World
Aviation in 1937
13 March
Italy announces a four-year expansion programme for its air
force.
1 April
New Zealand Permanent Air Force adopts a new name , the Royal
New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF).
6-9 April
Mitsubishi Type 97 (Ki125) J-BAAI 'Kamikaze' is flown by
Masaaki Iinuma, with Kenji Tsukagoshi as his navigator, from
Tashikawa to Croydon to capture the Japan to England record.
The flight takes 51 hours 17minutes 23 seconds and covers a
distance of 15,356 kilometres (9,542 miles).
19 April
The first letter to encircle the world by commercial air mail
is despatched from New York via San Francisco to Hong Kong,
Penang, Amsterdam and Brazil and arrives back in New York on
25 May.
26 April
German
aircraft of the Legion Condor, operating with Spanish
Nationalist Forces, bomb Guernica, seat of the Basque
government. This act becomes a symbol of the inhumanity of
aerial bombing.
6 May
German
hydrogen-filled airship, the 'Hindenburg', is destroyed by
fire whilst docking at
Lakehurst
in
New Jersey. 33 of the 97 people on board are killed.
8 May
A new altitude record is set at Montecelio in Italy when
Lieutenant Colonel M. Pezzi flies a Caproni 161 to 15,655
metres (51,362 feet).
29 May
German battleship 'Deutchland' is attacked by Spanish
Republican air units near Ivaza in the Balearic Islands. 28
people are killed and 71 injured.
2 July
Amelia Earhart and Captain Fred Noonan are lost over the
Pacific during an attempted round the world flight.
7 July
Following
clashes with Chinese troops at Lukouchiao near Peiping, Japan
initiates a full scale invasion of China.
12-14 July
Soviet ANT-25 (RD-2) Colonel M.M. Gromov, Commandant A.B.
Yumashev and Ing S.A. Danilin establish a new distance record
for the Soviet Union. The flight covers a total distance of
10,148 kilometres (6,306 miles) from Moscow to San Jacinto in
California via the North Pole.
25 October
Hanna Reitch, flying a Focke Wulf Fw61, establishes a
distance record for helicopters of 108 kilometres (67 miles).
26 December
Pan American World Airways (Pan-Am) flying-boat 'Samoa
Clipper' inaugurates the first air mail and freight service
between the USA and New Zealand. |