

Frank Whittle bench-tests the first practical jet engine in laboratories at Cambridge University, England. Boeing begins company-funded design work on the Model 299, which will become the B-17.Īpril 12, 1937. The Army Air Corps is designated to take over airmail operations. Roosevelt issues an Executive Order canceling existing air-mail contracts because of fraud and collusion. The P-12 pilots reach 30,000 feet, shattering the old record of 17,000 feet.įeb. Hugh Elmendorf, 19 pilots of the 95th Pursuit Squadron set an unofficial world record for altitude formation flying over Mather Field, Calif. Doolittle makes the first blind, all-instrument flight.Īpril 12, 1930. Quesada among its crew, sets an endurance record for a refueled aircraft of 150 hours, 45 minutes, 14, seconds. Question Mark, A Fokker C-2 commanded by Maj. White, flying in an Air Corps blimp directly over an Illinois Central train, dip down and hand a mailbag to the postal clerk on the train, thus completing the first airplane-to-train transfer.

The project takes 65 hours of flying, spread over two months.

Dexter of the Air Corps Reserve completes a 3,000-square-mile aerial mapping assignment over the Florida Everglades. Total flight time in the Loening Amphibian is 32 hours, 45 minutes. Dallas and Beckwith Havens make the first transcontinental flight in an amphibious airplane. President Coolidge signs a bill authorizing acceptance of a new site near San Antonio, Texas, to become the Army Air Corps training center.
