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.