1934 in aviation

This is a list of aviation-related events from 1934:

Events

Sir Alan Cobhams Flight Refuelling Ltd. develops the looped-hose aerial refueling system, a weighted cable let out of a tanker aircraft and grabbed by a grapnel fired from the receiving aircraft. It is the first practical aerial refueling system, and will not be replaced until the probe-and-drogue system is perfected in 1945.
At Yokosuka, Japan, the Imperial Japanese Army and Imperial Japanese Navy hold the first of three annual interservice competitions in air combat techniques.
The Mitsubishi Aircraft Company Ltd. is merged back into its parent company, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.

January

January 10–11 - A flight of six United States Navy Consolidated P2Y flying boats sets a new distance record for formation flying of between San Francisco, and Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii. They also set a new speed record for this crossing of 24 hours 35 minutes.
January 15 - On the final leg of a flight that began on 5 January in Saigon, French Indochina - with stops at Karachi, British India; Baghdad, Iraq; Marseille, France; and Lyon, France - the Air France Dewoitine D.332 Emeraude strikes a hill and crashes in a violent snowstorm at Corbigny, France, while flying from Lyon to Paris–Le Bourget Airport outside Paris, killing all ten people on board. The director of Air France, Maurice Noguès, and the governor-general of French Indochina, Pierre Pasquier, are among the dead. The aircraft is on a proving flight for an Air France route from Paris to Saigon and had left Paris on 21 December 1933 and arrived at Saigon on 28 December 1933 before beginning its return flight, and it crashes only from its final destination.
January 30 - Soviet aeronauts Pavel Fedosenko, Andrey Vasenko, and Ilya Usyskin take the hydrogen-filled high-altitude balloon Osoaviakhim-1 on its maiden flight to a record-setting altitude of, where it remains for twelve minutes. The 7-hour 14-minute flight – during which the balloon travels ( from its launch site – ends in tragedy when the crew loses control of the balloon during its descent and the gondola disintegrates and crashes near the village of Potizh-Ostrog in Insarsky District of Mordovian Autonomous Oblast in the Soviet Union, killing the crew.

February

February 1 - South African Airways is founded.
February 3 - Deutsche Luft Hansa begins the first regular airmail service across the Atlantic Ocean, between Berlin and Rio de Janeiro.
February 7
* The first airmail flight between Australia and New Zealand is made by Charles Ulm in an Avro Ten, taking 14 hours 10 minutes.
* Germany begins a regular air mail service between Africa and South America, employing Dornier flying boats catapulted from depot ships. Dornier Do 26s will later fly the route without the assistance of ships, and various Dornier flying boats will complete over 300 crossings before the outbreak of World War II brings the service to an end in 1939.
February 9 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt suspends all U.S. Air Mail contracts due to alleged improprieties by the Hoover Administration during the negotiations of those contracts.
February 18 - The American World War I ace Eddie Rickenbacker and a Transcontinental & Western Air team including Jack Frye, "Tommy" Tomlinson, Larry Fritz, Paul E. Richter, Si Morehouse, Harlan Hull, John Collings, and Andy Andrews, set a new record for a transcontinental flight across the United States, flying the Douglas DC-1 from Burbank, California, to Newark, New Jersey, in 13 hours 4 minutes.
February 19 - The United States Army Air Corps begins flying U.S. airmail in the wake of President Roosevelts cancellation of all U.S. Air Mail contracts.
February 26 - In the first week of U.S. Army Air Corps delivery of U.S. Air Mail, five Army aviators have been killed in accidents. The death rate highlights the lack of training of most U.S. Army pilots in night and bad-weather flying.

March

March 7 - Juan de la Cierva lands a Cierva C.30 autogyro on the Spanish Navy seaplane carrier in the Mediterranean Sea off Valencia, Spain. It is the first time a rotorcraft lands on the deck of a ship. He achieves another first a half an hour later when he takes off from Dédalo′s deck after a takeoff run of only, the first time that a rotorcraft takes off from the deck of a ship.
March 9 - All air operations of the United States Customs Service are transferred to the United States Coast Guard.
March 22
*The wreckage of the Pan American-Grace Airways Ford 5-AT-C Trimotor San José - which had crashed on Chile's Cerro El Plomo in the Andes Mountains during a severe snowstorm on 16 July 1932, killing all nine people on board, and subsequently been buried in ice and snow - finally is discovered.
*The Panagra Ford 5-AT-C Trimotor NC407H suffers engine failure and crashes on takeoff at Lima-Callao International Airport at Lima, Peru, killing three of the 15 people on board.

April

Six Soviet and two American airmen rescue the crew of the Soviet commercial icebreaker Chelyuskin from the ice of the Chukchi Sea, where the ship had sunk on February 13.
April 11 - Renato Donati of Italy sets a new world altitude record of in a Caproni Ca 113.

May

May 7 - U.S. Army Air Corps delivery of U.S. Air Mail comes to an end. During the 78 days of delivering air mail, 12 Army air crew have died in 66 accidents. The losses convince U.S. Army officials of the need to train their pilots in flying at night and in bad weather.
May 8–23 - Jean Batten sets a new womens speed record between England and Australia. She flies a de Havilland DH.60 and makes the trip in 14 days 22 hours.
May 9 - An Air France Wibault 282T-12 airliner crashes into the English Channel off Dungeness, Kent, England, killing all six people on board.
May 18 - The Douglas DC-2 - production version of the Douglas DC-1 and forerunner of the Douglas DC-3 - enters commercial service, flying for Transcontinental and Western Air on the Columbus, Ohio–Pittsburgh–Newark route.
May 19 - In the Soviet Union, the largest heavier-than-air aircraft built anywhere in the 1930s, the Andrei Tupolev-designed ANT-20 Maksim Gorki, makes its first flight. It has a wingspan of and a takeoff weight of .
May 28 - French Couzinet 71 flying boats begin the first regular air mail service across the South Atlantic Ocean.
May 29 - Highland Airways commences the first regular airmail service within the United Kingdom, between Inverness and Kirkwall

June

June 4 - The U.S. Navy commissions its first purpose-built aircraft carrier,.
June 8 - A professional baseball team travels by air for the first time, when the Cincinnati Reds of the National League fly in a chartered Douglas DC-2 from Cincinnati to Chicago to play the Chicago Cubs.
June 9 - Flying in fog and thunderstorms during a scheduled flight from Newark Metropolitan Airport in Newark, New Jersey, to Chicago, the American Airways Curtiss T-32 Condor II NC12354 crashes into Last Chance Hill in the Catskill Mountains in New York at an altitude of, killing all seven people on board.
June 11 - During a flight from Santiago, Chile, to Buenos Aires, Argentina, the Pan American-Grace Airways Ford 5-AT-C Trimotor NC8417 crashes into Argentina's Mar Chiquita Lake during a heavy rainstorm, killing six of the ten people on board.
June 12 - In the United States, the Air Mail Act of 1934 closely regulates the contracting of air mail services and prohibits aircraft manufacturers from owning airlines.
June 23 - The U.S. Army takes delivery of its first six Link Trainers, giving birth to the flight simulator industry.
June 24 - Airplane designer and racer Jimmie Wedell and his passenger die when the de Havilland Gypsy Moth he is piloting crashes at Patterson, Louisiana.
June 26 - The initial flight of the Focke-Wulf Fw 61, the first practical helicopter, takes place.
June 29–30 - Brothers Benjamin and Joseph Adamowicz, amateur pilots, fly across the Atlantic Ocean.

July

July 2 - The Armée de l'Air is separated from the French Army to become the independent French Air Force, although retaining the name Armée de l'Air.
July 11 - Engelbert Zaschka of Germany flies his large human-powered aircraft, the Zaschka Human-Power Aircraft, about at Berlin Tempelhof Airport without assisted take off.
July 15 - Varney Speed Lines makes its first passenger-carrying flight.
July 19 - F9C Sparrowhawk parasite fighters from the United States Navy airship successfully launch from the airship, scout out the heavy cruiser, and return to Macon.
July 19-August 20 - United States Army Air Corps General Henry Arnold leads ten Martin B-10 bombers on an 8,000-mile proving flight.
July 26 - United States Army Air Corps Major William E. Kepner, Captain Albert W. Stevens, and Captain Orvil A. Anderson make the "National Geographic Society–U.S. Army Air Corps Stratosphere Flight" in the balloon Explorer in an attempt to set a new world altitude record for human flight. Launching from a depression that becomes known as the "Stratobowl" in Moonlight Valley in the Black Hills near Rapid City, South Dakota, they reach about – about short of the record – before a tear in the balloon forces them to descend over central Nebraska. Eventually, half the gas bag tears away, and they decide to bail out as the balloon passes in a dangerously rapid descent. All three men parachute to safety, the last of them exiting the gondola at an altitude of only about, before the gondola crashes.
July 27 - During a flight from Zurich-Dübendorf Airport in Switzerland to Stuttgart Airport in Stuttgart, Germany, the Swissair Curtiss T-32 Condor II CH-170 encounters severe turbulence and loses a wing in flight at an altitude of. It crashes in a forest near Wurmlingen in Tuttlingen, Germany, and burns, killing all 12 people on board, including the first European female flight attendant Nelly Diener. It is the deadliest civil aviation accident of 1934.

August

The first National Air Meet for Women takes place at Dayton, Ohio. During a 50-mile individual race, aviation record-holder Frances Marsalis dies in a crash at age 29.
The Italian Fascist government merges the airlines Società Aerea Mediterranea (SAM), Società Anonima Navigazione Aerea (SANA), Società Italiana Servizi Aerei (SISA), and Aero Espresso Italiana (AEI) to create the new airline Ala Littoria as the national airline of Italy.
August 8–9 - James Ayling and Len Reid make the first non-stop flight from Canada to England, in a de Havilland DH84, taking 30 hours 50 minutes for the flight.
August 28-September 16 - The fourth and last International Tourist Aircraft Contest Challenge International de Tourisme 1934 takes place in Warsaw, Poland. The Polish crew of Jerzy Bajan on the RWD-9 plane wins.

September

September 5 - While undergoing inflation with hydrogen gas in Moscow's Kuntsevo District for a planned September 24 ascent to set a new human fight altitude record, the Soviet balloon USSR-2 is destroyed by a fire ignited by a stray spark. The accident prompts the Soviet Union's People's Commissar of Defense, Kliment Voroshilov, to suspend the Soviet Union's high-altitude manned balloon program.
September 7–16 - As part of Challenge International de Tourisme 1934, a race takes place over Europe and North Africa, concluding with a maximum speed trial over a triangular course on September 16.
September 14 - The airline Aeronaves de México begins flight operations. Its first flight is from Mexico City to Acapulco, Mexico, using a Stinson SR Reliant. The airline will change its name to Aeroméxico in February 1972.
September 22
*Sir Alan Cobham sets out in an Airspeed Courier in a failed attempt to fly non-stop from England to India.
*Shortly after takeoff from Heston Airport in Hounslow, England, the Handley Page W.10 airliner G-EBMM, operated by National Aviation Displays, suffers a structural failure and crashes at Aston Clinton, killing all four people on board.
September 29 - A London, Scottish & Provincial Airways Airspeed Courier crashes at Timberden Bottom, Shoreham, Kent, in the United Kingdom, killing all four people on board. Flying debris injures two people on the ground.

October

The Japan Aeroplane Company Ltd. is founded, with plants at Yokohama and Yamagata, Japan.
The Government of the Philippines passes an act to regulate foreign aircraft operations in the Philippines and to require a franchise from the Philippine government in order to operate an air service in the Philippines.
October 2 - A Hillman's Airways de Havilland DH.89A Dragon Rapide crashes into the English Channel off Folkestone, Kent, England, in poor visibility, killing all seven people on board.
October 8 - Inter-Island Airways makes the first interisland air mail flight in the Hawaiian Islands under a United States Post Office contract.
October 14 - National Airlines begins operations, using two second-hand Ryan ST monoplanes to fly a mail contract service in Florida between St. Petersburg and Daytona Beach with stops at Tampa, Lakeland, and Orlando.
October 19 - The Holyman's Airways de Havilland DH.86 Express airliner Miss Hobart crashes in the Bass Strait during a domestic flight in Australia from Melbourne, Victoria, to Launceston, Tasmania, killing all 11 people on board. Miss Hobart had just flown the new airline's first flight three weeks earlier, and one of its founders, Captain Victor Holyman, is among the dead.
October 20-November 3 - Sir Charles Kingsford Smith makes the first eastward crossing of the Pacific Ocean, from Brisbane, Australia to San Francisco, in the Lockheed Altair Lady Southern Cross. The Hawaii-to-San Francisco leg of his crossing on November 3 is the first eastward flight from Hawaii to North America.
October 20-November 5 - The MacRobertson Air Race is flown from England to Melbourne, Australia to celebrate the centenary of the state of Victoria. The £10,000 prize money is won by C. W. A. Scott and Tom Campbell Black flying de Havilland DH.88 Comet Grosvenor House from Mildenhall, Suffolk to Melbourne, Australia in a time of 71 hours.
October 23
*Francesco Agello passes his 1933 world speed with a new airspeed record of. Again he flies the Italian Macchi M.C.72 seaplane.
*Husband and wife Jean and Jeannette Piccard ascend to an altitude of over Lake Erie in the balloon A Century of Progress. The first licensed female balloon pilot in the United States, Jeannette Piccard retains control of the balloon for the entire flight, and the flight makes her the first woman to fly in the stratosphere.
October 26 – The only Pander S-4 Postjager is destroyed during the MacRobertson Air Race from London, England, to Melbourne, Australia, when it strikes a motor car and bursts into flames while taxiing for departure from Allahabad, India. Its crew escapes unharmed.

November

The United States Congress passes an amendment to the Air Commerce Act of 1926 requiring U.S. airlines to use multi-engine aircraft on routes over terrain not readily permitting emergency landings.
November 6 - The Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft Junkers Ju 52/3mge D-AVAN, flying a domestic cargo flight in Germany from Königsberg Devau Airport in Königsberg, East Prussia, to Berlin Tempelhof Airport in Berlin, crashes while attempting an emergency landing at Gross-Rackitt in Pommern, killing all five people on board.
November 15 - During a domestic flight in Australia from Longreach Airport, Queensland, to Archerfield Airport in Archerfield, Queensland - the final leg of its delivery flight from England to Australia - the Qantas de Havilland DH.86 Express VH-USG suffers an in-flight loss of control and crashes at Ilfracombe, killing all four people on board.
November 30 - The record-setting French aviator Hélène Boucher dies when the Renault Viva Grand Sport she is piloting on a test flight crashes into the woods at Guyancourt, France.

December

December 3 - Charles Ulm disappears while flying over the Pacific Ocean somewhere between Oakland, California, and Hawaii.
December 7 – The crash of a military Fairey Fox fighter-bomber starts a hangar fire at Haren Airport in Brussels, Belgium, that destroys at least two Sabena airliners.
December 8 - Imperial Airways extends its airmail service to Australia.
December 10 - During a domestic flight in Cuba from Rancho-Boyeros Airport in Havana to Antonio Maceo Airport in Santiago de Cuba, the Cubana de Aviación Ford 4-AT-E Tri-Motor NM-7 crashes into a mountain near Palma Soriano during heavy rain, killing four of the eight people on board.
December 20
*During a flight from Almaza Airport outside Cairo, Egypt, to Baghdad, Iraq - one leg of a Christmas mail-and-passenger flight from Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, to Batavia in the Netherlands East Indies which prior to Cairo had made stops in Marseille, France; Rome, Italy; and Athens, Greece - the KLM Royal Dutch Airlines Douglas DC-2-115A Uiver crashes near Rutbah Wells, Iraq, during a rainstorm and bursts into flames, killing all seven people on board.
*United States Coast Guard Lieutenant Richard L. Burke sets a world seaplane speed record of over a 3-kilometer test course flying a Grumman JF-2 Duck.
*United Airlines Flight 6, a Boeing 247, loses power in both engines shortly after takeoff from Chicago. The three-man crew manages to crash-land the plane, and the entire crew and the lone passenger survive.
December 28 - During the Chaco War, a Macchi M.18 flying boat of the Paraguayan Navys aviation arm carries out the first night bombing raid in South America, attacking Bolivian positions at Vitriones and Mbutum.
c. December 29 - An American Airlines Curtiss T-32 Condor II crashes in the Adirondack Mountains; all four on board survive.
December 31 - Helen Richey becomes the first woman to pilot a regular civil flight, taking a Central Airlines Ford Trimotor on the Washington, D.C. to Detroit route; however, she gets few subsequent flights.