1911 in aviation

Years in aviation:	1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914
Centuries:	19th Century · 20th century · 21st century
Decades:	1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s
Years:	1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914

This is a list of aviation-related events from 1911:

Contents 1 Events 1.1 January 1.2 February 1.3 March 1.4 April 1.5 May 1.6 July 1.7 August 1.8 September 1.9 October 1.10 November 1.11 December 2 First flights 2.1 April 2.2 May 3 Notes 4 References

Events

January

• 18 January – Eugene Ely lands on a platform constructed over the deck of the armored cruiser USS Pennsylvania anchored in San Francisco Bay, U.S.A. marking the first time an aircraft lands on a ship.
• 26 January – Glenn H. Curtiss flies the first successful seaplane.
• 31 January – Employing an aircraft platform installed in November 1910 that had a hinged extension that could be lowered to sea level to assist Canadian civilian aviator John A. D. McCurdy if he had to land on the sea while attempting a flight from Key West, Florida, to Havana, Cuba, the United States Navy destroyer Pajulding recovers McCurdy after he is forced down at sea. The hope that he could use the platform to take off and resume his journey is dashed when his airplane is too badly damaged during the recovery to continue its journey.^[1]
• 31 January – The USS Pennsylvania conducts the United States Navy's only experiment with a man-lifting kite.^[1]

February

• 5 February – The first undisputed aeroplane flight in New Zealand is made by Vivian Walsh at Auckland in a Howard Wright biplane named Manurewa.
• 17 February – At San Diego, California, Glenn Curtiss flies a prototype seaplane out to the US Navy armored cruiser Pennsylvania in the harbor. Pennsylvania hoists the seaplane aboard, then returns it to the water, and Curtiss flies it back to shore. It is the first demonstration that a ship can handle a seaplane.^[1]

• 18 February – The first airmail is carried by an aeroplane. Henri Pequet carries mail across the Jumna River, from Allahabad to Naini Junction, India.

March

• The Spanish Air Force is created as the Aeronáutica militar Española, with four aircraft.
• 1 March – The first four Royal Navy pilots, Lieutenants Charles R. Samson, R. Gregory, and Arthur M. Longmore of the Royal Navy and Lieutenant E. L. Gerrard of the Royal Marine Light Infantry, report for flight training at Eastchurch airfield, using borrowed Short S.27 aircraft.
• 23 March – Louis Breguet carries 11 passengers a distance of 5 km (3.1 mi).

April

• 1 April – The first flying unit of the British military, the Air Battalion Royal Engineers, is formed.
• 11 April – Imperial Japanese Army officer Yoshitoshi Tokugawa makes the first flight from Japan's first permanent airfield at Tokorozawa, piloting a Farman III biplane.
• 12 April – Pierre Prier makes the first non-stop flight from London to Paris in 3 hours and 56 minutes.^[2]

May

• 8 May – The U.S. Naval Aviation Service created and the U.S. Navy's first airplane, a Curtiss Model D, is ordered.
• 31 May – Andre Beaumont beats Roland Garros in the Paris to Rome air race, completing the 1,465 km (910 mi) course in 28 hours, 5 minutes.

July

• 4 July – The first ever commercial cargo is flown by Horatio Barber in his Valkyrie B tail-first monoplane. The General Electric company pays £100 to have a box of Osram electric lamps flown from Shoreham to Hove in England.^[3]
• 16 July – The LZ 10 Schwaben enters commercial service. It will go on to become the first commercially successful passenger aircraft.
• 21 July – Pilot Denise Moore (aka Jane Wright) becomes the first woman to be killed in an airplane crash, at Etampes, France.

August

• 1 August – The Aero Club of America grants Harriet Quimby the first U.S. pilot's license issued to a woman.^[4]
• 29 August – Hilda Hewlett becomes the first British woman to receive a pilot's licence.
• Harriet Quimby and Matilde Moisant become the first licensed female pilots in the United States.

September

• 9 September – The first British airmail flight is made. Gustav Hamel flies from Hendon to Windsor.
• 15 September – French aeroplane designer and racing pilot Édouard de Nié Port is killed in a flying accident. Along with his brother Charles he had been the co-founder of the aircraft manufacturer Nieuport.
• 23 September – The first U.S. airmail flight is made. Earle Ovington flies 6 miles(9.7 km) from Nassau Boulevard, New York to Mineola, Long Island.
• 24 September – The Royal Navy's first rigid airship, HMA No. 1, also known as Mayfly, breaks in half and is wrecked during a pre-commissioning ground test.

October

• 19 October – Eugene Ely dies in an air crash.
• 22 October – The first aircraft to be used in war, an Italian Army Blériot XI, flies from Tripoli to 'Aziziya to spy on Turkish positions.
• 24 October – Orville Wright soars in a glider 9 minutes and 45 seconds over dunes near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
• 31 October – John Montgomery is fatally injured in a crash of his Evergreen glider near San Jose, California.

November

• 1 November – Italian Giulio Gavotti drops several small bombs on Turkish troops during the Italo-Turkish War. This was the first time bombs had been dropped from an aeroplane in war.^[5]
• 5 November – Calbraith Rodgers completes the first coast-to-coast airplane flight across the USA in the Vin Fiz Flyer - taking 49 days, with several crashes en-route.

December

• 1 December - Royal Navy Lieutenant Arthur Longmore lands a float-equipped Short Improved S.27 in the River Medway, becoming the first person in the United Kingdom to take off from land and make a successful water landing.

Undated

• The French Navy selects the torpedo boat tender Foudre for conversion into France's first ship capable of carrying and handling airplanes. She will become the first warship to be permanently altered for use as an aviation ship.^[6]
• The Austro-Hungarian Navy establishes an experimental naval air station at Pola.^[7]
• Imperial Japanese Navy officers arrive in France and the United States for flight instruction and to study the production and maintenance of airplanes. They will return to Japan in 1912 as Japan's first naval aviators.^[8]
• Imperial Japanese Nav] Lieutenant Tetsukichi Isobe privately builds a seaplane out of bamboo. He pilots it for 60 meters (197 feet), reaching an altitude of 3 meters (10 feet), before the seaplane overturns.^[9] Although lacking any official association with the navy, it is the first flight in Japan by a member of the Imperial Japanese Navy.

First flights

April

• 1 April – Avro Type D^[10]

May

• 17 May – Blackburn Mercury

Notes

References

• Layman, R.D., Before the Aircraft Carrier: The Development of Aviation Vessels 1849-1922, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1989, ISBN 0-87021-210-9
• Peattie, Mark R., Sunburst: The Rise of Japanese Naval Air Power 1909-1941, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 2001, ISBN 1-55750-432-6

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