1920 in aviation
Years in aviation :
|
1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 |
| Centuries: | 19th century · 20th century · 21st century |
| Decades: | |
| Years: | 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 |
This is a list of aviation-related events from 1920:
Events
- autorotationas it taxis on the ground.
- The Argentine Navy establishes a naval aviation division and allocates funds for the founding of a naval aviation school.[1]
- The Peruvian Navy establishes a Naval Aviation Corps.[2]
- Siberian Intervention.[3]
- The Aichi Clock and Electric Company Ltd. begins the production of airframes at Nagoya, Japan. It will begin producing aircraft engines in 1927.[4]
- Mitsubishi Internal Combustion Engine Company Ltd. registers as an aircraft manufacturing company, with its factory at Kobe, Japan, and takes over the aircraft manufacturing business of its parent company, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.[5]
- The Stinson Aircraft Company is founded in Ohio in the United States.
- British military thinker Colonel J. F. C. Fuller writes that in the next war "Fleets of aeroplanes will attack the enemy's great industrial and governing centres. All these attacks will be made against the civil population in order to compel it to accept the will of the attacker..."[6]
January
- January 17 – The first United States Navy airplane flight in the Hawaiian Islands takes place when a plane takes off from Honolulu.[7]
- January 21
- The last balloon ship, HMS Canning, which has operated since December 1916 as a balloon depot ship, is sold.[8]
- The Mohammed Abdullah Hassan (the "Mad Mullah") using 10 Airco DH.9s. On the first day, a DH.9 drops a bomb on the tent of the Mullah – who has never seen an airplane before and whose advisers tell him that the aircraft must be either chariots from Allah or friendly messengers from the Ottoman Empire's Sultan Mehmed VI – while he waits to receive their crews as important guests. He survives and flees.[9] The Z Unit will continue to bomb and strafe the Mullah's forces on January 22 and 23.[10]
- The last
- January 24 – Extensive aerial reconnaissance by the Royal Air Force's Z Unit establishes that the
- January 29 – Royal Air Force Airco DH.9s bomb the Dervish State's Dhulbahante garesa fort at Gallbaridur.[10]
- January 30 – Royal Air Force DH.9s bomb Mohammed Abdullah Hassan's baggage train and personal retinue, but he survives.[10]
February
- brittle fracture is published.[11]
- Early in the month, Royal Air Force Airco DH.9s bomb the British campaign to restore their control over British Somaliland comes to a successful conclusion in only three weeks, at a low cost in British lives and money. It is the prototype of the "aerial policing" of rebellious colonies that the Royal Air Force will conduct in the 1920s and 1930s, most notably in Iraq.[12]
- February 1
- The South African Air Force is established as an independent air arm.
- The first interisland commercial flight in the Hawaiian Islands takes place when pilot Charles Fern carries a paying passenger from Honolulu to Maui and back. The outbound flight requires an emergency stop on Molokai.[7]
- February 2 – San Antonio, Texas.
- February 4 – Pierre van Ryneveld and Quintin Brand set out in a Vickers Vimy from Cairo to cross Africa by air from North to South. They will arrive in Cape Town on March 20.
- February 5 – The Royal Air Force College is established at Cranwell, Lincolnshire.
- February 14 – Eleven Italian aircraft – three Caproni Ca.3 bombers and eight Asaldo SVA-9 trainers – take off from Centocelle Airport in Rome to fly to Tokyo. Only two of the planes – SVA-9s flying as pathfinders for the rest of the planes, piloted by Arturo Ferrarin and Guido Masiero – will complete the journey, arriving in Tokyo on May 31.[13]
- February 18 – The French military pilot Sahara Desert.[14]
- February 25 – The United States Department of War authorizes the United States Army Air Service to establish its own service schools analogous to the service schools of the United States Army and United States Navy.
- February 27 – Piloting a U.S. Army Air Service Packard-Le Peré LUSAC-11 fighter equipped with one of the first turbochargers, Major Rudolf Schroedersets a new world altitude record of 10,099 metres (33,133 feet). His oxygen system fails and he passes out; he regains consciousness only very near the ground and lands safely, but is hospitalized.
March
- March 15 – The sixth-highest-scoring German ace of World War I, Rudolf Berthold, is killed by a rioting mob in Harburg, Hamburg, Germany.[15][16]
- March 16 – The Royal Air Force renames its Marine Aircraft Experimental Station the "Marine and Armament Experimental Establishment" to reflect its involvement in evaluating weapons and equipment as well as seaplanes, flying boats, and other aircraft connected with naval operations. In March 1924 it will become the Marine Aircraft Experimental Establishment.
- March 24
- The
- The Coast Guard Air Station.[18]
- March 28 – Croydon Airport replaces Hounslow Heath Aerodrome as London's airport.
April
- Three Sasebo, Japan; and back to Yokosuka. On the last leg they fly non-stop for a world-record 11 hours 30 minutes, the first time any fixed-wing aircraft has flown nonstop for more than 10 hours.[19]
- In the Women's Royal Air Force is disbanded.[20]
- April 17 - The Venezuelan Air Force is formed, with a flying school at Maracay.
May
- May 8 – Under the terms of the German Army's air service, the Luftstreitkräfte, is dissolved. Germany will not have a military air service again until the establishment of the German Air Force, the Luftwaffe, in February 1935.
- May 17
- KLM and Aircraft Transport and Travel begin a joint air service between London and Amsterdam.
- Canadian Air Force, forerunner of the Royal Canadian Air Force.
- May 31
- Italian pilots Chosen; and then across the Sea of Japan to a stop at Osaka, Japan, before arriving at Yoyogi Army Field in Tokyo.[13]
- Bert Hinkler flies the first leg of an attempt to fly from England to Australia in an Avro Baby, departing London's Croydon Airport and flying to Turin, Italy, in 9 hours 30 minutes, crossing the Alps during the flight. Although mechanical problems force him to abandon his plans to continue beyond Turin, he wins the Britannia Trophy for his Croydon-Turin flight.[21]
- Italian pilots
June
- An airplane takes off from a ship for the first time in
- June 4 - The United States Congress passes the United States Army Reorganization Act, which establishes the United States Army Air Service as a combatant arm of the United States Army[23] but dashes the hopes of U.S. Army aviators for an American independent air arm like Britain's Royal Air Force for some twenty-seven years.
July
- The French airline Société Générale de Transports Aérien (SGTA) opens a Paris-Brussels route, using the Farman F.60 Goliathairliner.
- July 1 – Belgium establishes the first internal air-service in any European colony with the Lara-Ligne Aérienne Roi Albert in the Belgian Congo.
- July 3 – The first Royal Air Force Pageant is held, at London.
- July 4 – The first civil airplane fatalities in
- July 5 –
- July 22 – Los Angeles, California.[28]
- July 24 – The fifth annual Aerial Derby is held, sponsored for the first time by the Royal Aero Club, with a trophy and a £500 prize for the overall winner and prizes of £250, £100, and £50 for the first three places in the handicap competition. Fifteen participants fly over a 102.5-mile (165-kilometer) circuit beginning and ending at Hendon Aerodrome in London with control points at Brooklands, Esher, Purley, and Purfleet; the aircraft fly the circuit twice. F. T. Courtney is the overall winner, completing the course in a Martinsyde Semiquaver at an average speed of 154.70 mph (248.97 km/h) in 38 minutes 47.2 seconds with a handicap of 1 minute; H. A. Hammersley wins the handicap competition in an Avro Baby for the second consecutive year with a time of 2 hours 32 minutes 6 seconds at an average speed of 78.89 mph (126.96 km/h) with a handicap of 1 hour 35 minutes 0 seconds.
- July 29 – The United States Post Office's first transcontinental airmail flight takes off from New York City.
August
- The British Nieuport & General Aircraft Company goes out of business.
- August 2 – Filming a nighttime Curtiss JN-4 crashes into the sludge pool of an oil well, igniting a massive explosion and fire.
- August 7 – Danish Air Lines begins flight operations, using a Friedrichshafen FF.49 (registration T-DABA) on the route Copenhagen-Malmö-Warnemünde.
- August 14 – The Langley Field, Virginia. It is the predecessor of the Air Corps Tactical School.
- August 24 – An aircraft crashes into the floatplane-equipped Chilean Navy armored cruiser O'Higgins, killing its pilot.[29]
September
- Post-World War I budget cuts have reduced United States Marine Corps aviation from almost 400 aviators to fewer than 50, prompting the Marine Corps' first aviator, Major Alfred A. Cunningham, to write in the Marine Corps Gazette, "One of the greatest handicaps which Marine Corps Aviation must now overcome is a combination of doubt as to usefulness, lack of sympathy, and a feeling on the part of some line officers that aviators and aviation men are not real Marines."[30]
- September 8 – The final leg is added to the U.S. transcontinental airmail service, across the Rocky Mountains from Omaha, Nebraska, to Sacramento, California. Because flying at night is dangerous, the mail is carried along the route by train during the hours of darkness.[31]
- September 16 – Fred Sigrist and Bill Eyre form a successor company known as H. G. Hawker Engineering.
- September 20 – The 1920 Savoia S.12is the only starter and wins simply by finishing the race, with an average speed of 172.6 km/h (107.2 mph).
- September 26 – de Havilland Aircraft Company.[32]
October
- October 7 – First transcontinental flight in Canada, from Halifax NS to Vancouver BC by the Canadian Air Board, started at Dartmouth Air Base. Damage to their Fairey 3.C seaplane over the Bay of Fundy forced Lt.-Col. Robert R. Leckie and Major Basil D. Hobbs and mechanic C.W. Heath to crash-land in the Saint John River. They flew a replacement Curtiss HS-2L flying boat to Fredericton NB and Riviere du Loup, QC. They then flew a twin-engined Felixstowe F.3 flying boat to Rockcliffe (Ottawa) and, with Captain G.O. Johnson as navigator, to Sault Ste. Marie, Kenora ON, Selkirk MB (mist forced landing on Red River) and Winnipeg arriving on October 11. Next three relay stages were flown in three single-engined DH9A land planes piloted by Flight Lieutenants J.B. Home-Hay to Regina, C.W. Cudamore to Calgary, and G.A. Thompson to Vancouver, with passenger Air Commodore A.K. Tylee. Final leg from Calgary took 6 days through mountain valleys as snow, fog, and low cloud forced landings at Revelstoke and Merrett BC. Flight ended at Minoru Park in Richmond BC on October 17. Overall elapsed time was 10-1/2 days, with total flying time over 3,341 mile route of 49 hours 7 minutes (63 MPH average speed).[33]
- October 15 – Aviator air mail route, from Seattle, Washington, to Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. He will employ the Boeing B-1 flying boat on the route.[34]
- October 27 – Ecuador creates the Ecuadorian Air Force.
November
- The British India.[32]
- November 1
- The United States Post Office awards a contract for international air mail to Aeromarine West Indies Airways.
- At Langley Field, Virginia, the United States Army Air Service′s Air Service School – predecessor of the Air Corps Tactical School– opens its first class.
- The
- November 11 – Robert Guy Robinson become the first U.S. Marine Corps aviators to receive the Medal of Honor, for an action in an Airco DH.4 against German fighters over Belgium on October 14, 1918. Talbot's award is posthumous, as he had died during a test flight on October 25, 1918.[35]
- November 16 – The Australian airline Qantas is founded in Winton, Queensland as Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services Ltd. by Paul McGinness, Hudson Fysh, Fergus McMaster, and Arthur Baird.[36]
December
- The Australian Parliament passes the Air Navigation Act 1920.
- December 2 – Pilot Perth, Australia, after making the first flight from Melbourne to Perth, a distance of 3,392 km (2,108 miles), in an Airco (De Havilland) D.H. 4.[37]
- December 10 – Military aviation begins in Venezuela with the opening of the Venezuelan Military Aviation School as a component of the Venezuelan Army.[38]
- December 14 – Immediately after taking off in fog from Handley Page O/400 operated by Handley Page Transport strikes trees, crashes in Golders Green, and catches fire, killing four of the eight people on board.[39]
- December 16 – Frank Briggs completes the first east-to-west or west-to-east crossing of Australia, traveling east-to-west between C. J. (Jack) De Garisand mechanic Jack Howard. They had left Perth in the early hours of December 13 and spent 21 hours, 38 minutes in the air (not including re-fueling).
- December 28 – Exhibition pilot Los Angeles, California. Both Hawks and Earhart will becomes famous aviators in the years ahead for various firsts and records.
First flights
- Farman F.70
- Hanriot HD-14
February
April
- April 8 – de Havilland DH.18
- April 9 – Potez VIII
- April 13 – Nieuport London
May
June
- June 11 – Verville VCP[41]
July
- July 13 – U.S. Navy D-class blimp
September
- Blackburn T.1 Swift
- September 19 – Saunders Kittiwake
October
- October 13 – Naval Aircraft Factory TF[42]
November
- November 19 – Parnall Puffin
Entered service
August
- Fokker F.II with KLM
Retirements
September
References
- ISBN 0-87021-295-8, p. 193.
- ISBN 0-87021-295-8, p. 200.
- ISBN 0-87021-313-X, p. 30.
- ISBN 0-87021-313-X, p. 18.
- ISBN 0-87021-313-X, p. 23.
- ISBN 0-671-68070-6, p. 41.
- ^ a b Aviation Hawaii: 1920-1929 Chronology of Aviation in Hawaii
- ISBN 0-87021-210-9, p. 77.
- ^ O'Connor, Derek, "The Hunt For the Mad Mullah", Aviation History, July 2012, p. 45.
- ^ a b c d e O'Connor, Derek, "The Hunt For the Mad Mullah", Aviation History, July 2012, p. 46.
- JSTOR 91192.
- ^ O'Connor, Derek, "The Hunt For the Mad Mullah", Aviation History, July 2012, p. 47.
- ^ a b earlyaviators.com Schubert, Jim, "Book Report: Italian Aviators Rome to Tokyo in 1920 by Lt. Gen'l. (Ret.) Domenico Ludovico"
- ISBN 0-942191-01-3, p. 263.
- ^ firstworldwar.com Who's Who: Rudolf Berthold
- ISBN 1-902304-04-7, pp. 58, 63. Franks' statement on p. 58 that Berthold was killed on December 15, 1919, appears to be incorrect.
- ISBN 0-87021-210-9, p. 122.
- ^ A Chronological History of Coast Guard Aviation: The Early Years, 1915-1938.
- ISBN 1-55750-432-6, p. 16.
- ^ rafmuseum.org.uk Women's Royal Air Force (WRAF) 1918 - 1920
- ^ Australian Dictionary of Biography: Bert Hinkler
- ISBN 0-87021-313-X, p. 38.
- LCCN 61060979.
- ^ "planecrashinfo.com Famous People Who Died in Aviation Accidents: 1920s". Archived from the original on 2015-12-11. Retrieved 2015-12-22.
- ^ http://www.accident-report.com/world/namerica/US/MD.html Archived 2013-09-28 at the Wayback Machine Maryland Accident Listing: USAAF/USAF AIRCRAFT 1918-1955.
- ^ http://www.aviationarchaeology.com/src/1940sB4/1920.htm 1920 US Army Air Service Accident Reports
- ^ Logan Field Was Home of First Maryland Flying Unit Archived 2012-03-12 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, p. 182.
- ^ "O'Higgins, crucero acorazado (3ro)" Archived 2013-09-21 at the Wayback Machine. Armarda de Chile. 24 September 2008. Retrieved 6 May 2012.
- ^ Butler, Glen, Colonel, USMC, "That Other Air Service Centennial", Naval History, June 2012, p. 56.
- ^ Jensen, Richard, "The Suicide Club", Aviation History, May 2017, p. 52.
- ^ ISBN 0-7607-2012-6, p. 44.
- ISBN 9781772824391.
- ISBN 0-942191-01-3, p. 272.
- ^ Borch, Fred L.; Robert E. Dorr, "Bravery Over Belgium", Military History, March 2012, p. 17.
- ^ "Small Beginnings". Our Company. Qantas. Archived from the original on 2006-10-09. Retrieved 2006-12-16.
- ^ a b The Argus(Melbourne), 20 December 1920, p8.
- ^ globalsecurity.org Venezuelan Air Force: Fuerzas Aereas or Aviacion Aviación Militar Bolivariana
- ^ Accident Report at Aviation Safety Network
- ^ Sunday Times (Perth), 19 December 1920, p. 1S.
- ^ Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, p. 197.
- ^ Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, p. 323.
- ISBN 978-0-7607-0592-6, p. 77.