February 18 – Nationalist aceJoaquín 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 AustraliaStinson Model ACity 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 8 – A Nationalist offensive begins against Guadalajara, Spain, with support by Italian forces, including 50 fighters and 12 reconnaissance planes.[7]
March 16 – At the Avignon-Pujaut Military Training Center at Avignon, France, French aviator and parachutistEdith Clark is killed when the new model of French Air Force parachute she is using fails to open on her third jump of the day and 200th of her career. She falls to her death from an altitude of 500 meters (1,640 feet).
March 20 – As Earhart tries to leave Hawaii for the second leg of her around-the-world flight, her Electra is severely damaged in an aborted takeoff from Luke Field on Ford Island in Pearl Harbor, bringing her circumnavigation attempt to an end.[8]
March 31 – A Spanish Nationalist ground offensive begins against the Basques, supported by 80 German aircraft based at Vitoria-Gasteiz and 70 Spanish Nationalist and Italian aircraft based elsewhere in northern Spain. Opposing them are 20 to 30 Basque aircraft. On the first day, German Junkers Ju 52s conduct the first terror bombing and strafing of an undefended town in Europe, killing 248 people in Durango.[13]
March 31-April 4 – Supporting Nationalist forces, 40 to 50 aircraft per day bomb Ochandiano, Spain.[14]
April
Flying a Breda Ba.88 Lince, Breda chief test pilotFurio Niclot sets two speed-over-distance world records, averaging 517 km/h (321.25 mph) over a 100-km (62.1-mile) distance and 475 km/h (295.15 mph) over a 1000-km (621-mile) circuit.[15]
April 13 – Frank Hawks flies the Hawks Miller HM-1Time Flies about 1,100 miles (1,771 km) from Hartford, Connecticut, to Miami, Florida in 4 hours 55 minutes. After lunch, he flies the plane from Miami to Newark, New Jersey, in 4 hours 21 minutes. The aircraft is damaged on landing at Newark and Hawks opts not to rebuild it.[18][19]
April 20 – A new Nationalist advance begins in Vizcaya province in northern Spain, supported by a preliminary aerial bombardment.[20]
April 26 – Four Heinkel He 111 and 23 Junkers Ju 52 bombers of the German Condor Legion attack Guernica, Spain, in the first example of "carpet bombing" to demoralize a civilian population. Over three hours, the bombers drop 45,000 kg (99,207 lbs) of bombs, destroying 70% of the city and killing at least 1,000, and perhaps as many as a third (over 1,600 people) of its inhabitants. Messerschmitt Bf 109 and Heinkel He 51 fighters also strafe the town to kill any inhabitants they see. The town burns for three days. The damage shocks Spanish Nationalist military leaders, and the Condor Legion engages in no further area bombing during the Spanish Civil War.[21][22]
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 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 ElectraDaily 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.
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.[26]
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.[30]
June 12 – About 70 German and Italian aircraft attack Basque defenses around Bilbao over the course of several hours.[31]
June 14 – German aircraft of the Condor Legion strafe refugees from Bilbao as they flee along the road to Santander.[32]
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.
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/h (76.105 mph) over a 20-kilometer (12.4-mile) course.
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]
The Imperial Japanese Army and Imperial Japanese Navy agree that if a full-scale war breaks out with China, the army will have the responsibility for operations in northern China and the navy in central and southern China.[39]
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 13 - the radio communication with the Levanevsky's crew breaks off after the aircraft encountered adverse weather conditions and suffered failure of its end right engine; all subsequent search operations failed
A Nationalist offensive in northern Spain against Basque forces defending Santander, begins, supported by 70 German – including the latest models, being evaluated in combat for the first time – 80 Italian, and 70 Spanish Nationalist aircraft. Republican forces opposing them have only 33 fighters – only 18 of them modern Soviet aircraft – and 11 reconnaissance planes. The Nationalist aerial bombardment will overwhelm the defenders of Santander, which will fall to the Nationalists on August 26.[46]
A French military leader tells the British that "a veritable forest of guns" over the Maginot Line will prevent the German Luftwaffe from intervening in a land war between France and Germany.[50]
September 1
Supported by 250 aircraft, Spanish Nationalist forces begin an offensive against Republicans in Asturias. The absence of the Condor Legion, which is deployed in Aragon, is felt; Nationalist progress is slow for the first six weeks.[51]
September 17 – At a conference at Nyon, Switzerland, to address Italian attacks on merchant ships in the Mediterranean Sea attended by Bulgaria, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, Romania, the Soviet Union, and Turkey, delegates agree that a British and French naval patrol in the Mediterranean west of Malta previously authorized to sink submarines suspected of attacking merchant ships also will be authorized to attack aircraft suspected of engaging in anti-shipping strikes. The agreement is in response to Italian attacks on merchant ships by aircraft based at Majorca.[52]
The French Farman F.223.1Laurent Guerrero (registration F-APUZ) sets a record for aircraft in its class by flying 1,000 km (621 miles) with a 10,000-kg (22,046-pound) payload.
October 15 – The Condor Legion is redeployed to assist the Spanish Nationalist offensive in Asturias, which immediately speeds up greatly. German pilots led by Adolf Galland experiment with the "carpet bombing" of Asturian positions, in which the Germans fly in close formation very low, approach the enemy positions from the rear, and release their bombs simultaneously.[55]
October 20 – The Spanish Republican Navy submarine C-6 is scuttled at Gijón, Spain, after suffering damage in a Nationalist air attack.[56]
November 5 – The German Ministry of Aviation authorizes the Heinkel firm's P.1041 design as the winner of the "Bomber A" strategic bomber competition for the Luftwaffe, issuing the airframe type number 8-177 to it. It simultaneously requires the new design to be capable of medium-angle dive bombing attacks – which ReichsmarschallHermann Göring, the commander-in-chief of the Luftwaffe, would not rescind until September 1942.[58]
November 12 – The "Vuelo Panamericano Pro Faro A Colon" (Pan American Flight for the Columbus Lighthouse; also styled "Por el Faro de Colón"), departs from Ciudad Trujillo in the Dominican Republic a month behind schedule, bound for San Juan in three Cuban Stinson Reliant aircraft and one Dominican Air Force Curtiss-Wright CW-19.[59][60]
November 20 – The French Farman F.223.1Laurent Guerrero (registration F-APUZ) sets out on a history-making flight from Istres, France, to Santiago, Chile, where it arrives to great fanfare 2 days 10 hours 41 minutes later.[61]
November 22 – Heinkel He 119 V4, the fourth prototype of the German Heinkel He 119, makes a world record flight for an aircraft of its class, recording an air speed of 505 km/h (314 mph) with a payload of 1,000 kg (2,205 lb) over a distance of 1,000 km (621 mi).
Flying a Breda Ba.88 Lince, Breda chief test pilotFurio Niclot sets two speed-over-distance world records, averaging 554 km/h (344.24 mph) over a 100-km (62.1-mile) distance and 524 km/h (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 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.[63]
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.[64]
December 29 – Three out of the four aircraft flying in the Pan American Flight for the Columbus Lighthouse crash near Cali, Colombia on their way to Panama. The Pan American flight has reached San Juan PR, Caracas VE, Port of Spain TT, Paramaribo SR, Belém, Fortaleza, Natal, Recife, Bahia, Rio de Janeiro BR, Montevideo UY, Buenos Aires AR, Santiago CL, La Paz BO, Lima PE, and Bogota CO.[65]
December 30 – The French Latécoère 521flying boatLieutenant 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.
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^Scheina, Robert L., Latin America: A Naval History 1810-1987, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1987, ISBN978-0-87021-295-6, p. 201.
^Francillon, René J., Japanese Aircraft of the Pacific War, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1979, ISBN978-0-87021-313-7, p. 21.
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^Thomas, Hugh, The Spanish Civil War, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1986, ISBN978-0-671-75876-9, p. 594.
^Thomas, Hugh, The Spanish Civil War, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1986, ISBN978-0-671-75876-9, p. 623.
^Crosby, Francis, The Complete Guide to Fighters & Bombers of the World: An Illustrated History of the World's Greatest Military Aircraft, From the Pioneering Days of Air Fighting in World War I Through the Jet Fighters and Stealth Bombers of the Present Day, London: Anness Publishing Ltd., 2006, ISBN978-1-84476-917-9, p. 269.
^Thomas, Hugh, The Spanish Civil War, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1986, ISBN978-0-671-75876-9, pp. 624-625, 627.
^Thomas, Hugh, The Spanish Civil War, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1986, ISBN978-0-671-75876-9, p. 678.
^Donald, Davidd, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997, ISBN0-7607-0592-5, p. 198.
^Bedwell, Don, "Beating the Odds," Aviation History, March 2016, p. 47.
^Thomas, Hugh, The Spanish Civil War, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1986, ISBN978-0-671-75876-9, p. 680.
^Thomas, Hugh, The Spanish Civil War, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1986, ISBN978-0-671-75876-9, pp. 683-684.
^Thomas, Hugh, The Spanish Civil War, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1986, ISBN978-0-671-75876-9, p. 684-685.
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^Thomas, Hugh, The Spanish Civil War, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1986, ISBN978-0-671-75876-9, p. 690.
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^Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, p. 155.
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^Hardesty, Von, Red Phoenix: The Rise of Soviet Air Power 1941-1945, Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1982, ISBN978-0-87474-510-8, p. 48.
^Thomas, Hugh, The Spanish Civil War, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1986, ISBN978-0-671-75876-9, pp. 714-715.
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^Thomas, Hugh, The Spanish Civil War, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1986, ISBN978-0-671-75876-9, p. 715.
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^ abPeattie, Mark R., Sunburst: The Rise of Japanese Naval Air Power 1909-1941, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 2001, ISBN978-1-55750-432-6, p. 104.
^Thomas, Hugh, The Spanish Civil War, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1986, ISBN978-0-671-75876-9, pp. 717-718, 721.
^Francillon, René J., Japanese Aircraft of the Pacific War, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1979, ISBN978-0-87021-313-7, p. 353.
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^Peattie, Mark R., Sunburst: The Rise of Japanese Naval Air Power 1909-1941, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 2001, ISBN978-1-55750-432-6, pp. 110-111.
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^Thomas, Hugh, The Spanish Civil War, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1986, ISBN978-0-671-75876-9, p. 720.
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^Francillon, René J., Japanese Aircraft of the Pacific War, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1979, ISBN978-0-87021-313-7, p. 489.
^Swanborough, Gordon, and Peter M. Bowers, United States Navy Aircraft Since 1911, London: Putnam, 1976, ISBN978-0-370-10054-8, p. 464.
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^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. 134.
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