1937 in aviation

This is a list of aviation-related events from 1937:

Years in aviation: 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940
Centuries: 19th century · 20th century · 21st century
Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s
Years: 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940

Events

January

February
  • Manchukuo officially establishes the Manchukuo Imperial Air Force. In fact, it had existed unofficially since 1932.
  • February 3 – In the Spanish Civil War, a Nationalist (rebel) attack on Málaga begins, supported by an Italian "legionary" air force of about 100 aircraft.[4]
  • February 18 – Nationalist ace Joaquín García Morato plays a major role in an air-to-air engagement in which a Nationalist force of Fiat CR.32 fighters defeats a Republican (loyalist) one of Polikarpov I-15s, shooting down eight I-15s. The battle gives the Nationalists temporary air superiority during the Battle of Jarama and demonstrates that the CR.32s could defeat the I-15s – which previously had dominated the CR.32s over Spain – if handled courageously and imaginatively.[5]
  • February 19 – Flying in heavy rain, the Airlines of Australia Stinson Model A City of Brisbane (registration VH-UHH) crashes in the McPherson Range in Australia′s Lamington National Park. Both pilots and two of the five passengers die in the crash, and another passenger dies in a fall over a waterfall after he goes for help. The Australian author Bernard O'Reilly becomes a national hero in Australia when he hikes into the wilderness on February 28 to look for the plane and discovers the airliner's wreckage and the two surviving passengers on March 1.
  • February 22–26 – The "International Circuit of the Oases" event at Almaza Airport in Egypt. 41 competitors take part in two races – a 1303-mile (2097 km) handicap race, and a speed race. Competing aircraft arrived from Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Egypt, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Poland, Romania.[6]

March

April

May
  • In the Spanish Civil War, the Republicans have the technological and numerical superiority in the air, with about 450 aircraft, including 150 Soviet and 50 other fighters and 60 Soviet and 40 other bombers; they have lost about 150 aircraft since the war began in July 1936. The Nationalists have a little less than 400 aircraft, with about 150 flown by Spanish pilots, about 100 in the German Condor Legion, and about 120 in the Italian "legionary air force."[23]
  • May 6 – The Hindenburg disaster occurs when the German dirigible Hindenburg catches fire and is destroyed at the end of a transatlantic flight while attempting to dock with a mooring mast at Naval Air Station Lakehurst in Lakehurst, New Jersey. Of the 97 people on board, 35 are killed, as is one member of the ground crew.
  • May 8 – Lieutenant Colonel Mario Pezzi of Italy sets a new world altitude record of 15,655 meters (51,362 feet)[24] in a Caproni Ca.161.
  • May 8–14 – Dick Merrill and his copilot Jack Lambie make the Hearst Publishing-sponsored "Anglo-American Goodwill Coronation Flight" – history's first transatlantic commercial round-trip flight – in the Lockheed Model 10E Electra Daily Express. Departing New York City on May 8 carrying photographs of the Hindenburg disaster to London so that Hearst newspapers can be the first in the United Kingdom to publish them, they return on May 14 with photographs of the May 10 coronation of King George VI so that Hearst newspapers can be the first to publish photographs of the coronation in the United States. Merrill will win the 1937 Harmon Trophy for the flight, and footage from the flight will be used to make the 1937 movie Atlantic Flight, in which Merrill and Lambie star.[25]
  • May 10 – With its engine turned off, a Focke-Wulf Fw 61 helicopter makes the first landing for an Fw 61 using autorotation.[26]
  • May 22 – The Spanish Republican Air Force sends fighters on a risky flight across Nationalist-controlled territory to Republican bases in northern Spain to support the Basque defense against Nationalist forces there; seven of them arrive safely. Over the next several weeks, 50 more Republican aircraft – Polikarpov I-15 and I-16 fighters and Polikarpov R-5 light bombers – will make the trip, with 45 arriving safely.[27]
  • May 24 – A Spanish Republican air raid against Palma, Majorca, hits the Italian armed merchant cruiser Barletta – a unit of the non-intervention patrol around Spain.– killing six of her crew.[28]
  • May 26 – Spanish Republican air raids by Soviet pilots narrowly miss the German patrol ship Albatross at Palma and damage the German "pocket battleship" Deutschland off Ibiza, killing 31 and wounding 66 aboard Deutschland.[29]

June
  • The Latécoère 521 flying boat Lieutenant de Vaisseau Paris makes a nonstop flight from France to Natal, Brazil, then returns to France via the North Atlantic Ocean.
  • June 1 – Transcontinental and Western Air introduces sleeper berths for airline passengers in the United States.[11]
  • June 3 – The Spanish Nationalist commander General Emilio Mola dies when his plane crashes on the hill of Alcocero de Mola, near Burgos.[30]
  • June 11 – An aerial bombardment by German aircraft of the Condor Legion and Italian aircraft precedes a renewed Nationalist offensive against the Basque defensive perimeter around Bilbao, Spain.[31]
  • June 12 – About 70 German and Italian aircraft attack Basque defenses around Bilbao over the course of several hours.[32]
  • June 14 – German aircraft of the Condor Legion strafe refugees from Bilbao as they flee along the road to Santander.[33]
  • June 18–20 – Soviet aviators Valery Chkalov, G. F. Baidukov, and A. V. Belyakov fly from Moscow in the Soviet Union to Vancouver, Washington, in the United States via the North Pole in a Tupolev ANT-25.
  • June 25 – Flying a Focke-Wulf Fw 61, Ewald Rohlfs sets two new helicopter world records, an altitude record of 2,439 meters (8,002 feet) and an endurance record of 1 hour 20 minutes 49 seconds.[26]
  • June 26 – Flying a Focke-Wulf Fw 61, Ewald Rohlfs sets three new helicopter world records: a straight-line distance record of 16.4 kilometers (10.2 miles), a closed-circuit distance record of 80.604 kilometers (50.055 miles), and a straight-line speed record of 122.553 km/hr (76.105 mph) over a 20-kilometer (12.4-mile) course.[26]
  • June 27 – The British Airline Pilots' Association is founded.
  • June 30 – During a 2¼-hour flight in the Bristol Type 138A, Royal Air Force Flight Lieutenant M. J. Adam sets a Fédération Aéronautique Internationale-homologated world altitude record of 16,440 meters (53,937 feet).[34] The cockpit canopy cracks, but he is saved by his pressure suit.

July
  • July 3 – Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan disappear over the Pacific Ocean on a flight from Lae, New Guinea, to Howland Island, and are never seen again.
  • July 3–6 – Pan American World Airways and Imperial Airways flying boats conduct joint survey flights over the Atlantic Ocean in preparation for the commencement of regular services.
  • July 6 – A Spanish Republican offensive against Brunete begins, supported by 300 aircraft; the Republicans will use Polikarpov I-15 fighters at night for the first time during the battle, opposing night-bombing German Heinkel He 111 bombers. The Nationalists redeploy German aircraft of the Condor Legion from north to central Spain to support Nationalist ground forces around Brunete.[35]
  • July 7
  • July 8 – Varney Speed Lines is renamed Continental Air Lines, which later will be changed to Continental Airlines.
  • July 11
  • July 12–14 – Soviet aviators Mikhail Gromov, A. B. Yumashev, and S. A. Danilin establish a new unrefueled flight distance record of 10,148 kilometers (6,302 miles), flying from Moscow in the Soviet Union to San Jacinto, California, in the United States via the North Pole in a Tupolev ANT-25, covering the distance in 62 hours 17 minutes.[40]
  • July 18 – Supporting Nationalist forces, German fighters of the Condor Legion begin to dominate the air over the Battle of Brunete, shooting down 21 Republican aircraft during the day. The Nationalists will hold the advantage in the air over central Spain for the rest of the Spanish Civil War.[41]
  • July 21 – Arbitrating the Royal Navy's request that control of British naval aircraft be transferred to it from the Royal Air Force for the first time since the dissolution of the Royal Naval Air Service in 1918, Sir Thomas Inskip recommends to the British Cabinet that the Royal Navy have full control of its aircraft. His decision, which becomes known as the "Inskip Award," will take nearly two years to implement.[42]
  • July 25 – The Battle of Brunete ends. During the 20-day-long battle, the Republicans have lost about 100 aircraft, while the Nationalists have lost 23. The appearance of the German Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter and Heinkel He 111 bomber and the Italian Savoia-Marchetti SM.79 bomber in numbers during the battle signals the end of Republican air superiority in the Spanish Civil War.[43]

August

September

October

November

December
  • Flying a Breda Ba.88 Lince, Breda chief test pilot Furio Niclot sets two speed-over-distance world records, averaging 554 km/hr (344.24 mph) over a 100-km (62.1-mile) distance and 524 km/hr (325.6 mph) over a 1000-km (621-mile) circuit.[15]
  • Major air battles take place between Imperial Japanese Navy and Nationalist Chinese aircraft over Nanchang on December 9 and December 22, during which the Japanese claim the destruction of 29 Chinese aircraft in the air and 25 on the ground.[54]
  • December 9 – During combat over Nanchang, an Imperial Japanese Navy Mitsubishi A5M ("Claude") fighter loses a third of its right wing when it is rammed by a Nationalist Chinese Curtiss Hawk, but flies 200 miles (320 km) back to base without further mishap.[53]
  • December 12 – The Panay Incident occurs, when Imperial Japanese Navy Yokosuka B4Y (Allied reporting name "Jean") bombers and Nakajima A4N fighters sink the U.S. Navy gunboat USS Panay (PR-5) and three nearby Standard Oil tankers on the Yangtze River near Nanking.
  • December 15 – A Spanish Republican offensive in the area of Teruel, Spain, begins. The ensuing Battle of Teruel will last until February 22, 1938, and involve 120 fighters, 80 bombers, and 100 other aircraft on the Republican side and 150 fighters, 100 bombers, and 110 other aircraft on the Nationalist side.[61]
  • December 29 – A Spanish Nationalist counteroffensive against Republican forces during the Battle of Teruel begins with the support of German aircraft of the Condor Legion. The Condor Legion has had to redeploy in order to support the counteroffensive, and its personnel are becoming weary of the constant changes of front required by Nationalist military operations.[62]
  • December 30 – The French Latécoère 521 flying boat Lieutenant de Vaisseau Paris sets a world record by carrying a payload of 18,000 kg (39,682 pounds) to 2,000 meters (6,562 feet) over Biscarosse, France.

First flights

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

December

Entered service

January

February

March

April

May

June

August

October

November

December

Retirements

May

August

References
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