1933 in aviation#September

{{Short description|none}}

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|c=20th century

|cf=21st century

|yp1=1930

|yp2=1931

|yp3=1932

|year=1933

|ya1=1934

|ya2=1935

|ya3=1936

|dp3=1900–1909{{!}}1900s

|dp2=1910s

|dp1=1920s

|d=1930s

|dn1=1940s

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|dn3=1960s

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{{Portal|Aviation}}

This is a list of aviation-related events from 1933:

Events

  • The United States Coast Guard requests authorization to construct its first cutters with a capability of carrying aircraft.[https://web.archive.org/web/20121012012530/http://www.uscg.mil/history/webaircraft/CGAviationHistory1916_1938.pdf A Chronological History of Coast Guard Aviation: The Early Years, 1915-1938].
  • Tokyo conducts its first blackout exercise.Kerr, E. Bartlett, Flames Over Tokyo: The U.S. Army Air Forces{{'}}s Incendiary Campaign Against Japan 1944-1945, New York: Donald I. Fine, Inc., 1991, {{ISBN|978-1-55611-301-7}}, p. 105.
  • The Berliner-Joyce Aircraft Corporation is absorbed into North American Aviation.Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, p. 58.
  • The Royal Air Force declares the Avro 504 obsolete after 20 years of service.Donald, David, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997, {{ISBN|978-0-7607-0592-6}}, p. 77.

=January=

=February=

=March=

  • March 28 – Imperial Airways Armstrong Whitworth Argosy airliner City of Liverpool catches fire in the air over Belgium and crashes, killing the crew of three and all 12 passengers, the deadliest accident in the history of British civil aviation up to this date.Donald, David, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997, {{ISBN|978-0-7607-0592-6}}, p. 63. The fire may have been started deliberately.{{cite book|title=World Directory of Airliner Crashes|first=Terry|last=Denham|publisher=Patrick Stephens Ltd|year= 1996|location=Yeoford|page=21|isbn=1-85260-554-5}}Milde, Michael, International Air Law and ICAO Eleven International Publishing, 2008, pp. 228-9.{{cite book|author-link=Ralph Barker|last=Barker|first=Ralph|title=Great Mysteries of the Air|publisher=Javelin|year= 1988|location=London|chapter=The World of Albert Voss|orig-year=First edition published 1966|edition=Revised|isbn=0-7137-2063-8}}
  • March 31 – Ford 4-AT-B Trimotor NC7686, carrying members of the Winnipeg Toilers basketball team from Tulsa, Oklahoma, to Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, on a charter flight, crashes near Neodesha, Kansas, probably while attempting a forced landing in a field. The crash kills both crew members and five of the 11 passengers.[http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19330331-0 Aviation Safety Network: Accident Description]

=April=

  • April 1 – The Indian Air Force is formed.
  • April 3
  • Two British aircraft, the Westland PV-3 and Westland PV-6 piloted by Squadron Leader the Marquess of Clydesdale and Flight Lieutenant David MacIntyre, make the first flight over Mount Everest, sponsored by Lucy, Lady Houston.
  • The Royal Air Force reinstates the squadron of nine to 12 planes as the basic organizational unit for its aircraft assigned to Royal Navy aircraft carriers, retaining the six-plane flight as the basic organizational unit only for aircraft assigned to operate from battleship and cruiser catapults.Sturtivant, Ray, British Naval Aviation: The Fleet Air Arm, 1917-1990, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1990, {{ISBN|0-87021-026-2}}, p. 17.
  • April 4 – The U.S. Navy dirigible {{USS|Akron|ZRS-4}} crashes during a storm off the coast of New Jersey, killing 73 of its 76 crewmen. It is the worst aviation accident in history at the time, and no greater loss of life will occur in a single air crash until 1950.
  • April 10 – Francesco Agello sets a new airspeed record of {{convert|682|km/h|mph|abbr=on}} in the Italian Macchi M.C.72 seaplane.
  • April 11 – Departing England on April 11 in the Avro Mark VIA Avian Southern Cross, William N. "Bill" Lancaster begins an attempt to set a speed record for a flight to South Africa. He crashes in the Sahara Desert on April 12 and dies on April 20 while awaiting rescue. His mummified body and wrecked aircraft will not be discovered until February 1962.Donald, David, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997, {{ISBN|978-0-7607-0592-6}}, p. 78.
  • April 12
  • Spartan Air Lines begins flight operations, offering service from Heston Aerodrome outside London to Cowes on the Isle of Wight using three Spartan Cruiser airliners.
  • William Besler makes the first successful flight in a fixed-wing aircraft powered by a steam engine. The aircraft, a Travel Air 2000 biplane, is powered by an oil-fired, reversible 90°-angle V-twin angle-compound engine he and his brother George designed. The seven-minute trial flight is certified by the National Aeronautical Association.Geoghegan, George, "The Dream of Steam," Aviation History, January 2017, p. 40.
  • April 17 – At Oakland Municipal Airport in Oakland, California, George and William Besler unveil their aviation steam engine to the public for the first time, with William flying the steam-powered Travel Air 2000 in a public demonstration that consists of three flights totaling a combined 15 minutes in the air, banking over San Francisco Bay before returning to the airport. The engine is virtually silent, allowing William to call down to the crowd while passing over it at an altitude of {{convert|200|ft|m|abbr=off|sp=us}}. He reaches {{convert|100|mph|km/h|abbr=on}} and demonstrates the engine's braking power by reversing the propeller on landing and coming to a stop in only {{convert|100|ft|m|abbr=off|sp=us}}.{{Cite video|people = George & William Besler |title = The Besler Steam Plane |medium = YouTube |publisher = Bomberguy |url= https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nw6NFmcnW-8 |date = April 29, 2011}} Despite the engine's success and speculation by aviation reporters that steam engines could economically power the airplanes of the future, the Beslers make no further public flights and do not develop the engine further.Geoghegan, George, "The Dream of Steam," Aviation History, January 2017, pp. 38, 40-41.
  • April 19 – The U.S. Navy conducts the first mass seaplane flight from Oahu to French Frigate Shoals, a 759-mile flight. The aircraft return via the Gardner Pinnacles, completing the round trip in 8 hours 10 minutes.[http://hawaii.gov/hawaiiaviation/chronology-of-aviation-in-hawaii/1930-1939 Aviation Hawaii: 1930-1939 Chronology of Aviation in Hawaii]
  • April 20 – George D. Besler and William J. Besler's prototype steam biplane, based on a Travel Air 2000, makes the first of several demonstration flights at Oakland airport in the San Francisco Bay Area.{{cite journal|last=FitzGerald|first=H. J.|date=July 1933|title=World's First Steam-Driven Airplane|journal=Popular Science Monthly|location=New York|volume=133|issue=1|pages=9–11|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AygDAAAAMBAJ&q=Popular+Science+1933+plane+%22Popular+Science%22&pg=PA9}}{{cite web|title=The Besler Steam-Driven Aeroplane|publisher=flyingkettle.com|url=http://www.flyingkettle.com/besler6.htm|access-date=2008-05-06|archive-date=2008-05-18|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080518022918/http://www.flyingkettle.com/besler6.htm|url-status=dead}}{{cite video|people=George & William Besler|title=The Besler Steam Plane|medium=YouTube|publisher=Bomberguy|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nw6NFmcnW-8|date=2011-04-29}}
  • April 29 – The Nazi government in Germany forms the Reichsluftfahrtministerium ("Reich Aviation Ministry").
  • April 30 – The first air service internal to Scotland, RenfrewCampbeltown, begins, operated by Midland & Scottish Air Ferries Ltd. Winifred Drinkwater, "the world's first female commercial pilot", is hired to fly the route.{{cite news|title=New Hall of Fame for Scotland's aviation heroes|first=Alastair|last=Dalton|url=http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/heritage/new-hall-of-fame-for-scotland-s-aviation-heroes-1-3013281|newspaper=The Scotsman|date=2013-07-25|access-date=2014-08-21}}

=May=

  • Turkish Airlines is formed under the name "State Airlines".
  • Erhard Milch, State Secretary of the German Reich Air Ministry, receives a major study of the future of a new German air force written by Dr. Robert Knauss. Knauss projects that the main threat to the reestablishment of Germany as a great power will be a preventive attack by France and Poland before Germany can fully rearm, and he recommends the creation of a force of 400 four-engined bombers which could deter such an attack with an ability to attack enemy population and industrial centers and destroy enemy morale.Murray, Williamson, Strategy for Defeat: The Luftwaffe 1933-1945, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama: Air University Press, 1983, no ISBN, pp. 6-7.
  • May 7–8 – Stanislaw Skarzynski flies the South Atlantic from Senegal to Brazil in a small single-seater tourist airplane RWD-5bis, in 20 hours 30 minutes, over a distance of {{convert|3,582|km|mi|abbr=on}}. The RWD-5bis was the smallest plane to have ever flown the Atlantic - empty weight below {{convert|450|kg|lb|abbr=on}}, loaded 1100 kg. It is a part of 17,885 km Warsaw - Rio de Janeiro flight from April 27 to June 24.
  • May 13 – The founder of the British Aircraft Company, Charles H. Lowe-Wylde, is killed while flying a B.A.C. Planette at Maidstone Airport near West Malling, Kent, England.Mondey, David, ed., The Complete Illustrated History of the World{{'}}s Aircraft, Secaucus, New Jersey: Chartwell Books, Inc., 1978, {{ISBN|0-89009-771-2}}, p. 90.
  • May 24 – French intercontinental aviation pioneer Ludovic Arrachart dies when his Caudron C.362 suffers engine failure during preliminary trails for the 1933 Coupe Deutsch de la Meurthe race.
  • May 29 – Flying a Potez 53, George Detré wins the 1933 Coupe Deutsch de la Meurthe race, covering the {{convert|2,000|km|mi|abbr=on|adj=on}} two-stage closed-circuit course in 6 hours 11 minutes 45 seconds at an average speed of {{convert|322.81|km/h|mph|abbr=on}}.[http://1000aircraftphotos.com/Contributions/Braas/6820.htm 1000aircraftphotos.com NICO BRAAS PHOTO No. 6820. Potez 53 ("10" c/n 5402)]
  • May 31 – The first regular civil air service from Northern Ireland to Renfrew Airport in Glasgow, Scotland, begins.{{cite web|title=Airport History |url=http://www.belfastcityairport.com/About-Us/Airport-Development-and-Planning/facts-and-figures.aspx |publisher=George Best Belfast City Airport |access-date=2012-04-04 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111012191943/http://belfastcityairport.com/About-Us/Airport-Development-and-Planning/facts-and-figures.aspx |archive-date=2011-10-12 }}

=June=

=July=

=August=

=September=

  • September 2 – Italian aviator Francesco de Pinedo dies when his Bellanca monoplane Santa Lucia crashes on takeoff at Floyd Bennett Field in New York City as he begins a flight to Baghdad in an attempt to set a new nonstop solo distance flight record of {{convert|6,300|mi|km}}.
  • September 4 – The American aviator Florence Klingensmith dies in the crash of her Gee Bee Model Y Senior Sportster racer (tail number NR718Y) during the Frank Phillips Trophy Race at Chicago, Illinois, leading race organizers to ban women from future races.
  • September 7 – The prototype of the French Dewoitine D.332 airliner, named Emeraude and registered as F-AMMY, sets a world record for an aircraft in its class by logging an average speed of {{convert|159.56|kph|mph kn|abbr=on}} over a {{convert|1,000|km|mi|0|abbr=off|sp=us|adj=on}} course carrying a useful load of {{convert|2,000|kg|lb|0|abbr=off}}.
  • September 7–8 (overnight) – Six United States Navy Consolidated P2Y flying boats make a non-stop formation flight from Norfolk, Virginia, to the Panama Canal, covering {{convert|2,059|mi|km}} in 25 hours 20 minutes.
  • September 24 – The Soviet sealed cabin balloon USSR-1, intended to carry Georgi Prokofiev, Konstantin Gudenoff, and Ernest Birnbaum in an attempt to set a new altitude record for human flight, fails to launch on the first attempt at making the record flight.
  • September 28 – Gustave Lemoine, using oxygen but had no pressure suit, sets a new world altitude record of {{convert|13,661|m|ft|abbr=on}} in a Potez 506, unable to go higher because of icing of his eyes as he sits in his open cockpit. His flight, made from Villacoublay, France, lasts 2 hours 5 minutes.Flight, 19 October 1933, p. 1043.
  • September 30 – The Soviet balloonists Georgi Prokofiev, Konstantin Gudenoff, and Ernest Birnbaum fly in the sealed cabin balloon USSR-1 to an altitude of {{convert|62,230|ft|m|abbr=off|sp=us}} in a flight of 8 hours 19 minutes, setting a new altitude record for human flight. Although the flight exceeds the previous record for human altitude – set by Auguste Piccard and Max Cosyns in August 1932 – by {{convert|9,077|ft|m|abbr=off|sp=us}}, the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) does not recognize the record as official because the Soviet Union is not an FAI member.Jensen, Richard, "The First Space Race," Aviation History, May 2016, p. 52.

=October=

  • Flying a Farman F.239, French aviators Jean Réginensi and André Bailly set three world airspeed records over distances of {{convert|100|km|mi|abbr=off|sp=us}}, {{convert|500|km|mi|abbr=off|sp=us}}, and {{convert|1,000|km|mi|abbr=off|sp=us}}.
  • October 4 – The French aviators Jean Assolant and René Lefèvre take from Oran in French Algeria in the Bernard 81 GR L'Oiseau Canari II, hoping to set a new unrefueled nonstop straight-line world distance record by flying to Saigon in French Indochina. Unexpectedly high fuel consumption puts the record out of reach, and they land in Karachi, having flown {{convert|6,600|km|mi|abbr=on}} in 27 hours.
  • October 4–11 – Sir Charles Kingsford Smith, in a Percival Gull, sets a new solo flight record between England and Australia of 7 days 4 hours 44 minutes.
  • October 7 – Air France is formed by the merger of five French airline companies – Air Orient, Air Union, Compagnie Générale Aéropostale, Compagnie Internationale de Navigation Aérienne (CIDNA) and Société Générale des Transports Aériens (SGTA) – beginning operations with 250 planes.
  • October 10 – A bomb destroys a United Airlines Boeing 247 in mid-air near Chesterton, Indiana, during a transcontinental flight across the United States. killing all seven people on board. It is the first proven case of sabotage in civil aviation, although no suspect is ever identified.
  • October 15 – The Rolls-Royce Merlin engine is started for the first time.
  • October 18 – The American Ford 4-AT-B Trimotor NC4806, operating over Nicaragua as an executive aircraft, crashes into Lake Managua from an altitude of {{convert|2,000|ft|m|abbr=off|sp=us}}, killing all three people on board.[http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19331018-0 Aviation Safety Network: Accident Description]
  • October 30
  • Returning from a tour of Africa, the Couzinet 33 Biarritz crashes at Blaisy-Bas, France.
  • During an air show at Amarillo, Texas, two aircraft belonging to a flying circus troupe collide over the city while flying through streamers dropped by a third aircraft. Four people aboard the two aircraft die.{{cite news|title=Plane Crashes Take 8 Lives|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=gW8hAAAAIBAJ&pg=4426,5338646&dq=air+circus+accident&hl=en|access-date=1 June 2012|newspaper=Reading Eagle|date=October 30, 1933}}

=November=

=December=

  • December 1 – Indian National Airways commences the first daily service in India, between Calcutta and Dacca.
  • December 13 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt makes Northwest Airways pilot Mal Freeburg the first recipient of the Air Mail Medal of Honor.Johnson, Frederick L., "Modest Mal," Aviation History, March 2012, p. 19.
  • December 19–23 – The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale-sponsored Second International Aviation Meeting takes place in Egypt. The 32 competitors take part in three competitions – a 900-mile (1,450-km), two-day touring event called the "Circuit of the Oases;" a 230-mile (370-km) speed contest; and an "Oasis Trophy" competition in which the contestants compete for the trophy based on the number of point they scored in the other two events. Competitors are handicapped under an extremely complex scoring system that takes into account fuel consumption, speed of wing folding, comfort, picketing, take off and landing distances, luggage, engine starting, safety appliances, controls and instruments, refueling, ease of maintenance, and a safety criterion that requires them to shut their engines off at an altitude of {{convert|2,000|ft|m|abbr=off|sp=us}} and glide to a landing.[http://www.afleetingpeace.org/index.php/air-races/9-races/74-the-1933-circuit-of-oases afleetingpeace.org The 1933 Circuit of Oases]
  • December 20–30 – Flying the Curtiss Thrush Outdoor Girl, Helen Richey and Frances Harrell Marsalis employ aerial refueling to remain airborne continuously for 237 hours 43 minutes. They fall short of their goal of remaining in the air until January 1, 1934, but nonetheless shatter the previous continuous flight record of 196 hours set in August 1932 by Marsalis and Louise Thaden.Lynch, Adam, "Hometown Heroine," Aviation History, March 2012, pp. 55-56.
  • December 30 – The Imperial Airways Avro Ten Apollo (G-ABLU) strikes a radio mast and crashes at Ruysselede, Belgium, killing all 10 people on board. King Albert I of Belgium will award Camille van Hove, who is hospitalized with serious burns suffered while trying to rescue victims from the airliner{{'}}s wreckage, the Civic Cross (1st Class).
  • December 31
  • The Latécoère 300 flying boat Croix du Sud ("Southern Cross") sets a world nonstop distance record for seaplanes, flying {{convert|3,697|km|mi|abbr=off|sp=us}} from Étang de Berre, France to Saint-Louis, Senegal.
  • The Government of Venezuela purchases the airline Aeropostal Alas de Venezuela after the Government of France stops subsidizing it.

First flights

=January=

  • Douglas XFD-1Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, p. 182.
  • January 30 – Curtiss T-32 Condor IIDonald, David, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997, {{ISBN|0-7607-0592-5}}, p. 287.

=February=

  • Aichi AB-6
  • February 1 – Boeing XF6B-1, later redesignated Boeing XBFB-1Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, p. 86.
  • February 6 – Kawanishi E7K (Allied reporting name "Alf")Francillon, René J., Japanese Aircraft of the Pacific War, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1979, {{ISBN|978-0-87021-313-7}}, pp. 297-298.
  • February 8 – Boeing 247Mondey, David, ed., The Complete Illustrated History of the World{{'}}s Aircraft, Secaucus, New Jersey: Chartwell Books, Inc., 1978, {{ISBN|0-89009-771-2}}, p. 2730.
  • February 10 – Hawker Demon
  • February 19 – Vultee V-1

=March=

  • March 1 – Consolidated P-30 (later PB-2)Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, p. 97.
  • March 29 – Miles M.2 Hawk

=April=

=May=

=June=

  • Seversky SEV-3Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, {{ISBN|978-0-517-56588-9}}, p. 384.
  • June 11 – Cessna CR-3
  • June 21 – Supermarine Walrus
  • June 23 – Couzinet 100

=July=

=August=

=September=

=October=

  • Polikarpov I-15
  • October 6 – Pander S-4 Postjager
  • October 11 – Blackburn Perth
  • October 18 – Grumman XF2F-1, Grumman{{'}}s first single-seat, enclosed-cockpit aircraft and prototype of the Grumman F2FAngelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, p. 219-220.

=November=

=December=

  • Curtiss XF13C-2, prototype of the biplane version of the Curtiss XF13CAngelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, {{ISBN|978-0-517-56588-9}}, p. 153.
  • Farman F.1020
  • Mitsubishi Ki-7 (Allied reporting name "Pine")Francillon, René J., Japanese Aircraft of the Pacific War, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1979, {{ISBN|978-0-87021-313-7}}, p. 446.
  • Yokosuka K5Y (Allied reporting name "Willow")Francillon, René J., Japanese Aircraft of the Pacific War, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1979, {{ISBN|978-0-87021-313-7}}, pp. 254, 256.
  • December 18 – Northrop XFT
  • December 31 – Polikarpov I-16

Entered service

= February =

= June =

  • June 21 – Grumman FF with the U.S. NavyAngelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, p. 218.

= August =

=November=

=December=

Retirements

  • Curtiss F7C Seahawk by the United States Marine CorpsAngelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, {{ISBN|978-0-517-56588-9}}, p. 138.

=September=

References

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