1917 in aviation

• The Royal Flying Corps's No. 100 Squadron, the first British night fighter squadron, is formed.
• Germany begins
  Operation Türkenkreuz ("Turk's Cross") bombing campaign against England,^[10]
  initially using airships.
• The
  7th Aero Squadron for service in the Panama Canal Zone.^[11]
• February 7 – Suffering progressive damage due to a series of crashes in bad visibility and poor weather, the Imperial German Navy Zeppelin L 36 finally crashes onto the Aller river and is destroyed by high winds. Her crew survives.^[12]
• February 8 – Flying a
  SPAD VII, the French ace Georges Guynemer becomes the first Allied pilot to shoot down a German heavy bomber when he downs a Gotha G.III
  .
• February 13 – Over the
  spins – previously thought impossible to recover from in an N-9 – during some of the day's loop attempts prove of far greater importance and have been in use ever since.^[13]
• February 26 – In anticipation of a possible entry by the
  Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.^[13]
• Late February
  • The German Navy Zeppelin L 42 achieves an altitude of 19,700 feet (6,000 meters), a record for an airship.[14]
  • The commander of the German Naval Airship Service, Peter Strasser, requests the authorization of a force of 30 naval Zeppelins, 24 for use over the North Sea and six for service over the Baltic Sea.^[15]

March

• railway junctions, and industrial targets.^[16]
• United States Navy Lieutenant Kenneth Whiting proposes to Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels that the Navy acquire a ship with an aircraft catapult and a flight deck. Although rejected on June 20, it is the first serious U.S. Navy consideration given to acquisition of an aviation ship since the American Civil War (1861–1865).^[17]
• March 8 – Count
  dirigible, dies.^[18]
• March 13 – The
  seaplanes.^[11][19]
• March 16–17 (overnight) – The German Naval Airship Service attempts to bomb England for the first time in 1917, in the first use of new Zeppelins designed for high-altitude flight that the Service's commander, Peter Strasser, believes will be too high for British air defenses to reach. The five Zeppelins – at least three of which achieve altitudes of between 17,100 and 19,000 feet (5,200 and 5,800 meters) – mostly bomb open countryside and do only £79 in damage and kill no one. Disabled by mechanical failure, L 39 drifts over Compiègne, France, and is shot down by French antiaircraft guns with the loss of her entire crew, and L 35 is badly damaged while landing in Germany. The success of the Zeppelins in reaching high altitudes during a bombing raid encourages Strasser, who accompanies the raid aboard L 42, to plan a new bombing offensive.^[20]
• March 21 – The flight of the World's First Drone. At the Royal Flying Corps Upavon base one of the de Havilland unmanned 22-foot span monoplane Aerial Target aircraft was launched off a pneumatically powered ramp and flew briefly under radio control from the ground.^[21] The ‘pilot’ (on the ground) was Henry Segrave. This was witnessed by dozens of generals from all of the allied nations probably in England for the Imperial War Conference.^[22] The inventor of the control system was Dr. Archibald Low, the officer commanding the RFC secret Experimental Works in Feltham, Middlesex.

April

• Known as Bloody April. The Royal Flying Corps, while supporting the Arras offensive, loses 245 aircraft—140 in the first two weeks—out of an initial strength of 365. Aircrew casualties are 211 killed or missing and 108 captured. The opposing Germans lose only 66 aircraft.^[23]
• April 6
  • The United States enters World War I, declaring war on Germany.
  • enlisted men.^[24]
• April 13 –
  light ship to detect German submarines in the area. The new patrol pattern, resembling a spider web, allows four aircraft to search a 4,000-square-mile (10,000-square-kilometer) area in about five hours, only half the time it takes a surfaced submarine to transit the area. The flying boats make 27 patrols in the next 18 days, sight eight German submarines, and make bombing attacks against three of them.^[25][26]
• April 20 – The
  DN-1 flies for the first time at Pensacola, Florida. Tests of the highly unsuccessful DN-1 come to an end only nine days later.^[27]
• April 24 – Flying a Halberstadt CL.II, Hauptmann Eduard W. Zorer, the commanding officer of Schutzstaffel 7 – a German escort squadron charged with using its two-seater aircraft to escort two-seat reconnaissance aircraft – drops down to an altitude of 60 feet (18 meters) to use machine-gun fire to support German troops counterattacking British trenches along the Gavrelle-Rœux road near Arras during the Battle of Arras. Under fire from hundreds of British rifles and machine guns, he and his pilot spray the British trenches with 500 rounds of ammunition before a hit in their engine forces them to withdraw. The incident represents the birth of close air support as a mission of the world's air forces.^[28]
• April 26 – The Pacific Aero Products Company is renamed the
  Boeing Airplane Company.^[29]

• May 1 – The German Navy Zeppelins L 43 and L 45 conduct reconnaissance patrols over the North Sea off the coast of Scotland, patrolling off the Firth of Forth and Aberdeen, respectively.^[30]
• May 4 – The German Navy Zeppelin L 43 attacks a force of British light cruisers and destroyers in the North Sea near the Dogger Bank with three 50-kg (110-lb) bombs, hitting the light cruiser HMS Dublin with bomb splinters. It one of the few cases of an airship attacking warships.^[31]
• May 7
  • British
    Edward Mannock
    claims his first kill.
  • British ace Captain Albert Ball (44 victories) is killed in a crash following a dogfight with Lothar von Richthofen, who also crashes but survives.
• May 11 – German ace
  No. 23 Squadron RFC
  at Bourlon Wood in Belgium.
• May 14 – Flying the
  Texel Island. It is the first time that a flying boat shoots down a Zeppelin.^[32][33]
• May 19 – The United States adopts an
  U.S. Coast Guard does not adopt it.^[34] Except for an 18-month interruption in 1918-1919
  , the marking will remain in use until June 1942.
• May 23–24 (overnight) – Six German Navy Zeppelins attempt a high-altitude raid on London and the south of England and encounter bad weather. They drop most of their bombs onto open countryside, killing one man, injuring no one else, and inflicting
  Wilhelm II of Germany says, "In spite of this success, I am of the opinion that the day of the airship is past for attacks on London. They should be used as scouts for the High Seas Fleet and strategic reconnaissance, not for bombing raids on London." The Chief of the Naval Staff argues that the bombing campaign is tying down many British personnel, guns, and aircraft on home air defense duties, and Wilhelm II agrees to allow raids to continue if conditions are favorable.^[35]
• May 24 – Turbulence throws the observer aboard a German
  First Lieutenant Otto Berla, from his cockpit without a parachute. As he falls, an updraft forces the tail of the aircraft upward, and he punches through the plywood of the Aviatak's fuselage aft of his cockpit. The Aviatik's pilot returns him safely to base.^[36]
• May 25
  • The
    heavier-than-air bombing campaign targeting London. The first operation is a mass daylight air raid by 21 Gotha G.IV bombers flying from near Ghent which divert from London due to clouds over the city and attack secondary targets in Folkestone and the Shorncliffe Army Camp, killing 95 people and injuring 195. Seventy-four British aircraft take off to intercept, but the Germans lose only one Gotha, shot down by nine Royal Naval Air Service Sopwith Pups that engage the bombers as they fly over the coast of Belgium on their way back to base. It is the first of 22 German heavier-than-air raids on the United Kingdom during World War I.^{[37][38][39][40]}
  • French ace Lieutenant René Dorme is killed in action. His 23 victories will tie him with Lieutenant Gabriel Guérin for ninth-highest-scoring French ace of World War I.^[41]

June

• Lewis & Vought Corporation, which later will become the Chance Vought Corporation.^[42]
• U.S. Army
  Bristol F.2B fighter in the United States.^[43]
• An attack prior to the Battle of Messines Ridge on a British supply train by German aircraft disrupts the supply of British ammunition, forcing British artillery to cease firing after three hours.^[44]
• At Naval Air Station Pensacola in Pensacola, Florida, the United States Navy armored cruiser Huntington lofts a kite balloon, the first U.S. Navy ship to do so.^[45]
• June 5
  • Royal Flying Corps
    Thomas Lewis of No. 20 Squadron shoot down and kill German ace Leutnant Karl Emil Schäfer. His 30 victories will place him in a tie with five other pilots as the 28th-highest-scoring German ace of World War I.^[46]
  • The
    heavier-than-air bombing campaign targeting London. Unable to bomb London due to weather, the 22 Gotha G.IV bombers divert to a secondary target, a Royal Navy facility at Sheerness, killing 13 people in exchange for the loss of one bomber. The raid takes place in daylight.^[40]
  • The United States Navy's First Aeronautical Detachment disembarks from the collier USS Jupiter in France under the command of Kenneth Whiting. It is the first U.S. military unit to arrive in Europe.^[17]
• June 6 – The world's first landplane designed for use as a torpedo bomber, a Sopwith Cuckoo, is completed for the Royal Naval Air Service.^[47]
• June 13 – The third raid of Germany's Operation Türkenkreuz is the first to reach London. In daylight, 14 German
  Attacking in daylight, they drop 118 bombs,^[48] killing 162 people – including more than 18 children killed by a single bomb that hits a primary school in Poplar – and injuring 432.^[40] The casualty total is greater than that inflicted by all the German airship attacks on the United Kingdom combined up to that time.^[49] Although 92 British aircraft take off to intercept the raid, all of the German bombers return safely to base.^[40]
• June 14
  • Royal Naval Air Service
    Curtiss H.12 Large America flying boat 8677 shoots down the German Zeppelin L.43 in flames over the North Sea, with the loss of the Zeppelin's entire crew.^[32][50]
  • The American aviator, aircraft manufacturer, and airline entrepreneur
    streetcar accident in Sandusky, Ohio. His company, Benoist Aircraft
    , soon ceases production and goes out of business.
• Mid-June – The
  Marine Corps Air Station Quantico there.^[24]
• June 16–17 (overnight) – Five German Navy Zeppelins attempt a high-altitude raid on London and southern England. Only two arrive over England. L 42 bombs Ramsgate and detonates a munitions dump, wrecking the naval base, inflicting £29,000 pounds in damage, killing three civilians, and injuring 14 civilians and two Royal Navy personnel, then returns safely to Germany. L 48 bombs open fields outside Harwich before Royal Flying Corps Lieutenant L. P. Watkins of No. 37 Squadron shoots her down in flames killing 14 of the 17 men on board and fatally injuring one of the survivors. Among the dead is Viktor Schütze, the deputy commander of the German Naval Airship Service.^[51]
• June 20 – The British
  bomber squadrons.^[49]
• June 24 – The
  traveling circus
  .
• June 27 – German ace Leutnant Karl Allmenröder is shot down and killed. His 30 victories will tie him with five other pilots as the 28th-highest-scoring German ace of World War I.^[46]
• June 28 – An aircraft takes off successfully from a flying-off platform mounted on a warship's gun turret for the first time when Royal Naval Air Service
  Flight Commander F. J. Rutland takes off from a platform aboard the British light cruiser HMS Yarmouth in a Sopwith Pup.^[47]

• The only
  Mediterranean theater bombs Constantinople in an attempt to begin a bombing campaign against the Ottoman Empire's capital city.^[10]
• July 7 – In daylight, 22 German Gotha G.IV bombers make the fourth attack on the United Kingdom of Operation Türkenkreuz, killing 57 to 65 people and injuring 193 to 245 (sources differ on casualty totals). British aircraft fly 100 sorties to intercept the German bombers, shooting one down and damaging three others; the bombers shoot down two of the intercepting British aircraft.^{[39][40][52][53]}
• July 12 –
  Shetland Islands, sights the German submarine U-69 at a range of 28 nautical miles (52 kilometres), allowing Patriot to intercept U-69 and sink her with depth charges.^[54]
• July 17 –
  Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.^[55]
• July 22 – In daylight, German Gotha G.IV bombers make the fifth attack on the United Kingdom of Operation Türkenkreuz, bombing Felixstowe and Harwich.^[53]
• July 27
  • Flying a
    SPAD XII, Georges Guynemer shoots down a German DFW
    aircraft, becoming the first French ace with 50 victories.
  • The Naval Aircraft Factory, the in-house aircraft production and research arm of the U.S. Navy, is established.^[56]

August

• The
  hand grenades. The Germans discover that groups of four to six aircraft work best and that the ideal altitude from which to attack trenches is 150 feet (46 meters), while 1,200 to 1,500 feet (370 to 460 meters) is best for attacking larger targets like artillery batteries and reserve infantry concentrations. They find that line-astern formations are best to reduce the effects of enemy ground fire and line-abreast formations are best for fending off enemy fighters.^[6]
• Liberty engine 28 days after its design began. Before the end of World War I, 13,574 will be manufactured, and total will reach 20,478 by 1919.^[57]
• August 1 – The German Navy Zeppelin L 53 achieves an altitude of 20,700 feet (6,300 meters), a new record for an airship.[14]
• August 2
  • Italian ace Pier Ruggero Piccio scores his eighth victory by shooting down Austro-Hungarian ace Frank Linke-Crawford, who is flying a two-seat aircraft without a rear gunner on board. Linke-Crawford survives uninjured.
  • A
    Squadron Commander Edwin Dunning becomes the first aircraft to land aboard a moving ship, the hybrid aircraft carrier-battlecruiser HMS Furious
    .
• August 6 – Ground is broken on the
  Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
  .
• August 7 – Dunning is killed on his third landing when the Pup falls over the side of Furious.
• August 12 – In daylight, German
  Southend. In the fifth raid on July 22 and this raid, the Germans lose a combined five bombers, one of them shot down and the other four wrecked in crashes on landing as they return to their bases.^[53]
• August 17 – Tasked to study how the United Kingdom's air forces could be best organized for the war with Germany and to consider whether they should remain subordinate to the
  lines of communication could be an "important factor in bringing about peace." The report is the foundation of a new theory of warfare advocated by British bomber advocates and will inspire the creation of the independent Royal Air Force in 1918.^[58]
• August 18 – The Luftstreitkrafte attempts the largest
  heavier-than-air raid against the United Kingdom of World War I, sending 28 Gotha bombers from their bases in Belgium to attack England despite predictions of unfavorable winds. After two hours in the air, they have only reached Zeebrugge on the Belgian coast, and it takes them another hour to reach the coast of England, where they find themselves 64 kilometers (40 miles) off course. With too little fuel to go on, the strike commander orders the bombers to abort the raid and return to base; two of them come down in the North Sea, two others crash-land in the neutral Netherlands, and others are lost in crash-landings in Belgium.^[59]
• August 21 – Flying a
  Flight Sub-Lieutenant B. A. Smart shoots down the German Navy Zeppelin L 23 in flames over the North Sea with the loss of her entire crew. Smart is recovered safely along with his plane's engine and one of its machine guns after he ditches his fighter in the sea.^[60]
• August 21–22 (overnight) – Eight German Navy Zeppelins commanded by German Naval Airship Service commander Peter Strasser aboard L 46 attempt a high-altitude raid on England. Only L 41 crosses the British coastline; she bombs the Kingston upon Hull area, destroying a chapel and injuring one civilian.^[61]
• August 22 – The Luftstreitkrafte sends 15 Gotha bombers to attack England in a daylight raid. Five turn back over the North Sea, and the remaining 10 encounter British fighter aircraft and heavy
  antiaircraft fire over the Isle of Thanet. Two Gothas are shot down immediately, and another is shot down over Dover. The losses prompt to Germans to halt daylight raids over the United Kingdom and switch to night bombing.^[62]