1912 in aviation

This is a list of aviation-related events from 1912:

Events

January

10 January - Lieutenant Commander Charles Samson flies Short Improved S.27 No. 38 from a platform constructed over the deck of battleship HMS Africa moored in the River Medway, England. It is the United Kingdom's first takeoff by an airplane from a ship.

February

4 February - Austrian-born French inventor Franz Reichelt dies in a jump from the Eiffel Tower in an attempt to demonstrate his "parachute-suit," a wearable parachute. The jump is captured on film.
22 February - Jules Vedrines becomes the first pilot to exceed 100 miles per hour (161 km/h). He makes his flight in a Deperdussin monoplane near Pau, France.
Anthony Fokker establishes Fokker Aeroplanbau in Germany, predecessor to Fokker Aircraft Company.

March

The conversion of the ex-torpedo boat tender Foudre into the French Navy's first ship capable of carrying and handling airplanes is completed. In her new role, Foudre is the first ship with an airplane hangar. She also is the first warship to be permanently altered for service as an aviation ship.
1 March - Albert Berry makes the first parachute jump out of an aeroplane in St. Louis, Missouri.

April

16 April - Harriet Quimby becomes the first woman to fly the English Channel.
22 April - Englishman Denys Corbett Wilson makes the first aeroplane crossing from Britain to Ireland.

May

A recommendation is made that the French Navy investigate the design and procurement of an aircraft carrier with a flight deck. For the first time, an armored hangar is suggested for such a ship. Plans for the ship are cancelled ca. 1917 prior to any construction.
9 May - Lieutenant Commander Charles Samson becomes the first person to fly an aircraft off the deck of a moving ship. He takes off in Short Improved S.27 No.38 from a ramp built over the deck of battleship HMS Hibernia in Weymouth Bay.
13 May - King George V of the United Kingdom approves the formation of the Royal Flying Corps.
27 May - The world's first seaplane carrier, the French Navy's Foudre, embarks her first airplane, a Voisin floatplane.
30 May - Wilbur Wright dies in Dayton Ohio.

June

Sopwith Aviation Company founded
1 June - The first aeroplane flight in Norway is made by Lt Hans Dons in a Etrich Taube.
2 June - The Lewis machine gun is first tested in an aircraft by the US Army. This weapon would go on to become the standard armament of many fighter aircraft during World War I.
10 June - The Austro-Hungarian submarine U-5 tows a kite balloon, apparently to determine the best coloration for submarines to avoid detection while underwater. Other than the experimental use of balloons from ships to bombard Venice in 1849 by its predecessor the Austrian Navy, it is the only operation of an observation balloon by the Austro-Hungarian Navy.
19 June - The RFC's Central Flying School opens at Upavon, Wiltshire.
27 June - Following successes using aircraft against the Turks in North Africa, Italy forms a specialised Air Battalion (Battagliore Aviatori).

July

1 July - Harriet Quimby and a meet organizer passenger die in an airplane crash during an air show in Dorchester Bay, USA.
2 July - The Danish Air Force is established as an army air corps.
31 July - The United States Navy tests an aircraft catapult for the first time. The test, which is conducted ashore, is a failure, as the aircraft is badly damaged.

September

8 September - The Argentine Air Force is formed as a flying school at El Palomar, the military airport near Buenos Aires.

October

6 October - At Oppama, Japan, Lieutenant Yōzō Kaneko makes the Imperial Japanese Navy's first flight, piloting a Farman seaplane for 15 minutes and reaching an altitude of 30 meters (100 feet).
16 October - The first aerial bomb is used by Bulgarian Air Force pilots Radul Milkov and Prodan Toprakchiev on the Turkish railway station of Karaagac (near Edirne), during the Balkan War. This is the first use of an airplane (Albatros F.II) as bomber.
22 October - Australian Flying Corps formed.

November

The British Admiralty establishes an air department and orders the Vickers Destroyer E.F.B.1, the first British airplane built as an armed fighting aircraft.
12 November - A Curtiss Triad becomes the first aircraft to be launched by catapult, at the US Navy's Washington Navy Yard.
12 November - The first demonstration of naval aircraft at an Imperial Japanese Navy fleet review takes place at Yokohama, with Lieutenant Yōzō Kaneko flying a Farman seaplane and Lieutenant Sankichi Kōno a Curtiss seaplane.
19 November - Italy's colonial air force is established as the Servizio d'Aviazione Coloniale.
28 November - The Italian Air Battalion is made a fully operational command, the (Flotta Aerea d'Italia).

December

The United States Navy launches a flying boat by catapult for the first time.
William Beardmore & Company proposes the first Royal Navy aircraft carrier with a flight deck] - a 450-foot (137-meter), 15,000-ton ship capable of carrying ten airplanes - to the British Admiralty. The Admiralty rejects the proposal on the grounds of insufficient experience with operation of aircraft at sea.

Undated

First successful all-metal aircraft flies, the Tubavion monoplane built by Ponche and Maurice Primard in France.
The French Navy officially establishes an air arm, the Service A�ronautique.
The first Bulgarian Air Force is formed, using Bl�riot, Albatros, Farman, Nieuport, Voisin, Somer, Skiorski, and Bristol aircraft (23 in total) to fight in the First Balkan War.
Captain Alessandro Guidoni of Italy experiments with the air-launching of torpedoes by dropping weights from a Farman biplane.

First flights

January

10 January - Short S.36

February

Royal Aircraft Factory BE.2 flown by designer Geoffrey de Havilland.

March

1 March - AEA Cygnet
3 March - Avro Type E

Entered service

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

1912 in Aviation Pictures

More aircraft.

Source: WikiPedia