Page:Aeronautics and Astronautics Chronology 1915-1960.pdf/17

 April 15: Daily flights to an altitude of 10,000 feet to obtain weather data and to test upper-air-sounding equipment begun at NAS Anacostia. In the following February, the schedule was extended by the Navy to include weekends and holidays, with the altitude being increased to 15,000 feet.

April 27: First trial flight of new Wright Cyclone 450-hp air-cooled engine in DT-6 torpedo plane, at Muchio's Field, N.J.

During April: Oleo landing gear tested by Navy on NB-1 at Seattle.

May 20: Air Service Technical School at Rantoul, Ill., carried on radio conversations from planes in the air, reaching Chicago 115 miles distant.

June 12: Daniel Guggenheim donated $500,000 toward establishment of a School of Aeronautics at New York University.

June 25: Construction of full-scale propeller research wind tunnel at Langley Aeronautical Laboratory was initiated, which was completed in 1927.

During July: First radiobeacon, one developed at McCook Field, installed in airmail plane for the Department of Commerce.


 * Small car moving on ground controlled by radio from an airplane at 2,000 feet, by Air Service at Wright Field, Dayton.

August 1: Naval Air Detail, under Lt. Comdr. R. E. Byrd, began aerial exploration of 30,000-square-mile area near Etah, North Greenland, with three Loening amphibians, as part of the MacMillan expedition.


 * Curtiss Condor, first of new series of night bombers, made first flight at Garden City, Long Island.

September 3: Navy dirigible Shenandoah crashed near Ava, Ohio, killing 14 of 43 persons aboard.

September 12: Morrow Board was appointed by President Coolidge to recommend U.S. air policy.

October 7: Post Office Department awarded first five contracts under the Kelly Air Mail Act for the flying of mail to private contractors on a bid basis.

October 26: Lt. James H. Doolittle, U.S. Air Service, won Schneider Cup Race flying Curtiss-R3 C-2 seaplane Racer, and also broke speed record for seaplanes attaining 245.7 mph, at Baltimore, Md.

November 20: Night photographs using 50-pound magnesium flares taken from Army Martin bomber by Lt. George W. Goddard, over Rochester, N.Y.

November 30: The President's Aircraft Board, better known for its senior member as the Morrow Board, submitted its report to President Coolidge. Recommendations of the NACA to the Morrow Board were important in decisions leading to the passage of the Air Commerce Act of 1926 and the appropriation of funds for the long-range development of Army and Navy aviation. With its recommendations inaugurated, NACA thereafter followed a policy of avoiding entanglement in matters not related to research.

December 17: Col. William Mitchell found guilty by Army General Court-Martial, in session since October 28.

December 27: Daniel Guggenheim created the $2,500,000 Daniel Guggenheim Fund for the Promotion of Aeronautics to speed development of civil aviation in the United States.

During 1925: School of Aviation Medicine began study on an objective aptitude test for flyers.

During 1925: Goeffrey de Havilland of Britain first produced two-seat biplane, the Moth, a small popular light airplane. War-surplus Curtis JN4D airplanes had earlier been popular in the United States, while Taylor Cub monoplane appeared in 1931.

January 1: Henry J. E. Reid appointed Engineer-in-Charge of NACA Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory, a post held until July 1960, when he retired as Director of NASA's Langley Research Center.

January 16: Daniel Guggenheim Fund for the Promotion of Aeronautics formally established.

January 29: An American altitude record of 38,704 feet was set by Lt. J. A. Macready (USAS) in an XCO5-A Liberty 400 at Dayton, Ohio.

February 6: Pratt & Whitney produced first Wasp engine, a nine-cylinder radial air-cooled engine of about 400 hp at 1,800 rpm.

March 16: Robert H. Goddard launched the world's first liquid-fueled rocket at Auburn, Mass., which traveled 184 feet in 21/2 seconds. This event was the "Kitty Hawk" of rocketry.

March 23: Inventor of sodium-filled valves for internal combustion engines, S. D. Heron, granted exclusive license for manufacture to Rick Tool Co., later part of Eaton Manufacturing Co.

April 16: The Department of Agriculture purchased its first cotton-dusting plane.

During April: The NACA analysis of basic aeronautical legislation was accepted by Joint Senate-House conferees, leading to the Air Commerce Act of May 20, 1926. This freed NACA of responsibility for regulation of civil aviation and permitted it to concentrate upon the conduct of aeronautical research.

May 5: Robert H. Goddard communicated the results of his successful liquid-propellant rocket flight of March 16 to the Smithsonian Institution.

May 9: First flight over the North Pole, by Richard Byrd, navigator, and Floyd Bennett, pilot, in a Fokker Monoplane, from Spitsbergen.

May 12: Lincoln Ellsworth, American explorer, flew across the North Pole in the dirigible Norge, commanded by Roald Amundsen.

May 20: President Coolidge signed the Air Commerce Act, the first Federal legislation regulating civil aeronautics.

May 24: First annual inspection and conference for industrial and other governmental aeronautical persons held at NACA's Langley Laboratory. These annual events were of high importance in promoting aeronautical research in the United States.

June 6: Last elements of Navy Alaskan Aerial Survey Expedition departed Seattle for Alaska. Three Loening amphibians operating from tender U.S.S. Gannet made aerial mapping of Alaska throughout the summer and into September with the cooperation of the Department of the Interior.

June 25: Largest wind tunnel in the world (20-foot throat), the Propeller Research Tunnel, constructed at Langley.

July 1: Edward P. Warner, professor of aeronautics at MIT, nominated by President Coolidge to become Assistant Secretary of Navy in Charge of Aviation. Dr. Warner served on the NACA, 1929-46.

July 2: First known reforesting by airplane was carried out in Hawaii.


 * The Army Air Corps Act became law and the Air Service was redesignated the Air Corps. It also made provision for an Assistant Secretary of War for Air and for a 5-year Air Corps expansion program.


 * By act of Congress, the NACA was required to review aeronautical inventions and designs submitted to any branch of Government and submit reports to the Aeronautics Patents and Design Board.

July 28: Submarine S-1 surfaced and launched a Cox-Klemin XS-2 seaplane piloted by Lt. D. C. Allen. It later recovered airplane and submerged, thus carrying out first complete cycle in this series of feasibility experiments. 20