 4: Navy NC-1 flying boat, designed by Hunsaker, Richardson & Westervelt, was successfully test flown.
October 19: Pilotless Navy N-9 training plane, converted to automatic flying machine, flew prescribed course although distance gear failed to land the airplane at preset range of 14,500 yards.
November 6-7: Robert H. Goddard fired several rocket devices before representatives of the Signal Corps, Air Service, Army Ordnance, and others at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md.
November 11: With the signing of the Armistice, the Army Air Service had a total of 195,024 personnel, of which 20,568 were officers, and the AEF had 3,538 airplanes while 4,865 were in service in the United States. Naval aviation consisted of 6,716 officers and 30,693 men, with 282 officers and 2,189 men in Marine Corps units with a total of 2,107 airplaines, of which 1,172 were flying boats.
November 17: NAS Hampton Roads reported that H-16 flying boat equipped with radio direction finder using British six-stage amplifier had received signals from Arlington, Va., a distance of 150 miles.
November 25: NC-1 flying boat established new world record by taking off from Rockaway Beach, N.Y., with 51 persons aboard.
During November: The NACA first recommended enactment of Federal legislation for civil aviation, enforcement to be under the Department of Commerce.
December 4: First Army transcontinental flight by four Curtiss JN4's began at San Diego, reaching Jacksonville, Fla., on December 22.
December 31: Altitude laboratory at Bureau of Standards completed a full year of detailed analysis of various engine performances up to 30,000-foot altitutdes, which yielded many results of basic importance.
During 1918: Medical Research Laboratory of the Signal Corps published a manual on aviation medicine.
: Ballistic Branch of the Army Ordnance Corps, in conjunction with the National Bureau of Standards, conducted wind tunnel tests to determine optimum shapes for artillery projectiles.
1919
January 21-31: Second Army transcontinental flight by Maj. T. C. Macauley in DH-4 Liberty, Fort Worth-San Diego-Miami-Fort Worth, which he repeated in April.
February 5: First civil airline with passenger service, Germany's Deutsche Luftreederei which operated between Berlin, Leipzig, and Weimar.
February 18: Navy Bureau of Ordnance (BuOrd) continued wartime experimental work begun by Sperry Gyroscope in 1917 on the unmanned "Flying Bomb."
February 19: The NACA recommendations on regulating air commerce, the licensing of pilots, the inspection of aircraft, and the use of landing fields were transmitted to Congress through the Secretary of the Treasury.
During February: First flights of Thomas-Morse MB-3, first U.S.-designed fighter procured in quantity, which reached speed of 164 mph in early flights exceeding that of contemporary European aircraft.
March 19: The Aircraft Board was abolished by Presidential Executive Order.
March 21: First recorded flight test of gyrocompass, a Sperry instrument, by the Navy, which was unsuccessful.
April 26: World duration unofficial record attained by Navy F5L flying boat of 20 hours 19 minutes, with Lt. H. B. Grow as pilot.
April 28: Naval Observatory requested by LCdr. Richard E. Byrd to supply bubble levels for attachment to navigational sextants, thereby providing an artificial horizon for astronomical observations from aircraft.
: Unofficial seaplane record made by Navy F5L piloted by Lt. H. B. Grow out of Hampton Roads, which completed a flight of 20 hours and 19 minutes, a distance of 1,250 nautical miles.
During April: Curtiss 18-T two-place fighter powered by a Curtiss-Kirkham K-12-350, made first flights, reached speed of 162 mph.
May 8-29: First transatlantic flight by LCdr. Albert C. Read and crew in Navy plane NC-4.
May 26: Date of Dr. Robert H. Goddard's progress report to the Smithsonian Institution entitled "A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes." It was published by the Smithsonian in January 1920.
June 14-15: First nonstop Atlantic flight from Newfoundland to Ireland, 1,936 miles, was accomplished by Capt. John Alcock and Lt. A. W. Brown of England in a Vickers-Vimy-2 Rolls 400, in 15 hours 57 minutes.
June 25: NAS Anacostia reported on measurement of temperature and humidity at altitudes made by special instruments on aircraft.
June 28: Signing of Treaty of Versailles disarmed Germany of a military air force but did not include rockets as potential weapons, thus leaving Germany free under international law to develop them.
During June: Paris office of the NACA opened with William Knight in charge to collect and disseminate aeronautical information in Britain, France, and Italy.
July 2-6: First airship crossing of the Atlantic, by British R-34.
July 24-November 9: "Around the rim" circuit flight of the United States, covering 9,823 miles, completed by Lt. Col R. L. Hartz and Lt. E. E. Harmon in a Martin bomber.
July 28: First aerial observations of schools of fish made by U.S. Bureau of Fisheries with cooperation of naval aircraft, at Cape May, N.J.
August 1-September 14: First International Aircraft Exposition since Armistice, at Amsterdam, Holland.
August 14: First airmail delivered at sea, by Aeromarine flying boat to the White liner Adriatic (Br.).
August 25: First daily commercial air service, London to Paris, begun by British Airco DH-4a.
September 6: New unofficial world altitude two-man record of 28,250 feet was set by Maj. R. W. Schroeder and Lt. G. A. Elfrey in a Le Pere Liberty 400 at Dayton, Ohio. On October 4, Schroeder reached new record of 31,796 feet in same airplane.
September 12: The NACA coordinated the replies of the executive departments regarding provisions of the International Convention on Air Navigation meeting in Paris.
September 18: World altitude official record of 31,420 feet flown by Roland Rohlfs in Curtiss triplane-Curtiss-Kirkham K12-350.
October 8-31: Army transcontinental reliability and endurance flight from New York to San Francisco and return: 44 aircraft completed westbound; 15 eastbound; and 10 planes made round trip.
October 9: Charles D. Walcott, Secretary of the Smithsonian, elected Chairman of the NACA; Joseph S. Ames was elected Chairman of the Executive Committee, a post he held until October 7, 1939.
October 13: International Convention on Air Navigation signed in Paris, which reaffirmed the principle of national sovereignty in airspace and established a Commission for Aerial Navigation under the League of Nations to regulate international air commerce.
October 30: Reversible-pitch propeller tested at McCook Field, Dayton, Ohio.
November 12-December 10: Ross McPherson Smith completed 11,500-mile intercontinental flight in a Vickers-Vimy from Heston, London, to Port Darwin, Australia.
December 8: The Aeronautical Engineering Society was organized at MIT.
December 29: American Meteorological Society founded at St. Louis, Mo., for the development and dissemination of knowledge of meteorology in all its phases and applications.
December 31: Notable technical achievements of the year according to McCook Field were: development of leakproof tanks; reversible- and variable-pitch propellers; a siphon gasoline pump; fins and floats for emergency water landings; and the turbocompressor or supercharger developed by Sanford A. Moss of General Electric.
During 1919: Adolph Rohrbach of Germany developed smooth-surface, metal-surfaced wings, combined with metal boxspar internal construction, the beginning of the stressed-skin concept.
: Weather Bureau expended $100,000 to improve meteorological observations to support increasing aviation requirements, an appropriation granted by Congress in 1917 upon the recommendation of the NACA.
: Junkers of Germany produced J-13 low-set, cantilever-wing transport, which carried a crew of two and four passengers.
1920
January 20: Navy Bureau of Steam Engineering was allocated $100,000 to contract for the development and purchase of 200-hp radial aircooled engines from the Lawrance Aero Engine Corp.
February 5: Navy-sponsored project of developing radio-loop antennas for navigational purposes.
February 27: World altitude record of 33,113 feet set by Maj. R. W. Schroeder (USA) in a LePere-Liberty 400, at McCook Field, Dayton, Ohio.
March 1: The NACA proposed a national aviation policy establishing a Bureau of Aeronautics in the Commerce Department, authorizing airplane competition to stimulate new designs, increasing Army and Navy air appropriations, expanding the Air Mail Service, and expanding research at the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory.
March 27: Successful test of Sperry gyrostabilized automatic pilot system in an F5L was completed at NAS Hampton Roads.
April 1: The NACA approved the publication of Technical Report No. 91, "Nomenclature for Aeronautics," to assist use of uniform technical terms and symbols.
April 2: Successful altitude soundings of wind direction and velocity at night, using candle-lighted free balloons at Hampton Roads in flights since January, announced by the Navy.
June 4: Army Air Service (AAS) was created in the Army reorganization bill signed by President Wilson. AAS consisted of 1,516 officers and 16,000 enlisted men.
June 8: Lt. J. H. Wilson (USA) made a series of high-altitude jumps, parachuting from a record altitude of 19,861 feet over San Antonio, Tex.
June 11: The NACA's own program of aeronautics research, conducted by its own staff in its own facilities, was begun with the first operation of the first NACA 5-foot wind tunnel at Langley Laboratory.
June 21: Because development of military rigid airships by the Navy was considered proper, and one logically leading to the development of commercial types, the NACA urged adequate funding of the Navy program in spite of recent airship disasters.
: Navy approved installation of J. V. Martin retractable landing gear on VE-7 Vought airplane, but no evidence indicates it was done. First U.S. retractable landing gear was used by J. V. Martin K-III in 1918-19 period.
June 28: The NACA formally encouraged the Army and Navy to detail officers to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for aeronautical engineering study and offered use of its facilities and personnel to further research and experimental work outside of Government.
July 1: Wright Aeronautical produced a French Hisso "cannon engine" which fired 37-mm shells through the propeller shaft.
July 7: Navy F5L seaplane flown by means of radiocompass from Hampton Roads to U.S.S. Ohio at sea.
July 13: Cdr. J. C. Hunsaker (USN) elected Honorary Fellow of Royal Aeronautical Society of England, the first time this distinction was conferred on one not a British subject.
During July-September: Inaccessible parts of Alaska mapped from the air by Army Air Service pilots, headed by Capt. St. Clair Streett (USA).
November 1: First U.S. international passenger service started by Aeromarine West Indies Airways between Key West, Fla., and Havana, Cuba.
November 25: First Pulitzer race won by Lt. C. C. Mosely in a Verville-Packard 600 at Mitchel Field, N.Y., flying a distance of 132 miles at a speed of 156.54 mph.
During 1920: NACA Report No. 84, entitled "Data on the Design of Plywood for Aircraft," by Armin Elmendorf of the Forest Service, provided basic guidance for aircraft design as well as broader applications.
: New aircraft engine laboratory, the second, was completed at the National Bureau of Standards capable of testing 800-hp engines. Work carried out under the direction of L. J. Briggs provided new data on the viscosity of air.
: Wind tunnel at Leland Stanford Aerodynamic Laboratory devoted entirely to propeller tests under direction of W. F. Durand, while NACA's George DeBothezat carried on aerodynamic studies at McCook Field.
: Secretaries of War and Navy appointed joint Aeronautical Board to consider military questions regarding use of aeronautics by both services. Having no connection with the NACA, the Aeronautical Board replaced the Joint Army and Navy Technical Aircraft Board established during the war to expedite military procurement and exploitation of aviation.
: The NACA formulated and recommended reservations regarding the Convention on International Air Navigation (1919) to the State Department prior to U.S. ratification.
: New aircraft engines of this year included the French Hisso-design 180- and 300-hp engines by Wright; the Aeromarine 120 and 180; the Parckard 300- and 600-hp types; and the Lawrance 60- and 200-hp air-cooled engines.
: Moon eclipse observed by Lts. J. H. Tilton and W. H. Cushing from height of 3 miles at NAS Rockaway, N.Y.
During 1920-22: Robert H. Goddard experimented with liquid oxygen and various liquid hydrocarbons, including gasoline and liquid propane as well as ether, as rocket fuel, under a grant by Clark University. He concluded that although oxygen and hydrogen possessed the greatest heat energy per unit mass, that liquid oxygen and liquid methane offered greatest heat value of combinations which could be used without considerable difficulty. But, he said, "the most practical combination appears to be liquid oxygen and gasoline."
1921
January 10: 700-hp aircraft engine having 18 cylinders arranged in three banks of six, tested at Engineering Division, McCook Field.
January 25: Committee on Law of Aviation, American Bar Association, filed initial report on the necessity of aerial law. On August 25, the ABA recommended Federal aerial legislation.
January 26: Post Office Department operated regular daily airmail routes over a distance of 3,460 miles.
February 21: First transcontinental flight within 24 hours, made by Lt. W. D. Coney in a DH-4B from San Diego, Calif., to Jacksonville, Fla., in 22 hours and 27 minutes.
: School for Flight Surgeons at Mitchell Field recognized as a Special Service School in War Department General Order No. 7.
March 16: U.S. Public Health Service initiated aerial survey of the Mississippi Valley watershed.
March 23: Parachute jump from 23,700 feet made by Lt. A. G. Hamilton (USA) at Chanute Field, Ill.
April 1: President Harding directed NACA to organize an inter-departmental subcommittee to recommend Federal regulation of air navigation. After a series of meetings this committee's report was approved by the Executive Committee of NACA on April 9, and transmitted to the President.
April 12: President Harding recommended establishment of a Bureau of Aviation within the Department of Commerce, in his address to Congress.
April 18: John J. Ide appointed as technical assistant in charge of the Paris office of the NACA, a post he held until 1940 and resumed after the end of World War II.
April 23: Aerial photo survey of Dominican Republic coastline completed by First Air Squadron of the USMC; and in June, it completed aerial survey of Haitian coastline.
June 8: First flight of an Army Air Service pressurized cabin airplane was made, a D-9-A aircraft piloted by Lt. Harold R. Harris.
June 9: The NACA authorized construction of compressed-air wind tunnel (20 atmospheres) with a 5-foot test section at Langley Aeronautical Laboratory.
July 9-11: Aerial study of San Andreas rift, the line of earthquakes of 1857 and 1906 in California Coast Range, made by Prof. Bailey Willis of the Seismological Society of America.
July 13-21: In a series of Army-Navy bombing tests off the Virginia Capes, airplanes sank the captured German destroyer G-102, light cruiser Frankfort, and battleship Ostfriesland.
July 29: Brig. Gen. William Mitchell led 17 bombers in "raid" over New York.
August 1: World War I high-altitude bombsight mounted on a gyrostabilized base tested by Navy Torpedo Squadron at Yorktown, Va., marking completion of first phase of Carl L. Norden's development of a bombsight for BuOrd.
August 4: 5,000 catalpa trees successfully sprayed from an airplane in 15 minutes, at Troy, Ohio.
August 10: The Navy Bureau of Aeronautics was established with Rear Adm. William A. Moffett as first chief.
September 18: Lt. J. A. Macready (USA) broke world altitude record in a Packard LePere fighter plane by reaching 34,508 feet.
September 23: Day and night bombardment test flights by the U.S. Air Service were begun, which resulted in the sinking of the battleship Alabama in the Chesapeake Bay by a 2,000-pound bomb.
September 30: During forest fire season, 47 Air Service aircraft discovered 832 forest fires in 396 patrols from Pacific coast bases, flying 148,113 miles over national parks.
: Pointing out the virtual U.S. monopoly of known sources of helium, the NACA passed a special resolution addressed to the President and the Secretaries of War and Navy urging the continuance of the U.S. airship development program.
October 18: A world speed record of 222.96 mph for 1 kilometer was set by Brig. Gen. William Mitchell in a Curtiss R6 Curtiss D12 375, at Mount Clemens, Mich.
November 12: First air-to-air refueling made when Wesley May stepped from wing of one aircraft to that of another with a 5-gallon can of gasoline strapped to his back.
November 15: Initial U.S. flight of airship Roma was made at Langley Field, Va.
November 28: NACA Report 116, "Applications of Modern Hydrodynamics to Aeronautics," by Ludwig Prandtl of Gottingen University in Germany, a major contribution to the basis of the theory governing fundamental aerodynamical applications, was published. His famous 1904 paper on boundary layers was translated and issued in NACA Technical Memorandum No. 452 in 1928.
December 1: Nonrigid Navy dirigible C-7, first to use nonflammable helium, made flight from Hampton Roads, Va., to Washington, D.C.
December 7: In its annual report, the NACA recommended establishment of a Federal airways system to include provision of extended weather service "indespensable to the success and safety of air navigation." It also recommended that Government policy be formulated "to sustain and stabilize the aeronautical industry."
December 29: World endurance record of 26 hours 18 minutes 35 seconds set at Roosevelt Field, N.Y., by Edward Stinson and Lloyd Bertaud in a Junkers-Larsen BMW 185 (imported German Junkers J-13).
During December: The NACA cooperated with private organizations in the formulation of an air safety code.
During 1921: The NACA's Office of Aeronautical Intelligence distributed 13,080 copies of technical reports and 7,108 copies of technical notes to governmental, industrial, and educational institutions.
1922
February 7: Completion of a 50-hour test of the Lawrance J-1, 200-hp radial air-cooled engine, by the Aeronautical Engine Laboratory, Washington Navy Yard, foreshadowed the successful use of radial engines in naval aircraft.
March 20: Navy's first aircraft carrier, U.S.S. Langley, was commissioned at Norfolk, Va., a converted collier, Jupiter.
March 23: NACA Report No. 159 on "Jet Propulsion for Airplanes," by Edgar Buckingham of the Bureau of Standards, pointed out that jet fuel consumption would be four times that of propeller engine at 250 mph, but that efficiency of jet increased at higher speeds.
April 25: Stout ST-1 successfully test flown by Eddie Stinson, first all-metal airplane designed for the Navy.
May 31: First use of helium in a free balloon in Navy balloon flown by Lt. Comdr. J. P. Norfleet in National Elimination Balloon Race at Milwaukee, which did not place in the race.
June 10: Guglielmo Marconi of Italy stated that an apparatus could be designed to transmit radio waves from one ship in any desired direction and pick up reflections from another ship in a receiver, a device which would "thereby immediately reveal the presence and bearing of the other ship in fog or thick weather." Christian Huelsmeyer of Germany received a patent in 1904 on boat equipment which used reflected radio waves for navigational use on the Rhine River.
June 12: Capt. A. W. Stevens (USAS) made record parachute jump from 24,200 from a supercharged Martin bomber over McCook Field.
: Smithsonian Institution scientists utilized Navy seaplanes in mollusk research in Florida waters, completing in days what would otherwise have required a year.
June 16: Helicopter flight made by Henry Berliner at College Park, Md.
: Lt. C. L. Bissell (USAS) began a series of night cross-country flights between Bolling Field, D.C., and Langley Field, Va.
June 26: ZR-3 rigid airship ordered from the Zeppelin Co., Friedrichshafen, Germany, as part of World War I reparations under terms approved by the Allied Conference of Ambassadors on December 16, 1921.
During June: Wright E-2 engine operated continuously for 250 hours at wide-open throttle, demonstrating improved durability of intake and exhaust valves; Navy BuAer later increased engine suitability tests from 50 to 300 hours' endurance.
July 1: Eight naval medical officers were first to report for flight training, at NAS Pensacola, having previously completed flight surgeon's course at the Army Technical School of Aviation Medicine.
July 16: Berliner helicopter rose 12 feet and hovered before military observers at College Park, Md.
July 17: Aerial photos taken from naval aircraft to aid in location of reefs at Hahaina, Maui, Hawaii.
August 2: An unofficial three-man altitude record of 23,350 feet was set at McCook Field, Dayton, Ohio, by Lt. L. Wade, Capt. A. W. Stevens, and Sergeant Longham in a supercharged Air Service bomber.
August 18: AGA beacon (American Gas Accumulator) began operations at NAS Hampton Roads, with 6,000 candlepower, 18 flashes per minute, and an optical range of 20 miles horizontally.
August 21: Lawrence Sperry dropped landing wheels from plane in flight and landed it on a skid device at Farmingdale, Long Island.
September 4: First transcontinental flight within a single day, by Lt. J. H. Doolittle (USAS) in a modified DH-4B Liberty 400, from Pablo Beach, Fla., to Rockwell Field, San Diego, a distance of 2,163 miles in 21 hours 20 minutes.
September 27: Observations on overflying aircraft made by Navy scientists ultimately aiding development of radar, by Albert Hoyt Taylor and Leo C. Young of the Naval Aircraft Radio Laboratory, Anacostia, D.C.
October 17: First USN carrier takeoff by Lt. V. C. Griffin in Vought VE-7SF, from U.S.S. Langley.
October 19: Variable-density wind tunnel placed into operation at Langley Laboratory, although lack of adequate electric power prevented concurrent operation of both wind tunnels this year.
October 23: Reversible propeller demonstrated at Bolling Field, D.C., by American Propeller Co.
October 26: First USN carrier landing made by Lt. Comdr. G. Chevalier in Aeromarine 39B on U.S.S. Langley off Cape Henry.
November 1: First engineer-in-charge appointed for NACA Langley Aeronautical Laboratory, Leigh M. Griffith.
November 8: Air Service Medical Research Laboratory and School for Flight Surgeons was designated School of Aviation Medicine.
November 18: First catapult launching from carrier U.S.S. Langley (CV-1) by Comdr. Kenneth Whiting flying a PT seaplane.
December 4: President Harding requested there commendations of the NACA as to the most promising program for the Air Mail Service in the expenditure of its limited funds. The NACA, on December 20, recommended that $2,300,000 be appropriated to demonstrate feasibility of night flying on the mail service and to establish regular New York-San Francisco mail service in 36 hours or less.
December 18: DeBothezat helicopter, built by the Engineering Division of the Air Service at McCook Field, successfully testflown for 1 minute 42 seconds by Maj. F. H. Bane.
During 1922: Two wind tunnels (4 by 4 foot, and 8 by 8 foot) at the Washington Navy Yard, under the direction of A. F. Zahm, made tests on naval designs, the important results of which were usually published by NACA as technical reports.
: As a result of Army-Navy conference, policy established that manufacturers and designers should be invited to compete in the design and construction of military aircraft, with engineers given a free hand. The only requirement was that the airplane have military utility and have a speed of more than 190 mph.
: National Aeronautic Association was formed with Howard E. Coffin elected president.
: U.S. Weather Bureau first prepared a "standard atmosphere" showing the relationship between pressure and temperature based on average conditions over the United States at 40° N. latitude.
1920-22: Goddard developed and unsuccessfully tested first liquid propellant engine, using liquid oxygen, and devised small high-pressure pumps to force fuel into the combustion chamber.
1923
January 5: Cloud seeding over McCook Field, Dayton, accomplished by Prof. W. D. Bancroft of Cornell University, from Air Service aircraft.
February 6: Aeronautical Engine Laboratory transferred from Washington Navy Yard to the Naval Aircraft Factory, establishing the Naval Aircraft Factory as the center of naval aeronautical development.
February 21: DeBothezat helicopter achieved sustained altitude of 15 feet for 2 minutes and 45 seconds in flight tests at McCook Field.
March 5: Auxiliary jettisonable belly tank fitted to bomb rack of MB3A at Selfridge Field, Mich., increased flying radius to about 400 miles.
March 8: Lunar radiation observations at an altitude of 19,000 feet made by Russell M. Otis in DH-4B over San Diego, Lt. F. W. Seifert as pilot.
March 29: Lt. R. L. Maitland attained world speed record of 239.95 mph in Curtiss R-6 at Dayton, Ohio.
April 2: First flight of all-metal pursuit monoplane, Wright H-3, 400-hp engine, at Curtiss Field.
April 15: Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) reported equipment for radio control of an F5L was satisfactory to a range of 10 miles, and that radio control of aircraft during landing and takeoff was feasible.
April 20: First aerial refueling with hose, at Rockwell Field, San Diego, between two DH-4B aircraft, under the direction of Henry H. Arnold (USAS).
May 2-3: First nonstop transcontinental flight of 2,520 miles from New York to San Diego flown by Lts. O. G. Kelly and J. A. Macready, in a Fokker T2-Liberty 375 in 26 hours 50 minutes.
May 26: Chief of Navy BuAer agreed with Chief of Army Air Service that identical aeronautic specifications would be advantageous to both the aviation industry and the military services. Lt. R. S. Barnaby was ordered to McCook Field as BuAer representative on interservice committee on standardization in December, the first of a series of annual meetings held until 1937.
June 9: Juan de la Cierva made first successful autogiro flights in a rotary wing aircraft, at Madrid, Spain.
June 20: Initial flight of all-metal airplane (Gallaudet) designed by Engineering Division at Wright Field.
June 25: First International Air Congress, London, England, 450 delegates from 17 nations attended.
June 26: First complete midair pipeline refueling between two airplanes, made by Lts. L. H. Smith and J. P. Richter (USA) at San Diego.
August 22: World's largest airplane, the six-engine Barling bomber, underwent first tests at McCook Field, Lt. H. R. Harris as pilot.
August 27-28: Capt. L. H. Smith and Lt. J. P. Richter flew a DH-4B-Liberty 400 to a world refueled duration record of 37 hours and 15 minutes, as well as a distance record of 3,293 miles at Rockwell Field, San Diego, Calif.
September 4: Navy airship Shenandoah (ZR-1) made its first flight at NAS Lakehurst, the first of the Zeppelin type to use helium gas.
September 5: Army bombers sank two obsolete battleships, the U.S.S. Virginia and the U.S.S. New Jersey, off Cape Hatteras.
September 28: Navy aircraft won first and second places in Schneider Cup international seaplane races at Cowes, England, and established new world record for seaplanes with a speed of 169.89 mph for 200 kilometers. Flying CR-3's powered by Curtiss D-12 engines, Lt. David Rittenhouse achieved 177.38 mph in the race, while Lt. Rutledge Irvine placed second with 173.46 mph.
October 1: Goodyear Tire & Rubber acquired Zeppelin rights for manufacture of rigid airships.
October 6: Lt. A. J. Williams (USN) set new world speed records of 243.8 mph for 100 kilometers, and 243.7 mph for 200 kilometers over a closed circuit, flying a Curtis R2C-1 Racer in the Pulitzer Trophy Race, at St. Louis, Mo.
November 1: Robert H. Goddard successfully operated a liquid oxygen and gasoline rocket motor on a testing frame, both fuel components being supplied by pumps installed on the rocket.
November 2: Flexural fatigue machine for testing sheet duralumin stopped after 200 million alterations, on a 389-day nonstop run at the Bureau of Standards. Check calibration gave same reading as the original calibration on October 5, 1922.
November 4: Lt. Alford J. Williams (USN) established world speed record of 266.59 mph in Navy-Curtiss Racer over Mitchel Field, Long Island, which remained U.S. record until 1930.
November 5: Series of tests demonstrating feasibility of stowing, assembling, and launching a seaplane from a submarine were completed, which involved assembling a Martin MS-1 and launching it by submerging the submarine.
November 23: Concluding sentence of the annual report of the NACA for 1923 was: "Progress in aeronautics is being made at so rapid a rate that the only way to keep abreast of other nations is actually to keep abreast, year by year, never falling behind." [Italic in original.]
November 23: Aeromarine all-metal flying boat launched at Keyport, N.J.
December 18: Christmas aileron patent claim was settled when U.S. Government bought the patent rights for $100,000.
End of 1923: Die Rakete zu den Planetenräumen (The Rocket Into Interpanetary Space) by Hermann Oberth was published in Germany, and was the genesis for considerable discussion of rocket propulsion.
During 1923: Turbine-type supercharger with a gear drive under development at McCook Field.
: Navy Bureau of Aeronautics abandoned water-cooled engines of less than 300 hp with the development of the Lawrance direct air-cooled J-1, 200-hp engine. Weight of water-cooling system was usually in excess of 25 percent of the total weight of the engine.
1924
January 16: President Coolidge canceled all preparations for Navy Arctic expedition in which it was intended to use airplanes and the dirigible Shenandoah.
February 27: Corp. C. E. Conrad (USAS) successfully parachuted from 21,500 feet, from DH-4B over Kelly Field, Tex.
March 4: Two Martin bombers and two DH-4's broke up an icejam on the Platte River at North Bend, Nebr., by bombing.
March 7: Lt. E. H. Barksdale and B. Jones (USAS) flew DH-4B Liberty 400 on instruments from McCook Field, Dayton, Ohio, to Mitchel Field, N.Y.
During March: Apparatus developed at Wright Field for scattering insecticide from the air, for use in checking spread of gypsy moth in New England.
April 6-September 28: The first round-the-world flight, the first transpacific flight, and the first westbound Atlantic crossing, from and returning to Seattle, by two Army Douglas "World Cruiser" biplanes, flying 26,345 miles in 363 hours' flying time, with an elapsed time of 175 days.
During April: Central Committee for the Study of Rocket Propulsion established in the Soviet Union.
May 2: Unofficial two-man altitude record of 31,540 feet set by Lts. John A. Macready and A. W. Stevens (USAS) on a flight during which an aerial photograph covering the greatest area of the earth's surface to date was obtained.
May 19: Lt. J. A. Macready (USAS) established new American altitude record of 35,239 feet at Dayton, in Le Pere Liberty 400.
June 2: Dr. C. L. Meisinger of the Weather Bureau and Lt. James T. Neely were killed by lightning in storm-riding balloon flight, near Monticello, Ill.
June 23: First "dawn-to-dusk" flight from New York to San Francisco, by Lt. R. L. Maugham in Curtis Pursuit (PW-8), with five stops en route.
July 1: Dr. George W. Lewis appointed Director of Aeronautical Research of NACA, a post he held until 1947.
: First continuous night-and-day transcontinental airmail service initiated between New York and San Francisco by Post Office Department pilots, a service which was first instituted on September 8, 1920, but had stopped.
September 14: French helicopter flown by its designer, Oehmichen, established world helicopter altitude record of 3.28 feet carrying 440.92-pound useful load.
September 15: Unmanned N-9 seaplane equipped with radio control successfully flown on 40-minute flight from Naval Proving Grounds, Dahlgren, and sank from damage sustained on landing.
October 15: ZR-3 (later renamed Los Angeles), a German dirigible constructed for the U.S. Navy under a reparations agreement, arrived at Lakehurst, N.J., after flying the Atlantic, by German crew under Dr. Hugo Eckener.
October 24: When all foreign entrants withdrew from Schneider Cup Race to be held at Bayshore Park, Md., the United States agreed to cancel race rather than win by a flyaway. Instead, Navy scheduled contestants and other naval aircraft placed 17 world records in the book for class C seaplanes.
October 25: Lt. R. A. Ofstie (USN) established new world seaplane speed record of 178.25 mph for 100 km.
October 28: Cloud formations at 13,000 feet were broken up over Bolling Field, D.C., by "blasting" with electrified silica in a fog-dispersal demonstration by Army aircraft.
November 24: NACA Committee on Aerodynamics summarized in its annual report that it had direct control of aerodynamic research conducted at Langley, the propeller research conducted at Standford University under W. F. Durand, and some special investigation at the Bureau of Standards and at a number of Universities. Investigation undertaken at the Washington Navy Yard Aerodynamic Laboratory, the Engineering Division of the Army Air Service, the Bureau of Standards, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology were reported to this Committee. Thus, it was "in close contact with all aerodynamical work being carried out in the United States."
: NACA Subcommittee on metals concluded that duralumin girders which formed framework of the Shenandoah "will not fail by 'fatigue' in less than 40 years under service conditions" as a result of the "most extensive investigation of the properties of sheet metal which has been undertaken in this country," by the Bureau of Standards.
December 2: "Standard Atmosphere," after careful coordination, approved by Executive Committee of NACA, later adopted for use in aeronautical calculations by the War and Navy Departments, the Weather Bureau, and the Bureau of Standards; described by Lt. Walter S. Diehl of BuAer in NACA Technical Report No. 218. It gave pressures and densities for altitudes up to 20,000 meters and to 65,000 feet.
December 9: The Civil Aeronautics Act, proposing to establish a Bureau of Civil Aeronautics in the Department of Commerce, was reintroduced in Congress.
During 1924: High-speed wind tunnel (5 foot, 1,000 hp, 260 mph) at McCook Field used continuously, handling 150 tests of 17 airfoil, 24 model, and 15 fuselage tests.
: High-speed photography of sprays produced by fuel injection valves successfully developed, and flight study of Roots-type supercharger with DH-4 and DT-2 aircraft conducted, at Langley Laboratory. Supercharging increased practical ceiling of DH-4 from 14,500 feet to 31,000 feet, and of the DT-2 from 18,500 feet to 28,000 feet.
: NACA Report No. 207 by L. J. Briggs, G. F. Hull, and H. L. Dryden of the National Bureau of Standards, "Aerodynamic Characteristics of Airfoils at High Speeds," was major contribution reporting on tests of airfoils at near supersonic speeds.
1925
January 24-25: Twenty-five aircraft carried scientists and other observers above clouds in Connecticut to view total eclipse of the sun, while airship Los Angeles carried Naval Observatory scientists over Block Island, R.I.
February 2: President Coolidge signed the Kelly bill authorizing contract air transport of mail.
February 18: "Standard Altimeter Calibration" worked out by Bureau of Standards, and approved by all interested agencies, was approved by the NACA.
April 13: Henry Ford started an airfreight line between Detroit and Chicago, the first such commercial flights on a regular schedule.
April 15: Daily flights to an altitude of 10,000 feet to obtain weather data and to test upper-air-sounding equipment begun at NAS Anacostia. In the following February, the schedule was extended by the Navy to include weekends and holidays, with the altitude being increased to 15,000 feet.
April 27: First trial flight of new Wright Cyclone 450-hp air-cooled engine in DT-6 torpedo plane, at Muchio's Field, N.J.
During April: Oleo landing gear tested by Navy on NB-1 at Seattle.
May 20: Air Service Technical School at Rantoul, Ill., carried on radio conversations from planes in the air, reaching Chicago 115 miles distant.
June 12: Daniel Guggenheim donated $500,000 toward establishment of a School of Aeronautics at New York University.
June 25: Construction of full-scale propeller research wind tunnel at Langley Aeronautical Laboratory was initiated, which was completed in 1927.
During July: First radiobeacon, one developed at McCook Field, installed in airmail plane for the Department of Commerce.
: Small car moving on ground controlled by radio from an airplane at 2,000 feet, by Air Service at Wright Field, Dayton.
August 1: Naval Air Detail, under Lt. Comdr. R. E. Byrd, began aerial exploration of 30,000-square-mile area near Etah, North Greenland, with three Loening amphibians, as part of the MacMillan expedition.
: Curtiss Condor, first of new series of night bombers, made first flight at Garden City, Long Island.
September 3: Navy dirigible Shenandoah crashed near Ava, Ohio, killing 14 of 43 persons aboard.
September 12: Morrow Board was appointed by President Coolidge to recommend U.S. air policy.
October 7: Post Office Department awarded first five contracts under the Kelly Air Mail Act for the flying of mail to private contractors on a bid basis.
October 26: Lt. James H. Doolittle, U.S. Air Service, won Schneider Cup Race flying Curtiss-R3 C-2 seaplane Racer, and also broke speed record for seaplanes attaining 245.7 mph, at Baltimore, Md.
November 20: Night photographs using 50-pound magnesium flares taken from Army Martin bomber by Lt. George W. Goddard, over Rochester, N.Y.
November 30: The President's Aircraft Board, better known for its senior member as the Morrow Board, submitted its report to President Coolidge. Recommendations of the NACA to the Morrow Board were important in decisions leading to the passage of the Air Commerce Act of 1926 and the appropriation of funds for the long-range development of Army and Navy aviation. With its recommendations inaugurated, NACA thereafter followed a policy of avoiding entanglement in matters not related to research.
December 17: Col. William Mitchell found guilty by Army General Court-Martial, in session since October 28.
December 27: Daniel Guggenheim created the $2,500,000 Daniel Guggenheim Fund for the Promotion of Aeronautics to speed development of civil aviation in the United States.
During 1925: School of Aviation Medicine began study on an objective aptitude test for flyers.
During 1925: Goeffrey de Havilland of Britain first produced two-seat biplane, the Moth, a small popular light airplane. War-surplus Curtis JN4D airplanes had earlier been popular in the United States, while Taylor Cub monoplane appeared in 1931.
1926
January 1: Henry J. E. Reid appointed Engineer-in-Charge of NACA Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory, a post held until July 1960, when he retired as Director of NASA's Langley Research Center.
January 16: Daniel Guggenheim Fund for the Promotion of Aeronautics formally established.
January 29: An American altitude record of 38,704 feet was set by Lt. J. A. Macready (USAS) in an XCO5-A Liberty 400 at Dayton, Ohio.
February 6: Pratt & Whitney produced first Wasp engine, a nine-cylinder radial air-cooled engine of about 400 hp at 1,800 rpm.
March 16: Robert H. Goddard launched the world's first liquid-fueled rocket at Auburn, Mass., which traveled 184 feet in 21/2 seconds. This event was the "Kitty Hawk" of rocketry.
March 23: Inventor of sodium-filled valves for internal combustion engines, S. D. Heron, granted exclusive license for manufacture to Rick Tool Co., later part of Eaton Manufacturing Co.
April 16: The Department of Agriculture purchased its first cotton-dusting plane.
During April: The NACA analysis of basic aeronautical legislation was accepted by Joint Senate-House conferees, leading to the Air Commerce Act of May 20, 1926. This freed NACA of responsibility for regulation of civil aviation and permitted it to concentrate upon the conduct of aeronautical research.
May 5: Robert H. Goddard communicated the results of his successful liquid-propellant rocket flight of March 16 to the Smithsonian Institution.
May 9: First flight over the North Pole, by Richard Byrd, navigator, and Floyd Bennett, pilot, in a Fokker Monoplane, from Spitsbergen.
May 12: Lincoln Ellsworth, American explorer, flew across the North Pole in the dirigible Norge, commanded by Roald Amundsen.
May 20: President Coolidge signed the Air Commerce Act, the first Federal legislation regulating civil aeronautics.
May 24: First annual inspection and conference for industrial and other governmental aeronautical persons held at NACA's Langley Laboratory. These annual events were of high importance in promoting aeronautical research in the United States.
June 6: Last elements of Navy Alaskan Aerial Survey Expedition departed Seattle for Alaska. Three Loening amphibians operating from tender U.S.S. Gannet made aerial mapping of Alaska throughout the summer and into September with the cooperation of the Department of the Interior.
June 25: Largest wind tunnel in the world (20-foot throat), the Propeller Research Tunnel, constructed at Langley.
July 1: Edward P. Warner, professor of aeronautics at MIT, nominated by President Coolidge to become Assistant Secretary of Navy in Charge of Aviation. Dr. Warner served on the NACA, 1929-46.
July 2: First known reforesting by airplane was carried out in Hawaii.
: The Army Air Corps Act became law and the Air Service was redesignated the Air Corps. It also made provision for an Assistant Secretary of War for Air and for a 5-year Air Corps expansion program.
: By act of Congress, the NACA was required to review aeronautical inventions and designs submitted to any branch of Government and submit reports to the Aeronautics Patents and Design Board.
July 28: Submarine S-1 surfaced and launched a Cox-Klemin XS-2 seaplane piloted by Lt. D. C. Allen. It later recovered airplane and submerged, thus carrying out first complete cycle in this series of feasibility experiments.
August 25: JN training plane with large parachute floated deadstick down to a rough landing and some damage, at San Diego Naval Air Station.
During August: Air Corps School of Aviation Medicine moved from Mitchel Field to Brooks Field, Tex., and was subsequently moved to Randolph Field in October 1931.
October 1: Daniel Guggenheim Fund for the Promotion of Aeronautics made a grant to the University of Michigan for the completion of a wind tunnel and a Chair of Aeronautics.
November 13: Lt. C. F. Schilt (USMC) took second place in the Schneider Cup Race at Hampton Roads, Va., flying an R3C-2 with an average speed of 231 mph. This was last U.S. Navy participation in international racing competition.
December 10-11: Financed by the Daniel Guggenheim Fund for the Promotion of Aeronautics, a conference of representatives of MIT, New York University, Stanford University, California Institute of Technology, University of Michigan, and University of Washington was held at NACA to interchange ideas on educational methods, coordinating research work, and developing special courses in aeronautical education.
During 1926: Dr. Louis H. Bauer, former Commandant of the School of Aviation Medicine (1919-25), established a medical section in the Bureau of Air Commerce, Department of Commerce.
: Lt. Col. D. A. Myers at the School of Aviation Medicine developed basic physiological principles necessary to the development and use of blind-flying instruments, work done in conjunction with research by Lt. Col. W. A. Ocker. This study was regarded as one of the greatest contributions of medicine to the technical advancement of aviation.
1927
During February: Army Air Corps completed aerial photographic survey of east and west coasts of Florida (1,284 square miles) for the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey.
March 9: Capt. H. C. Gray (AAC) ascended to 28,910 feet in a free balloon for an American altitude record. (World record held by Suring and Berson of Germany who ascended to 35,433 feet on June 30, 1901.)
April 4: Regular commercial airline passenger service initiated by Colonial Air Transport between New York and Boston.
April 21: Dr. Joseph S. Ames was elected Chairman of the NACA, to replace Dr. Charles Walcott, one of the original 12 members, who died in February.
May 4: Record balloon flight by Capt. H. C. Gray (AAC) reached 42,470 feet over Scott Field, Ill., but he was forced to bail out successfully so that record was not official.
May 20-21: The first solo nonstop transatlantic flight, New York to Paris, was completed by Charles A. Lindbergh. This was a major milestone in awakening the Nation to the full potentialities of aviation.
May 25: Lt. James H. Doolittle (AAC) flew the first successful outside loop.
June 4: Daniel Guggenheim School of Aeronautics officially opened at New York University. Daniel Guggenheim Fund for the Promotion of Aeronautics also made gifts to MIT, University of Michigan, Stanford University, and the California Institute of Technology in this time period.
June 4-5: Clarence D. Chamberlain and Charles A. Levine flew nonstop from New York to Eisleben, Germany, in Bellanca monoplane Columbia.
June 5: Society for Space Travel (Verein fuer Raumschiffahrt), known as "VfR," formed in Breslau, Germany.
June 8: Astronautics Committee of the Société Astronomique Française established in France.
June 22: John F. Victory, the first employee of NACA in 1915, who had served as Assitant Secretary since 1917, was appointed Secretary of the NACA.
June 29-30: Cdr. Richard Byrd, Bertram B. Acosta, Noville, and B. Balchen flew Fokker monoplane America from New York to a crash landing in the sea off the French coast.
July 25: A world airplane altitude record of 38,484 feet was established by Lt. C. C. Champion (USN) in a Wright Apache P&W 425.
August 1: Fire damaged interior of variable-density wind tunnel at Langley Laboratory, which when reconstructed was used in conjunction with jet-type wind tunnel produced airflow in 12-inch chamber in excess of 800 mph.
October 12: Wright Field, Dayton, Ohio, was formally dedicated.
November 4: Capt. H. C. Gray (AAC) ascended to 42,470 feet, the identical altitude of his May flight, but he did not survive the flight and thereby failed again to achieve official world record.
November 6: Lt. "Al" Williams (USN) flew Kirkham racing plane powered with 1,250-hp 24-cylinder Packard engine at unofficial speed of 322.6 mph.
November 16: U.S.S. Saratoga (CV-3) was placed in commission by the Navy.
December 14: U.S.S. Lexington (CV-2) was placed in commission.
During 1927: Air Corps sponsored development of Allison "X" type engine of 24 cylinders expected to develop 1,400 hp; while Navy flight tested radial air-cooled Wright R-1750, and used Pratt & Whitney Wasp in a number of service aircraft.
: Coordination between NACA and British Aeronautical Research Committee included exchange of views at joint meetings and a program of comparative research for standardization of wind tunnel data.
: Operation of Materiel Division wind tunnels at McCook Field handicapped by move to the new Wright Field. During the year, the new full-scale Propeller-Research Tunnel at Langley Laboratory became operational, while the Bureau of Standards tested 24 airfoil sections at various speeds up to 1.08 times the speed of sound.
: Superchargers passed from experimental development stage to active service use on radial air-cooled engines, while both Roots-type and centrifugal-type superchargers were being tested on water-cooled engines.
: Appearance of Lockheed Vega set pace for general-purpose aircraft, a high cantilever wing and wooden stressed-skin fuselage which permitted large interior structure for passengers as well as reducing weight and drag.
1928
February 3: At Wright Field, Lt. H. A. Sutton began a series of tests to study the spinning characteristics of planes, for which he was awarded the Mackay Trophy. (See Appendix D)
February 28: Navy issued contract for XPY-1 flying boat to Consolidated Aircraft, the first large monoplane flying boat procured and the initial configuration which evolved into the PBY Catalina.
March 10: $900,000 authorized for completion of the Wright Field Experimental Laboratory.
March 28: Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Aeronautics called conference of representatives of Army, Navy, Weather Bureau, Bureau of Standards, NACA, and Commerce Department to study cause and prevention of ice formation on aircraft.
April 11: First manned rocket automobile tested by Fritz von Opel, Max Valier, and others, at Berlin, Germany.
April 12-13: German pilots Köchl and Huenefeld, and J. Fitzmaurice made first westbound transatlantic airplane flight in Junkers Bremen.
May 5: Lt. C. C. Champion flew a Wright Apache equipped with P&W Wasp engine and NACA supercharger to new world altitude record for seaplanes of 33,455 feet.
May 15: NACA held third annual Engineering Research Conference at Langley Field, Va.
May 22: First patent on sodium-filled valves for combustion engines issued to S. D. Heron, engineer of the Materiel Division at Wright Field.
During May: Aeronautics Branch of Department of Commerce created Board to determine original causes of aircraft accidents.
June 11: Friedrich Stamer made first manned rocket-powered flight in a tailless glider from the Wasserkuppe in the Rhön Mountains of Germany. Takeoff was made by elastic launching rope assisted by 44-pound thrust rocket, another rocket was fired while airborne, and a flight of about 1 mile was achieved. This flight was a part of experimentation directed by A. Lippisch.
June 16: Successful tests were made of superchargers designed to give sea level pressure at 30,000 feet and a new liquid-oxygen system for high-altitude flying, at Wright Field. Lt. William H. Bleakly in XCO-5 made flight to 36,509 feet and remained there 18 minutes.
During September: The NACA undertook coordination of research programs in universities to promote the study of aeronautics and meteorology.
September 19: First diesel engine to power heavier-than-air aircraft, manufactured by Packard Motor Car Co., was flight tested at Utica, Mich.
September 23: Lt. James H. Doolittle accompanied by Capt. A. Stevens made altitude flight of 37,200 feet to obtain aerial photograph covering 33 square miles.
October 4-5: First Aeronautical Safety Conference held in New York under auspices of the Daniel Guggenheim Fund for the Promotion of Aeronautics.
October 10: Capts. St. Clair Streett and A. W. Stevens (USA) flew to 37,854 feet, less than 1,000 feet short of the official world record for single-occupant flight.
During October: At the request of the Air Coordination Committee, NACA prepared a report on "Aircraft Accident Analysis" for use by the War, Navy, and Commerce Departments.
: Air Corps developed 84-foot-in-diameter parachute of sufficient strength to support weight of an airplane and its passengers.
December 17: International pilgrimage made to Kitty Hawk, N.C., to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the first airplane flight.
December 19: First autogiro flight in the United States was made by Haold F. Pitcairn, Willow Grove, Pa.
During December: Air Medical Association formed at International Aeronautics Conference.
During 1928: NACA developed cowling for radial air-cooled engines which increased speed of Curtis AT-5A airplane from 118 to 137 mph with no increase in engine horsepower, Fred E. Weick and associates contributing to this development.
: NACA's Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory demonstrated high lift by boundary-layer control by means of pressure or suction slots in an airfoil in the atmospheric wind tunnel.
: First refrigerated wind tunnel for research on prevention of icing of wings and propellers placed in operation at Langley Laboratory.
: First of nine volumes of an encyclopedia on interplanetary travel by Prof. Nikolai A. Rynin published in the Soviet Union, the final volume of which appeared in 1932.
1929
January 1-7: An unofficial endurance record for refueled airplane flight was set by Maj. Carl Spaatz, Capt. Ira C. Eaker, and Lt. Elwood Quesada in the Question Mark, Fokker C2-3 Wright 220, over Los Angeles Airport, with flying time of 150 hours 40 minutes 15 seconds.
January 23-27: Modern aircraft carriers Lexington and Saratoga participated in fleet exercises for the first time.
February 4-5: Capt. Frank Hawks and O. E. Grubb established new nonstop transcontinental West-East record of 18 hours 22 minutes, in a single-engine Lockheed Air Express, the first practical application of NACA cowling for radial air-cooled engines.
February 23: Successful development of special goggles, heated gloves, and a device for warming oxgyen before use announced by Wright Field.
March 2: Membership of the NACA increased from 12 to 15 members by act of Congress.
May 8: Lt. A. Soucek (USN) established world's altitude record of 39,140 feet, flying the Wright Apache over Anacostia, D.C.
June 21: NACA special subcommittee held initial meeting at Langley on aeronautical research in universities.
June 27-29: Capt. Frank Hawks broke transcontinental speed records from East to West and West to East flying the Lockheed Air Express.
July 17: A liquid-fueled, 11-foot rocket, fired by Robert Goddard at Auburn, Mass., carried a small camera, thermometer, and a barometer which were recovered intact after the flight. Much "moon rocket" publicity made of this flight.
August 8-29: Round-the-world flight of the German rigid airship Graf Zeppelin.
August 23-October 31: Russian plane, Land of the Soviets, flown on good-will tour of the United States from Moscow to Seattle, thence to New York, having covered 13,300 miles in 142 flying-hours.
During August: Use of a battery of solid-propellant rockets on Junkers-33 seaplane, the first recorded jet-assisted take-off of an airplane, made in tests near Dessau, Germany.
September 22: Second Alaska Aerial Survey completed by Navy, mapping 13,000 square miles in southeastern Alaska.
September 24: Lt. James H. Doolittle made the first public all-blind flight at Mitchel Field, Long Island, accompanied by a check pilot.
September 30: Opel Sander Rak. 1, a glider powered with 16 rockets of 50 pounds of thrust each, made successful flight of 75 seconds, covering almost 2 miles near Frankfort-am-Main, Germany, Von Opel as pilot.
October 7: Aero Medical Association of the United States founded by Louis H. Bauer, and the first issue of the Journal of Aviation Medicine was published in March 1930.
October 15: Premier of German movie film, Frau im Mond (The Girl in the Moon) directed by Fritz Lange, which assisted popular awareness of rocket potentials in Germany.
October 21: German Dornier DO-X flying boat carried 169 passengers in hour flight over Lake Constance, Switzerland, the largest number of individuals ever carried in a single aircraft.
November 28-29: First flight over South Pole, by Comdr. Richard E. Byrd, in a Ford trimotor piloted by Bernt Balchen, from Little America.
November 29: First pursuit aircraft powered with high-temperature, liquid-cooling system designed by the Materiel Division, was completed by Curtiss and flown to Wright Field for flight testing.
December 12: Langley Medals were presented to Adm. Richard E. Byrd for his flights over both poles and posthumously to Charles M. Manly for his pioneer development of airplane engines.
December 31: Daniel Guggenheim Fund for the Promotion of Aeronautics ended its activities.
During 1929: J. Jongbloed experimentally recognized the occurrence of a disease like the bends, or caisson disease, at pressures of less than 1 atmosphere.
: U.S. Bureau of Standards developed the radio-echo altimeter.
: NACA Annual Report indicated that aerodynamic efficiency may be increased by applying the principle of boundary-layer control to the wings and possibly other parts of an airplane.
1930
January 3: President Hoover made the presentation of the Collier Trophy for 1929 to Dr. Joseph S. Ames, Chairman of the NACA.
January 6: Guggenheim Safe Aircraft Competition prize was awarded to Curtiss Tanager, which featured practical wing flaps and leading-edge Handley-Page slots.
During January: The world's first full-scale wind tunnel under construction at Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory (30 feet high, 60 feet wide).
February 15: Naval Aircraft Factory authorized to begin construction of working models of retractable landing gears because of design progress.
February 17-19: First National Conference on Aeronautical Education held at St. Louis, Mo.
March 21: First Navy dive bomber designed to deliver 1,000-pound bomb, the Martin XT5M-1, met strength and performance requirements in diving tests.
April 4: The American Interplanetary Society, later the American Rocket Society (ARS), founded in New York City by David Lasser, G. Edward Pendray, Fletcher Pratt, and nine others, for the "promotion of interest in and experimentation toward interplanetary expeditions and travel."
April 8: Orville Wright received first Daniel Guggenheim Medal.
April 12: Air Corps set world record for altitude formation flying when 19 planes reached a height of 30,000 feet (old record 17,000 feet).
May 9: Dr. Ludwig Prandtl of Germany received second Daniel Guggenheim Medal.
May 13: Fifth Annual Aircraft Engineering Research Conference held at Langley Laboratory.
June 4: Lt. Apollo Soucek flew Navy Wright Apache landplane equipped with P&W 450-hp engine to height of 43,166 feet over NAS Anacostia, regaining world record he held briefly in 1929.
July 21: Capt. A. H. Page (USMC) piloted an O2U from a sealed hooded cockpit on an instrument flight of near 1,000 miles from Omaha, Nebr., to Anacostia, via Chicago and Cleveland, with safety pilot Lt. V. M. Guymon landing the airplane.
July 23: Hermann Oberth and VfR successfully tested liquid oxygen and gasoline-fueled rocket motor for 90 seconds in Germany, a demonstration made before the Director of the Chemisch-Technische Reichsanstalt to secure financial support.
September 8: German sounding balloon released near Hamburg attained an altitude of 117,750 feet (22.4 miles).
During September: Raketenflugplatze Berlin established by VfR in Germany.
December 17: German Army Ordnance Office, after reviewing work of Goddard and others, decided to establish rocket program and to equip artillery proving ground at Kummersdorff to develop military missiles.
December 30: Robert H. Goddard fired 11-foot liquid fuel rocket to a height of 2,000 feet and a speed near 500 mph near Roswell, N. Mex.
December 31: "Airworthiness Requirements for Aircraft Components and Accessories" of the Department of Commerce became effective.
During December: John J. Ide, NACA technical assistant in Europe, served as U.S. delegate to the First International Congress on Aerial Safety in Paris.
During 1930: NACA made confidential recommendations to industry and military services for best location of engine nacelles, with engines faired into leading edges of the wing, a report based on 1928 research of Donald H. Wood and others which influenced design of all multiengine aircraft thereafter.
: Sound-locator acoustic system for detection of aircraft in flight was developed.
: Sperry Gyroscope developed the "Gyro Horizon."
: An increase of 300 percent in paid passengers on commercial airlines was recorded this year.
: Frank Whittle, RAF officer and engineer, obtained British patents for turbojet engine.
: Allison Division of General Motors began development of V-1710 12-cylinder liquid-cooled engine, the only liquid-cooled engine of U.S. design to be produced throughout World War II, which was increased in 17 years from 750 hp to 2,000 hp.
: First vertical wind tunnel for study of airplane spinning was placed in operation at NACA's Langley Laboratory.
: Robert Esnault-Pelterie of France published his classic work on L'Astronautique; he had begun his mathematical work on astronautics in 1907.
1931
January 4: William G. Swan stayed aloft for 30 minutes over Atlantic City, N.J., in a glider powered with 10 small rockets.
January 22: Navy ordered its first rotary-wing aircraft, the XOP-1, from Pitcairn Aircraft.
March 4: More than $100 million was appropriated by Congress for military, naval, and commercial aviation for the coming year.
March 14: First liquid-fuel rocket successfully fired in Europe, a methane-liquid oxygen rocket constructed by Johannes Winkler and flown from Dessau, Germany.
April 2: First Navy aircraft with retractable landing gear, the XFF-1 two-seat fighter, ordered from Grumman Aircraft.
April 8: Amelia Earhart established a woman's autogiro altitude record of 18,415 feet in a Whirlwind-powered Pitcairn at Willow Grove, Pa.
April 10: Airship subcloud observation car demonstrated by Lt. Wilfred J. Paul at Langley Field, Va.
During April: Raktenflugplatz in Germany was visited by Mr. and Mrs. G. Edward Pendray as official representatives of the American Interplanetary Society, who upon their return organized the experimental program of the society.
May 27: First full-scale wind tunnel for testing airplanes was dedicated at the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory of the NACA, engineer-in-charge of construction and operation, Smith J. De France, explained details to the annual Aircraft Engineering Research Conference.
: The NACA tank to provide data on water performance of seaplanes was demonstrated by Starr Truscott. Its channel length was enlarged from 2,020 feet to 2,900 feet in October 1937.
: Auguste Piccard, Swiss physicist, and Charles Knipfer made first balloon flight into stratosphere, reaching a height of 51,777 feet in a 17-hour flight from Augsburg, Germany, to a glacier near Innsbruck, Austria.
May 28: Lt. W. Lees and Ens. F. A. Brossy established world's endurance flight record without refueling of 84 hours 33 minutes, in diesel-powered Bellanca at Jacksonville, Fla.
May 31: A pilotless airplane was successfully flown by radio control from another plane at Houston, Tex.
June 4: Dornier DO-X, 12-engined German flying boat (which carried 169 passengers on its trial flight), arrived in New York after flying the south Atlantic.
June 23-July 1: Wiley Post and Harold Gatty lowered world circling record to 8 days 15 hours 51 minutes in the Lockheed Winnie Mae.
July 24-31: Graf Zeppelin carried 12 scientists on Arctic flight.
July 28: First nonstop flight across the Pacific, begun by Clyde Pangborn and Hugh Herndon in a single-engined Bellanca, who completed flight around the world in October.
July 29-August 26: Colonel and Mrs. Lindbergh made survey flight to Japan in Sirius seaplane, via Alaska and Siberia.
September 4: Maj. James H. Doolittle established a new transcontinental record from Burbank to Newark of 11 hours and 16 minutes elapsed time including three stops, flying Laird Super-Solution.
September 9: Start of official rocket-mail service between two Austrian towns by Friedrich Schmiedl; test flights began in February 1931, while rocket-mail service continued until March 16, 1933.
October 30: School of Aviation Medicine moved from Brooks Field to Randolph Field, Tex.
During 1931: NACA Report 385 presented results showing that maximum lift coefficient of a wing could be increased as much as 96 percent by use of boundary-layer control.
: Robert Esnault-Pelterie of France demonstrated liquid-fuel rocket propulsion with a rocket motor operated on gasoline and liquid oxygen.
: Bureau of Standards made a number of experiments to deterine whether thrust reaction of a jet could be increased, and tested combinations of jets.
: Alexander Lippisch of Germany first produced and demonstrated a practical delta-wing aircraft.
During 1931-32: Taylor Cub Model A, a two-seat, high-wing light airplane, first produced, and helped popularize sports flying in the United States.
1932
March 26: Navy Consolidated P2Y seaplane made first test flight.
April 19: First flight of Goddard rocket with gyroscopically controlled vanes for automatically stabilized flight, near Roswell, N. Mex.
May 4: Daniel Guggenheim Gold Medal for 1932 awarded to Juan de la Cierva for development of the autogiro. (See Appendix D.)
May 9: First blind solo flight (without a check pilot aboard) solely on instruments was made by Capt. A. F. Hegenberger (AAC) at Dayton, Ohio.
June 30: Los Angeles (ZR-3) decommissioned by the Navy for economy reasons after 8 years of service and over 5,000 hours in the air.
July 28: Navy BuAer initiated research program on physiological effects of high acceleration and deceleration encountered in dive-bombing and other violent maneuvers in allocation to Bureau of Medicine and Surgery. Pioneer research pointing to need for anti-g or anti-blackout equipment was subsequently performed at Harvard University School of Public Health under the direction of Dr. C. K. Drinker by Lt. Comdr. John R. Poppen (MC USN).
During July-August: VfR successfully fired Mirak II rocket to height of 200 feet, after which German Army Ordnance Office formalized rocket develoment program by placing Captain-Doctor Walter Dornberger in charge of Research Station West at Kummersdorf.
August 18: Auguste Piccard and Max Cosyns attained an altitude of 53,152 feet on second stratosphere balloon flight, landing on a glacier in the Alps.
August 31: Capt. A. W. Stevens and Lt. C. D. McAllister (AAC) flew 5 miles above earth's surface at Fryeburg, Maine, to photograph eclipse of the sun.
During August: Experimental transmission of weather maps by teletype initiated by Weather Bureau on a special circuit between Cleveland and Washington.
September 3: Maj. James H. Doolittle set a new world speed record for landplanes by averaging 294 mph over 3-km course at Cleveland, Ohio, in Granville Brothers Gee Bee monophane with P&W Wasp engine.
September 16: Altitude record of 43,976 feet for landplanes established by Cyril F. Unwins in Vickers Vespa at Bristol, England.
September 21: Dr. Robert A. Millikan of California Institute of Technology completed series of tests on the intensity of cosmic rays at various altitudes with cooperation of 11th Bombardment Squadron, in a Condor Bomber from March Field, Calif.
October 1: Wernher von Braun joined the German Army Ordnance Office rocket program at Kummersdorf.
October 15: Institute of Aeronautical Sciences was incorporated in New York.
November 12: American Interplanetary Society performed static tests of rocket based on VfR design at Stockton, N.J.
December 1: Teletypewriter Weather Map Service was inaugurated by Aeronautics Branch, Department of Commerce.
During 1932: German engineer, Paul Schmidt, working from design of Lorin tube, developed and patented a ramjet engine later modified and used in the V-l Flying Bomb.
During 1932: Robert H. Goddard developed component of modern ramjet engine with construction of a rocket fuel pump at Clark University.
: Capt. John R. Poppen (MC USN), began experimentation with animals on physiological effects of high acceleration, proposing as a result of his studies that an inflatable abdominal corset be developed for use by fighter pilots.
: Junkers Ju-52, German trimotor transport of great success, first produced.
: Control mechanism for variablepitch propellers developed under the direction of Frank Caldwell.
: NACA published derivation and characteristics of the first systematic family of NACA airfoils.
: JATO-type rockets first used in the Soviet Union, according to Moscow historians.
1933
January 21: Institute of Aeronautical Sciences (IAS) held its Founders Meeting at Columbia University under Jerome C. Hunsaker, president, and Lester D. Gardner.
February 25: Aircraft carrier U.S.S. Ranger (CV-4) launched at Newport News.
During February: Boeing 247, first "modern-type" airliner, first flew.
March 11: Macon dirigible christened at Akron, Ohio, and made first flight on April 21 with 105 persons aboard.
March 28: Aircraft engine manufacturers granted permission by the Aeronautics Branch, Department of Commerce, to conduct endurance tests on their own equipment.
April 4: Rear Adm. W. A. Moffett, Chief of Navy Bureau of Aeronautics, killed along with 72 others in crash of the dirigible Akron at sea off the coast of New Jersey. He was replaced by Rear Adm. E.J.King (USN).
May 14: American Interplanetary Society Rocket No. 2 successfully fired, attaining 250-foot altitude in 2 seconds, at Marine Park, Staten Island, N.Y.
July 1-August 12: Gen. Italo Balbo of Italian Air Force led flight of 25 Savoia-Marchetti S-55X seaplanes in mass flight from Rome to Chicago and return.
July 9-December 19: Col. and Mrs. Charles A. Lindbergh made 29,000-mile survey flight in their Cyclone-powered Sirius seaplane from New York to Labrador, Greenland, Iceland, Europe, Russia, the Azores, Africa, Brazil, and return.
July 15-22: Lockheed Vega, Winnie Mae, piloted in first round-the-world solo flight by Wiley Post, 15,596 miles in 7 days 18 hours 40½ minutes. Airplane contained new type of radiocompass developed by Wright Field engineers.
During July: Douglas DC-1 first flew, forerunner of the famed DC-3.
August 17: First Soviet liquid-propellant rocket successfully fired.
September 30: Russian stratosphere flight in Army balloon USSR attained a reported altitude of 60,695 feet, G. Prokofiev, K. Godunov, and E. Birnbaum as balloonists.
November 20-21: Lt. Comdr. T. G. W. Settle (USN) and Maj. Chester L. Fordney (USMC) set official world balloon altitude record of 61,237 feet over Akron, Ohio.
During 1933: Collier Trophy for 1933 awarded to Hamilton Standard Propeller Co., with particular credit to Frank W. Caldwell, chief engineer, for development of a controllable-pitch propeller now in general use. (See Appendix D.)
: NACA assisted Army, Navy, and industry in the development of reliable retractable landing gears, controllable pitch propellers, more efficient wing sections, and wing flaps.
: Harry W. Bull of Syracuse, N.Y., developed small liquid-propellant rocket engine.
: Fred E. Weick and his associates at NACA's Langley Laboratory designed and constructed the Weick W-l airplane which incorporated such novel features as tricycle landing gear, pusher propeller, and interconnected ailerons and rudder for simpler and safer flying.
: Eugen Sanger of Germany published his classic Rakatenflugtechnik, which dealt with rocket motor design and high-speed flight in the atmosphere.
: British Interplanetary Society organized.
1934
January 10-11: Six Navy Consolidated P2Y-l's flew nonstop from San Francisco to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, 2,399 miles, in 24 hours 56 minutes.
January 30: Russian balloon reached 73,000 feet, but aeronauts Felosienko, Wasienko, and Vsyskin perished in free fall of gondola.
February 19: Under Presidential order the Army Air Corps started flying domestic airmail.
During February: Lockheed Electra first flew, featuring introduction of twin fins and rudders.
April 6: American Interplanetary Society renamed the American Rocket Society (ARS).
April 11: Comdr. Renato Donati established altitude record of 47,352 feet in Caproni aircraft, at Rome, Italy.
April 18: Baker Board, appointed by the Secretary of War to investigate the Army Air Corps, held its first meeting.
May 1: Lt. Frank Akers (USN) made hooded blind landing in an OJ-2 at College Park, Md., in demonstration of system intended for aircraft carrier use. In subsequent flights, he made takeoffs and landings between Anacostia and College Park under a hood without assistance.
June 12: Air Mail Act of 1934 signed by the President.
During June: Baker Board recommended purchase of War Department aircraft from private manufacturers, instead of building them in Government factories, by means of negotiated contract, by competitive bids, or by purchase after design competition.
July 1: Name of the Aeronautics Branch changed to the Bureau of Air Commerce in the Department of Commerce.
July 24: Air Corps began aerial photographic survey of Alaska under Lt. Col. H. H. Arnold.
July 28: A 60,613-foot altitude was reached in Air Corps-National Geographic Society balloon, Explorer I, by Maj. W. E. Kepner and Capts. A. W. Stevens and Orvil A. Anderson.
August 18: Jeanette and Jean Piccard flew Century of Progress balloon from Dearborn, Mich., to an altitude of 57,579 feet.
During August: Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory expanded with completion of engine research laboratory, a vertical tunnel for testing spinning characteristics, and a 24-inch high-speed tunnel (700 mph).
September 9: ARS Rocket No. 4 launched to 400 feet altitude, at Marine Island, Staten Island, N.T.
September 15: Aeromedical Laboratory founded at Wright Field, Dayton, Ohio.
November 18: Navy issued contract to Northrop for the XBT-1, a two-seat scout and 1,000-pound bomb dive bomber, initial prototype of sequence that led to the SBD Dauntless series of dive bombers introduced to the fleet in 1938 and used throughout World War II.
December 23: Endowment given IAS by Sylvanus Albert Reed for annual award to be given "for notable contribution to the aeronautical sciences resulting from experimental or theoretical investigations, the beneficial influence of which on the development of practical aeronautics is apparent." (See Appendix D.)
During December: German Ordance group launch two A-2 rockets successfully to a height of 1.4 miles, on the Island of Borkum in the North Sea, before the C-in-0 of the Army.
: British War Office considered de-velopment of high-velocity rockets, and the Research Department at Woolwich Arsenal was requested to submit a program in April 1935. This led to antiaircraft rocket development, and some 2,500 test firings were made in Jamaica, 1938-39.
During 1934: Douglas began development of the twin-engined commercial transport, the famed DC-3.
: H. G. Armstrong began studies on decompression sickness and showed that gas bubbles may form in the body from a drop of pressure below one atmosphere, at Aero Medical Laboratory.
1935
January 5: First assignment of a flight surgeon to Naval Aircraft Factory, Lt. Comdr. J. R. Poppen (USN), was directed to observe pilots, conduct physical examinations, and work on hygienic and physiological aspects of research and development projects.
January 22: Federal Aviation Commission, appointed by the President as provided in the Air Mail Act of June 12, 1934, submitted its report and set forth broad policy on all phases of aviation and the relation of Government thereto. It recommended strengthening of commercial and civil aviation, expansion of airport facilities, and establishment of more realistic procurement practices from industry. It recommended continued study of air organization toward more effective utilization and closer interagency relationships, to include expansion of experimental and development work and its close coordination with the NACA.
February 12: Navy dirigible Macon crashed at sea off the California coast.
March 1: GHQ Air Force established by the Army Air Corps.
March 9: Hermann Goering announced the existence of the German Air Force to Ward Price, correspondent of the Daily Mail (London), an event of considerable importance in international power politics for it implied unilateral breaking of the Treaty of Versailles prohibiting Germany possession of an air force.
March 28: Robert Goddard launched the first rocket equipped with gyroscopic controls, which attained a height of 4,800 feet, a horizontal distance of 13,000 feet, and a speed of 550 mph, near Roswell, N. Mex.
April 2: British Government disclosed that Adolf Hitler of Germany had declared that the German Air Force had reached parity with the Royal Air Force at a recent conference with British representatives in Germany. While untrue, Hitler's statement had a profound impact upon British aeronautical and defense efforts.
April 16-23: Pan American Airways' Clipper flew from California to Honolulu and returned in preliminary survey flight for transpacific air route to the Orient.
May 18: World's largest airplane, the Russian Maxim Gorky, crashed near Moscow, killing all aboard.
May 31: Goddard rocket attained altitude of 7,500 feet in New Mexico.
July 2: Historic report on radio direction finding (radar) was presented to the British Air Defense Research Committee.
: First Interdepartmental Committee appointed by President Roosevelt to study international air transportation problems.
July 26: Russian balloon USSR successfully reached 52,000 feet, crew including Warigo, Christofil, and Prelucki.
July 28: Boeing Model 299, the XB-17 four-engine bomber prototype, made first flight.
Summer 1935: First static tests of Heinkel He-112 with rocket engines performed in Germany.
August 28: Automatic radio-navigation equipment—a Sperry automatic pilot mechanically linked to a standard radiocompass—tested by the Equipment Laboratory at Wright Field.
October 30: First B-17 prototype crashed on takeoff during flight testing at Wright Field.
November 6: Prototype Hawker Hurricane first flown, the later models of which destroyed more German aircraft in the Battle of Britain than all other British defenses, air and ground, combined.
November 11: A 72,395-foot world altitude record for manned balloons made by Capts. A. W. Stevens and Orvil A. Anderson, in the helium inflated Explorer II, over Rapid City, S. Dak., in cooperation with National Geographic Society, a record which stood for 20 years.
November 22-29: Transpacific airmail flight by Pan American Airways Martin China Clipper, from San Francisco to Honolulu, Midway, Wake, Guam, and Manila, E. C. Musick as pilot.
During December: Douglas DC-3, one of the most successful airliners in history, first flew. By 1938, it carried the bulk of American air traffic. When production of the DC-3 and its derivatives ended in 1945, some 13,000 had been built.
During 1935: Russian liquid-propellant meteorological rocket, designed by M. K. Tikhonravov, successfully flown.
: H. G. Armstrong published Air Corps Technical Report on physiologic requirements of sealed high-altitude aircraft compartments (including effects of sudden decompressions), findings which were incorporated in the XC-35 sub-stratosphere plane, the first successful pressure-cabin aircraft.
: Konstantin E. Ziolkovsky, Russian mathematician and pioneer space scientist, died at 78 years of age. The U.S.S.R. later acclaimed him as the "father of space travel."
1936
January 20: Acting in response to a request from BuAer, the Navy Bureau of Engineering endorsed support for the National Bureau of Standards for the development of radio meteorographs. Later renamed radiosondes, these instruments were sent aloft on free balloons to measure pressure, temperature, and humidity of the upper atmosphere, and transmitted these data to ground stations for use in weather forecasting and flight planning.
February 23: F. W. Kessler, W. Ley, and N. Carver launched two mail-carrying "rocket airplanes" at Greenwood Lake, N.Y., which traveled about 1,000 feet.
During February: Germans tested A-3 rocket with 3,300-pound thrust which served as basis for military weapon specifications.
March 5: Spitfire prototype with armament and Merlin engine first flown, production of the Spitfire Mark I beginning at Supermarine factory in early 1937. Spitfire's classic design was work of R. J. Mitchell, responsible for the Supermarine racing seaplanes which first won the Schneider Trophy for Great Britain in 1931. 18,298 Merlin-engined Spitfires of all Marks were built by 1945.
March 16: Robert H. Goddard's classic report on "Liquid Propellant Rocket Development," reviewing his liquid-fuel rocket research and flight testing since 1919, was published by the Smithsonian Institution.
April 29: Orville Wright was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences.
May 6: Construction authorized for what later was named the David W. Taylor Model Basin, to provide a facility for use by the Navy Bureau of Construction and Repair in investigating and determining shapes and forms to be adopted for U.S. naval vessels, and including aircraft.
May 9: George W. Lewis, Director of NACA Aeronautical Research, received Daniel Guggenheim Medal for 1936 for direction of aeronautical research and for the development of original equipment and methods.
May 12: World's largest high-speed wind tunnel (8-foot throat) placed in operation at Langley Aeronautical Laboratory, under Russell G. Robinson.
May 22: Herrick Vertiplane, embodying characteristics of both airplanes and autogiros, underwent tests at Floyd Bennett Field.
June 6: Socony-Vacuum Oil Co., Inc., at Paulsboro, N.J., began production of aviation gasoline (100 octane) by the catalytic cracking method.
June 7: Maj. Ira C. Eaker (AAC) made first transcontinental blind flight, from New York to Los Angeles.
June 15: Vickers Wellington prototype RAF bomber made its first flight, while flight of first production model was made on December 23, 1937.
July 18: Spanish Civil War began, which was to involve German, Italian, and Russian air units as well as aircraft of France and the United States.
July 21: Lt. Comdr. D. S. Fahrney (USN) ordered to implement recommendation made to Chief of Naval Operations to develop radio-controlled aircraft for use as aerial targets. Reporting to BuAer and NRL, Fahrney subsequently reported on procedure to obtain drone target planes, but also recognized the feasibility of using such aircraft as guided missiles.
July 23: Navy awarded contract for XPB2Y-1 flying boat to Consolidated, which became the prototype for four-engined flying boats used throughout World War II.
September 2: Maj. Alexander P. de Seversky was refused permission by Army Air Corps to enter his pursuit plane in Bendix Trophy Race to Los Angeles "due to features considered a military secret."
October 15: Lt. John Sessums (AAC) visited Robert H. Goddard to officially assess military value of Goddard's work. He reported that there was little military value, but that rockets would appear useful to drive turbines.
October 24: First transpacific passenger service completed by Pan American Airways, with Martin four-engined China Clipper in a round trip to Manila.
November 7: Robert Goddard flew gyro-controlled rocket to 7,500-foot altitude, near Roswell, N. Mex.
December 19: New world speed record for amphibians of 209.4 mph over a closed course set by Maj. Alexander P. de Seversky.
During 1936: Theodore von Karman, Director of the Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology at Pasadena, founded group which began experiments in design fundamentals of high-altitude sounding rocket. The group, named the Cal Tech Rocket Research Project, consisted of Frank J. Malina, Hsue-Shen Tsien, A. M. O. Smith, John W. Parsons, Edward Forman, and Weld Arnold. This was the origin of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
: First practical helicopter flight, German German Focke-Achgelis, FA-61; in the following year it made first helicopter flight of over 1 hour.
1937
January 1: First physiological research laboratory completed at Wright Field by Air Corps to investigate and devise means to alleviate distressing symptoms occurring in flight.
March 1: First operational Boeing B-17 delivered to the GHQ Air Force at Langley Field, Va.
During Spring: Single-engine Heinkel (He-112) with Junker 650-pound thrust, liquid-fuel rocket motor successfully flown at Neuhardenberg, Germany, Capt. Erich Warsitz as pilot.
April 12: Frank Whittle's first gas turbine engine, the U-type, was static tested.
May 6: German dirigible Hindenburg destroyed at Lakehurst, N.J., an event which ordained the death of the large dirigibles.
May 9: H. F. Pierce launched liquid propellant rocket to 250-foot altitude at Old Ferris Point, N.Y.
During May: Joint German Army-Air Force rocket research station opened at Peenemünde on Baltic Sea; Army Ordnance rocket program under Capt. Walter Dornberger moved his staff from Kummersdorf.
June 30: Navy issued contract to Martin for XPBM-1 two-engine flying boat, the initial prototype for the PBM Mariner series used during and after World War II.
July 1: Weather Service of the Signal Corps was transferred to the Army Air Corps.
July 2: Amelia Earhart Putnam and co-pilot lost near Howland Island in the Pacific.
July 4: FA-61 helicopter flown in fully controlled, free flight by Hanna Reitsch, at Bremen, Germany.
July 5-6: Pan American Airways (PAA) and Imperial Airways make joint survey flights across the North Atlantic prior to establishment of transatlantic service. Both flights were successful, marking the 11th and 12th successful nonstop transatlantic flights completed out of 85 attempts.
July 15: Three Soviet fliers established world distance nonstop record, flying across the North Pole from Moscow to San Jacinto, Calif., in 62 hours.
July 27: Japanese began aerial bombing of Chinese cities.
August 5: First experimental pressurized-cabin airplane, a Lockheed XC-35, made its first flight at Wright Field.
August 23: The first wholly automatic landings in history were made at Wright Field by Capt. Carl J. Crane, inventor of the system; Capt. George Holloman, pilot; and Raymond K. Stout, project engineer.
October 15: Boeing XB-15 made its first flight.
During November: Low turbulence wind tunnel for investigation of laminar flow airfoil constructed at NACA's Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory.
{bar|2}}: Navy Grumman F4F Made its first test flight, standard carrier-based fighter in early World War II operations.
December 23: Successful unmanned radio-controlled flight made by Navy JH-1 drone, at Coast Guard Air Station, Cape May, N.J.
During December: Initial rocket thrust chamber tests by R. C. Truax at Annapolis, Md., using compressed air and gasoline as fuels.
During 1937: World's scheduled airlines carried 2,500,000 passengers in 1937, with an average number of 5.3 passengers per aircraft, according to the International Civil Aviation Organization.
: U.S.S.R. established rocket test centers at Kazan, Moscow, and Leningrad.
1938
January 16: Spanish rebel planes began daily bombing of Barcelona from Majorca.
February 10: British Hurricane fighter flown from Edinburgh to Northolt, near London, at an average speed of 408.75 mph, J. W. Gillan as pilot.
February 26: Secretary of Interior Ickes approved purchase by the Federal Government of helium plants at Dexter, Kans., thus giving the Government a virtual monopoly. On May 11, his refusal to sell helium to Germany was upheld by the President.
February 21: The goodwill flight to Buenos Aires of six B-17's under Lt. Col. Robert D. Olds, which had left Miami on February 17, returned to Langley Field, Va.
April 21: Navy delivered XF2A-1 to Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory of NACA, which marked initiation of full-scale wind tunnel tests, which resulted in increasing speed of the XF2A-1 by 31 mph and led to utilization of NACA testing of other high-performance aircraft by both the Army and the Navy. Data thus obtained were also directly applicable to the design of new aircraft.
June 1: Routine use of radiosondes initiated at NAS Anacostia, Washington, D.C. By the end of the year, the balloon-carried radio meteorographs were also used in Navy fleet operations.
June 6: The Daniel Guggenheim Medal for 1938 awarded to A. H. R. Fedden for "contributions to the development of aircraft engine design and for the specific design of the sleeve valve aircraft engine."
June 9: British Government announced intention to purchase U.S. Lockheed Hudsons and North American Harvards for aerial reconnaissance and training purposes.
June 28: President Roosevelt signed the Civil Air Authority Act.
August 22: The Civil Aeronautics Act became effective, coordinating all nonmilitary aviation under the Civil Aeronautics Authority.
August 22: First American use of drone target aircraft in antiaircraft exercises, the Ranger fired upon a radio-controlled JH-1 making simulated horizontal bombing attack on the fleet.
August 29: Maj. Alexander de Seversky set east-west transcontinental speed record of 10 hours 2 minutes 55.7 seconds in a 2,457-mile flight.
September 12: Wind tunnel capable of simulating altitudes to 37,000 feet dedicated at MIT as a memorial to the Wright brothers.
September 14: Radio-controlled Navy N2C-2 target drone made simulated dive-bombing attack on battleship Utah in test firing of antiaircraft battery.
September 29: Brig. Gen. Henry H. Arnold named Chief of the Army Air Corps to replace Maj. Gen. O. Westover, killed in crash on September 21.
September 30: Agreement signed at Munich, Germany, between Germany, Britain, France, and Italy, allowing Germany to occupy the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia, an event in which the relative air strength of the major nations was a prominent factor.
October 19: Curtiss XP-40 Tomahawk made its first flight.
During October: British Purchasing Commission ordered 200 Lockheed Hudsons (military version of Super Electra airliner), the first American-built aircraft to see operational service with the RAF in World War II.
: All-wood British de Havilland Mosquito twin-engine bomber conceived, official order for 50 received on March 1, 1940.
December 10: First static test of James Wyld's regeneratively cooled rocket thrust chambers, which achieved 90-pound thrust.
: ARS tested R. C. Truax's rocket thrust chamber at New Rochelle, N.Y., which achieved 20-pound thrust before burning through.
December 16: First successful test of NACA high-speed motion-picture camera developed by C. D. Miller, conducted at Langley Laboratory, later used extensively in photographic analysis of combustion and operated up to rates of 40,000 photographs per second.
: Navy K-2 airship delivered to NAS Lakehurst for trials, the prototype for World War II K Class patrol airships, of which 135 were procured.
December 17: Dr. Hugh L. Dryden, National Bureau of Standards, delivered the second Wright Brothers Lecture at Columbia University.
December 30: Special Committee on "Future Research Facilities of NACA" recommended the creation of another laboratory; resulted in Ames Aeronautical Laboratory at Moffett Field.
During 1938: Jack Parsons of Cal Tech conceived the value of slow-burning rocket propellant of constant thrust for JATO use, active development of which was undertaken by Cal Tech in 1940.
: Vital importance of the factor of duration in pilot's exposure to hypoxia demonstrated in animal experiments by H. G. Armstrong and J. W. Heim.
: Heinz von Diringshofen, German scientist, conducted research on human tolerance to multiple g-loads; exposed test subjects to a few seconds of sub-gravity by putting an aircraft through a vertical dive.
1938-39: NACA developed airfoils providing laminar flow to a degree far greater than previously obtainable (based in part upon Ludwig Prandtl's boundary layer theory in NACA Report 116 published in 1921); Eastman N. Jacobs developed low-drag wing sections worthy of special mention.
1939
January 16: Maj. Gen. Frank M. Andrews, Chief of Army General Headquarters Air Force, in an address to the annual convention of the National Aeronautic Association at St. Louis, said that the United States was a fifth- or sixth-rate air power.
January 21: Dr. George W. Lewis, NACA Director of Aeronautical Research, elected president of the IAS.
January 31: Dr. Edward P. Warner appointed economic and technical adviser of the CAA.
February 11: Lockheed P-38 Lightning first flown across the Nation from California, to a crack-up landing at Mitchel Field, Long Island, Lt. Ben Kelsey as pilot.
During February: Airflow Research Staff at Langley Laboratory initiated revaluation of jet propulsion for aircraft at speeds higher than considered by Buckingham in NACA Report No. 159 published in 1923.
March 26: Capt. John H. Towers named Chief of Bureau of Aeronautics with rank of Rear Admiral.
April 3: President Roosevelt signed the National Defense Act of 1940, authorizing 6,000 airplanes and increasing personnel of Army Air Corps to 3,203 officers and 45,000 enlisted men, and appropriating $300 million for the Air Corps.
April 7: Amphibian version of PBY flying boat ordered by the Navy from Consolidated.
April 20: The free-flight tunnel placed into operation at Langley Aeronautical Laboratory.
April 20-21: Experiments with four-bladed controllable propeller on Curtiss P-36 begun at Wright Field.
April 28: Flying a Messerschmitt BF-109R, Fritz Wendel achieved a record speed of 468.9 mph in level flight, at Augsburg, Germany.
May 5: Kilner-Lindbergh Board was established by Gen. H. H. Arnold to revise military characteristics of all U.S. military aircraft, including the B-29 design in the AAF 5-year program. The Board was composed of Gen. W. C. Kilner, Charles A. Lindbergh, Cols. Carl Spaatz and Naiden, and Major Lyon.
May 15: Navy issued contract to Curtiss Wright for the SXB2C-1 dive bomber, which despite prolonged operational development became the principal carrier dive bomber in the last year of World War II known as the Helldiver.
During June: First transatlantic passenger service, by Pan American Airways with a Boeing four-engined Yankee Clipper.
July 1: National Academy of Sciences sponsored a $10,000 research program at Cal Tech Rocket Research Project for the development of rockets suitable to assist Air Corps planes in takeoffs, the first U.S. rocket program.
During Summer: Albert Einstein, Enrico Fermi, Leo Szilard, and Eugene Wigner interested President Roosevelt, through Alexander Sachs, in the potential military importance of uranium. The President appointed an Advisory Committee on Uranium under the chairmanship of Dr. Lyman Briggs, Director of the National Bureau of Standards.
: Total complement of NACA was 523 persons, of which only 278 were classified as technical personnel.
August 9: Congress authorized construction of the second NACA research station at Moffett Field, Calif., which became the Ames Aeronautical Laboratory, named after Joseph S. Ames, president emeritus of Johns Hopkins University, member of the NACA from its beginning in 1915 to 1939, and Chairman of NACA from 1927 until 1939.
August 24: Assignment of Navy medical officer to BuAer was approved for the purpose of establishing an Aviation Medical Research Unit.
August 27: First complete flights of jet-propelled aircraft made secretly in Germany, a Heinkel 178 powered by the He S-3B jet engine, piloted by Erich Warsitz.
September 1: German blitzkrieg launched on Poland. President Roosevelt appealed to the European nations not to bomb civilian populations or unfortified cities.
September 3-4: RAF Bomber Command carried out the first night propaganda raid, dropping leaflets over Hamburg, Bremen, and the Ruhr. On September 27, the British Air Ministry announced that the RAF had dropped 18 million leaflets over Germany since the beginning of the war. When leaflet bombing was suspended on April 6, 1940, Bomber Command had dropped 65 million leaflets.
During September: Igor I. Sikorsky made initial flights with the first successful single-main-rotor helicopter, precursor of the R-4 two-place design procured in 1942 by the AAF.
: World's largest balloon, the Star of Poland, was unable to make stratospheric flight because of the German invasion. The United States had provided helium gas in August for this Polish effort and several American experts, including A. W. Stevens, provided technical assistance.
October 14: Naval Aircraft Factory authorized to develop radio-control equipment for use in remote-controlled flight testing of aircraft without risking the life of a test pilot.
October 19: Dr. Vannevar Bush was elected Chairman of the NACA to fill the post of Dr. Joseph Ames, who resigned due to ill health.
: Second Special Committee on "Future Research Facilities of NACA," headed by Charles A. Lindbergh, recommended that a powerplant research center be established at once, a recommendation resulting in the Aircraft Engine Research Laboratory at Cleveland, Ohio, now the Lewis Research Center.
During October: Germans successfully fired and recovered A-5 development rockets with gyroscopic controls and parachutes, attaining an altitude of 7½ miles and a range of 11 miles.
November 20: Navy established its own School of Aviation Medicine at Pensacola, Fla., having previously detailed officers to the Air Corps School of Aviation Medicine.
November 30: U.S.S.R. invaded Finland, with Soviet planes bombing Helsinki and other Finnish towns.
December 2: Army Air Corps authorized to begin development of a four-engine bomber with a 2,000-mile radius of action, which led to the Boeing B-29 Superfortress.
December 29: Consolidated-Vultee B-24 Liberator made its first flight at San Diego.
During 1939: P-1 with R-1830 engine was provided by NACA's Pinkel, Turner, and Voss with separate stacks for each cylinder, thus providing 14 jet exhausts which increased the speed of aircraft from 13 to 18 mph between 10,000 and 20,000 feet. Applied to A-20 later, an increase of 45 mph was attained.
: Curtiss P-40 fighter powered with Allison V-1710-33, with a top speed of 357 mph, first ordered in quantity.
During 1939: Basic concepts for NACA's combined loads testing machine were proposed by E. E. Lundquist and J. N. Kotanchik of Langley Laboratory. After refinements by others, construction was started in 1940 and much testing performed before the completion and operation of the fixed-component machine in 1949. The combined loads testing machine was the first capable of applying positive and negative forces along each of three axes, and positive and negative moments about these axes, in any combination of forces and moments, each applied independently. Still in use in 1960, this machine was used extensively on combined loads and moments on shell-type structures for all types of flight vehicles.
During 1939-40: Original design of North American B-25 Mitchell bomber required 200,000 engineering man-hours; later wartime modification of this airplane (9,800 completed by the end of 1945) accounted for a total of more than 4,830,000 engineering man-hours.
1940
January 19: Maj. James H. Doolittle elected president of the IAS.
February 1: Capt. G. E. Price flew Bell Airacobra through flight tests.
February 24: BuAer issued a contract for airborne television equipment capable for use in transmitting instrument readings obtained from radio-controlled flight tests, and for providing target and guidance data should radio-controlled aircraft be converted to guided missiles.
February 21: Based upon the research of former NACA engineer, Charles H. Zimmerman, Navy initiated development of the Flying Flapjack with the award of a contract to Vought-Sikorsky for the design of the VS-173. The design promised high speed with low takeoff speed.
February 29: Navy BuAer initiated steps that led to a contract with H. O. Croft, State University of Iowa, to investigate the possibilities of a turbojet propulsion unit for aircraft.
March 9: Beechcraft AD-17 biplane flown to an altitude of 21,050 feet over the Antarctic to measure cosmic rays for the U.S. Antarctic Expedition, piloted by T. Sgt. T. A. Petras (USMC).
March 16: First civilian casualties in Britain due to air raids, during Luftwaffe attack on Scapa Flow.
March 22: Naval Aircraft Factory established a project for adapting radio controls to a torpedo-carrying TG-2 airplane.
March 26: U.S. commercial airlines completed a full year without a fatal accident or serious injury to a passenger or crew member.
During April: British commission gave North American Aircraft 120 days to produce a fighter prototype to specifications, which resulted in the highly successful P-51 Mustang, the first aircraft to utilize the NACA low-drag wing based on prolongation of laminar flow. Low-turbulence wind tunnel tests (completed in 1938) had led to five different families of low-drag wings by the end of 1939.
May 14: German Luftwaffe bombed Rotterdam.
May 15-16: First large-scale RAF raids on German industrial targets with 93 bombers attacking objectives in the Ruhr.
May 16: President Roosevelt called for U.S. production of 50,000 planes a year.
May 28: Robert H. Goddard offered all his research data, patents, and facilities for use by the military services at a meeting with representatives of Army Ordnance, Army Air Corps, and Navy Bureau of Aeronautics arranged by Harry Guggenheim. However, nothing resulted from this except an expression of possible use of rockets in jet-assisted take-offs of aircraft.
May 29: Chance Vought F4U Corsair Navy fighter with inverted gull wing made its first test flight.
June 8: Paris office of the NACA was closed.
June 26: Congress authorized construction of the third NACA laboratory near Cleveland, Ohio, which became Aircraft Engine Research Laboratory. In 1948, it was named for George W. Lewis, NACA Director of Aeronautical Research, 1924-47.
June 27: National Defense Research Committee (NDRC) created by the Council of National Defense.
July 8: First commercial flight of the Boeing 307-B Stratoliner, Burbank, Calif., to Long Island, N.Y., the first commercial flight to use a pressurized cabin, in record time of 12 hours 18 minutes.
During July: National Defense Research Committee established Jet Propulsion Research Committee under Section H of Division A, at Naval Powder Factory, Indian Head, Md., to conduct fundamental research on rocket ordnance. C. N. Hickman, who had worked with Goddard during World War I, was named as head.
August 2: Beginning of the Battle of Britain, which raged until the end of October.
During August: Sir Henry Tizard, scientific adviser to the British Ministry of Aircraft Production, headed a mission of leading British and Canadian scientists to brief official American representatives on devices under active development for war use and to enlist the support of American scientists. This marked the beginning of very close cooperation of Anglo-American scientists in many fields, including aeronautics and rocketry, enabling American laboratories to catch up with war-accelerated progress.
August 20: Smith J. DeFrance appointed Engineer-in-Charge of the NACA Ames Aeronautical Laboratory, Moffett Field, Calif.
August 25: First RAF bombing of Berlin.
During September: Royal Air Force used AA rockets against Luftwaffe planes in the Battle of Britain.
: First test firing of NDRC rocket program at Naval Proving Ground, Dahlgren, Va., a rocket-propelled bomb to pierce 14-inch armor requested by BuOrd.
November 25: De Havilland all-wood Mosquito bomber made its first flight, with large-scale production beginning in July 1941.
During 1940: Committee of the National Academy of Sciences reported that operation of turbine wheels at temperatures up to 1,500° F might soon be possible due to U.S. and foreign development of high-temperature alloys.
: Dr. Heinz von Diringshofen of Berlin, Germany, "discovered" the effect of weightlessness during flight maneuvers with high-performance aircraft.
: N. W. Thorner and F. H. Lewey demonstrated the destruction of certain brain cells in experimental animals by short and severe exposures to hypoxia induced by inhalation of pure nitrogen.
: Graf Zeppelin I and II were intentionally destroyed by the Germans and their metal used for the Reich war effort.
1941
January 11: Army Air Corps announced the control of robot planes, either by radio from the ground or from another plane, had been tested successfully.
During January: RCA proposed to NDRC the design and development of a rocket-propelled, radio-controlled aerial torpedo with TV nose, which was given the code name "Dragon." The National Bureau of Standards was assigned the task of developing a suitable airframe.
February 5: Bureau of Standards developed a photoelectric detector to simplify the measurement of the height of clouds.
During February: Army Air Corps initiated the development of radio-controlled aerial gliding torpedoes, gliding bombs, and aerial mines.
March 24: Classic NACA report prepared by Robert R. Gilruth provided the basis for subsequent aircraft development (NACA Report No. 755, "Requirements for Satisfactory Flying Qualities of Airplanes").
During March: NACA established a Special Committee on Jet Propulsion to review early British reports on the Whittle engine, which subsequently aided the development of the TG-100 turboprop engine by GE and the 19-B turbojet by Westinghouse. Dr. W. F. Durand was called out of retirement to head this committee.
April 15: Igor Sikorsky piloted a Vought-Sikorsky in the first officially recorded single-rotor helicopter flight longer than an hour in the Western Hemisphere; flying time, 1 hour 5 minutes 14.5 seconds; at Stratford, Conn.
April 19: Naval Aircraft Factory initiated the development of a Glomb (glider bomb), to be towed long distances by powered aircraft and released over the target, guided by radio control and target-viewing television.
May 15: First official flight of British turbojet, Gloster E28/39 with Whittle WIX jet engine, at Cranwell, England, flown by Flight Lt. Sayer for about 17 minutes.
: British De Havilland Mosquito equipped as a night fighter (W4052) made its first flight with AI radar.
May 21: Army Corps Ferrying Command, forerunner of AAF's Air Transport Command, was created. By V-E Day, it possessed 2,461 transports, of which 798 were 4-engined.
: Navy Engineering Experiment Station, Annapolis, Md., directed to undertake development of liquid-fuel rocket JATO for large flying boats.
May 29: Naval Powder Factory, Indian Head, developed and successfully tested a 4.5-inch AA rocket.
During May: Republic XP-47 Thunderbolt made its first flight.
May-June: First satisfactory spark plugs (ceramic insulated) for high-performance U.S. aircraft engines such as the P&W R-2800 were ordered in mass quantities. Plugs were developed under the direction of T. T. Neill, Air Corps ignition engineer at Wright Field.
June 20: Establishment of the U.S. Army Air Forces (AAF), comprising the Office of the Chief of Air Corps and the Air Force Combat Command (formerly GHQ Air Force), with Maj. Gen. H. H. Arnold as Chief.
June 22: U.S.S.R. was attacked by Germany.
: Ceramic-lined rocket thrust chamber designed by Alfred Africano generated 260-pound thrust.
June 28: Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD) in the Office of Emergency Management was created by President Roosevelt in Executive Order 8807.
June 30: Joint Army-Navy project contract given to Northrop for the design of an aircraft gas turbine developing 2,500 hp at a weight of less than 3,215 pounds.
During June: Col. Donald J. Keirn of Wright Field was sent to England to study the Gloster jet aircraft and its Whittle-I engine. AAF decision to produce Whittle engine made in September, and the XP-59 flew a year later.
July 1: First commercial television broadcast over WNBT, New York (first successful demonstration by C. F. Jenkins in the United States and J. L. Baird in England was made in the early 1920s).
July 16: Full-scale wind-tunnel tests of A-1 "power-driven controllable bomb" conducted at Langley Field.
July 24: Dr. Jerome C. Hunsaker was elected Chairman of the NACA and Chairman of its Executive Committee.
During July: Navy initiated development of Mousetrap, ship-based 7.2-inch mortar-fired bomb which became the first USN rocket placed into fleet action in May 1942.
: First successful U.S. jet-assisted takeoff accomplished in an Ercoupe at March Field by Lt. Homer A. Boushey (AAF), with pressed-powder propellant JATO rockets developed by Cal Tech.
: Project TED (EES 3401) established at Naval Engineering Experiment Station at Annapolis by BuAer.
August 1: President Roosevelt prohibited export of aviation fuel outside of the Western Hemisphere, except to Britain and countries resisting aggression, an act aimed at Japan which normally imported large quantities from the United States.
: NDL was requested to develop radar guidance equipment for assault drones, both to relay target information to a control operator and to serve as an automatic homing device.
: Three successful tests of J. Wyld liquid fuel rocket motor were made at an average thrust of 125 pounds. A year later, ARS members formed Reaction Motors, Inc., to continue development of this design.
August 12: Ercoupe impelled by 12 powder rockets of 50 pounds thrust each, piloted by Lt. Homer A. Boushey, first flew on rocket power alone after an initial boost from a towing automobile.
August 19: President Roosevelt announced that Pan American Airways would establish a ferry service to fly American aircraft to the RAF in the Middle East.
During August: Caproni-Campini jet-propelled plane, conventional engine with ducted fan, produced and test flown in Italy.
During September: Messerschmitt Me-163A powered by "cold" H. Walther rocket successfully flown at Augsburg, Germany, development of which had begun in 1937, but "cold" engine proved unreliable. Flights were also made in October which reached speeds of 1,003 km/hr, or Mach 0.85.
During September: Dr. Robert H. Goddard began work on liquid-propellant JATO under contract to USN and AAF, delivering a device to both agencies in September 1942.
October 27: Post of Air Surgeon was created within the Army Air Forces.
During October: Harriman mission made a globe-circling flight of 24,700 miles from Washington to Moscow and return in a B-24 bomber.
November 7: First flight of the AAF GB-1 guided glide bomb, containing preset guidance.
November 12: First launching of an experimental GB-8 glide bomb, incorporating radio controls.
November 30: Italian jet-propelled Caproni-Campini airplane flown 475 kilometers in 2 hours 11 minutes from Turin to Rome, by Mario de Bernardini.
November-December: Russians used AA rockets against Luftwaffe aircraft in defense of Moscow and air-to-air rockets on their Stormovik Il-2 fighters.
December 7: Japanese naval air units attacked Pearl Harbor.
December 30: USAAF requested NDRC to undertake development of controlled-trajectory bombs, the beginning of the development of Azon.
During 1941: Navy Bureau of Aeronautics created a JATO section to accelerate USN development.
During 1941: Aeromedical Laboratory, in collaboration with Dr. E. A. Hooten of Harvard University, initiated anthropometric surveys of AAF flyers to facilitate the design of weapons and flying gear.
During 1941: Research facilities at NACA's Langley and Ames Laboratories increased 100 percent over previous years by the construction of new facilities for defense application.
1942
January 13: Sikorsky XR-4, a single-rotary wing, two-man helicopter, made its first successful flight.
During January: P-38 first placed under study of NACA Langley Laboratory to assess flow changes due to compressibility, later transferred to Ames Laboratory. Dive-recovery flap developed later applied to P-47, XP-59, F-80, and FR-1.
: "Frigitorium" for cold testing aircraft equipment for arctic operations became operational at Wright Field.
During February: Douglas DC-4 Skymaster first flew, becoming prominent in the generation of four-engined American transports that revolutionized long-haul air transportation.
April 7-24: Douglas A-20A completed 44 successive takeoffs using liquid-propellant JATO developed by Cal Tech's Frank S. Malina.
April 9: Radio-controlled TG-2 Navy drone made a torpedo attack on destroyer Aaron Ward in which a television camera mounted in the drone was utilized, directed by control pilot Lt. M. B. Taylor of Project Fox.
April 18: First American raid on Tokyo, by 16 North American B-25 AAF medium bombers flown off carrier Hornet, led by Lt. Col. James H. Doolittle.
April 19: Two feasibility tests using drone aircraft conducted by the Navy in Chesapeake Bay, the most successful being Project Fox BG-2 drone equipped with target-viewing TV camera, which was crash-dived into a moving raft while under an airborne control pilot 11 miles away.
May 8: Research begun at the NACA Aircraft Engine Research Laboratory at Cleveland.
May 26: Jet-assisted takeoff of a Brewster F2A-3 using five British antiaircraft solid-propellant rockets demonstrated at NAS Anacostia, Comdr. C. Fink Fischer as pilot.
May 30-31: First 1,000-plane raid by RAF Bomber Command on Cologne, Germany.
June 13: First test of the German A-4 (V-2) rocket unsuccessful at Peenemünde, Germany.
June 17: National Defense Research Committee initiated development of an anti-submarine guided missile, the Pelican, under Navy BuOrd, which was a glide bomb with radar homing guidance.
June 27: Naval Aircraft Factory was directed to participate in the development of high-altitude pressure flying suits, thus joining the Army which had sponsored earlier work.
June 30: Brig. Gen. James H. Doolittle awarded the 1942 Guggenheim Medal "for notable achievement in the advancement of aeronautics."
During June: Joint Committee on New Weapons and Equipment (JNW) appointed a subcommittee to review all guided-missile programs, resulting in the placement of responsibility for all controlled missiles in Division 5, Missiles, in the National Defense Research Council. Division 5 of NDRC served as the principal agency outside the military services involved in U.S. missile development for the remainder of World War II.
July 3: First airborne test firing of a retrorocket at Goldstone Lake, Calif., from a PBY-5A piloted by Lt. Comdr. J. H. Hean (USN).
July 6: 4.5-inch rocket (M8-type) fired for the first time in flight from a P-40.