1926 in aviation

This is a list of aviation-related events from 1926:

Events

• United Airlines established.

January

• January 6 – Deutsche Lufthansa is formed by the merger of Deutsche Aero Lloyd and Junkers Luftverkehr
• January 26 – Ramon Franco sets out from Spain in a Dornier Do J to reach Buenos Aires after 59 hours in the air.

March

• March 1 – Four Royal Air Force Fairey IIIDs begin a long-distance flight, taking them from Cairo to Cape Town and then on to Lee-on-Solent, England, where they will arrive on June 2
• March 16 – Robert Goddard launches the first liquid-fuelled rocket near Auburn, Massachusetts.

April

• April 1 – Italian airline Società Italiana Servizi Aerei begins operations linking Trieste, Venice, Pavia, and Turin with Cant 10 flying boats.
• April 6 – Varney Speed Lines begins operations in the US. It will later become Continental Airlines
• April 30 – Bessie Coleman, the first licensed African-American female pilot was killed along with mechanic William Wills, who was piloting the plane, after they crashed as a result of a wrench that Wills had accidentally left loose and that got stuck in the control gears.

May

• May 9 – Richard Byrd and Floyd Bennett make the first flight over the North Pole in a Fokker VIIa-3m.
• May 11 – 14 – Roald Amundsen makes the first airship flight over the North Pole. The Norge leaves Spitzbergen and arrives in Teller, Alaska three days later.

June

• June 30 – Alan Cobham sets out on a round trip from England to Australia in a de Havilland DH.50. He will arrive back in London on October 1 and receive a knighthood for his accomplishment.

July

• July 1 – A Blackburn Dart makes the first night landing on an aircraft carrier, HMS Furious
• July 2 – the United States Army Air Service becomes the United States Army Air Corps.
• July 24 – two Lufthansa Junkers G.24s leave Berlin to make a round-trip to Beijing. They will return on September 26.

October

• October 21 – British airship R.33 makes further parasite fighter tests, releasing two Gloster Grebes from 2,500 ft (762 m).

November

• November 13 – Schneider Trophy race flown at Hampton Roads, USA. Won by Mario De Bernardi (Italy) in a Macchi M.39 at 396.698 km/h (246.5 mph).
• November 15 – T. Neville Stack and B. S. Leete leave England in an attempt to reach India by air in a de Havilland DH.60. They will arrive in Karachi on January 8 1927.

First flights

• Boulton Paul Sidestrand

April

• April 24 – Handley Page Harrow (HP.31)

June

• June 19 – Blackburn Iris

Entered service

June

• June 16 – Armstrong Whitworth Argosy with Imperial Airways

August

• Lioré et Olivier 21 with Air Union

September

• Martin T3M with the United States Navy

December

• SABCA S-2 with SABENA