1939 in aviation

This is a list of aviation-related events from 1939:

Years in aviation: 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942
Centuries: 19th century · 20th century · 21st century
Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s
Years: 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942

Events

January

February

March
  • To improve coordination of aviation affairs within the United States Army, the United States Department of War places both General Headquarters Air Force (responsible for U.S. Army air combat operations) and the United States Army Air Corps (responsible for aviation logistics and training) under the command of the Chief of the Air Corps, Major General Henry H. Arnold.[14]
  • General der Flieger Albert Kesselring, commander of the Luftwaffe's Luftflotte 1, states that he doubts that even highly technically competent bomber crews can hit targets with any accuracy at night or in bad weather.[15]
  • March 7 – All American Aviation (the future All American Airways, Allegheny Airlines, USAir, and US Airways) begins operations, providing passenger and mail service.
  • March 18 – During a test flight of a Boeing 307 Stratoliner (registration NX19901) at an altitude of 10,000 feet (3,048 meters), a KLM test pilot attempts a pre-approved test of the aircraft's flying characteristics at low speed with both engines on one side shut down. The Stratoliner stalls, goes into a spin, loses its wings and tail section, and crashes near Alder, Washington, killing all 10 people on board.[16]
  • March 25 – Ongoing ceasefire negotiations between Nationalist and Republican officials which include a Nationalist demand that all Spanish Republican Air Force aircraft fly to Nationalist airfields to surrender on this day are broken off when Republican aircraft do not surrender. A major motivation for the Nationalist demand is to prevent Republican leaders from fleeing Spain by air; six Republican aircraft carry officials and refugees from central Spain to France on this day.[17]
  • March 26 – Republican leader Segismundo Casado López telegraphs Nationalist leader Francisco Franco, announcing that the Spanish Republican Air Force will surrender to Nationalist forces the following day. Franco replies that Nationalist armies would advance on Republican territory anyway.[18]
  • March 30 – Hans Dieterle sets a new world air speed record in a Heinkel He 100 of 747.05 km/h (463.92 mph).[19]

April
  • The Seversky Aircraft Corporation changes its name to Republic Aviation.[20]
  • April 1
    • Nationalist leader Francisco Franco announces that the Spanish Civil War has ended in a complete Nationalist victory. During the 32½-month war, the Nationalists have used about 1,300 aircraft and the Republicans about 1,500; about 10,000 people have died in air attacks. Early Republican numerical air superiority had been challenged almost immediately by the technical superiority of Italian Fiat CR.32 fighters and Savoia-Marchetti SM.81, and German Junkers Ju 52 bomber-transports; Soviet Polikarpov I-15 and I-16 fighters had given the Republicans air superiority in the winter of 1936–1937, but the Nationalists had achieved lasting air superiority after German Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighters and Heinkel He 111 bombers and Italian Savoia-Marchetti SM.79 bombers had arrived in 1937. Germany has sent about 600 aircraft to Spain, Italy about 660, the Soviet Union 1,000, and other countries (principally France) about 350. The German, Italian, and Soviet air forces have learned a great deal about the employment of modern aircraft in warfare through their involvement, and the Luftwaffe's Condor Legion in particular has used the conflict to test new aircraft and revolutionary new air warfare concepts.[21][22]
    • The Spanish Republican government airline LAPE ceases operations. The Franco government expropriates LAPE's aircraft and transfers them to the airline Iberia.
    • On the ninth anniversary of its founding, the Fieseler aircraft manufacturing company changes its name from Fieseler Flugzeugbau Kassel to the Gerhard Fieseler Werke GmbH.
  • April 3 – The leading ace of the Spanish Civil War, the Nationalist pilot Joaquín García Morato y Castaño, dies when his Fiat CR.32 fighter crashes while he is performing low-level aerobatics for newsreel cameras. He had scored 40 victories during the war.
  • April 26 – German Luftwaffe Flugkapitän Fritz Wendel sets a new world air speed record, reaching 755.59 km/hr (469.22 mph) in the Messerschmitt Me 209 V1 racing aircraft. The German government will report that the record was set by an "Me 109R," a false designation used as part of a 1939 propaganda campaign to confuse other countries into thinking that the Me 209 is an advanced variant of the Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter.[19][23]
  • April 28 – Vladimir Kokkinaki and Mikhail Godienko attempt a non-stop flight from the Soviet Union to New York but are forced down on Miscou Island in bad weather the next day.

May

June

July
  • Serving as a testbed for the Heinkel HeS 3 turbojet with the jet engine slung under its fuselage, a Heinkel He 118 dive bomber takes off and lands using its piston engine but flies under jet power after the turbojet is started in flight. It is the first time any aircraft makes any part of a flight under jet power, and the successful test leads to the first flight made completely under turbojet power by the Heinkel He 178 the following month .[34]
  • July 6
  • July 8 – Pan American Airways Boeing 314 flying boat Yankee Clipper inaugurates the world's first heavier-than-air North Atlantic air passenger service between the United States (Port Washington, New York) and Britain (Southampton, England), carrying 17 passengers and the mail.[27]
  • July 20 – In the Heinkel He 176, German pilot Erich Warsitz makes the first flight powered by a liquid-fuelled rocket.
  • July 30 – Commanded by Major Caleb V. Haynes, the United States Army Air Corps Boeing XB-15 sets two payload-to-altitude world records in a single flight over Fairfield, Ohio, by carrying 14,135 kilograms (31,162 pounds) to an altitude of 2,000 meters (6,562 feet) and 10,000 kilograms (22,046 pounds) to an altitude of 8,228 feet (2,508 meters).[36] Haynes will receive certificates from the National Aeronautics Association for an international record for "the greatest payload carried to an altitude of 2,000 meters."[37]

August
  • August 2 – Under the command of Major Caleb V. Haynes, the United States Army Air Corps Boeing XB-15 sets a world record for speed over a closed circuit of 5,000 kilometers (3,105 miles) with a 2.000-kilogram (4,409-pound) payload, averaging 267.67 km/hr (166.32 mph).[36] During the same flight, it sets a U.S. national distance record for flight over a closed circuit of 3,129.241 miles (5,039.035 km).[37]
  • August 4 – The Deutsche Luft Hansa Junkers Ju 52/3mte Hans Wende (registration D-AUJG) crashes in the Serra de Llaberia near Tivissa, Spain, killing all seven people on board.[38]
  • August 11 – Pan American Airways begins scheduled flights from New York to Southampton, England.
  • August 13 – A Pan American Airways Sikorsky S-43B flying boat (registration NC16933) loses power in its left engine while circling Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for a normal approach to Santos Dumont Airport. It enters a descending turn which becomes steeper until it strikes a caisson on Ilha das Cobras in Guanabara Bay and crashes, killing 14 of the 16 people on board.[39]
  • August 20 – Since the beginning of the Khalkhin Gol Incident on May 11, the Soviet Union has claimed 320 Japanese aircraft shot down and another 35 destroyed on the ground.[30]
  • August 26 – The Messerschmitt Me 209 V1 (registration D-INJR) sets a new world speed record of 755 km/h (469 mph), not officially broken by another piston-engined aircraft until 1969.
  • August 24 – The Royal Air Force forms the Advanced Air Striking Force. Initially consisting of 10 squadrons of Fairey Battle bombers, its mission is to deploy to France in the event of war with Germany and strike targets in Germany from French bases.
  • August 27
  • August 28 – Two months after its creation, the United Kingdom's Women's Auxiliary Air Force mobilises in case war with Germany breaks out.[32]
  • August 29 – Swissair suspends flight operations due to foreign airspace closures and the mobilization of most of its employees for Swiss military service. It will gradually reintroduce some flights during the course of World War II until suspending them all again in August 1944.
  • August 30 – The Deutsche Luft Hansa Junkers Ju 52/3mte Karl Hochmuth (registration D-AFOP) crashes just after takeoff from Hannover, Germany, killing all seven people on board.[40]

September
  • The Government of Egypt takes control of all routes operated by Misr Airlines, the future EgyptAir.
  • September 1
    • World War II breaks out as Germany invades Poland. The Luftwaffe plays a key tactical bombing role in neutralising Polish defences, employing almost 1,600 aircraft against the Polish Air Force's 397.[41] During the predawn hours of the day, a Luftwaffe Junkers Ju 87 "Stuka" dive bomber flown by Leutnant Frank Neubert of I Group, Sturzkampfgeshwader 2, scores the first aerial victory of World War II, shooting down a PZL P.11c fighter flown by Polish Captain Mieczysław Medwecki. Twenty minutes later, Medwecki's wingman, Second Lieutenant Wladyslaw Gnys, flying a PZL P.11c, scores probably the first Allied aerial victories of the war, shooting down two German Dornier Do 17E bombers of Kampfgeschwader 77 over Zurada, near Olkusz, Poland, although some authors have claimed that Polish antiaircraft artillery shot down the bombers.
    • The German Luftwaffe has 3,650 combat aircraft (1,170 bombers, 335 dive bombers, 1,125 single-engine fighters, 195 twin-engine fighters, 620 reconnaissance aircraft, and 205 coastal aircraft); a reserve force of between 10 and 25 percent of each of these types; and a training organization with 500 operational types used for operational training and 2,500 other training aircraft.[42]
  • September 2
    • In anticipation of war breaking out with Germany, the Royal Air Force's Advanced Air Striking Force deploys to bases around Rheims, France.
    • By the end of the day, the Luftwaffe has achieved virtually complete air superiority over Poland. It switches over to support of German Army ground forces for the rest of the Polish campaign, knocking out roads, railroads, and bridges – sometimes so effectively that the movement of Polish Army forces becomes impossible – and attacking Polish troop concentrations and destroying artillery and antiaircraft artillery units.[41]
  • September 3
  • September 4 – The first British bombs of the war are dropped on German targets when a Bristol Blenheim of 110 Squadron attacks the German fleet. During the day, 30 Blenheims and Vickers Wellingtons attack the German ships, with seven of the bombers shot down. One of the Wellingtons mistakenly bombs Esbjerg in neutral Denmark, killing two people. They are the first civilians killed by Royal Air Force bombs in World War II.[43]
  • September 5 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders the United States Navy to organize a Neutrality Patrol to report and track any belligerent air, surface, or underwater naval forces approaching the United States East Coast or the West Indies.[44]
  • September 8 – Five French Air Force Curtiss H75 fighters engage a squadron of German Messerschmitt Bf 109s and shoot down two. They are the first French air-to-air victories of World War II,[45] as well as the first by any of the Western Allies.
  • September 15 – The Khalkhin Gol Incident concludes in a Soviet victory over the Imperial Japanese Army. In the final August 20 – September 15 Soviet offensive, the Soviet Air Force claims the destruction of another 290 Japanese aircraft, bringing the total Soviet claim since the beginning of the Incident on May 11 to 645 Japanese planes destroyed. The Soviets claim to have lost only 34 aircraft in the last two months of the conflict.[30]
  • September 17
  • September 18 – Its bases in eastern Poland threatened by advancing Soviet forces, the Polish Air Force evacuates to Romania.
  • September 19 – Germany halts construction of its second Graf Zeppelin-class aircraft carrier, Flugzeugträger B, while she still is on the building ways. Work on the ship never will be resumed.
  • September 25
    • Nicola di Mauro of Italy sets a world seaplane altitude record of 13,542 meters (44,429 feet) in a Caproni Ca.161Idro. This record still stands for piston-engined seaplanes.
    • As Adolf Hitler looks on from a camouflaged bunker outside of the city, about 400 Luftwaffe bombers – some flying more than one sortie during the day – attack Warsaw, Poland, in conjunction with a German Army artillery bombardment, leaving the entire city ablaze. Its defenders surrender the next day.[41]
  • September 26 – Flying a No. 803 Squadron Blackburn Skua from HMS Ark Royal, Lieutenant B. S. McEwen of the Fleet Air Arm's No. 803 Squadron scores the first British victory over a German aircraft of World War II, shooting down a Dornier Do 18. German Heinkel He 111s attack Ark Royal in the North Sea later in the day, but score no hits.[47]
  • September 30 – A series of successful British trial flights to test the concept of using Short C-class flying boats refueled in mid-air by Handley Page Harrow tankers to carry airline passengers across the North Atlantic Ocean is terminated because of the onset of World War II.[27]

October
  • October 6 – The Polish campaign ends as Germany and the Soviet Union gain effective control over all of Poland. During the campaign, the Luftwaffe has lost 285 aircraft – 79 fighters, 78 bombers, 31 dive bombers, and 97 other aircraft – destroyed; 279 aircraft damaged; and 413 aircrew killed and 126 wounded.[41] Poland has lost 333 aircraft.
  • October 8 – The Royal Air Force scores its first aerial victory of World War II when a Lockheed Hudson shoots down a German Dornier Do 18 over Jutland.
  • October 16 – The Luftwaffe attacks its first British targets, Royal Navy warships in the Firth of Forth.

November

December

First flights

January

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Entered service

February

March

April

August

October

November

December

Retirements

References
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