Aviation History Facts: April

• In 1904... Using a glider imperfectly modeled by Ernest Archdeacon on an outdated Wright design, artillery captain Ferdinand Ferber launched himself into a short hop from a massive dune in Berc-Sur-Mer, Normandy, France. (AYY)
• In 1918... The United Kingdom's Royal Air Force is born. It is formed out the army's Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service. (AYY)
• In 1921... French pilot Adrienne Bollard takes off from Mendoza, Argentina in a Cauldron biplane to become the first woman to fly over the Andes. She completes the historic Andean crossing to the Chilean capital, Santiago in 10 hours. (AYY)
• In 1953... BEA (British European Airways) and Air France introduce tourist-class fares on their European routes. (AYY)
• In 1976... Lufthansa's first two Airbus A300Bs enter service. They will fly between Frankfurt and Dusseldorf, Hamburg, Stuttgart and London. (AYY)

• In 1794... The world's first air force, the Aerostatic Corps of the Artillery Service is formed in France following a demonstration ascent from the gardens of the Chalais-Meudon on the outskirts of Paris in the hydrogen balloon L'Entreprenant, the first used for military tests. (F&F)
• In 1937... Swedish airplane manufacturer Svenska Aeroplan Aktiebolaget (SAAB) is established in Trollhättan, Sweden. (AYY)
• In 1997... A Boeing 777, powered by twin Rolls-Royce Trent 892 turbofans, returns to Seattle to set a new Eastbound speed around the world record of 553 mph. En route, the twinjet sets a Great Circle distance without landing record of 12,455.34 miles when flying from Seattle to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. (AYY)

• In 1933... Two British-built aircraft, the prototype Westland Wapiti V modified into the Wallace (G-ACBR), become the first to fly over the top of Mt. Everest, at 29,802 ft. the highest point of land on earth, and to photograph the summit from above. (F&F)
• In 1954... Quantas introduces tourist-class services on its Kangaroo route from Sydney to London. (AYY)

• In 1907... Santos-Dumont, disappointed by his failure on March 27 and shocked by Charles Voisin's flight of 197 feet shortly afterwards, tries again with his Nº 14bis. He makes a short flight of 164 feet in Saint-Cyr, France. (AYY)
• In 1946... Sears, Roebuck & Company begins a new, regular weekly overnight shipment of women's clothing from New York to the West Coast by airplane. (OTM)
• In 1947... The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) is officially founded in Montreal, Canada. It is an intergovernmental organization, established to regulate air transportation on a worldwide basis, its authority restricted only by the number of signatory nations. (AYY)
• In 1966... British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) opens its first scheduled service to Mexico, flying to Mexico City via Bermuda and Kingston, Jamaica. (AYY)

• In 1937... The first jet aircraft designed and built in Czechoslovakia, the Aero L-29 Delfin, makes its first flight. Over 3,000 of these two-seater jet trainers are produced for the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact air forces. (OTM)
• In 1937... The Douglas Aircraft Company takes over Northrop. (AYY)

• In 1890... Anthony Herman Gerald Fokker, Dutch pioneer airman and aircraft manufacturer, is born in Kediri, Java. His Fokker D.VIII was one of the finest all-around fighters of the WWI. He became a naturalized U.S. citizen and his Fokker T-2 made the first non-stop flight across the U.S. In 1926, the North Pole was over flown in a Fokker trimotor airplane. (OTM)
• In 1909... The first machine wholly designed by Anglo-French air pioneer Henry Farman takes to the air at Bouy, France. Called either the Henry Farman III or, because it represents a new departure, the HF1, the biplane is the first aircraft to incorporate practical ailerons attached to the trailing edges of the wings. (AYY)
• In 1924... The first successful flight around the world starts as four Douglas World Cruisers leave from Seattle, Washington. Of the four, only two complete the circumnavigation as they each fly 27,553 miles (44,340 km) in 175 days, and return to Seattle on September 28. The actual flying time is 371 hours, 11 minutes, and the successful pilots are Lt. Lowell H. Smith and Lt. Erik Nelson. (OTM)
• In 1949... A Sikorsky S-51 completes a record helicopter flight of 3,750 miles from Elizabeth, New Jersey to Port Angeles, Washington. (AYY)
• In 1967... Trans World Airlines (TWA) becomes the first American airline to have a fleet composed entirely of jet aircraft. (OTM)

• In 1906... Charles Rolls, in his new balloon, races Frank Hedges Butler and friends aboard the Aero Club III. Rolls outdistances his opponents, who come down at Wimbledon, while he lands at Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, England. (AYY)
• In 1908... The members of the Aerial Experiment Association enter a competition sponsored by the Scientific American, which has offered $25,000 for a flight of over 0.62 miles. The Wrights refuse to enter because the rules state the airplane must take off without help. (AYY)
• In 1922... The first Corps Observation Group, under the command of Col. William Mitchell, makes its first patrol, led by Maj. Ralph Royce, and thus becomes the first American squadron to go into action in Europe. (F&F)

• In 1931... Amelia Earhart climbs to a record altitude of 18,415 feet in a Pitcairn autogyro at Willow Grove, near Philadelphia. (AYY)
• In 1940... The U.S. Navy places a contract with Grumman for two prototypes of the XTBF-1, later named Avenger, a chunky mid-wing monoplane that would become the U.S. Navy's standard carrier torpedo bomber of World War II. (FF)

• In 1929... The French airline Air Union starts to operate a nightly service from Paris to London. (AYY)
• In 1960... The giant Tupolev Tu-114 Rossiya sets a new world speed record for propeller-driven airplanes of 545.07 mph. It was carrying a 55,116-pound payload at the time and flew around an official 3,107-mile closed circuit in the USSR. (AYY)
• In 1969... The first U.K.-assembled supersonic transport, Concorde 002, makes a successful first flight in England. (OTM)
• In 1976... Air France opens its second supersonic service, from Paris to Caracas, Venezuela; the Concorde takes six hours, including a stop at the Azores. (AYY)

• In 1837... The earliest known aeronautical experiment in Canada is conducted by Canadian schoolteacher John Rae. He successfully launches a paper balloon able to carry weight. Its lift is provided by the heating of its blackened surface by the sun. (OTM)
• In 1926... Lindberg becomes chief pilot for Robertson Aircraft Corp, flying a Saint Louis to Chicago mail route. (AYY)
• In 1969... The Royal Norwegian Air Force is the first European air service to take delivery of the Lockheed P-3B Orion. (AYY)

• In 1908... Delagrange flies 12,878 feet in six minutes, 30 seconds in his Voisin-Delagrange Nº 2 in Paris. (AYY)
• In 1911... The U.S. Army sets up its first permanent flying school at College Park, Maryland. (AYY)
• In 1934... Comdr. Renato Donati of the Italian Regia Aeronautica sets a new world altitude record by flying a much modified Caproni Ca. 113 biplane to a height of 47,352 ft. The same aircraft is also used by the Contessa Carina Negrone in 1935 to set a new altitude record for women of 39,402 ft. (F&F)

• In 1911... Lt. T. Gordon Ellyson becomes the Navy's first pilot. (AYY)
• In 1911... Pierre Prier makes the first non-stop passenger flight, traveling from London to Paris. (AYY)
• In 1918... The Loughead brothers fly their seaplane, the F-1, from Santa Barbara to San Diego. (AYY)
• In 1961... At 9:07 am, Moscow time, the Soviet rocket Vostok 1 takes off from Tyuratam in central Asia, launching Flight-Major Yuri Alexeyevich Gagarin into space and the history books. After a single orbit, the first human in space lands safely back at the space center at Baikonur, Kazakhstan. (AYY)
• In 1972... Members of the USAF's 31st Aerospace Rescue Squadron pick up Charles Lindbergh and a scientific team from the jungle on Mindanao Island, Philippines, after their helicopter crashed while on an anthropological survey. (AYY)

• In 1919... The Vickers Vimy Commercial, a civilian version of the bomber with an enclosed fuselage capable of holding a maximum of ten passengers, makes its maiden flight in Kent, England. (AYY)
• In 1925... The first regular U.S. air-freight service is initiated by Henry Ford, linking Detroit, Michigan and Chicago, Illinois. (OTM)
• In 1966... Boeing announces in Seattle an order worth $525 million from Pan Am for 25 Model 747 jumbo jets. (AYY)
• In 1989... The first flight-tests of the Pratt & Whitney / Alison propfan engine are carried out in the U.S. (AYY)

• In 1900... The spectacular Paris International Exhibition opens. Clement Ader's Avion III is one of the exhibits. (AYY)
• In 1906... In Dayton, Ohio, the Wrights send letters to the German, Italian, Japanese and Russian ministers of war offering to sell their airplane. (AYY)
• In 1926... France and Germany sign an air treaty in Paris; since 1923, the Germans had seized 15 airplanes of the French-based airline CFRNA (now CIDNA) which were forced to land on German soil. (AYY)

• In 1909... A crowd at the Centocelle Field, Rome, Italy, sees Wilbur Wright make a 10-minute flight in which he reaches an altitude of 98 feet. (AYY)
• In 1925... The U.S. Navy begins a program of daily flights to an altitude of 10,000 ft. from the Anacostia Naval Air Station in Washington, DC. The main purpose of these flights is to obtain weather data and to test upper-air sounding equipment that collects information that could be used to forecast weather. (F&F)
• In 1947... BOAC (British Overseas Airways Corporation) opens its first regular service to Canada; it is a weekly flight by a Constellation from London to Montreal. (AYY)

• In 1912... Harriet Quimby, the first American woman pilot, lands after a solo flight across the English Channel from Dover to Calais, France. (AYY)
• In 1941... Igor I. Sikorsky impressively demonstrates the capabilities of his VS-300 helicopter by hovering virtually motionless over Stratford (Connecticut) Airport for one hour, five minutes. Powered by a large, 90-hp engine, it sets a new helicopter record. (OTM)
• In 1973... The Florida State Senate votes unanimously to restore the name "Cape Canaveral" to the NASA establishment which was renamed "Cape Kennedy" shortly after the President's assassination. (AYY)

• In 1913... Briton Gustav Hamel lands after a non-stop flight of 4 hours and 18 minutes from Dover, England, to Cologne, Germany in a Blériot XI. (AYY)
• In 1926... Western Air Express starts its service between Los Angeles and Salt Lake City. (AYY)
• In 1970... A Sikorsky CH-53D helicopter flies between London and Paris to demonstrate that modern helicopters can provide reliable inter-city services. (OTM)

• In 1916... The first all-American air squadron in Europe is formed at the French spa town of Luxevil-les-Bains. Nieuport Squadron Nº 124, unofficially know as the "Escadrille Américaine" [American Squadron], is composed of volunteers who will be under the command of a French captain, Georges Thénault. (AYY)
• In 1917... William E. Boeing's Pacific Aero Products Company is renamed the "Boeing Airplane Company." (AYY)
• In 1952... The biggest jet airline ever built, the Convair YB-60, makes a successful first flight at Carswell Air Force Base at Fort Worth, Texas. (AYY)
• In 1958... US Navy Lieutenant-Commander George Watkins flies from Edwards Air Base in California to a world record absolute altitude within the atmosphere of 76,932 feet in a Grumman F11F-1 Tiger. (AYY)
• In 1986... Marcel Bloch, 94, dies. Under his professional name of Marcel Dassault he was the most famous of France's airplane designers. (AYY)

• In 1907... Louis Blériot flies and crashes his powered monoplane Nº V at Bagatelle, France. (AYY)
• In 1924... The Argentinean Marquis de I. Pescara's helicopter establishes in France a flying record of 2,550 feet (c. 777 meters) in 4 minutes, 11 seconds. This helicopter provides for auto-rotation (free blade rotation) in case of engine failure. This invention is a life-saving device, as it allows for a measure of control and lift. (OTM)
• In 1945... The International Air Transport Association (IATA), an inter-airline body to fix rates and ensure cooperation on safety procedures, is formed; it succeeds the International Air Traffic Association, set up in 1919. (AYY)

• In 1861... Thaddeus S.C. Lowe, American inventor and balloonist, makes a balloon trip from Cincinnati, Ohio to the South Carolina coast in 9 hours. (OTM)
• In 1935... The first passengers leave for Australia on a new Imperial Airways/QANTAS service; the first Australian departures were made from Brisbane on April 17. (AYY)
• In 1959... Aeroflot puts the 84 to 110-seater Ilyushin IL-18, its first turboprop, into service from Moscow to Alma Ata, Kazakhstan, and Adler, now Sochi, on the Black Sea. (AYY)

• In 1914... The first news movie shot from the air is filmed by cameraman B.C. Hucks, Warwick Bioscope Chronicle Film, England. He flies down to within 400 ft. of the royal yacht with King George aboard, crossing the English Channel from Dover, England to Calais, France. (F&F)
• In 1928... Australian explorer Hubert Wilkins and his American pilot Carl Ben Eielson arrive in Spitzbergen, Norway after making the first ever crossing of the Arctic by airplane. They left Point Barrow, Alaska, on April 15th in their Lockheed Vega. (AYY)
• In 1961... USAF Major Robert White pilots the X-15A research airplane from Edwards Air Force Base in California on its first flight at full throttle, reaching a speed of 3,074 mph at an altitude of 79,000 feet, before climbing to 105,100 feet. (AYY)

• In 1912... Englishman Denys Corbett Wilson flies across St. George's Channel between England and Ireland. (AYY)
• In 1971... Britain and France give the go-ahead for four more Concordes, bringing the total to ten. (AYY)
• In 1985... Pan Am sells its Pacific division to United Air Lines for $750 million; the deal includes all Pan Am's Pacific routes as well as its complete fleet of long-range 747SPs, half its TriStars and one DC-10. (AYY)

• In 1939... The U.S. Civil Aeronautics Authority raises the eligibility age for obtaining a private pilot license to 18 years from the previous 16 years of age. (OTM)
• In 1988... The U.S. government's ban on smoking on flights of two hours or less goes into effect. "No Smoking" signs remain lit on 80% of domestic airline flights. Flight attendants are to be armed with gum and candy for those in anguish. (AYY)
• In 1994... Airbus delivers the first of 25 Airbus A300-600F dedicated freighters to the specialized package carrier, FedEx. This all-cargo version can carry up to a maximum payload of 120,855 lb over a range of 1,900 nautical miles. (AYY)

• In 1909... Wilbur Wright makes five flights in Centocelle, Italy with King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy present. During one flight, a Universal News Agency cameraman accompanies him and takes the first motion pictures from an airplane in flight. (OTM)
• In 1911... Lts. M. Longmore and C. R. Samson are the first British Royal Navy officers to qualify as pilots, after just two month's training. (AYY)
• In 1917... Lt. Col. William "Billy" Mitchell becomes the first U.S. Army officer to fly over German lines. (AYY)
• In 1946... First flights of the first Soviet designed and built jet aircrafts, MiG-9 and Yak-15, are made. A member of the company test team for the Yak-15, Olga Yamschikova, is probably the first woman to fly a turbojet-powered aircraft when she flies in 1947. (OTM)
• In 1946... Winged Cargo Inc. opens an unusual freight service in which goods are carried in a Waco CG-4A glider towed by a DC-3. (AYY)

• In 1922... Known as the Stout ST-1, the first all-metal airplane designed for the U.S. Navy makes its first flight piloted by Eddie Stinson. (F&F)
• In 1940... McGee Airways pioneers the transportation of fresh meat and milk to the Alaskan interior. (AYY)
• In 1972... The world straight-line distance record for a single-seat sailplane is set by German Hans Werner Grosse, who sails 907 miles (1,460 km) in a Sleicher AS-W12 sailplane. (OTM)

• In 1949... Dick Reider and Bill Barris set a world endurance record for a flight-refueled aircraft in the U.S. They flew continuously in their Aeronca Chief light aircraft for 1,008 hours, one minute (over six weeks). They received food and fuel handed up from a speeding vehicle four times a day. (OTM) (1949). (OTM)
• In 1962... In utmost secrecy at the remote airfield in Groom Dry Lake, Nevada, the first Lockheed A-12 makes its first flight. It is the first of a family of top-secret spyplanes. (AYY)
• In 1972... The first Lockheed L-1011 TriStar enters scheduled service, with Eastern Air Lines, on its route from Miami to New York. (AYY)
• In 1987... The first full-scale prototype of Saab's hi-tech JAS 39 Gripen fighter is unveiled in Sweden. (AYY)
• In 1995... A Mikoyan MiG-29 sets a new FAI class C-1h world altitude record of 90,092 ft. (AYY)

• In 1839... John Wise, an American, introduces the balloon ripping-panel, a glued section that the pilot can pull open for quick emptying of the balloon after landing. This prevents the balloon from being dragged along the ground. (OTM)
• In 1905... Under the supervision of Samuel F. Cody, Sappy Moreton of the British Army's Balloon Section reaches 2,600 feet beneath a mancarrying kite in Aldershot, England. (AYY)
• In 1913... In a floatplane, Bob Fowler makes the first flight with a passenger in Central America (and the first flight in Panama) when he flies with film cameraman Raymond Duhem from the Atlantic to the Pacific, flying 40 miles across the Panama isthmus in 57 minutes. En route, Duhem makes the first aerial film of Central America. (AYY)
• In 1929... Squadron Leader A.G. Jones-Williams and Flight Lieutenant N.H. Jenkins complete the first non-stop flight from England to India; they fly the 4,130 miles in 50 hours, 37 minutes in a Fairey Long-Range Monoplane. (AYY)

• In 1919... American Leslie Irvin makes the first jump from an airplane using a free-type (to be opened at will by a rip chord) back pack parachute and lands at McCook Field in Dayton, Ohio. The parachute is designed by Floyd Smith. (OTM)
• In 1924... Imperial Airways inaugurates its London/Paris service. (AYY)
• In 1927... The first airmail service north of the Arctic Circle begins between Fairbanks and Wiseman, Alaska. (AYY)
• In 1937... The first commercial flight across the Pacific is made as a Pan-American Boeing 314 Clipper seaplane arrives in Hong Kong. (OTM)
• In 1948... The first non-stop Paris/New York flight is made by an Air France sleeper Constellation; the journey from Orly airport, near Paris, takes 16 hours, 1 minute. (AYY)

• In 1905... In Santa Clara, California, Daniel Maloney is launched from a tethered balloon to make a free flight in a tandem-wing glider, which "Professor" Montgomery, a schoolteacher and keen amateur aviator, has designed. (AYY)
• In 1931... The Boeing B-9 bomber flies for the first time and marks the next step in airframe development in the evolution of the Boeing 247, the first modern-type airliner. (OTM)
• In 1964... British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) introduces the VC10 jet airliner into regular passenger service, on its route to Lagos, Nigeria. (AYY)
• In 1968... United Air Lines becomes the first carrier to put the Boeing 737-200, a larger capacity version of the standard 737, into service. (AYY)
• In 1988... The first flight of the Boeing 747-400 is made. This Advanced Superjet has a crew of two and can carry between 412 and 509 passengers over 8,000 miles. Sales in 1990 of 170 of these wide-body transports broke all records. (OTM)

• In 1904... The St. Louis exposition opens. Octave Chanute exhibits a replica of his biplane glider of 1896, which he launches by using an electric winch. (AYY)
• In 1917... Pacific Aero Products Company changes its name to Boeing Airplane Company, with William E. Boeing as its president. (OTM)
• In 1919... The Air Navigation Directions, laying down rules for aircraft registration and pilot licensing, are published in London. (AYY)
• In 1928... British pilot Lady Mary Bailey lands to complete a flight from England to Cape Town, South Africa. She took off on March 9th. (AYY)
• In 1932... An international code of air traffic communication is formally established, following the decision to do so at a 1927 conference in Washington,DC. The new code is based on a series of three-letter code starting with the letter "Q" . (AYY)
• In 1969... The first woman airline pilot in the West, Turi Widerose of Norway, makes her first scheduled flight as a first officer for Scandinavian Airlines. (OTM)

Works Cited

Editor-in-Chief: Bill Gunston, Aviation: Year by Year, Amber Books Limited, London, UK, 2001. (AYY)

Leonard C. Bruno, On the Move: A Chronology of Advances in Transportation, Gale Research Inc., Detroit, MI, 1993. (OTM)

Arthur George Renstrom, Wilbur & Orville Wright: A Chronology, United States, Library of Congress, 1971 (COFC)

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