1923 in aviation

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

Years in aviation: 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926
Centuries: 19th century · 20th century · 21st century
Decades: 1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s
Years: 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926

Events

January

February

March

April

May

June

July
  • Twenty-one aircraft compete in the Grand Prix de Motoaviette – a competition at Buc, Yvelines, France, open to any aircraft with a maximum takeoff weight of less than 250 kilograms (550 pounds), offering a 125,000 FF prize for the fastest flight of 30 laps around a 10-kilometer (6.2-mile) course. Lucien Coupet wins in a Salmson 3 Ad-powered Farman Aviette, covering 310 kilometers (190 miles) in 4 hours 37 minutes 19 seconds.

August
  • The Regia Aeronautica (Italian Royal Air Force) participates in Italian Royal Army maneuvers south of Lake Garda intended to test the capabilities of the army's celeri divisions. The air force component of the maneuvers tests aerial reconnaissance capabilities and the effectiveness of attacks on enemy troops by 32 fighter aircraft and of night attacks against bridges by two bombers. Although the reconnaissance is deemed "indispensable," it is not effective due to command and control problems. The fighter and night bombing attacks are more successful, although the ground troops′ failure to attempt to take cover from or evade air attack is of significant help to the fighters.[19]
  • 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.[20]
  • August 6
    • The eighth annual Aerial Derby is held, sponsored by the Royal Aero Club. Thirteen participants fly over a 99.5-mile (160-kilometer) circuit beginning and ending at Croydon Airport in London with control points at Brooklands, Hertford, and West Thurrock; the aircraft fly the circuit twice. L. L. Carter is the overall winner, completing the course in a Gloster Mars at an average speed of 192.4 mph (309.6 km/h) in 1 hour 2 minutes 23 seconds; H. A. Hammersley wins the handicap competition in an Avro Viper with a time of 1 hour 49 minutes 56 seconds at an average speed of 109.5 mph (176.2 km/h) with a handicap of 51 minutes 38 seconds. It is the last Aerial Derby; plans for another one in 1924 will be cancelled due to a lack of high-speed entrants, and later talk of reviving the event comes to nothing.
    • The third annual Air League Challenge Cup race is held as part of the Aerial Derby programme at Croydon Airport in London. The team relay race format of previous races is dropped; instead, the 16 competitors – all Royal Air Force pilots – compete individually, each flying a Bristol F.2B Fighter fitted with a 275-horsepower (205-kilowatt) Rolls-Royce Falcon engine over a 100-mile (161-kilometer) triangular course. Captain Horace Scott Shield, representing RAF Eastchurch, wins the race.[21][22]
  • August 21 – The first electric airway beacons start appearing at airfields in the United States to assist in night flying operations.
  • August 27 – A Farman F.60 Goliath operated by Air Union on a scheduled passenger flight from Berck-sur-Mer Airport in Berck-sur-Mer, France, to Croydon Airport in London, England, makes an unscheduled landing at Lympne, England, for repairs to its overheating left engine. After it continues its flight to Croydon, its right engine fails. Its pilot attempts a forced landing on East Malling Heath, but goes into a spin and crashes on final approach when passengers misunderstand an instruction for some of them to move towards the rear of the aircraft, affecting the Goliath's center of gravity. One passenger dies, but the other 10 passengers and both crew members survive.[23]
  • 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 (5,300 km). They are refueled fifteen times during the flight.

September

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 (392.0 km/h).
    • Czech Airlines is founded by the government of Czechoslovakia as CSA Československé státní aerolinie ("Czechoslovak State Airlines"), commencing operations on October 29 with a Prague Kbely–Bratislava flight.[28]
  • October 8–13 – The Daily Mail sponsors the Motor Glider Competition at Lympne Aerodrome in Lympne, England, the first of the three light airplane trials held there. The contest rewards the most economical aircraft as well as the highest speed, highest altitude, and greatest endurance. Bert Hinkler is among the prize-winners. Record-setting French pilot Alexis Maneyrol dies in the crash of his Peyret Monoplane on the final day.[29][30]
  • October 10 – The United States Navy's first U.S.-built rigid airship, ZR-1. is christened and commissioned and receives her name: USS Shenandoah (ZR-1).[24]
  • October 13 – Flying over Lympne Aerodrome during the light aircraft trials there, an Avro 558 sets an altitude record for a light aircraft of its class, reaching 13,850 feet (4,220 meters).
  • October 23 – General Pier Ruggero Piccio becomes the first Commandant General of the Regia Aeronautica (Italian Royal Air Force). When he leaves the position in 1925, the position will be renamed Chief of Air Staff.
  • October 30 – Flying the Nieuport-Delage NiD 40R, the French pilot Joseph Sadi-Lecointe sets a new world altitude record of 11,145 meters (36,565 feet). The record will stand until 1927.[25]
  • October 31 – The Italian armed forces are ordered to test their efficiency by getting all of their airplanes into the air and flying them for one hour; 420 aircraft pass the test.[5]

November
  • During a speech at Centocelle Airport in Rome, Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini says, "As head of the government with the enormous responsibility of the existence, independence, freedom, and well-being of the Italian people, I am obliged not to believe in universal peace, and still less in perpetual peace. No one knows whether the war of tomorrow will be exclusively an aerial or a land or a naval war. For me, it is enough to ponder on what others are doing. If others are arming in the skies, then we must arm in the skies."[31]
  • The French Air Force has a force of 296 bombers and 300 fighters. Other than Italy, France is the only European continental power building a substantial air force.[31]
  • November 1 – The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company buys the rights to manufacture Luftschiffbau Zeppelin dirigibles in the United States.[32]
  • November 2 – Flying a Curtiss R2C-1, U.S. Navy Lieutenant H. J. Rowe sets a new world airspeed record of 259.16 mph (417.08 km/h).
  • November 4 – Flying a Curtiss R2C-1, U.S. Navy Lieutenant Alford J. Williams sets a new world airspeed record of 266.6 mph (429.1 km/h).[33]
  • November 18 – During an air show at Kelly Field, Texas, the first aerial refueling-related fatality in history occurs when the fuel hose becomes entangled in the right wings of both the refueler and the receiver aircraft. The United States Army Air Service pilot of the refueler, Lieutenant P. T. Wagner, dies in the ensuing crash of DH-4B 23-444.[34]

December

First flights

January

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

Entered service

Retirements

Notes
  1. Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, p. 202.
  2. Donald, David, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997, ISBN 0-7607-0592-5, p. 186.
  3. Daniel, Clifton, Chronicle of the 20th Century, Mount Kisco, New York: Chronicle Publications, 1987, ISBN 0-942191-01-3, p. 298.
  4. Aviation Safety Network: Accident Description
  5. Gooch, John, Mussolini and His Generals: The Armed Forces and Fascist Foreign Policy, 1922-1940, Cambridge, U.K: Cambridge University Press, 2007, ISBN 978-0-521-85602-7, p. 54.
  6. Layman, R.D., Before the Aircraft Carrier: The Development of Aviation Vessels 1849-1922, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1989, ISBN 0-87021-210-9, p. 85.
  7. Daniel, Clifton, Chronicle of the 20th Century, Mount Kisco, New York: Chronicle Publications, 1987, ISBN 0-942191-01-3, p. 300.
  8. Scheina, Robert L., Latin America: A Naval History 1810-1987, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1987, ISBN 0-87021-295-8, p. 199.
  9. Layman, R.D., Before the Aircraft Carrier: The Development of Aviation Vessels 1849-1922, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1989, ISBN 0-87021-210-9, p. 90.
  10. Sturtivant, Ray, British Naval Aviation: The Fleet Air Arm, 1917-1990, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1990, ISBN 0-87021-026-2, p. 10.
  11. Sturtivant, Ray (1990). British Naval Aviation: The Fleet Air Arm, 1917-1990. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. p. 215. ISBN 0-87021-026-2.
  12. Daniel, Clifton (1987). Chronicle of the 20th Century. Mount Kisco, New York: Chronicle Publications. p. 302. ISBN 0-942191-01-3.
  13. Aviation Safety Network: Accident Description
  14. Scheina, Robert L. (1987). Latin America: A Naval History 1810-1987. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. pp. 193–194. ISBN 0-87021-295-8.
  15. Angelucci, Enzo (1987). The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present. New York: Orion Books. p. 94.
  16. U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission: Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation Archived 2011-06-06 at the Wayback Machine.
  17. Crosby, Francis, The Complete Guide to Fighters & Bombers of the World: An Illustrated History of the World's Greatest Military Aircraft, From the Pioneering Days of Air Fighting in World War I Through the Jet Fighters and Stealth Bombers of the Present Day, London: Hermes House, 2006, ISBN 9781846810008, p. 46.
  18. Gooch, John, Mussolini and His Generals: The Armed Forces and Fascist Foreign Policy, 1922-1940, Cambridge, U.K: Cambridge University Press, 2007, ISBN 978-0-521-85602-7, p. 50.
  19. Gooch, John, Mussolini and His Generals: The Armed Forces and Fascist Foreign Policy, 1922-1940, Cambridge, U.K: Cambridge University Press, 2007, ISBN 978-0-521-85602-7, p. 56.
  20. Layman, R.D., Before the Aircraft Carrier: The Development of Aviation Vessels 1849-1922, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1989, ISBN 0-87021-210-9, p. 122.
  21. afleetingpeace.org The Air League Challenge Cup
  22. afleetingpeace.org Air League Challenge Cup - 1921
  23. Aviation Safety Network: Accident Description
  24. Hayward, John T. (August 1978). "Comment and Discussion". United States Naval Institute Proceedings.
  25. Donald, David, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997, ISBN 0-7607-0592-5, p. 688.
  26. Daniel, Clifton, Chronicle of the 20th Century, Mount Kisco, New York: Chronicle Publications, 1987, ISBN 0-942191-01-3, p. 304.
  27. "1923 US Army Air Service Accident Reports".
  28. "History". CSA Czech Airlines. 2012. Retrieved 2016-08-04.
  29. "The Shuttleworth Aircraft Collection". Archived from the original on 2012-03-13. Retrieved 2012-03-27.
  30. Hastingleigh, Kent: Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines: 1923
  31. Gooch, John, Mussolini and His Generals: The Armed Forces and Fascist Foreign Policy, 1922-1940, Cambridge, U.K: Cambridge University Press, 2007, ISBN 978-0-521-85602-7, p. 55.
  32. Daniel, Clifton, Chronicle of the 20th Century, Mount Kisco, New York: Chronicle Publications, 1987, ISBN 0-942191-01-3, p. 306.
  33. Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, ISBN 0-517-56588-9, p. 123.
  34. aviationarchaeology.com 1923 US Army Air Service Accident Reports
  35. "Avalanche Press".
  36. Donald, David, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997, ISBN 0-7607-0592-5, p. 49.
  37. Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, p. 181.
  38. Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, p. 126.
  39. Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, p. 68.
  40. Donald, David, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997, ISBN 0-7607-0592-5, p. 63.
  41. Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, ISBN 0-517-56588-9, p. 461.
  42. Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, p. 123.
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