1914 in aviation

This is a list of aviation-related events from 1914:

Events

January

January 1 – The St. Petersburg/Tampa Airboat Line starts services, becoming the first airline to provide regular services, with Anthony Jannus conveying passengers in a Benoist flying boat. A.C. Pheil is the first airline passenger.

February

The Sikorsky Ilya Muromets sets a load-to-altitude record, lifting 16 people to 2,000 metres (6,562 ft).
February 8-10 – Berliner, Haase and Nikolai fly 3053 km in their free balloon from Bitterfeld to Perm. This record lasted until 1950.

April

April 16 – The Canadian Aviation Corps is formed.
April 20 – Three US Navy aircraft depart Pensacola on board the USS Mississippi in support of troops at Vera Cruz, Mexico. They will fly reconnaissance missions until May 12.
April 20 – Howard Pixton wins the Schneider Trophy at Monaco. Pixton averages 139.66 km/h (86.78 mph) over the course in a Sopwith Schneider

July

July 10-11, German Reinhold Böhm flies his Albatros-biplane 24 hours and 12 minutes without refueling and nonstop. This one-man-flight record lasted until 1927.
July 28 – outbreak of World War I Aviation changes war in a twofold way. The aeroplane turns the sky into a new battle field where about 20,000 flyers, most of them trained pilots die. Aircraft eliminate the distinction between frontline and hinterland, with the civilian population far behind the frontline also becoming a target.
July 30 – Trygve Gran makes the first crossing of the North Sea by aeroplane.

August

August 8 – A French aerial observer is injured by small-arms fire, becoming that nation's first casualty of air war.
August 13 – A Royal Aircraft Factory BE.2 becomes the first British aircraft to arrive in France for the war.
August 25 – The first German aircraft of the war is forced down.
August 30 – Paris is bombed by a German aircraft for the first time – an Etrich Taube flown by Lt Ferdinand von Hiddessen.

September

October

October 5 – Sgt Joseph Frantz and Cpl Louis Quenault of Escadrille VB24 score the first air-to-air kill of the war, shooting down a German Aviatik B.II with machine gun fire from their Voisin III over Jonchery, Reims.
October 8 – Wing Cdr Charles Samson, RNAS plans the first strategic air raid on Germany. Two Sopwith Tabloids set out to attack the Zeppelin sheds at Düsseldorf. One of the aircraft attacks the Cologne railway station, but the other, piloted by Flt Lt Reggie Marix finds his target and destroys a shed holding the Z.IX.

November

December

December 21 – The UK is bombed by a German aircraft for the first time – a Taube drops two bombs near the Admiralty Pier, Kent.
December 25 – HMS Empress, HMS Engadine and HMS Riviera launch a seaplane attack on the Zeppelin sheds at Cuxhaven. Fog prevents the aircraft from reaching their target, and only three of the nine aircraft find their way back to their mother ships.

January

July