1943 in aviation

This is a list of aviation-related events from 1943:

Events

January

January 27 - The USAAF makes its first daylight raid on Germany.
January 30 - Royal Air Force de Havilland Mosquitos make the first daylight air raid on Berlin.
January 30-31 - the H2S radar is used by RAF bombers for navigation for the first time.

February

February 18 - The second completed Boeing B-29 Superfortress heavy bomber catches fire in the air and crashes into a building just north of Boeing Field in Seattle, Washington, killing all ten aboard the plane - including famed Boeing test pilot Edmund "Eddie" Allen - and 19 or 20 people on the ground.
February 19 - Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Ernest J. King places the responsibility for the development of the helicopter in the United States Department of the Navy under the United States Coast Guard.

April

April 15 - Operation Flax is put into effect, the systematic targeting by Allied fighter pilots of Luftwaffe transport aircraft bound for North Africa
April 18 - Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto is killed when T1-323, his Mitsubishi G4M, is ambushed by USAAF P-38 Lightnings over Bougainville

May

The United States Department of the Navy begins development of the helicopter as an antisubmarine warfare platform, with the United States Coast Guard leading the effort at Coast Guard Air Station Brooklyn in Brooklyn, New York.
May 17-18 - specially modified RAF Avro Lancasters of 617 Squadron make the "Dambusters" raids on the Mx¶hne, Eder, and Sorpe dams

June

June 11 - the Italian garrison on Pantellaria surrenders after taking heavy bombing, the first ground captured by air power alone.
June 24-25 - the RAF uses chaff, codenamed "Window", for the first time to foil German radar during the Operation Gomorrah raids on Hamburg.

July

July 18 - US Navy airship K-74 is shot down by a German submarine, the only airship lost to enemy fire during World War II.

August

The United States Navy F6F Hellcat fighter enters combat.
August 1 - Soviet fighter ace Lydia Litvak is shot down and killed. She had 12 victories at the time of her death.
August 1 - flying from Libya, USAAF B-24 Liberators attack the PloieÅŸti oil refineries in Romania.
August 13 - the USAAF makes its first bombing raid on Austria
August 17 - 60 USAAF bombers are lost in raids on Regensburg and Schweinfurt.
August 17 - first operational use of the radio-controlled Henschel Hs 293 anti-ship missile
August 17-18 - RAF bombers attack the German missile research station at Peenemx¼nde.

September

September 8 - Frascati bombing raid September 8, 1943
September 9 - Italian battleship Roma is sunk by two Fritz X radio controlled glide bombs
September 11 - French fighter ace Pierre Le Gloan (18 victories) died in a crash
September 12 - Benito Mussolini is freed in a daring rescue by Otto Skorzeny
September 15-16 - first use of the "Tallboy" 12,000 lb (5,455 kg) bomb by RAF Lancasters.
September 22-24, Ernst Jachmann flies his single-seat glider 55 hrs and 51 min in a thermal.

First flights

January

January 9 - Lockheed Constellation prototype NX67900

February

February 4 - Bristol Buckingham

March

March 5 - Gloster Meteor prototype DG206

June

June 15 - Arado Ar 234V1 GK+IV

July

July 13 - Curtiss-Wright XP-55 Ascender

August

August 7 - Ilyushin Il-6

September

September 20 - De Havilland Vampire prototype LZ548
September 22 - DFS 228

October

October 23 - Vickers Windsor
October 26 - Dornier Do 335V1 CP+UA

November

November 17 - P-75 Eagle

December

December 2 - Grumman XF7F

Entered service

January

Armstrong Whitworth Albemarle with No. 295 Squadron RAF
January 10 - Fairey Barracuda with No. 827 Squadron FAA

1943 in Aviation Pictures

More aircraft.

Source: WikiPedia