1922
FEBRUARY 21 Ner Hampton Roads Army Air Base, Virginia, the balloon Roma, purchased from the Italian government, strikes a high-tension wire; 34 of its 45-man crew are killed.
June 12 At McCook Field, Dayton, Ohio, Captain A. W. Stevens pilots a supercharged Martin MB-2 bomber to
24,0 feet, a record altitude for that type of aircraft.
June 16 At Bolling Field, D. C., Lieutenant Clayton L. Bissell commences a series of night flights to demonstrate that nocturnal flying is as safe as daylight flying. He concludes his experiment by touching down safely at Langley Field, Virginia.
June 29 At Mitchel Field, New York, Lawrence Sperry’s radio-controlled “aerial torpedo” covers 90 miles while being guided by a mothership. The concept is way ahead of its time, and neither the Army nor Navy expresses any interest in the technology.
AUGUST 2 At Dayton, Ohio, Lieutenant Leigh Wade, Captain Albert W. Stevens, and Sergeant Roy Langham reach an unofficial three-man altitude of 23,230 feet flying a supercharged bomber over McCook Field.
AUGUST 16 At McCook Airfield, Dayton, Ohio, the Sperry lighting system is demonstrated to assist aircraft landing at night.
SEPTEMBER 4 At San Diego, California, Lieutenant James H. “Jimmy” Doolittle arrives from Pablo Beach, Florida, in a modified DH-4B after covering 2,163 miles in 21 hours and 20 minutes.
This is also the first transcontinental flight completed in a single day.
September 14-23 At Langley Field, Virginia, the non-rigid airship C-2, piloted by Major H. A. Strauss, flies cross-country to Foss Field, Arcadia, California, completing the first such flight for this type ofairship.
September 29 Dr. Robert H. Goddard compiles his report to the Smithsonian Institution relative to developments in multiple-charge rockets. However, Secretary Charles G. Abbot is less than impressed and cuts Goddard’s funding.
OCTOBER 5 Over Rockwell Field, California, Lieutenants J. A. Macready and O. G. Kelly set an airborne endurance record of 35 hours, 18 minutes, and 35 seconds; they receive the Mackay Trophy.
OCTOBER 13 At Selfridge Field, Michigan, Lieutenant T. J. Koenig flies a LePere-Liberty airplane in the 257-mile – long National Air Race; he wins the Liberty Engine Builders Trophy with a speed of 129 miles per hour.
OCTOBER 14 At Detroit, Michigan, Lieutenant Harold R. Brown pilots a Curtiss R-6 racer, powered by a D-12 Conqueror engine, to an average speed of 193 miles per hour. Brown takes this year’s Pulitzer Race Trophy and, significantly, Curtiss aircraft occupy the top four places.
October 14-November 29 At San
Diego, California, a pair of De Havilland DH-4Bs flown by Lieutenants Ben H. Wyatt and George T. Owen complete a round trip transcontinental flight, covering 7,000 miles in 90 hours of flight time.
OCTOBER 18 At Selfridge Field, Michigan, Brigadier General William G. Mitchell pilots a Curtiss R-6 racer to a new airspeed record of 222.96 miles per hour. This is also the first aerial record certified outside of France.
OCTOBER 20 Over McCook Field, Dayton, Ohio, Lieutenant Harold R. Harris is the first aviator saved by a parachute when his Loening PW-2A aircraft loses a wing in flight and he bails out.
OCTOBER 23 At Bolling Field, Washington, D. C., the American Propeller Company demonstrates its reversible propeller to the Army and Navy.
NOVEMBER 3—4 Lieutenants John A. Macready and Oakley G. Kelly pilot a Fokker T-2 aircraft to a record distance of2,060 miles between San Diego, California, and Benjamin Harrison, Indiana; engine problems stopped them 800 miles of their destination at New York.
NOVEMBER 8 The new School of Aviation Medicine arises when the Air Service Medical Research Laboratory and School for Flight Surgeons are combined.
December 18 At McCook Field, Dayton, Ohio, a de Bothezat helicopter rises vertically and flies 300 feet of ground; Major Thurmond H. Bane becomes the Army’s first helicopter pilot.