1918 in aviation

This is a list of aviation-related events from 1918:

Events

The Imperial Japanese Navy establishes its first lighter-than-air aviation unit.
In the spring, three Imperial Japanese Navy Farman-type seaplanes fly nonstop from Yokosuka to Sakai, Japan, stretching the navy's aviation distance capabilities. The cities are 391 km (243 statute miles) apart.
The naval aviation branch of the Chilean Army's air corps receives its first aircraft.

January

January 12 - A decree issued by the Council of Peoples' Commissars of the Republic puts all Russian aircraft manufacturing companies under state control.
January 25 - 2nd Lt Carl Mather is killed in an aircraft collision.

February

February 5 - 2nd Lt Stephen W. Thompson achieves the first aerial victory by the U.S. military.
February 8 - Lafayette Escadrille, the US volunteer squadron serving in the French Army is transferred to the US Army and redesignated the 103rd Aero Squadron.

March

March 6 - the Finnish Air Force is founded
March 6 - the first ever successful flight of a powered unmanned heavier-than-air craft, the Curtiss-Sperry Flying Bomb, which was the precursor to modern UAVs.
March 11 - the first regular international airmail service begins, with Hansa-Brandenburg C.I aircraft linking Vienna, Lviv, Proskurov, and Kiev.
March 18 - the first Norwegian airline, Det Norske Luftfartrederi, is founded
March 21 - Germany launches Operation Michael, marking the beginning of the Spring Offensive. In the initial attack against the British front west of St Quentin, the German Army Air Service has 1,680 aircraft to the Royal Flying Corps' 579.
March 24 - Captain J.L. Trollope of No. 43 Squadron RFC shoots down six German aircraft in a day.
March 25 - Ensign John McNamara makes the first US Navy attack on a submarine.
March 30 - Alan Jerrard VC, British ace (7 victories) is shot down by Benno Fiala von Fernbrugg and taken captive

April

April 1 - the Royal Flying Corps and Royal Naval Air Service combine to form the Royal Air Force, the world's first independent air force. The Women's Royal Air Force is formed at the same time.
April 12 - the final Zeppelin raid on England is carried out.
April 12 - Captain H.W. Woollett of No. 43 Squadron RAF scores six victories in two sorties, including five Albatros D.Vs.
April 21 - Manfred von Richthofen, a living legend called the "Red Baron" and "ace of aces" is shot down and killed. By the time of his death, he had claimed 80 victories. Credit for his kill is given to Canadian Cpt Roy Brown, but this is disputed by others who claim that he was killed by ground fire from Australian troops.
April 23 - Lt Paul Baer shoots down his fifth aircraft, becoming the first ace of the American Expeditionary Force
April 25 - Belgium's top-scoring ace, Willy Coppens, claims his first victory.

May

May 15 - The first regular US airmail service commences, between New York and Washington, DC. The first flight is made by Lt Geoffrey Boyle in a Curtiss JN-4H.
May 16 - The Imperial German Navy recommissions the light cruiser Stuttgart after her conversion into a seaplane carrier. She is the only German seagoing aviation ship capable of working with the fleet commissioned during either World War I or World War II.
May 19 - Raoul Lufbery, commander of the 94th (Hat in the Ring) Aero Squadron and second highest scoring American ace with 17 victories, is killed in air combat.
May 20 - German bombs fall on London for the last time in World War I. During their one-year-long bombing campaign against England, the Germans have dropped 84,745 kg (186,830 lbs) of bombs and lost 61 bombers.
May 24 - Jxłzsef Kiss, Austro-Hungarian 5th highest scoring ace, is shot down in combat. He had scored 19 victories.
May 24 - In Russia, Order No. 385 of the Bolshevik People's Commissariat on Military and Naval Affairs creates the Main Directorate of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Air Fleet, the predecessor of the Soviet Air Forces.

June

A detachment of US bomber pilots is stationed in Italy to strike at Austria.
June 19 - Italy's highest-scoring ace, Maggiore Francesco Baracca is killed by Austrian ground fire. He had claimed 34 victories.
June 24 - the first scheduled Canadian airmail flight is made, between Montreal and Toronto.
June 24 - The RAF deploys its new 1,650 lb (748 kg) bomb for the first time. One is dropped on Middelkerke, Belgium by a Handley Page O/400 of No. 216 Squadron RAF.

July

July 7 - Seven Sopwith 2F.1 Camels from the Royal Navy aircraft carrier Furious attack the Imperial German Navy airship base at Tondern, destroying the Zeppelins L 54 and L 60. It is the most successful attack by shipboard aircraft of World War I.
July 9 - British ace James McCudden is killed when his aircraft crashes on take-off.
July 21 - Two United States Navy seaplanes from Naval Air Station Chatham, Chatham, Massachusetts, attack a surfaced German submarine that is firing at a tug and three barges off Cape Cod, Massachusetts. On bomb strikes the submarine, but is a dud.
July 26 - Major Edward Mannock, the United Kingdom's highest scoring ace of the war, is shot down by German ground fire and killed. He had scored 73 victories.
July 31 - Lieutenant Frank Linke-Crawford, the fourth-highest-scoring Austro-Hungarian ace, is shot down and killed in aerial combat. He had scored 27 victories.

August

A large petroleum barge on the Volga River in Russia is equipped with a flight deck and elevators (lifts) to carry up to nine Grigorovich M.9 flying boats and three Nieuport fighters. Named Kommuna and towed by a sidewheel paddle tug, she and her aircraft actively support operations of the Bolshevik Volga River Flotilla during the Russian Civil War.
August 5 - The commander of the Imperial German Navy's Naval Airship Division, Fregattenkapitx¤n Peter Strasser, is killed in action when the Zeppelin in which he is riding as an observer, L70, is shot down in flames over the coast of England.
August 11 - Flt Sub-Lt Stuart Culley shoots down Zeppelin L 53 after taking off from a barge towed behind the destroyer HMS Redoubt.
August 11 - The first use of a parachute from a combat aircraft occurs when a German pilot escapes his burning Pfalz D.III after being attacked by a pilot from No. 19 Squadron RAF.
August 22 - Lieutenant Frigyes Hefty of the Austro-Hungarian Air Corps successfully parachutes from his burning fighter after a dogfight with Italian aircraft. He is the first person to survive a combat parachute jump.

September

Known as Black September, during the month the Allies lose 560 aircraft, of which 87 are American.
September 12 - 627 French and 611 US fighters are brought together for the Battle of Saint-Mihiel. At the time, it is the largest force of aircraft assembled for a single operation.
September 14 - The British aircraft carrier Argus is completed. She is the world's first aircraft carrier with an unobstructed flight deck from stem to stern.
September 24 - Lt David Ingalls claims his fifth victory, to become the only US Navy ace of World War I.

October

October 5 - The famous French pilot Lt Roland Garros is shot down and killed in combat.
October 11 - The Imperial German Navy's air command proposes that merchant ships be converted into Germany's first aircraft carriers with flight decks.
October 14 - Baron Willy Coppens, highest scoring Belgian ace, is heavily wounded, ending his combat career. He had scored 37 victories, 34 of which were observation balloons.
October 29 - The Danish airline Det Danske Luftfartselskab, the oldest airline that still exists, is founded

November

November 11 - The end of World War I. The Royal Flying Corps, Royal Naval Air Service, and Royal Air Force suffered 16,623 casualties during the war, while the German Air Service suffered in excess of 15,000.

December

December 12 - Cpt R.M. Smith, Brig Gen A.E. Borton and Maj Gen W. Salmond set out in a Handley Page O/400 from Heliopolis to Karachi, to survey a route for airmail to India.
December 12 - First launching of an airplane from an airship over America from the C.1
December 13 - Maj A.S.C. MacLaren and Cpt Robert Halley set out on the first England-India flight, in a Handley Page V/1500

First flights

SEA IV

February

Nieuport B.N.1

March

March 4 - Airco DH.10
March 6 - Curtiss-Sperry Flying Bomb
March 10 - Junkers D.I

May

Handley Page V/1500

June

June 6 - Fairey III

August

August 7 - Blériot-SPAD S.XX
August 17 - Martin MB-1
August 21 - Nieuport-Delage Ni-D 29

September

September 19 - Sopwith Buffalo

October

October 2 - Kettering Bug

Entered service

August

Fokker D.VIII

1918 in Aviation Pictures

More aircraft.

Source: WikiPedia