1926 in aviation

Events

• Award of the Harmon Trophy begins. A set of three trophies is awarded annually to the worlds outstanding aviator, aviatrix, and aeronaut for the year, and a fourth trophy is awarded to the outstanding aviator for the year in each of the 21 member countries of the International League of Aviators.
• Fiat acquires the Società Anonima Aeronautica Ansaldo aircraft manufacturing subsidiary from the Gio. Ansaldo & C. shipbuilding company and combines it with its own Società Italiana Aviazione subsidiary to form a new Società Anonima Aeronautica d'Italia subsidiary for the design and production of aircraft.
• The first known reforestation of land by aircraft is carried by airplanes operating from Wheeler Field on Oahu in the Territory of Hawaii.
• Harold Frederick Pitcairn founds the Pitcairn Aircraft Company. It later will become the Autogiro Company of America.
• Summer 1926 – A Lieutenant Jira of Czechoslovakia flies Avia B.9.11 L-BONG from Prague to Paris and back at an average speed of 131.2 km/hr, a notable achievement at the time for an aircraft of the B.9s class.

  January

• January 6 – Deutsche Luft Hansa is formed by the merger of Deutscher Aero Lloyd and Junkers Luftverkehr.
• January 22 – A Spanish four-man crew led by Spanish Air Force Major Ramón Franco – the brother of future Spanish dictator Francisco Franco – and including Captain Julio Ruiz de Alda Miqueleiz takes off from the Rio Tinto at Palos de Moguer, Spain, to begin a seven-stop flight to Buenos Aires, Argentina, in the Dornier Do J Wal flying boat Plus Ultra. After flying low past the Christopher Columbus Monument in Huelva, Spain, they make an uneventful 806-mile flight to their first stop at Las Palmas in the Canary Islands.
• January 26 – Ramón Franco and his crew complete the second leg of their Spain-to-Buenos Aires flight, flying 1,081 miles from Las Palmas in the Canary Islands to Porto Praia in the Cape Verde Islands in 9 hours 50 minutes.
• January 30 – Ramón Franco and his crew complete the third and longest leg of their Spain-to-Buenos Aires flight, flying 1,429 miles from Barrera de Inferno in the Cape Verde Islands to Fernando de Noronha in 12 hours at an altitude of 1,000 feet. It is the second-longest nonstop flight in history – exceeded only by a 1,890-mile North Atlantic Ocean crossing in a Vickers Vimy on 14-15 June 1919 by John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown – and they become the first aviators to cross the South Atlantic Ocean using only one aircraft. Rough weather forces them to spend the night on their flying boat Plus Ultra before they can dock at Fernando de Noronha.
• January 31 – Forced to throw their gear and luggage overboard to remain airborne after an in-flight engine failure, Ramón Franco and his crew complete the fourth leg of their Spain-to-Buenos Aires flight, flying 335 miles from Fernando de Noronha to Recife, Brazil, where they receive a hero's welcome.

  February

• February 4 – Spanish Air Force Major Ramón Franco, copilot/navigator Captain Julio Ruiz de Alda Miqueleiz, and their crew complete the fifth leg of their Spain-to-Buenos Aires flight in the Dornier Do J Wal flying boat Plus Ultra, flying 1,302 miles from Recife, Brazil, to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 12 hours 16 minutes. Franco is at the controls for the entire flight. So many boats meet them that they have difficulty landing in Guanabara Bay without colliding with one.
• February 9 – Ramón Franco and his crew complete the sixth leg of their Spain-to-Buenos Aires flight, flying 1,277 miles from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to Montevideo, Uruguay, in 12 hours 5 minutes.
• February 10 – Ramón Franco and his crew complete their Spain-to-Buenos Aires flight, flying the journey's seventh leg, a 136-mile flight from Montevideo, Uruguay, to Buenos Aires, Argentina, where they receive another welcome by exuberant crowds. Over 20 days, they have completed the 6,300-mile trip from Spain in just under 51 hours of flying time, a considerable achievement for the time. Franco's plans to fly back to Spain in Plus Ultra via Chile, Mexico, Cuba, and the Azores will be cancelled when the Government of Spain opts to present the plane to the Government of Argentina as a gift. Plus Ultra'′s crew instead will return to Spain aboard the Argentine Navy protected cruiser Buenos Aires as Spanish national heroes.
• February 12 – Straying two miles off course while flying a Curtiss Carrier Pigeon for the United States Post Office on the overnight airmail delivery route from Chicago, Illinois, to New York City, pioneering American pilot Art Smith dies when he crashes into a grove of trees near Montpelier, Ohio. He is the second U.S. overnight mail service pilot to die on duty.

  March

• March 1 – Four Royal Air Force Fairey IIIDs begin a long-distance flight, taking them from Cairo to Cape Town and then on to Lee-on-Solent, England, where they will arrive on June 2.
• March 16 – Robert Goddard launches the first liquid-fuelled rocket near Auburn, Massachusetts.
• March 24 – The Cierva Autogiro Company is founded in the United Kingdom.

  April

• April 1 - The Italian airline Società Italiana Servizi Aerei begins operations linking Trieste, Venice, Pavia, and Turin with CANT 10 flying boats.
• April 6 - Varney Speed Lines begins operations in the US. It will later become Continental Airlines.
• April 7 - The Italian airline Società Anonima Navigazione Aerea begins fight operations, offering flying boat service on the Genoa-Rome-Naples-Palermo route.
• April 10 - Three United States Army Air Service aircraft take photographs of an eruption of Mauna Loa volcano on the island of Hawaii, providing valuable scientific information.
• April 17 - Western Air Express begins operations with a contract mail flight from Salt Lake City, Utah, to Los Angeles, California, using a Douglas M-2. The airline will begin passenger services a month later.
• April 30 - Bessie Coleman, the first licensed African-American female pilot, is killed along with mechanic William Wills, who was piloting the plane, after they crash as a result of a wrench that Wills accidentally left loose getting stuck in the control gears.

  May

• May 1 - Deutsche Luft Hansa begins the first night passenger airline service, with domestic flights in Germany between Berlin and Königsberg employing Junkers G 24 aircraft.
• May 4 – The Stinson Aircraft Corporation is incorporated.
• May 6 - Flying a Blackburn Dart, Flight Lieutenant Gerald Boyce makes the first night deck landing in history, landing aboard the British aircraft carrier off the south coast of England.
• May 9 - Richard Byrd and Floyd Bennett make the first flight over the North Pole in a Fokker VIIa-3m.
• May 11-14 - Roald Amundsen makes the first airship flight over the North Pole. The Norge leaves Spitzbergen and arrives in Teller, Alaska three days later.
• May 20 - The Air Commerce Act becomes law in the United States. It creates an Aeronautics Branch within the United States Department of Commerce, vesting that entity with regulatory powers to ensure civil air safety, including testing and licensing pilots, issuing certificates to guarantee the airworthiness of aircraft, making and enforcing safety rules, certifying aircraft, establishing airways, operating and maintaining aids to air navigation, and investigating accidents and incidents in aviation. It also directs that airways in the United States be charted for the first time, and assigns the responsibility to chart them to the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey.

  June

• June 20 - The United States Coast Guard opens the first permanent Coast Guard Air Stations.
• June 26 - Flying a Potez 28, Ludovic Arrachart and his brother Paul depart Paris. By the time a broken fuel pipe forces them to land at RAF Shaibah near Basra, Iraq, 26 hours 30 minutes later, they will have set a new world aviation nonstop distance record of 4,313 km.
• June 30 - Alan Cobham sets out on a round trip from England to Australia in a de Havilland DH.50. He will arrive back in London on October 1 and receive a knighthood for his accomplishment.

  July

• July 2
• * The United States Army Air Service becomes the United States Army Air Corps.
• * In accordance with the redesignation of its parent service, the Air Service Tactical School at Langley Field, Virginia, is renamed the Air Corps Tactical School.
• July 24 - Two Deutsche Luft Hansa Junkers G.24s leave Berlin to make a round-trip to Beijing. They will return on September 26.
• July 26 - During United States Navy experiments with the operation of seaplanes from a submarine equipped with an aircraft hangar, the submarine carries out for the first time a full cycle of surfacing, removing the disassembled seaplane from its hangar, assembling it, launching it, retrieving it, disassembling it, stowing in its hangar, and submerging, on the Thames River at New London, Connecticut.

  August

• August 18 - Flying in bad weather on a scheduled passenger flight from Paris-Le Bourget Airport outside Paris to Croydon Airport in London with 15 people aboard, the Air Union Blériot 155 F-AIEB Wilbur Wright strikes the roof of a barn and crashes into haystacks near Hurst, Kent, south of Lympne Airport, killing its two crew members and two of its 13 passengers.

  September

• September 10–17 - The Daily Mail sponsors the third and final light airplane trials at Lympne Aerodrome in Lympne, England. A Hawker Cygnet flown by George Bulman wins. Flying an Avro 581 Avian, Bert Hinkler takes second place in three of the six trials before withdrawing with magneto problems.
• September 21 - Hoping to win the Orteig Prize, French World War I ace René Fonck attempts to take off from Roosevelt Field on Long Island, New York, in a severely overloaded Sikorsky S-35 for a nonstop transatlantic flight to Paris. The aircraft loses a wheel on takeoff, fails to gain lift, cartwheels off a bluff, and bursts into flames, killing two of its crew. Fonck survives.
• September 26 - The French aviators Dieudonné Costes and René de Vitrolles fly 4,100 km from Paris, France, to Assuan, Egypt, in an attempt to break the world distance record.

  October

• October 2 - During a scheduled passenger flight from Paris-Le Bourget Airport outside Paris to Croydon Airport in London, the Air Union Blériot 155 F-AICQ Clément Ader experiences an in-flight engine fire and attempts an emergency landing at Leigh, Kent. It crashes and is consumed by fire, killing all seven people on board.
• October 21 - The British airship R.33 makes further parasite fighter tests, releasing two Gloster Grebes from 2,500 ft.
• October 22 - Curtiss F6C Hawk fighters of the United States Navys Fighter Squadron 2 surprise U.S. Navy capital ships sortieing from San Pedro Harbor, California, with a simulated dive-bombing attack, diving almost vertically from 12,000 feet. It generally is considered the birth of modern dive bombing.
• October 28 - The French aviators Dieudonné Costes and J. Rignot break the world distance record, flying 5,396 km from Paris, France, to Jask, Persia, as a part of 19,625-km Paris-India-Paris flight.

  November

• November 6 – Italo Balbo becomes Italy′s Secretary of State for Air.
• November 13 - The 1926 Schneider Trophy race is flown at Hampton Roads, Virginia, in the United States. Mario de Bernardi of Italy wins in a Macchi M.39 at 396.698 km/h, a new world speed record.
• November 15 - T. Neville Stack and B. S. Leete leave England in an attempt to reach India by air in a de Havilland DH.60. They will arrive in Karachi on January 8, 1927.
• November 17 - Mario de Bernardi breaks his four-day-old world speed record, reaching 416.618 km/h in the same Macchi M.39 at Hampton Roads, Virginia, USA.

  December

• December 22 - Bert Hinkler and John F. Leeming, flying an Avro 585 Gosport biplane G-EBPH, successfully land on and take off from the summit of Helvellyn in England.

  First flights

• Avro 571 Buffalo
• Boulton Paul Sidestrand
• Cierva C.8
• Fairchild 71
• Farman F.150
• Junkers A 32
• Junkers A 35
• Junkers G 31
• Latécoère 26
• Levasseur PL.4
• Pitcairn PA-2 Sesquiwing
• Pitcairn PA-3 Orowing
• Potez 28
• Westland Westbury
• Wright-Bellanca WB-2
• c. 1926 – Mitsubishi 2MB1
• Spring 1926 – Westland Racer

  January

• January 12 – Polikarpov DI-1
• January 25 – Stinson Detroiter

  February

• Latécoère 25
• February 19 – Dornier N/Kawasaki Ka 87

  March

• Armstrong Whitworth Argosy G-EBLF

  April

• April 24 - Handley Page Harrow

  May

• May 5 – Wright XF3W Apache
• May 7 – Blériot 127

  June

• ca. June – Saunders A.3 Valkyrie
• June 11 – Ford 4-AT Trimotor
• June 14 – Fairchild FC-1, prototype of the Fairchild FC-2
• June 17 – Junkers W 33
• June 19 – Blackburn Iris
• June 26
• *Avro 566 Avenger
• *Avro Tutor

  July

• Latécoère 21
• July 6 – Macchi M.39

  August

• August 9 – Focke-Wulf GL 18

  September

• Avro 581, prototype of the Avro Avian
• De Havilland DH.66 Hercules G-EBMW

  October

• October 27 - Blériot 165

  November

• Saunders A.4 Medina G-EBMG
• November 3 – Boeing XF2B-1

  Entered service

• Levasseur PL.2 with French Naval Aviation aboard the aircraft carrier Béarn

  May

• Farman F.170 Jabiru with Société Générale des Transports Aériens

  June

• Breguet 19 B.2 bomber variant with the 11e Régiment d'Aviation de Bombardement of the French Armys Aéronautique Militaire
• June 16 - Armstrong Whitworth Argosy G-EBLO with Imperial Airways

  August

• Lioré et Olivier 21 with Air Union

  September

• Martin T3M with the United States Navy

  December

• SABCA S.2 with SABENA

  Retirements

• Grigorovich M-24 by Soviet Naval Aviation

  March

• Avro 549 Aldershot by No. 99 Squadron, Royal Air Force