World
Aviation in 1928
7 January
The first flight of the Polikarpov U2.
27 January
The first rigid airship to aircraft carrier mooring is
achieved when United States Navy (USN) dirigible (steerable
airship) 'Los Angeles' moors to USS Sagatoga while the latter
vessel is at sea.
30 March
Major Mario di Bernardi of the Italian Air Force establishes
a new world speed record. Flying a Macchi M52bis, he achieves
512kph (318mph).
12-13 April
The first east-west transatlantic flight is made from
Baldonnel in Dublin to Greenly Island, just off the coast of
Labrador by Captain James Fitzmaurice of the Irish Free State
Air Service, Captain Hermann Köhl and Baron von Hünefeld in a
Junkers W33 Bremen.
15-21 April
Captain
G.H. Wilkins and Lieutenant Carl B. Eielson make the first
west-east crossing of the Arctic, flying a Lockheed Vega.
15 May
The first Australian flying doctor service commences, with Dr
K.H. Vincent Welsh using a de Havilland DH50
23 May
The Italian airship 'Italia' attempts a flight to North Pole,
but crashes on the return flight.
11 June
The Ente sailpane is fitted with two Sanders solid fuel
rocket motors and becomes the first rocket powered aircraft
to fly. The flight of 1.2 kilometres (0.75 miles) is
undertaken by Friedrich Stamer at Wasserkuppe Mountain in
Germany.
3-5 July
A Savoia-Marchetti S64 monoplane, flown by Italians Captain
Arturo Ferrarin and Maggiore Carlo Del Prete, breaks distance
records with a flight of over 7,000 kilometres.
18 September
German airship LZ127 Graf Zeppelin is launched.
18 September
Don Juan de la Cierva flies from Croydon to Le Bourget in his
C8L MkII autogiro, making the first cross-Channel flight in a
rotary wing aircraft.
11 October
German airship LZ127 Graf Zeppelin crosses the North Atlantic
from Friedrichshafen in Germany to Lakehurst in New Jersey an
a journey that took 71 hours.
19 December
Harold Pitcairn flies the first American autogyro in
Philadelphia.
20 December
Captain G.H. Wilkins and Lieutenant Carl B. Eielson complete
the polar double by making the first flight over the
Antarctic in a Lockheed Vega. They had already crossed the
Arctic, flying over the North Pole, between 17-21 April.
Also this year...
Max Valier publicly
demonstrates rocket propulsion in Germany. |