Page:Aeronautics and Astronautics Chronology 1915-1960.pdf/20

 Ford trimotor piloted by Bernt Balchen, from Little America.

November 29: First pursuit aircraft powered with high-temperature, liquid-cooling system designed by the Materiel Division, was completed by Curtiss and flown to Wright Field for flight testing.

December 12: Langley Medals were presented to Adm. Richard E. Byrd for his flights over both poles and posthumously to Charles M. Manly for his pioneer development of airplane engines.

December 31: Daniel Guggenheim Fund for the Promotion of Aeronautics ended its activities.

During 1929: J. Jongbloed experimentally recognized the occurrence of a disease like the bends, or caisson disease, at pressures of less than 1 atmosphere.


 * U.S. Bureau of Standards developed the radio-echo altimeter.


 * NACA Annual Report indicated that aerodynamic efficiency may be increased by applying the principle of boundary-layer control to the wings and possibly other parts of an airplane.

January 3: President Hoover made the presentation of the Collier Trophy for 1929 to Dr. Joseph S. Ames, Chairman of the NACA.

January 6: Guggenheim Safe Aircraft Competition prize was awarded to Curtiss Tanager, which featured practical wing flaps and leading-edge Handley-Page slots.

During January: The world's first full-scale wind tunnel under construction at Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory (30 feet high, 60 feet wide).

February 15: Naval Aircraft Factory authorized to begin construction of working models of retractable landing gears because of design progress.

February 17-19: First National Conference on Aeronautical Education held at St. Louis, Mo.

March 21: First Navy dive bomber designed to deliver 1,000-pound bomb, the Martin XT5M-1, met strength and performance requirements in diving tests.

April 4: The American Interplanetary Society, later the American Rocket Society (ARS), founded in New York City by David Lasser, G. Edward Pendray, Fletcher Pratt, and nine others, for the "promotion of interest in and experimentation toward interplanetary expeditions and travel."

April 8: Orville Wright received first Daniel Guggenheim Medal.

April 12: Air Corps set world record for altitude formation flying when 19 planes reached a height of 30,000 feet (old record 17,000 feet).

May 9: Dr. Ludwig Prandtl of Germany received second Daniel Guggenheim Medal.

May 13: Fifth Annual Aircraft Engineering Research Conference held at Langley Laboratory.

June 4: Lt. Apollo Soucek flew Navy Wright Apache landplane equipped with P&W 450-hp engine to height of 43,166 feet over NAS Anacostia, regaining world record he held briefly in 1929.

July 21: Capt. A. H. Page (USMC) piloted an O2U from a sealed hooded cockpit on an instrument flight of near 1,000 miles from Omaha, Nebr., to Anacostia, via Chicago and Cleveland, with safety pilot Lt. V. M. Guymon landing the airplane.

July 23: Hermann Oberth and VfR successfully tested liquid oxygen and gasoline-fueled rocket motor for 90 seconds in Germany, a demonstration made before the Director of the Chemisch-Technische Reichsanstalt to secure financial support.

September 8: German sounding balloon released near Hamburg attained an altitude of 117,750 feet (22.4 miles).

During September: Raketenflugplatze Berlin established by VfR in Germany.

December 17: German Army Ordnance Office, after reviewing work of Goddard and others, decided to establish rocket program and to equip artillery proving ground at Kummersdorff to develop military missiles.

December 30: Robert H. Goddard fired 11-foot liquid fuel rocket to a height of 2,000 feet and a speed near 500 mph near Roswell, N. Mex.

December 31: "Airworthiness Requirements for Aircraft Components and Accessories" of the Department of Commerce became effective.

During December: John J. Ide, NACA technical assistant in Europe, served as U.S. delegate to the First International Congress on Aerial Safety in Paris.

During 1930: NACA made confidential recommendations to industry and military services for best location of engine nacelles, with engines faired into leading edges of the wing, a report based on 1928 research of Donald H. Wood and others which influenced design of all multiengine aircraft thereafter.


 * Sound-locator acoustic system for detection of aircraft in flight was developed.


 * Sperry Gyroscope developed the "Gyro Horizon."


 * An increase of 300 percent in paid passengers on commercial airlines was recorded this year.


 * Frank Whittle, RAF officer and engineer, obtained British patents for turbojet engine.


 * Allison Division of General Motors began development of V-1710 12-cylinder liquid-cooled engine, the only liquid-cooled engine of U.S. design to be produced throughout World War II, which was increased in 17 years from 750 hp to 2,000 hp.


 * First vertical wind tunnel for study of airplane spinning was placed in operation at NACA's Langley Laboratory.


 * Robert Esnault-Pelterie of France published his classic work on L'Astronautique; he had begun his mathematical work on astronautics in 1907.

January 4: William G. Swan stayed aloft for 30 minutes over Atlantic City, N.J., in a glider powered with 10 small rockets.

January 22: Navy ordered its first rotary-wing aircraft, the XOP-1, from Pitcairn Aircraft.

March 4: More than $100 million was appropriated by Congress for military, naval, and commercial aviation for the coming year.

March 14: First liquid-fuel rocket successfully fired in Europe, a methane-liquid oxygen rocket constructed by Johannes Winkler and flown from Dessau, Germany.

April 2: First Navy aircraft with retractable landing gear, the XFF-1 two-seat fighter, ordered from Grumman Aircraft.

April 8: Amelia Earhart established a woman's autogiro altitude record of 18,415 feet in a Whirlwind-powered Pitcairn at Willow Grove, Pa.

April 10: Airship subcloud observation car demonstrated by Lt. Wilfred J. Paul at Langley Field, Va.

During April: RaktenflugplatzRaketenflugplatz [sic] in Germany was visited by Mr. and Mrs. G. Edward Pendray as official representatives of the American Interplanetary Society, 26