1921 in aviation

This is a list of aviation-related events from 1921:

Events

• Mexicana de Aviación begins service.
• The Imperial Japanese Navy acquires its first rigid and semi-rigid airships.^[1]
• The Italian General Giulio Douhet publishes his highly influential book Command of the Air. In it, he argues that the ability of aircraft to fly over armies and navies renders those forces of secondary importance; that the vastness of the sky makes defense against bombers impossible; that only offensive bombing to destroy the enemy's air force can allow a country to achieve command of the air; that once it is achieved, a bombing campaign can be carried out against enemy "vital centers", including industry, transportation, government, communications, and "the will of the people;" and that success against enemy civilian morale in particular would be the key to victory.
• When the Italian Chief of the Naval Staff
  Mediterranean and that a perfectly good substitute for them is "a well-organized network of coastal air stations."^[2]

• January 6 – After modifications, HMS Argus returns to service with the Royal Navy as the world's first aircraft carrier equipped with palisades.^[3] Installed on the port and starboard edges of the flight deck and capable of being raised and lowered, the palisades when raised serve as a windbreak and prevent aircraft on the flight deck from blowing or rolling overboard in heavy weather.

February

• Concerned that the transcontinental
  stalls and crashes after takeoff from Elko, Nevada. The only real success is by the second eastbound flight, whose pilot manages to fly at night from North Platte, Nebraska, to Chicago.^[4]
• February 10 – The
  Langley Field, Virginia
  , is renamed the Air Service Field Officers School.
• February 26 – French pilot Adrienne Bolland sets an altitude record of 4,850 metres (15,910 ft) in a Caudron G.3 flying from Buenos Aires.^[5]

March

• March 4 – The first sustained flight of the Caproni Ca.60 Transaereo nine-wing flying boat prototype ends in a crash into the surface of Lake Maggiore.^[6]
• March 27–28 – The
  Italian Fascist newspaper Il Popolo d'Italia co-sponsors a conference in Milan that calls for the Government of Italy to establish an independent air ministry and concludes that "the air force is about to become the decisive arm in the future conflicts between peoples and therefore the means must be readied to safeguard the command of our skies."^[7]
• March 28 – The
  Government of Australia creates the Civil Aviation Branch as a component of the Department of Defence
  .
• March 31 – The
  Australian Air Force is formed as an independent air force
  .

• April 1 – French pilot Adrienne Bolland flies a Caudron G.3 from Mendoza, Argentina, to Santiago, the first flight across the Andes by a woman.^[5]
• April 11 – Bert Hinkler sets a new distance record in Australia, flying an Avro Baby 800 miles (1,288 km) from Sydney to Bundaberg in 8 hours 40 minutes.
• April 18 – The first military flight in Honduras takes place when an American pilot under contract to the Honduran military flies a Bristol F.2b Fighter.

May

• American stunt pilot Laura Bromwell sets a women's aviation speed record of 135 mph (217 km/h).^[8]
• The French airline
  Société Générale de Transports Aérien (SGTA) extends its Paris-Brussels route to Amsterdam. It uses the Farman F.60 Goliath
  on the route.
• May 2 – Italian World War I ace Giovanni Ancillotto makes a flight across the Andes in Peru, flying from Lima to Cerro de Pasco in an Ansaldo A.1 Balilla in 1 hour 35 minutes, after which he spends 15 minutes flying over Cerro de Pasco before landing. He makes the flight at an average altitude of 5,500 meters (18,044 feet), reaches a maximum altitude of 7,000 meters (22,966 feet) while passing Mount Meiggs, and covers the 123-kilometer (76-mile) portion of the flight from Lima to La Oroya at an average speed of 230 km/h (143 mph).^[9]
• May 13 –
  Italian Fascist leader Benito Mussolini qualifies as a pilot.^[10]
• May 15 – Laura Bromwell sets a women's record for consecutive loops, looping her airplane 199 consecutive times in 1 hour 20 minutes over New York State.^[8][11]
• May 24 – French pilot Adrienne Bolland flies a Caudron G.3 from Buenos Aires (Argentine) to Montevideo (Uruguay), the first flight over the length of the Río de la Plata by a woman.^[5]
• May 25 – The
  Société Nationale pour l'Etude des Transports Aériens (SNETA) opens a Brussels-Croydon Airport (London) route,^[12] using the Farman F.60 Goliath
  .

• Boeing wins a $1,448,000 contract to build 200 Thomas-Morse MB-3 fighters for the US Army, allowing the company to abandon furniture-making.
• June 1 – On the second day of the
  incendiary bombs.^[13][14]
• June 5 – Twenty-three-year-old American stunt pilot Laura Bromwell dies in the crash of her Canadian-built airplane on the outskirts of Garden City on Long Island, New York, when she loses control at the top of a loop and her aircraft plummets into the ground from an altitude of 1,000 feet (305 m).^[8]
• June 8 – The
  de Havilland DH.4
  .
• June 13 – The U.S. Army and United States Navy begin trials in Chesapeake Bay to test the effectiveness of aircraft in attacking ships. The captured German destroyer G-102, light cruiser Frankfurt, and battleship Ostfriesland will all be sunk by aerial bombing during the tests.
• June 15 – 29-year-old
  African American to earn an international pilot's licence.^[15]
• June 23 –
  air mail service between Cairo and Baghdad
  .
• June 28 – The
  International Commission for Air Navigation
  into effect throughout the Commonwealth..

• Donald W. Douglas founds the Douglas Company.^[16]
• July 7 – Fire destroys the U.S. Navy
  Naval Air Station Hampton Roads in Norfolk, Virginia.^[17]
• July 16 – The sixth annual
  Gloster Mars at an average speed of 163.34 mph (262.87 km/h) in 1 hour 18 minutes 10 seconds with a handicap of 4 minutes 42 seconds. However, Harry Hawker
  has been killed on July 12 in a crash while practising.
• July 21 –
  bombers sink the decommissioned German battleship Ostfriesland in the Atlantic Ocean off the Virginia Capes after Billy Mitchell argued for bombing trials to show the power of aircraft to sink major warships.^[18]

• August 10 – The United States Department of the Navy establishes the Bureau of Aeronautics to oversee all matters relating to naval aircraft, personnel, and operations. United States Marine Corps aviation remains under a separate command, the Director of Aviation at Headquarters Marine Corps.^[19][20]
• August 11 – The 1921 Schneider Trophy race is flown at Venice, Italy. In an all-Italian field, Giovanni De Briganti wins the race in a Macchi M.7 with an average speed of 189.7 km/h (117.9 mph).
• August 24 – The British
  R-38 breaks up over Hull, Yorkshire
  , during trials, killing 44 of the 49 people on board.
• August 30 – Three
  Valparaiso on Coquimbo. This will influence the eventual Chilean decision to separate naval aviation from army aviation.^[21]
• August 31
  • The Australian Air Force is renamed the Royal Australian Air Force.
  • A
    H-1 and the kite balloon
    A-P.

• The British 30-man Sempill Mission, led by Sir William Francis Forbes-Sempill (Captain, the Master of Sempill), arrives in Japan, bringing with it over 100 aircraft comprising 20 different models. Before it returns to the United Kingdom in March 1923, the Mission will greatly improve Imperial Japanese Navy aviation training and understanding of aircraft carrier flight deck operations and the latest naval aviation tactics and technology, and the aircraft it brings will inspire the design of a number of Japanese naval aircraft of the 1920s.^[22]
• At Brussels, Farman Aviation Works test pilot Louis Bossoutrot wins the Simonet Cup in a Farman FF 65 Sport.
• September 17 – The first annual
  Avro 504K on the second lap.^[23]
• September 19 – The first regular scheduled airline service in
  Junkers F.13s between Barranquilla and Girandot, Colombia
  .
• September 27 – A
  Evere Airfield in Evere, Belgium, destroys two SNETA Farman F.60 Goliaths (registration O-BLEU and O-BRUN).^[24][25]
• September 28 – Piloting the same
  Packard-Le Peré LUSAC-11 fighter that set a world altitude record on February 27, 1920, Lieutenant John A. Macready sets a new world altitude record of 10,518 meters (34,508 feet).^[26] Macready receives the Mackay Trophy
  for the flight.

• The Royal Air Force takes over from the British Army in assuming policing duties in Iraq.
• October 4 – At Long Branch, New Jersey, an inexperienced amateur stunt flier, Madeline Davis, attempts to become the first woman to attempt to transfer from a moving automobile to an airplane flying overhead via a rope ladder. She loses her grip on the ladder and is fatally injured.^[27][28]
• October 15 – The Spanish airline Compañía Española de Tráfico Aéreo is established. It will eventually form part of the airline Iberia.

November

• November 5 –
  Curtiss CR-2
  and establishes a new closed-circuit airspeed record of 284.36 km/h (176.7 mph).
• November 12–27 – The sixth
  Breguet 19
  is unveiled.
• November 19 – Flying a Curtiss CR-2, Bert Acosta sets a new world speed record of 197.8 mph (318.32 km/h).^[29]

December

• December 1 – The first flight of a
  Hampton Roads, Virginia, to Washington, D.C.^[30]
• December 5 – West Australian Airways commences the first regular air services in Australia.
• December 16 –
  lighter-than-air craft tender."^[31]
• December 29–30 –
  Junkers-Larsen JL-6 over Roosevelt Field outside Mineola, New York, for 26 hours 19 minutes 35 seconds. It is the first flight endurance record recognized by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale
  (FAI).

First flights

• Avro 555 Bison^[32]
• Gloster Sparrowhawk
• Farman F.110
• Potez IX
• Thomas-Morse MB-7^[33]
• Early 1921
  • Junkers J 15
  • Westland Walrus
• Late 1921
  • Airco DH.9C
  • Thomas-Morse MB-10^[33]

January

• Caproni Ca.60 (short hops only)^[6]
• Loening PW-2^[34]

February

• February 24 - Douglas Cloudster

March

• March 3 – Junkers K 16
• March 4 – Caproni Ca.60 (first sustained flight ends in crash)^[6]
• Armstrong Siddeley Siskin, precursor of the Armstrong Whitworth Siskin^[35]

April

• April 11 – Short Cromarty flying boat
• April 30 – Marinens Flyvebaatfabrikk M.F.6 floatplane

May

• Boeing GA-1

June

• June 16 – Blériot-SPAD S.46
• June 20 –
  Gloster Mars
• June 21 – Bristol Ten-seater
• June 23 –
  R38 class airship

July

• 5 July – de Havilland Doncaster
• 7 July – Fairey Pintail
• 16 July – Avro 551, prototype of the Avro 552

August

• 1 August – Curtiss CR-1^[29]
• 9 August – Curtiss CR-2^[29]

October

• Avro 549 Aldershot
• Mitsubishi 1MF
• Potez 15
• October 21 – Thomas-Morse MB-6, later redesignated Thomas-Morse R-2^[36]

November

• Engineering Division PW-1^[37]

Entered service

• Gloster Sparrowhawk with the Imperial Japanese Navy aboard the battleship Yamashiro
• Westland Walrus with No. 3 Squadron, Royal Air Force

Retirements

• July – Saunders Kittiwake

References

1. ISBN 1-55750-432-6
   , p. 15.
2. ISBN 978-0-521-85602-7
   , p. 50.
3. ISBN 0-87021-026-2
   , p. 215.
4. ^ Jensen, Richard, "The Suicide Club," Aviation History, May 2017, p. 64.
5. ^
   ISBN 9782368904664
   .
6. ^ ^{a b c} Guttman, Jon, "Crazy Capronis," Aviation History, July 2008, p. 55.
7. ISBN 978-0-521-85602-7
   , p. 54.
8. ^
   ISBN 0-942191-01-3
   , p. 280.
9. ^ "LA AVIACIÓN EN EL CERRO DE PASCO (Cuarta parte)" [THE AVIATION IN THE CERRO DE PASCO (Part Four)]. PUEBLO MÁRTIR – César Pérez Arauco (in Spanish). July 31, 2015.
10. ISBN 978-0-521-85602-7
    , p. 39.
11. ^ Gunston, Bill, ed., Aviation: Year by Year, London: Amber Books Limited, 2001, cited at Wings Over Kansas: Aviation History: Aviation History Facts: May Archived February 4, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
12. ^ "Air Travel – The Revolution". Historic Croydon Airport. London. Retrieved September 13, 2020.
13. ISBN 0-312-27283-9
    , pp. 4, 131-132, 144, 159, 164, 249.
14. ^ McCabe, Scott, "Crime History: Dozens Killed During Tulsa Race Riot", The Washington Examiner, May 31, 2013, p. 8.
15. ^ Onkst, David H. (2016). "Women in History: Bessie Coleman". Natural Resources Conservation Service Nevada. Archived from the original on February 16, 2016. Retrieved November 20, 2020.
16. ISBN 0-517-56588-9
    , p. 182.
17. ^ "Big Navy Dirigible Burned in Flight; Flames Destroy the C-3 at Hampton Roads--Crew Escapes Serious Injuries". The New York Times. July 8, 1921. p. 1.
18. ISBN 0-7607-2012-6
    , p. 48.
19. ISBN 0-370-10054-9
    , p. 2.
20. ^ Butler, Glen, "That Other Air Service Centennial", Naval History, June 2012, p. 57, claims that the United States Navy created the Bureau of Aeronautics in July 1921.
21. ISBN 0-87021-295-8
    , p. 199.
22. ISBN 1-55750-432-6
    , pp. 17–20.
23. ^ "Air League Challenge Cup - 1921". A Fleeting Peace. September 17, 1921.
24. Aviation Safety Network
25. Aviation Safety Network
26. ^ Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, p. 195.
27. ^ "Girl Dies In Stunt Boarding Airplane From Moving Auto" (PDF). The New York Times. October 5, 1921. Retrieved December 18, 2011.
28. ISSN 0015-4806
    .
29. ^ ^{a b c} Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, p. 121.
30. ^ "Today in History," Washington Post Express, December 1, 2011, Page 62.
31. ISBN 0-87021-210-9
    , p. 121.
32. ISBN 0-7607-0592-5
    , p. 76.
33. ^ ^{a b} Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, p. 423.
34. ^ Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, p. 291.
35. ISBN 0-7607-0592-5
    , p. 63.
36. ISBN 0-517-56588-9
    , p. 422.
37. ^ Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, p. 198.