This is a list of
aviation-related events from 1928:
Events
The
Soviet Union's
first five-year plan (1928–1932) begins, placing a high priority on the construction of new aircraft factories. It begins a rapid expansion of the Soviet aircraft industry.[1]
The
Mitsubishi Internal Combustion Engine Company Ltd. changes its name to Mitsubishi Aircraft Company Ltd.[5]
Italy officially records its production rate for military aircraft at 150 per month, with a capacity to expand to 600 per month in wartime. The Regia Aeronautica (Italian Royal Air Force), meanwhile, determines that it will require a production rate of 900 aircraft per month during a war.[6]
Frank Hawks makes a nationwide goodwill tour of the
United States for
Texaco piloting the custom-built
Ford TrimotorTexaco One. He visits more than 150 cities and covers approximately 51,000 miles (82,000 km). An estimated 500,000 people see Texaco One, and Hawks carries 7,200 passengers in the plane without mishap.[8]
January
Hoping to become the first person to fly a small, open-
cockpit plane solo from
South Africa to
London,
Mary, Lady Heath, takes off in an
Avro Avian for what she hopes will be a three-week trip. Instead, the trip will take three months, and she will not arrive in London until
May.[9]
To advertise
Texaco,
Frank Hawks flies a
Texas delegation in the custom-built
Ford TrimotorTexaco One from
Houston, Texas, to
Mexico City,
Mexico. The first goodwill trade extension air tour from the United States to Mexico, the flight receives widespread coverage in American and Mexican newspapers.[10]
January 26 – Veteran movie actor
Earl Metcalfe is killed during a flying lesson when he falls or jumps from a plane at an altitude of 2,000 feet (610 meters) over
Burbank,
California, when it goes into a double roll.[12]
February
February 3 –
New York City decides to build its first municipal airport.[13]
February 7–22 –
Bert Hinkler makes the first solo flight from
England to
Australia, flying from
Croydon to
Darwin in an
Avro Avian. His flight sets a new time world record for an England-to-Australia flight of just under 15½ days, smashing the previous record of 28 days. He then flies on to
Bundaberg,
Queensland, Australia, arriving there on February 27.
February 12 –
Mary, Lady Heath leaves
Cape Town in an Avro Avian in an attempt to make the first solo flight by a woman from
South Africa to England. She will arrive in Croydon on May 17.
February 15 –
Aeroput, the
flag carrier of the
Kingdom of Yugoslavia and Yugoslavia's first civilian airline, makes its first flight, a 2-hour 25-minute trip from
Belgrade International Airport in
Belgrade to
Borongaj Airfield in
Zagreb by a
Potez 29/2 (registration X-SECD) carrying two pilots and five journalists and news photographers. The airliner makes passes over Zagreb before landing. In the afternoon, the airliner returns to Belgrade, again carrying journalists as passengers.[citation needed]
March 26 – The Italian Secretary of State for Air,
Italo Balbo, founds the airline
Società Aerea Mediterranea (SAM) as an early step toward an
Italian Fascist government takeover of all Italian airlines and rationalization of their routes.
March 30 –
Mario de Bernardi sets a new airspeed record of 512.776 km/h (318.624 mph) at
Venice,
Italy – the first over 300 mph (480 km/h) and the first over 500 km/h (310 mph). He flies a
Macchi M.52bis.
April
The
Imperial Japanese Navy begins to experiment with coordinated
torpedo attacks by aircraft and surface ships. It will not abandon the concept as impractical until the mid-1930s.[17]
During the month, Sumitoshi Nakao becomes the first Japanese aviator to save his life by parachute when he bails out of one of two
Mitsubishi 1MF2 Hayabusa-type fighter prototypes when it disintegrates during a diving test during official
Imperial Japanese Army trials at Tokorozawa. He is uninjured.
Mary, Lady Heath, arrives at
Croydon Aerodrome in
London, completing a 9,000-mile (14,500-kilometer) flight from
South Africa in an
Avro Avian, stepping out of the
cockpit to greet a cheering crowd wearing a pleated skirt, high heels, a fur coat, and a
cloche hat. When she had begun the journey in South Africa in
January, she had hoped to complete the flight in three weeks, but various setbacks – including a crash-landing outside
Southern Rhodesia after she suffered
heat stroke – have led to the trip taking three months. She becomes the first person to fly from South Africa to London solo in a small, open-cockpit plane.[9]
June 3 – Italian aviators
Arturo Ferrarin and
Carlo Del Prete complete a nonstop flight in the
Savoia-Marchetti S.64 begun on May 31 during which they have made 51 round trips between
Torre Flavia (in
Ladispoli) and
Anzio. The flight breaks three world records, setting a new world nonstop distance record over a closed circuit of 7,666 kilometers (4,763 miles), a new world endurance record of 58 hours 34 minutes, and a new world record for average speed over a distance of 5,000 kilometers (3,100 miles) of 139 km/h (86 mph).[25][26]
July 3–5 – Italian aviators
Arturo Ferrarin and
Carlo Del Prete set a new nonstop flight distance record, flying a
Savoia-Marchetti S.64 from
Montecelio,
Italy, to
Brazil. Departing on July 3 and hoping to reach
Rio de Janeiro, they are forced to turn back due to bad weather and attempt to land at
Natal, Brazil, but their flight ends in a forced landing on a beach at
Touros, Brazil, on July 5 after they remain airborne for 48 hours 14 minutes and cover 8,100 kilometers (5,000 miles) nonstop. The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale recognizes the flight as establishing a new official nonstop distance record of 7,188 kilometers (4,466 miles), the
great-circle distance between Montecelio and Natal.[28][29][26][30]
July 4 – While crossing the
English Channel with several other people during a flight from
Croydon,
England, to
Brussels,
Belgium, aboard his private
Fokker F.VIItrimotor, wealthy Belgian financier
Alfred Loewenstein excuses himself to visit the
lavatory. When he does not return, his secretary investigates and finds the lavatory empty, the aircraft's adjacent entrance door open, and Loewenstein missing from the plane, having jumped or fallen thousands of feet to his death. His body will be discovered in the sea near
Boulogne,
France, on July 19.
August 8 – The
Couzinet 27Arc en Ciel II crashes in
France during trials. Its mechanic dies instantly and its pilot dies of his injuries a few days later, leaving only survivor of the crash.
August 11 – Only a little over five weeks after completing their record-breaking
Italy-
Brazil flight, Italian aviators
Arturo Ferrarin and
Carlo Del Prete are injured in the crash during a demonstration flight of a
Savoia-Marchetti SM.62flying boat during ongoing post-flight celebrations in Brazil. Del Prete will die of his injuries on August 16.[35]
September 25 – Over
France near
Paris, Baron
Willy Coppens,
Belgium's top scoring fighter ace of
World War I, sets a new world parachute record, descending safely from an altitude of 6,000 meters (20,000 feet).[37]
December 15–17 – French aviators
Dieudonné Costes and
Paul Codos set a world distance record for flight over a closed circuit, flying 8,029 km (4,989 mi).
^Hardesty, Von, Red Phoenix: The Rise of Soviet Air Power 1941-1945, Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1982,
ISBN0-87474-510-1, p. 46.
^Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, p. 35.
^Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, p. 182.
^Francillon, René J., Japanese Aircraft of the Pacific War, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1979,
ISBN0-87021-313-X, p. 20.
^Francillon, René J., Japanese Aircraft of the Pacific War, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1979,
ISBN0-87021-313-X, p. 23.
^Gooch, John, Mussolini and His Generals: The Armed Forces and Fascist Foreign Policy, 1922-1940, Cambridge, U.K: Cambridge University Press, 2007,
ISBN978-0-521-85602-7, p. 80.
^Sturtivant, Ray, British Naval Aviation: The Fleet Air Arm, 1917-1990, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1990,
ISBN0-87021-026-2, p. 215.
^Dobson, Christopher, and John Miller, The Day They Almost Bombed Moscow: The Allied War in Russia, 1918-1920, New York: Atheneum, 1986, no ISBN, pp. 18-19.
^Peattie, Mark R., Sunburst: The Rise of Japanese Naval Air Power 1909-1941, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 2001,
ISBN1-55750-432-6, p. 37.
^Peattie, Mark R., Sunburst: The Rise of Japanese Naval Air Power 1909-1941, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 2001,
ISBN1-55750-432-6, p. 72.
^Donald, David, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997,
ISBN0-7607-0592-5, p. 187.
^Hagedorn, Dan: Conquistadors of the Sky: A History of Aviation in Latin America. University Press of Florida, 2008.
ISBN0-8130-3249-0,
ISBN978-0-8130-3249-8, p. 217.
^Francillon, René J., Japanese Aircraft of the Pacific War, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1979,
ISBN0-87021-313-X, p. 30.
^Mondey, David, ed., The Complete Illustrated History of the World's Aircraft, Secaucus, New Jersey: Chartwell Books, Inc., 1978,
ISBN0-89009-771-2, p. 65.
^Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, p. 326.
^Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987,
ISBN0-517-56588-9, pp. 132-133.
^Francillon, René J., Japanese Aircraft of the Pacific War, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1979,
ISBN0-87021-313-X, p. 493.
^Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987,
ISBN0-517-56588-9, p. 194.
^Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, p. 132.
^Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, p. 78.
^Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, p. 72.
^Mondey, David, ed., The Complete Illustrated History of the World's Aircraft, Secaucus, New Jersey: Chartwell Books, Inc., 1983,
ISBN0-89009-771-2, p. 29.
^Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987,
ISBN0-517-56588-9, pp 139-140f
^
abAngelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987,
ISBN0-517-56588-9, p. 138.
^Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, p. 75.