•
Bert Hinkler flies a
de Havilland Puss Moth from
Canada to
New York City, then non-stop to
Jamaica, then on to
British Guiana and
Brazil. He then flies across the
South Atlantic Ocean to
West Africa in extremely bad weather, becoming the first person to fly across the South Atlantic solo and only the second person after
Charles Lindbergh in 1927 to fly solo across the Atlantic. He completes his journey by flying from West Africa to
London. For the flight, he receives the
Segrave Trophy, the
Johnston Memorial Prize, and the
Britannia Trophy for the most meritorious flying performance of the year. • Manufacturer
Airspeed Ltd founded in
York, England. •
Alexander Seversky founds the
Seversky Aircraft Corporation. • Watanabe Iron Works, the ancestor of the
Kyūshū Airplane Company Ltd., begins to manufacture aircraft. • First
Bendix trophy race. • The
Imperial Japanese Navy decides to abolish its
airship units and phase airships out of the fleet over the next few years. • In
New York City, the
Empire State Building is completed, topped with a 200-foot (61-meter)
mooring mast for
airships. Plans to disembark airship passengers prove impractical, and the mast is never used except for a single three-minute contact by the
United States Navy blimp J-4. • U.S. Army
Second Lieutenant William A. Cooke sets world gliding records for endurance and distance, flying an estimated 600
statute miles (966 km) in 21 hours 34 minutes 15 seconds at
Wheeler Field,
Territory of Hawaii. • Summer 1931 –
Transcontinental and Western Air moves its headquarters from
New York City to
Kansas City,
Missouri.
January • In the
Soviet Union, construction of Leningrad's Shosseynaya Airport (the future
Pulkovo Airport) begins. • January 6 – Italian General
Italo Balbo leads the first formation flight across the
South Atlantic. Twelve
Savoia-Marchetti S.55s fly from
Portuguese Guinea to
Brazil. • January 7 –
Guy Menzies flies the first solo non-stop
trans-Tasman flight (from
Australia to
New Zealand) in 11 hours and 45 minutes, crash-landing his
Avro Sports Avian on New Zealand's
west coast. • January 8 – Piarco Airport, the future
Piarco International Airport, opens in
Port-of-Spain,
Trinidad. • January 9 – The
Pratt-MacArthur agreement defines the
United States Navys naval air force as an element of the fleet that moves with the fleet and helps it carry out its missions. The agreement settles a lengthy controversy between the
United States Army and the Navy over the role of naval aviation in overall national defense, as well as internal Navy debates over the role of naval air power. • January 28 – German explorer
Gunther Plüschow and his engineer Ernst Dreblow are killed when their
Heinkel HD 24 seaplane crashes near the Brazo Rico (part of
Argentino Lake) in
Patagonia.
February • Flying from
Oran in
French Algeria, the French aviators Antoine Paillard and Louis Mailloux fly a circuit for over 50 hours in the
Bernard 80 GR in an attempt to set a new unrefueled nonstop closed-circuit world distance record. They cover before higher-than-expected fuel consumption forces them to land only short of the record. • February 1 – Polish pilot
Stanisław Skarżyński begins a tour around
Africa in a
PZL Ł.2. He will complete it on May 5. • February 12 – The
Detroit News places an order for a
Pitcairn PCA-2 autogiro with the
Pitcairn Aircraft Company. It is the first commercial order for an autogiro in the
United States. • February 14 – The
United States Congress authorizes a new award, the
Air Mail Medal of Honor, which the
President of the United States is to award to pilots who perform distinguished service in connection with
U.S. Air Mail service. It will first be awarded in December
1933. • February 21 – After a
Pan American-Grace Airways (Panagra)
Ford Trimotor lands at
Rodríguez Ballón Airport at
Arequipa,
Peru, armed revolutionary soldiers surround it. They demand that it fly them to another destination, but the Trimotor's pilot refuses. The standoff continues for 10 days until, on 2 March, the soldiers suddenly announce that their side won the revolution and let the pilot go in exchange for him giving one of them a ride to
Lima. • February 26 –
Imperial Airways begins scheduled services between
England and
Africa using
Armstrong Whitworth Argosys. • February 6-March 1 – Flying the
Blériot 110 over a closed circuit in
French Algeria, the French aviator Maurice Rossi sets an unrefueled distance record of . The plane remains in the air for over 75 hours 23 minutes.
March • The French aviator Marcel Goulette flies a
Farman F.304 trimotor from
Paris,
France, to
Tananarive,
Madagascar, and back. • March 9 – Flying a
Farman F.302, French aviators Jean Réginensi and Marcel Lalouette set new distance and duration records over a closed circuit with a 2,000-kilogram (4,409-pound) payload, flying in 17 hours. • March 21 •
Australia suffers its first airline disaster when the
Australian National Airways Avro 618 Ten Southern Cloud disappears in bad weather over the
Snowy Mountains in
New South Wales, Australia, with the loss of all eight people on board. The aircrafts wreckage will not be discovered until October 26, 1958. •
Zygmunt Puławski, one of
Poland's leading aircraft designers, dies during the sixth flight of the
PZL.12 flying boat prototype – which he designed and built – when the PZL.12 stalls after take-off due to a strong wind and crashes in
Warsaw, Poland. • March 23–24 (overnight) – The French aviators
Joseph Le Brix and
Marcel Doret take off from
Istres, France, in the
prototype Dewoitine D.33 and fly a triangular course from
Istres to
Montpellier to
Nîmes. Although
fog forces them to shorten their course during the night of 23–24 March, they remain aloft continuously for 32 hours 17 minutes over a distance of at an average speed of . The flight sets seven new world records, for both duration and distance by an aircraft carrying a load of , both duration and distance by an aircraft carrying a load of , both duration and distance by an aircraft carrying a load of , and average speed by an aircraft over a distance of . • March 26 –
Ad Astra Aero and
Balair merge to form
Swissair. • March 30–April 2 – Flying the
Benard 80 GR, French aviators Jean Marmoz and Antoine Paillard set a new closed-circuit unrefueled flight distance record, covering in a time of 52 hours 44 minutes. A loss of coolant finally brings the flight to an end, although during the last part of the flight the two men pump
champagne,
eau de Vittel, and
coffee into the radiator to keep the engine cool. • March 31 – A
Transcontinental & Western Air Fokker F-10 crashes near
Bazaar,
Kansas, killing all eight on board, including
American football coach
Knute Rockne. The crash prompts the first grounding of an aircraft type, ordered by the
United States Department of Commerce.
April • April 8 – Flying a
Pitcairn PCA-2 over
Willow Grove,
Pennsylvania,
Amelia Earhart sets an
autogiro altitude record, reaching . • April 10 –
C. W. A. Scott breaks the record for the fastest solo flight from England to Australia, making the flight between April 1 and April 10 in a time of 9 days 4 hours 11 minutes. • April 14 –
Honduras founds its National Aviation School. It is the forerunner of the
Honduran Air Force. • April 21 –
Pitcairn-Cierva Autogiro Company pilot Jim Ray lands a Pitcairn PCA-2 autogiro on the
White House lawn in
Washington, D.C., for a ceremony in which
U.S. President Herbert Hoover presents the
Collier Trophy to autogiro manufacturer
Harold Pitcairn. After the ceremony, Ray takes off again in the PCA-2. The record will stand until
July 1986. • Flying the
Pitcairn PCA-2 autogiro Missing Link, John M. Miller completes the first flight across the
United States in a
rotary-wing aircraft.
June • June 5 –
C. W. A. Scott breaks the record for the fastest solo flight from Australia to England, flying the from Wyndham, Australia to Lympne, England from May 26 to June 5, in 10 days 23 hours piloting a
DH.60 Moth (Gipsy II). • June 11 – The 40-passenger
Handley Page H.P.42 four-engine biplane enters service with British airline
Imperial Airways when G-AAGX
Hannibal operates a
Croydon Airport to
Paris–Le Bourget flight, setting new standards of passenger service and comfort. • June 23–July 1 –
Wiley Post and
Harold Gatty fly around the world in a
Lockheed Vega, the
Winnie Mae, covering in 8 days 15 hours 51 minutes – a new record.
July • July 15 • The
United States Army Corps's
Air Corps Tactical School completes its relocation from
Langley Field,
Virginia, to
Maxwell Field,
Alabama. • The
Hungarian aviators György Endresz (pilot) and Sándor Magyar (navigator) take off from
Harbour Grace,
Dominion of Newfoundland, in the
Lockheed Model 8A Sirius Justice for Hungary to attempt a nonstop flight to
Hungary. Despite thick
fog, a
compass that jams shortly after takeoff, and a mid-air engine failure, they reach the coast of
Ireland in 13 hours 50 minutes — a new world record for a flight between
North America and the Irish coast — and fly on toward Hungary, which they reach on 16 July. When the fuel flow to their engine is interrupted they make a forced landing at
Bicske, short of their planned destination at
Mátyásföld, and arrive by car at Mátyásföld, where thousands of people greet them. The flight is the 15th successful
transatlantic flight and the first to fly nonstop from North America so deep into
Europe. It covers in 25 hours 20 minutes at a record average speed of . Sponsored by the American-Hungarian Transatlantic Committee to draw attention to what
Hungarian Americans view as the injustice of the
Treaty of Trianon Hungary signed after its defeat in
World War I, the flight also represents the first use of a
transatlantic flight for political purposes. • July 20 – The
Boston and Maine Railroad and
Maine Central Railroad found Boston-Maine Airways, the future
Northeast Airlines. It flies from
Boston, Massachusetts, to
Bangor,
Maine, via
Portland, Maine, as a
Pan American Airways contract carrier. • July 22–September 1 – Sir
Alan Cobham and crew make a return (i.e., round-trip) flight between England and the
Belgian Congo in a
Short Valletta. • July 27 – The
Air Line Pilots Association, International is founded at a meeting in
Chicago,
Illinois. • July 28–31 –
Russell Norton Boardman and
John Louis Polando fly the
Bellanca Special J-300 high-wing monoplane
Cape Cod, registration
NR761W, powered by a
Wright J-6 Whirlwind engine, nonstop from
Floyd Bennett Field in
New York City, to
Istanbul,
Turkey, in 49 hours 20 minutes, establishing a distance record of . It is the first known non-stop flight to surpass either 5,000 miles or 8,000 kilometers.
August • August 6 –
Transcontinental and Western Air inaugurates the first air cargo service in the
United States with a shipment of livestock from
St. Louis,
Missouri, to
Newark,
New Jersey. • August 29 – The German
dirigible Graf Zeppelin pioneers the air route between
Germany and
Brazil.
September • The
Latécoère 380 flying boat sets six world
seaplane records, including three speed-with-load-over-distance records and a closed-circuit distance-with-load record of . • The
Royal Air Forces first
instrument flying course begins. Held at
RAF Wittering, it employs six
Avro 504Ns fitted with blind-flying hoods,
turn indicators, and reduced
dihedral to decrease inherent stability. • September 7 –
Herbert Clayton Wells loses his life during an air contests in
Ottumwa. • September 7 –
Lowell Bayles wins the 1931
Thompson Trophy in the
Gee Bee Model Z racer at the
National Air Races in
Cleveland,
Ohio, with a speed of . • September 13 – The
United Kingdom wins the
Schneider Trophy outright by winning its third consecutive Schneider Trophy race.
Royal Air Force Flight Lieutenant John Boothman of the
RAF High-Speed Flight completes the course at
Calshot Spit in
Supermarine S.6B serial S1595 at . With the trophy retired, the Schneider Trophy races, begun in 1913, come to an end. • September 23 – A
Pitcairn XOP-1 autogyro conducts landing and take-off trials aboard the
United States Navy aircraft carrier . It is the U.S. Navys first experiment with a shipborne
rotary-wing aircraft. • September 29 • Following the Schneider Trophy success, Royal Air Force Flight Lieutenant
George Stainforth in Supermarine S.6B serial
S1596 breaks the 400 mph
air speed record barrier at . • American inventor
Ed Link receives a patent for his "Combination Training Device for Student Aviators and Entertainment Apparatus." Better known as the
Link Trainer, it allows pilots to train safely on the ground for "blind" instrument flying.
October • October 1 –
KLM begins a regular service between
Amsterdam and
Batavia by
Fokker F.XII. At this is the longest regular air route in the world at the time. • October 3 –
Brazil reestablishes
Brazilian Navy control over naval aviation, creating a naval aviation corps which takes over the control of naval aircraft from the
general staff. • October 3–5 –
Clyde Pangborn and
Hugh Herndon make the first non-stop flight across the
Pacific Ocean, from
Samushiro Beach,
Japan, to
Wenatchee, Washington, in 41 hours in
Miss Veedol, a Bellanca J-300 Long Distance Special. • October 17 – The first hook-on test of the U.S. Navys
parasite fighter program takes places, as the
Curtiss XF9C-1 prototype successfully docks with the
dirigible . • October 27 – The
Detroit Aircraft Corporation files for bankruptcy. Eventually, the
Lockheed portion of the company is bought out of receivership. • October 27–28 – As a test of the second
Fairey Long-Range Monoplane in preparation for a later attempt at setting a new non-stop distance flight record it,
Royal Air Force Squadron Leader Oswald R. Gayford and
Flight Lieutenant D. L. G. Bett fly from
RAF Cranwell in
England to
RAF Abu Sueir in
Egypt, covering nonstop in 31 hours.
November • The first production
R-6 rolls off the assembly line at the N22 factory in Moscow. •
Hillman's Airways is founded. It will begin charter services in
December 1931 and scheduled services in
April 1932. • November 2 –
United States Marine Corps squadrons
VS-15M and
VS-14M embark on and , the first time Marine Corps squadrons are assigned to
aircraft carriers. • November 20 – The
Government of the Philippines creates an office under its Department of Commerce and Communications to handle aviation matters in the
Philippines, particularly the enforcement of rules and regulations governing commercial aviation and private flying.
December • December 5 –
Lowell Bayles, winner of the 1931
Thompson Trophy, dies when the
Gee Bee Model Z racer he is piloting crashes during a speed run at
Wayne County Airport in
Detroit,
Michigan. •
Hillman's Airways begins flight operations with a charter flight. It will begin scheduled services in
April 1932. • December 29 – As the French aviators Louis Mailloux and Jean Marmoz take off in the
Bernard 81 GR Antoine Paillard to attempt to set a new unrefueled non-stop closed-circuit flight distance record, the airplane's propeller hits the ground and its undercarriage collapses. The two men escape the accident with only a few bruises, and the aircraft eventually is repaired. == First flights ==