1921 in aviation explained
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 enemys 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 Admiral Paolo Thaon di Revel argues for the development of aircraft carriers, saying "the development and use of aeroplanes in wars on our seas and along our coasts is today the most essential element of national defense," Minister of the Navy Admiral Giovanni Sechi replies that aircraft carriers are unnecessary in an enclosed sea like the Mediterranean and that a perfectly good substitute for them is "a well-organized network of coastal air stations."[2]
January
- January 6 - After modifications, returns to service with the Royal Navy as the worlds 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 U.S. Air Mail service established in September 1920 had turned out to be little faster – although much more expensive – than train-only service because the United States lacks a system of lighted navigation beacons, meaning that air mail pilots could not fly safely at night and trains had to carry air mail along the route during the hours of darkness, Assistant Postmaster General of the United States Otto Praeger stages four experimental day-and-night air mail flights as a publicity stunt before incoming President Warren G. Harding can take office on March 4 and appoint his successor. The flights consist of two eastbound and two westbound trips between New York City and San Francisco, California. The two westbound flights become stranded in Dubois, Pennsylvania, and Chicago, Illinois. The first eastbound flight ends in tragedy when the de Havilland DH-4B carrying the mail 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 United States Army Air Service′s Air Service School at Langley Field, Virginia, is renamed the Air Service Field Officers School.
- February 26 - French pilot Adrienne Bolland sets an altitude record of 4850m (15,910feet) in a Caudron G.3 flying from Buenos Aires.
March
April
May
- American stunt pilot Laura Bromwell sets a womens aviation speed record of 135 mph (217 km/h).[6]
- 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).[7]
- May 13 - Italian Fascist leader Benito Mussolini qualifies as a pilot.[8]
- May 15 - Laura Bromwell sets a womens record for consecutive loops, looping her airplane 199 consecutive times in 1 hour 20 minutes over New York State.[6] [9]
- 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.[10]
- May 25 - The Belgian airline Société Nationale pour l'Etude des Transports Aériens (SNETA) opens a Brussels-Croydon Airport (London) route,[11] using the Farman F.60 Goliath.
June
- 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 Tulsa race riot, whites in six biplane trainer aircraft from nearby Curtiss-Southwest Field attack African-Americans on the ground in the Greenwood section of Tulsa, Oklahoma, with rifles and incendiary bombs.[12] [13]
- 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).[6]
- June 8 - The United States Army carries out the first experiments in cabin pressurisation, using a 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 Bessie Coleman, having attended flying school in France, gets her pilot's licence and becomes the first African American to earn an international pilot's licence.[14]
- June 23 - Airco DH.10 Amiens aircraft of the Royal Air Force′s No. 216 Squadron begin an air mail service between Cairo and Baghdad.
- June 28 - The Air Navigation and Transport Act becomes law. It gives the British Empire authority over all air navigation in the British Commonwealth of Nations and their territories and puts the International Commission for Air Navigation into effect throughout the Commonwealth..
July
- Donald W. Douglas founds the Douglas Company.[15]
- July 7 - Fire destroys the U.S. Navy blimp C-3 at Naval Air Station Hampton Roads in Norfolk, Virginia.[16]
- July 16 - The sixth annual Aerial Derby is held, sponsored by the Royal Aero Club, with a trophy and a £500 prize for the overall winner and prizes of £200, £100, and £50 for the first three places in the handicap competition. Nineteen 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. J. H. James is both the overall winner and the winner of the handicap competition, completing the course in a 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 - United States Army Air Service Martin NBS-1 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.[17]
August
September
- 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.[21]
- At Brussels, Farman Aviation Works test pilot Louis Bossoutrot wins the Simonet Cup in a Farman FF 65 Sport.
- September 17 - The first annual Air League Challenge Cup race is held as the final event in of the Royal Aero Club's first Aviation Race Meeting at Croydon Airport in London. Competitors race a total of 72 miles (116 km) over a three-lap course in teams of three, with each team member physically passing a baton to the next team member after completing one lap. Three Royal Air Force teams – dubbed "Red," "White," and "Blue" – are the only entrants, and the Red Team – from No. 24 Squadron at RAF Kenley – wins flying an SE.5a on the first and third laps and an Avro 504K on the second lap.[22]
- September 19 - The first regular scheduled airline service in Latin America commences, with Colombian airline SCADTA operating float-equipped Junkers F.13s between Barranquilla and Girandot, Colombia.
- September 27 - A hangar fire at Evere Airfield in Evere, Belgium, destroys two SNETA Farman F.60 Goliaths (registration O-BLEU and O-BRUN).
- September 28 - Piloting the same United States Army Air Service 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).[23] Macready receives the Mackay Trophy for the flight.
October
- 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.[24] [25]
- October 15 - The Spanish airline Compañía Española de Tráfico Aéreo is established. It will eventually form part of the airline Iberia.
November
December
First flights
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
October
November
- Engineering Division PW-1[35]
Entered service
Retirements
Notes and References
- Peattie, Mark R., Sunburst: The Rise of Japanese Naval Air Power 1909-1941, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 2001,, p. 15.
- Gooch, John, Mussolini and His Generals: The Armed Forces and Fascist Foreign Policy, 1922–1940, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2007,, p. 50.
- Sturtivant, Ray, British Naval Aviation: The Fleet Air Arm, 1917–1990, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1990,, p. 215.
- Jensen, Richard, "The Suicide Club," Aviation History, May 2017, p. 64.
- Gooch, John, Mussolini and His Generals: The Armed Forces and Fascist Foreign Policy, 1922–1940, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2007,, p. 54.
- Daniel, Clifton, ed., Chronicle of the 20th Century, Mount Kisco, New York: Chronicle Publications, 1987,, p. 280.
- Web site: LA AVIACIÓN EN EL CERRO DE PASCO (Cuarta parte). es. THE AVIATION IN THE CERRO DE PASCO (Part Four). July 31, 2015. PUEBLO MÁRTIR – César Pérez Arauco.
- Gooch, John, Mussolini and His Generals: The Armed Forces and Fascist Foreign Policy, 1922–1940, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2007,, p. 39.
- Gunston, Bill, ed., Aviation: Year by Year, London: Amber Books Limited, 2001, cited at Wings Over Kansas: Aviation History: Aviation History Facts: May
- Book: Bery, Coline. Adrienne Bolland ou les ailes de la liberté. Le Passeur. 2016. 9782368904664. PT230.
- Web site: Air Travel – The Revolution. Historic Croydon Airport. London. 2020-09-13.
- Madigan, Tim, The Burning: Massacre, Destruction, and the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921, New York: St. Martin's Press, 2001,, pp. 4, 131-132, 144, 159, 164, 249.
- McCabe, Scott, "Crime History: Dozens Killed During Tulsa Race Riot", The Washington Examiner, May 31, 2013, p. 8.
- Web site: Women in History: Bessie Coleman. Onkst. David H.. 2016. Natural Resources Conservation Service Nevada. November 20, 2020. February 16, 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160216203428/http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detail/nv/about/?cid=nrcs144p2_037528. dead.
- Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987,, p. 182.
- News: Big Navy Dirigible Burned in Flight; Flames Destroy the C-3 at Hampton Roads--Crew Escapes Serious Injuries. subscription. The New York Times. July 8, 1921. 1.
- Chant, Chris, The Worlds Great Bombers, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 2000,, p. 48.
- Swanborough, Gordon, and Peter M. Bowers, United States Navy Aircraft Since 1911, Second Edition, London: Putnam, 1976,, p. 2.
- 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.
- Scheina, Robert L., Latin America: A Naval History 1810-1987, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1987,, p. 199.
- Peattie, Mark R., Sunburst: The Rise of Japanese Naval Air Power 1909-1941, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 2001,, pp. 17–20.
- Web site: Air League Challenge Cup - 1921. September 17, 1921. A Fleeting Peace.
- Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, p. 195.
- News: Girl Dies In Stunt Boarding Airplane From Moving Auto. The New York Times. 5 October 1921. 18 December 2011.
- Barn Stormers. Flying Magazine. June 1966. 78. 6. 82. 0015-4806.
- Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, p. 121.
- "Today in History," Washington Post Express, December 1, 2011, Page 62.
- Layman, R.D., Before the Aircraft Carrier: The Development of Aviation Vessels 1849-1922, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1989,, p. 121.
- Donald, David, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997,, p. 76.
- Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, p. 423.
- Guttman, Jon, "Crazy Capronis," Aviation History, July 2008, p. 55.
- Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, p. 291.
- Donald, David, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997,, p. 63.
- Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987,, p. 422.
- Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, p. 198.