Page:Aeronautics and Astronautics Chronology 1915-1960.pdf/28

 engine. AAF decision to produce Whittle engine made in September, and the XP-59 flew a year later.

July 1: First commercial television broadcast over WNBT, New York (first successful demonstration by C. F. Jenkins in the United States and J. L. Baird in England was made in the early 1920s).

July 16: Full-scale wind-tunnel tests of A-1 "power-driven controllable bomb" conducted at Langley Field.

July 24: Dr. Jerome C. Hunsaker was elected Chairman of the NACA and Chairman of its Executive Committee.

During July: Navy initiated development of Mousetrap, ship-based 7.2-inch mortar-fired bomb which became the first USN rocket placed into fleet action in May 1942.


 * First successful U.S. jet-assisted takeoff accomplished in an Ercoupe at March Field by Lt. Homer A. Boushey (AAF), with pressed-powder propellant JATO rockets developed by Cal Tech.


 * Project TED (EES 3401) established at Naval Engineering Experiment Station at Annapolis by BuAer.

August 1: President Roosevelt prohibited export of aviation fuel outside of the Western Hemisphere, except to Britain and countries resisting aggression, an act aimed at Japan which normally imported large quantities from the United States.


 * NDL was requested to develop radar guidance equipment for assault drones, both to relay target information to a control operator and to serve as an automatic homing device.


 * Three successful tests of J. Wyld liquid fuel rocket motor were made at an average thrust of 125 pounds. A year later, ARS members formed Reaction Motors, Inc., to continue development of this design.

August 12: Ercoupe impelled by 12 powder rockets of 50 pounds thrust each, piloted by Lt. Homer A. Boushey, first flew on rocket power alone after an initial boost from a towing automobile.

August 19: President Roosevelt announced that Pan American Airways would establish a ferry service to fly American aircraft to the RAF in the Middle East.

During August: Caproni-Campini jet-propelled plane, conventional engine with ducted fan, produced and test flown in Italy.

During September: Messerschmitt Me-163A powered by "cold" H. Walther rocket successfully flown at Augsburg, Germany, development of which had begun in 1937, but "cold" engine proved unreliable. Flights were also made in October which reached speeds of 1,003 km/hr, or Mach 0.85.

During September: Dr. Robert H. Goddard began work on liquid-propellant JATO under contract to USN and AAF, delivering a device to both agencies in September 1942.

October 27: Post of Air Surgeon was created within the Army Air Forces.

During October: Harriman mission made a globe-circling flight of 24,700 miles from Washington to Moscow and return in a B-24 bomber.

November 7: First flight of the AAF GB-1 guided glide bomb, containing preset guidance.

November 12: First launching of an experimental GB-8 glide bomb, incorporating radio controls.

November 30: Italian jet-propelled Caproni-Campini airplane flown 475 kilometers in 2 hours 11 minutes from Turin to Rome, by Mario de Bernardini.

November-December: Russians used AA rockets against Luftwaffe aircraft in defense of Moscow and air-to-air rockets on their Stormovik Il-2 fighters.

December 7: Japanese naval air units attacked Pearl Harbor.

December 30: USAAF requested NDRC to undertake development of controlled-trajectory bombs, the beginning of the development of Azon.

During 1941: Navy Bureau of Aeronautics created a JATO section to accelerate USN development.

During 1941: Aeromedical Laboratory, in collaboration with Dr. E. A. Hooten of Harvard University, initiated anthropometric surveys of AAF flyers to facilitate the design of weapons and flying gear.

During 1941: Research facilities at NACA's Langley and Ames Laboratories increased 100 percent over previous years by the construction of new facilities for defense application.

January 13: Sikorsky XR-4, a single-rotary wing, two-man helicopter, made its first successful flight.

During January: P-38 first placed under study of NACA Langley Laboratory to assess flow changes due to compressibility, later transferred to Ames Laboratory. Dive-recovery flap developed later applied to P-47, XP-59, F-80, and FR-1.


 * "Frigitorium" for cold testing aircraft equipment for arctic operations became operational at Wright Field.

During February: Douglas DC-4 Skymaster first flew, becoming prominent in the generation of four-engined American transports that revolutionized long-haul air transportation.

April 7-24: Douglas A-20A completed 44 successive takeoffs using liquid-propellant JATO developed by Cal Tech's Frank S. Malina.

April 9: Radio-controlled TG-2 Navy drone made a torpedo attack on destroyer Aaron Ward in which a television camera mounted in the drone was utilized, directed by control pilot Lt. M. B. Taylor of Project Fox.

April 18: First American raid on Tokyo, by 16 North American B-25 AAF medium bombers flown off carrier Hornet, led by Lt. Col. James H. Doolittle.

April 19: Two feasibility tests using drone aircraft conducted by the Navy in Chesapeake Bay, the most successful being Project Fox BG-2 drone equipped with target-viewing TV camera, which was crash-dived into a moving raft while under an airborne control pilot 11 miles away.

May 8: Research begun at the NACA Aircraft Engine Research Laboratory at Cleveland.

May 26: Jet-assisted takeoff of a Brewster F2A-3 using five British antiaircraft solid-propellant rockets demonstrated at NAS Anacostia, Comdr. C. Fink Fischer as pilot.

May 30-31: First 1,000-plane raid by RAF Bomber Command on Cologne, Germany.

June 13: First test of the German A-4 (V-2) rocket unsuccessful at Peenemünde, Germany.

June 17: National Defense Research Committee initiated development of an anti-submarine guided missile, the Pelican, under Navy BuOrd, which was a glide bomb with radar homing guidance.

June 27: Naval Aircraft Factory was directed to participate in the development of high-altitude pressure flying suits, thus joining the Army which had sponsored earlier work.

June 30: Brig. Gen. James H. Doolittle awarded the 1942 Guggenheim Medal "for notable achievement in the advancement of aeronautics."

During June: Joint Committee on New Weapons and Equipment (JNW) appointed a subcommittee to review all guided-missile programs, resulting in the placement of responsibility for all controlled missiles in Division 5, Missiles, in the National Defense Research Council. Division 5 of NDRC served as the principal agency outside the military services involved in U.S. missile development for the remainder of World War II.

July 3: First airborne test firing of a retrorocket at Goldstone Lake, Calif., from a PBY-5A piloted by Lt. Comdr. J. H. Hean (USN).

July 6: 4.5-inch rocket (M8-type) fired for the first time in flight from a P-40. 42