This is a list of aviation-related events from 1930:
Events
The Surrey Aero Club inaugurates recreational flights from Gatwick Race Course (now London Gatwick Airport).
The German airship LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin makes its first crossing of the South Atlantic.
The Aeromarine-Klemm Corporation, formerly the Aeromarine Plane and Motor Company, goes out of business, although the Uppercu-Burnelli Corporation takes over production of Aeromarine aircraft engines.[1]
French test pilot Roger Baptiste achieves a speed of 280 km/h (170 mph) at an altitude of 4,000 metres (13,000 ft) in the Bernard 20monoplane fighter prototype.[2]
Nineteen-year-old Rex Finney of Los Angeles, California, uses the first successful wingsuit, employing it to increase horizontal movement and maneuverability during a parachute jump.[3]
January 16 – On speed trials, the British airshipR100 reaches 81 mph (130 km/h), making her the fastest airship in the world.
January 17 – Record-setting aviator Frank Hawks attempts to take off in the Lockheed Air ExpressTexaco Five (registration NR7955) from a soggy field in West Palm Beach, Florida, but the plane is destroyed in a spectacular crash into a row of three parked aircraft. Hawks is unharmed.[7][8]
January 19 – Trying to return to Tijuana, Mexico, after taking off in poor weather for a scheduled passenger flight to Los Angeles, California, Maddux Airlines Flight 7 – the Ford 5-AT-C Tri-MotorNC9689 – crashes in Oceanside, California, and catches fire, killing all 16 people on board. It is the deadliest aviation accident in American history at the time.[9]
March 31 – The three Imperial Ethiopian Air Force biplanes reappear over Gugsa Welle's army and bomb it at the beginning of the Battle of Anchem in the first combat mission in the air force's history. The bombing proves decisive, as it prompts so many members of Gugsa Welle's army to desert that it is badly outnumbered by the time ground combat begins between it and Imperial forces at Debre Zebit, when many more of its members desert, resulting in its defeat and Gugsa Welle's death.
April 1 – Gerhard Fieseler founds the Fieseler aircraft manufacturing company under the name Fieseler Flugzeugbau Kassel.
April 2
The first Korean aviator, An Chang-nam, dies in the crash of his aircraft while he is returning to the airport at the Shanxi Aviation Academy at Taiyuan, Shanxi, China, in bad weather.
The prototype of the Latécoère 340trimotorparasol-wingedflying boat (registration F-AKDI) breaks up in the air and crashes while being demonstrated for a French Navy official, killing both men on board. No further examples of the aircraft are built.
April 10 – Flying the Junkers G 38D-2000, Wilhelm Zimmermann sets four new world records for an aircraft carrying a payload of 5,000 kilograms (11,000 lb), averaging a record 184.5 km/h (114.6 mph) over a distance of 100 kilometres (62 mi) and a record 172.9 km/h (107.4 mph) over a distance of 500 kilometres (310 mi) and setting a distance record of 501.6 kilometres (311.7 mi) and an endurance record of 3 hours 2 minutes.[14]
April 23 – A diesel engineed aircraft crashes in New York (state); among the 3 killed is Lionel Woolson, designer of the radial air-cooled aero diesel engine.[15]
April 27 – During an air show at Fayetteville, Tennessee, pilot Milton P. Covert's plane loses altitude and crashes on a railroad embankment while approaching the landing area, striking spectators standing on the embankment. Covert survives, but at least nine spectators are killed and about 20 injured.[16][17]
May 12–13 – Flying for Aéropostale, the French pilot Jean Mermoz makes the first nonstop commercial flight across the South Atlantic Ocean, flying from Dakar, Senegal, to Natal, Brazil, in the float-equipped Latécoère 28-3mail planeComte de la Vaulx. The 3,058-kilometer (1,900-mile) flight takes 19 hours 35 minutes, and the plane carries 122 kilograms (269 pounds) of mail.[19] On the return flight, Mermoz is forced to ditchComte de la Vaux at sea; although he, his two companions, and the mail are saved, the aircraft sinks and is lost.
June 5 – Just after takeoff from Jeffery Field in Boston, Massachusetts, for a flight to New York City with 15 people on board, the Colonial Air TransportFord 5-AT-B TrimotorNC9675 noses down and crashes into the sea, coming to rest in 7 feet (2.1 meters) of water 60 yards (55 meters) from the breakwater. One of the passengers is killed and the aircraft is damaged beyond repair, but the other 12 passengers and both crew members survive.[21]
July 19 – Record-holding aviator Frank Goldsborough dies in a crash in Vermont on his 20th birthday.
July 20-August 1 – A 7,560 km (4,700 mi) race over Europe takes place as part of the Challenge 1930 contest.
July 23 – Aviation pioneer Glenn Curtiss dies, aged 52.
July 29 – The British airshipR100 sets out on a test flight from the United Kingdom to Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and back. She will arrive at Montreal 78 hours later, remain there for 12 days, then begin the return trip to the United Kingdom on August 13, arriving in London on August 16 after a flight of 57½ hours.[23]
October 9–10 – First flight by a Canadian, pilot Capt. J. Erroll Boyd (1891-1960), from North America (Harbour Grace, NL) to England, in the Wright-Bellanca WB-2 Maple Leaf (aka, Columbia), navigated by the American, Lieut. Harry Connor. This flight was also notable for transporting mail bearing a surcharged stamp as a commemorative overprint.[28]
October 25 – Transcontinental and Western Air begins the first all-air coast-to-coast passenger service in the United States with regular passenger flights between New York, New York, and Los Angeles, California. The trip takes 30 hours and includes an overnight stop in Kansas City, Missouri.[27]
^Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, p. 37.
^Donald, David, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997, ISBN0-7607-0592-5, p. 125.
^Isenberg, Michael T., Shield of the Republic: The United States Navy in an Era of Cold War and Violent Peace, Volume I: 1945-1962, New York: St. Martin's Press, ISBN0-312-09911-8, p. 489.
^Sturtivant, Ray, British Naval Aviation: The Fleet Air Arm, 1917-1990, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1990, ISBN0-87021-026-2, p. 17.
^Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, p. 214.
^Allen, Richard Sanders, Revolution in the Sky: Those Fabulous Lockheeds, The Pilots Who Flew Them, Brattleboro, Vermont: The Stephen Greene Press, 1964, p. 36.
^Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, ISBN978-0-517-56588-9, p. 462.
^Mondey, David, ed., The Complete Illustrated History of the World's Aircraft, Secaucus, New Jersey: Chartwell Books, Inc., 1978, ISBN0-89009-771-2, p. 30.
^ abMondey, David, ed., The Complete Illustrated History of the World's Aircraft, Secaucus, New Jersey: Chartwell Books, Inc., 1978, ISBN0-89009-771-2, p. 34.
^Johnson, Frederick L., "Modest Mal," Aviation History, March 2012, p. 18.
^Mondey, David, ed., The Complete Illustrated History of the World's Aircraft, Secaucus, New Jersey: Chartwell Books, Inc., 1983, ISBN0-89009-771-2, p. 29.
^Peattie, Mark R., Sunburst: The Rise of Japanese Naval Air Power 1909-1941, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 2001, ISBN978-1-55750-432-6, p. 40.
^[Pahl, Gerard, "Mystery Ship," Air Classics, Volume 41, No. 9, September 2005, p. 80.]
^Donald, David, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997, ISBN0-7607-0592-5, p. 120.
^ abAngelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, p. 81.
^Francillon, René J., Japanese Aircraft of the Pacific War, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1979, ISBN978-0-87021-313-7, pp. 254, 339.
^Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, p. 59.
^Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, ISBN978-0-517-56588-9, p. 142.
^Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, ISBN978-0-517-56588-9, p. 143.
^Donald, David, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997, ISBN978-0-7607-0592-6, p. 79.
^Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, pp. 81, 83.
^Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, p. 132.
^Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, ISBN978-0-517-56588-9, p. 140.
^Polar, Norman, "'There's a Ford in Your Future'," Naval History, December 2015, p. 15.
^Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, ISBN978-0-517-56588-9, p. 128.
^Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, ISBN978-0-517-56588-9, p. 119.
