1923 in aviation

This is a list of aviation-related events from 1923:

Events

January

Air Union is created by the merger of Compagnie des Messageries Aériennes (CMA) with Grands Express Aériens (CGEA).
January 9 or 17 - The Cierva C.4, designed by Juan de la Cierva y Cordoniu and piloted by Alejandro Gomez Spencer, makes its first flight, covering a distance of about 180 meters (590 feet) at Cuatro Vientos airfield in Spain. It is the first flight by an autogyro, and the first stable flight by any form of rotary-wing aircraft.
January 20 - After suffering an engine failure in flight, the Cierva C.4 autogyro uses autorotation to land without damage.
January 31 - The Cierva C.4 autogyro flies a 4-kilometer (2.5-statute mile) circuit at Cuatro Vientos airfield in Spain.

February

The RAF conducts operations in Southern Iraq against uprisings led by Sheik Mahmud Barzenci.
February 1 - the Danish Army Flying Corps is established
A British pilot, William Jordan, lands a Mitsubishi 1MF fighter on the Imperial Japanese Navy's new aircraft carrier Hōshō, then takes off from Hōshō. It is the first landing and first take off from a Japanese aircraft carrier.

March

Dobrolyot is formed, as the first Soviet civil aviation service. It will later become part of Aeroflot.
The British Sempill Mission to Japan, led by Sir William Francis Forbes-Sempill, returns to the United Kingdom. During its 18-month stay in Japan, the Mission has greatly improved Imperial Japanese Navy aviation training and understanding of aircraft carrier flight deck operations and the latest naval aviation tactics and technology, and the aircraft it brought to Japan will inspire the design of a number of Japanese naval aircraft of the 1920s.
Chilean President Arturo Alessandri separates the Chilean naval aviation arm from the Chilean Army air corps, placing it under Chilean Navy control.
The Chilean Navy installs its first aircraft catapult aboard the battleship Almirante Latorre.
March 16 - Imperial Japanese Navy Lieutenant Shunichi Kira lands a Mitsubishi 1MF fighter on the aircraft carrier Hōshō, becoming the first Japanese pilot to land on an aircraft carrier.
March 17 - The United States government authorises United States Army aircraft to drop calcium arsenate on Louisiana's cotton fields in order to kill weevils.

April

April 10 - Daimler Airways begins the first scheduled service between London and Berlin (via Bremen and Hamburg).
April 16 - 17 - Lt John Arthur Macready and Lt Oakley Kelley establish a new endurance record, staying aloft for 36 hours 5 minutes in a Fokker T-2, covering a distance of 2,518 miles (4,052 km).

May

May 2-3 - Kelly MacReady complete the first non-stop flight from New York to Los Angeles, in 27 hours in a Fokker T-2.
May 3 - the Sikorsky Aero Engineering Corporation is formed by Igor Sikorsky at a Long Island chicken farm.
May 21 - A Curtiss bomber and two Curtiss scout aircraft of the Argentine Navy make a flight of just under 500 miles (805 km) along the coast of Argentina from Puerto Militar to Buenos Aires. It is a significant step forward in the development of Argentine aviation.
May 23 - The Belgian airline SABENA is formed, adding new European routes to SNETA's routes in Belgian Congo that it takes over.

June

The United States Army Air Service demonstrates an aerial refueling system using two Airco DH.4 aircraft. The system employs a hose with an on/off nozzle and large funnels.
June 14 - New Zealand forms its first military aviation services, fore-runners of the Royal New Zealand Air Force.

July

July 19 - Czechoslovakian airline CSA commences operations.

August

Personnel from the aircraft carrier USS Langley (CV-1) help to install a TS-1 floatplane fighter on the foredeck of the destroyer USS Charles Ausburn (DD-294) at Norfolk, Virginia, as the United States Navy begins to experiment with the operation of seaplanes from destroyers. The TS-1 flies successfully, but its presence interferes with Charles Ausburn's routine too much, and the idea is dropped.
August 21 - The first electric airway beacons start appearing at airfields in the United States to assist in night flying operations.
August 28 - United States Army Air Service Lieutenant John Richter and Lowell Smith establish a new endurance record of 37 hours 15 minutes in an Airco DH.4, covering 3,293 miles (5,299 km). They are refueled fifteen times during the flight.

September

September 1 - The Imperial Japanese Navy aircraft carrier Amagi is heavily damaged by the Great Kantō earthquake while still under conversion from a battlecruiser. She is scrapped, and the battleship Kaga is selected for conversion into an aircraft carrier instead.
September 5 - United States Army bombers carry out anti-shipping exercises, sinking the obsolete battleships USS Virginia and USS New Jersey.
September 28 - Schneider Trophy race flown at Cowes, UK. Won by David Rittenhouse (USA) in a Curtiss CR-3 at 285.5 km/h (177.4 mph).

October

October 6 - Curtiss R2Cs win first and second place in the Pulitzer Trophy Race, the winning aircraft setting a new airspeed record of 243.6 mph (392 km/h).
October 15 - First British motor glider competition is flown, at Lympne Aerodrome, Kent.

December

December 21 - The French dirigible Dixmude explodes over the Mediterranean Sea en route from Cuers-Pierrefeu to Algeria after being struck by lightning. All 52 crew members on board perish.

First flights

January

January 9 - Cierva C.4
January 19 - Armstrong Whitworth Wolf

March

Aero A.18
Hawker Woodcock

May

Gloster Grebe
9 May - Blériot 115

June

June 2 - Boeing XPW-9
June 3 - Vickers Venture J7277
June 28 - Armstrong Whitworth Awana

July

July 30 - de Havilland DH.50

August

August 22 - Barling XNBL
August 23 - Polikarpov I-1

September

September 3 - USS Shenandoah
September 3 - Curtiss R2C
September 7 - Handley Page Type S

October

October 2 - de Havilland Humming Bird
October 23 - Handley Page Hyderabad

Entered service

1923 in Aviation Pictures

More aircraft.

Source: WikiPedia