Page:Aeronautics and Astronautics Chronology 1915-1960.pdf/10

 gress for approval, that the Government acquire basic aeronautical patents.

February 13: Aircraft Manufacturers Association formed, Frank H. Russell as president.

March 8: Naval Act carried appropriation of $1 million for purchase of basic aeronautical patents by the Federal Government.

March 29: The NACA recommended preparation of 3-year programs for aircraft production to the Secretaries of War and the Navy.

April 6: The United States declared war on the Central Powers. The Aviation Section of the Signal Corps consisted of 35 pilots, 1,987 enlisted men, and 55 training airplanes. Navy Aviation and Marine Corps combined had 48 officer-pilots, 239 men, 54 airplanes, 1 airship, 3 balloons, and 1 air station.

April 10: The NACA recommended the organization of an Aircraft Production Board, to be appointed by the Council of National Defense. Such was created on May 16.

April 14: Naval Consulting Board recommended to the Secretary that $50,000 be granted to carry on experimental work on aerial torpedoes in the form of automatically controlled aeroplanes or aerial machines carrying high explosives. This was origin of the Navy N-9 "flying bomb," later considered the Navy's first guided-missile effort.

May 7: First aerial bombing of London by German bombers at night.

May 12: Capt. W. A. Robertson established new American altitude record of 17,230 feet over North Island Flying School, San Diego, Calif.

May 20: First aircraft sinking of a submarine, the German U-36, in the North Sea by a British flying boat.

June 2: Aviation Section became the Airplane Division of the Army Signal Corps, and Maj. B. D. Foulois was appointed officer-in-charge on July 23.

June 4: Aircraft Production Board and the Joint Technical Board on Aircraft authorized the construction of five prototype models of 8- and 12-cylinder Liberty motors. Engine designs had been worked out in a Washington hotel room by J. G. Vincent of Packard Motor Car Co. and E. J. Hall of the Hall-Scott Motor Car Co. during the previous week, applying current engineering practices to mass production techniques.

July 4: First 8-cylinder Liberty aircraft engine arrived in Washington, D.C., for test by the National Bureau of Standards. Design, manufacture, and assembly of this motor had required less than 6 weeks.

July 24: Manufacturers Aircraft Association formed to handle cross-licensing patents between all manufacturers.


 * $640 million aviation bill became law, the largest U.S. appropriation for aviation to date.

July 27: Secretary of the Navy authorized a naval aircraft factory in Philadelphia.


 * First British DH-4 arrived in United States and became model for the first combat aircraft produced in volume in the United States.

August 17: Field Marshal Jan Christian Smuts, Chairman of a Sub-committee on Imperial Defence, submitted classic proposal for creation of an autonomous air force in the British military structure.

August 21: First airplane powered by Liberty engine successfully flown, the L. W. F. Engineering Co.'s "Model F" biplane.

August 25: Navy "NC" flying boat development was initiated by Chief Constructor of the Navy, D. W. Taylor, in a memo outlining general requirements of such an aircraft to combat the submarine menace and "to fly across the Atlantic to avoid difficulties of delivery, etc." Acting Secretary of the Navy, F. D. Roosevelt, authorized development of "NC" flying boats capable of flying the Atlantic.


 * 12-cylinder Liberty motor passed a 50-hour test with power output of over 300 hp prior to being ordered into mass production.

During August: The NACA recommended funds be given Weather Bureau to promote safety in aerial navigation.

September 3: Brig. Gen. W. L. Kenly appointed Chief of the Air Service, AEF, the first time control of Army air activities was placed under a single head.

September 7: Radio signals sent from a Navy R-6 seaplane flying from NAS Pensacola, were received by Naval Radio Station New Orleans, 140 miles distant, in tests.

October 1: Congress created the Aircraft Board.

October 16: Final tests of Army's airplane radiotelephone at Langley Field, Va., achieved 25 miles for plane-to-plane communication and 45 miles airplane-to-ground.

October 18: McCook Field, Dayton, Ohio, was established as an aeronautical experimental station by the Signal Corps.


 * British De Havilland DH-4 ordered into series production in the United States 6 months after U.S. entry into World War I. By the end of the war, about 4,500 had been built, and of the total of 1,216 American-built planes to reach the Western Front, all but three (two Le Peres and one experimental DH-9) were DH-4's.


 * The Aviation Medical Research Board was established by the Signal Corps.

October 21: First flight test of 12-cylinder Liberty engine in Curtiss HS-1 flying boat at Buffalo, N.Y.

October 29: First DH-4 completed, flown at Dayton, Ohio.

November 15: Committee on Light Alloys established within NACA to intensify efforts to develop new metals for aeronautical use, Constructor Jerome C. Hunsaker was Navy member.

November 21: A modified Navy N-9 "Flying Bomb" was demonstrated to Army, Navy and civilian observers at Amityville, Long Island.

December 15: U.S. Navy airplane design placed under LCdr. W. Starling Burgess, Bureau of Construction and Repair.

December 26: First test-run of altitude laboratory constructed at the Bureau of Standards for the NACA, one capable of testing engine performance up to one-third an atmosphere.

During 1917: U.S. Weather Bureau aerological specialist, William R. Blair, prepared NACA Report No. 13, "Meteorology and Aeronautics," which was widely circulated as a basic handbook.


 * At request of War Department, a member of NACA technical staff assigned to supervise altitude performance tests of the first Liberty engines at Detroit, Mich., and Pikes Peak, Colo.


 * Development work at the British Royal Aircraft Factory at Farnborough included a measured-injection carburetor, prototype design of 14-cylinder, double-row, static-radial, air-cooled engine (RAF-8), and design and construction of the SE-5 fighter.


 * Curtiss JN-4 "Jenny" became basic training airplane for thousands of American pilots.

January 19: U.S. School of Aviation Medicine began operations under Maj. Williams H. Wilmer, Signal Corps, Hazelhurst Field, Mineola, N.Y. A low-pressure tank was constructed to simulate altitudes up to 30,000 feet, and some studies were conducted at Pikes Peak.

January 23: First American military balloon ascension in the AEF took place at Cuperly, Marne, France.

During January: The NACA established Office of Aeronautical Intelligence at the suggestion of the Aircraft Board to col 6