1931 in aviation

This is a list of aviation-related events from 1931:

Events

Manufacturer Airspeed Ltd founded in York, England.
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.

January

January 6 - Gen 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.

February

February 26 - Imperial Airways begins scheduled services between England and Africa using Armstrong Whitworth Argosys

March

March 26 - Swissair is formed by the merger of Ad Astra Aero and Balair.
March 31 - the crash of a TWA Flight 599 a Fokker F.10 at Bazaar, Kansas prompts the first grounding of an aircraft type. The grounding was ordered by the US Department of Commerce.

April

April 10 - C. W. A. Scott breaks the record for the fastest solo flight from England to Australia. Flighing from April 1-10 in a time of 9 days 4 hr. 11 min.

May

May 27, Swiss professor Auguste Piccard and his assistant Kipfer take a stratosphere-balloon to 15,781 meters (51,774 feet), starting in Augsburg and landing on a glacier in Austria.

June

June 5 - C. W. A. Scott breaks the record for the fastest solo flight from Australia to England, flying the 10,660 miles (17,167 km) 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 HP-42 four-engine biplane enters service with British airline Imperial Airways, 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 15,474 miles in 8 days 15 hours 51 minutes - a new record.

July

July 22-September 1 - Sir Alan Cobham and crew make a 19,800 km (12,300 mile) return flight between England and the Belgian Congo in a Short Valletta.

August

August 29, the Graf Zeppelin pioneers the air route between Germany and Brazil.

September

September 13 - The United Kingdom wins the Schneider Trophy outright by winning its third consecutive Schneider Trophy race. Flt. Lt. John Boothman of the RAF High-Speed Flight completes the course at Calshot Spit in Supermarine S.6B serial S1595 at 547.297 km/h (340.1 mph). 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 USS Langley (CV-1). It is the U.S. Navy's first experiment with a shipborne rotary-wing aircraft.
September 29 - Following the Schneider Trophy success, Flt Lt. George Stainforth in S.6B serial S1596 breaks the 400 mph air speed record barrier at 407.5 mph (655.67 km/h).

October

October 1 - KLM begins a regular service between Amsterdam and Batavia by Fokker F.XII. At 13,744 km (8,540 miles) 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 - Hugh Herndon and Clyde Pangborn make the first non-stop flight across the Pacific Ocean, from Samushiro Beach, Japan, to Wenatchee, Washington in 41 hours in a Bellanca Skyrocket.
October 27 - The Detroit Aircraft Corporation files for bankruptcy. Eventually, the Lockheed portion of the company is bought out of receivership.

November

The first production R-6 rolled off the assembly line at the N22 factory in Moscow.
November 2 - US Marine Corps squadrons VS-15M and VS-14M embark on USS Lexington and USS Saratoga, the first time Marine Corps squadrons are assigned to aircraft carriers.

First flights

March

March 3 - Fairey Gordon
March 9 - Blériot 125 F-ALZD
March 25 - Hawker Fury

July

Macchi M.C.72

August

August 7 - RWD-5

September

Heinkel He 59
September 29 - Marinens Flyvebaatfabrikk M.F.11

October

October 26 - De Havilland Tiger Moth DH.82 prototype G-ABRC
October 31 - Westland Wallace

November

November 27 - Fairey Seal

December

December 29 - Hawker Audax

Entered service

Unknown

Dornier Do Y with the Royal Yugoslav Air Force.

October

October 27 - USS Akron with the United States Navy

November

November 19 - Sikorsky S-40 with Pan American

December

Nakajima E4N (date unknown)

1931 in Aviation Pictures

More aircraft.

Source: WikiPedia