1932 in aviation

This is a list of aviation-related events from 1932:

Events

January

Imperial Japanese Navy aircraft carriers Hosho and Kaga sail into Chinese territorial waters at the outbreak of the Shanghai Incident.
January 20 – Imperial Airways weekly airmail service is extended through Africa as far as Cape Town.

February

February 14 – Ruth Nichols sets a new altitude record for a diesel-powered aircraft, 6,047 m (19,928 ft) in a modified Lockheed Vega

March

The final Avro 504 leaves the production line. The type has been in continuous production for nineteen years.
March 20 – Luftschiffbau Zeppelin begins regular trans-atlantic services between Germany and Brazil, using the Graf Zeppelin.
March 24-28 – Jim Mollison sets a new speed record between the United Kingdom and Cape Town, taking 4 days 17 hours in a de Havilland Puss Moth
March 25 – Dobroflot is expanded into a USSR-wide service and has its name changed to Aeroflot

April

April 19-28 – Charles Scott sets a new solo speed record between the UK and Darwin, taking 8 days 20 hours in a de Havilland Gipsy Moth
April 27 – Imperial Airways commences a regular passenger service to Cape Town.

May

the Egyptian Air Force is formed
Albert Hegenberger makes the first completely blind solo flight in a Consolidated NY-2.
May 20-21 – Amelia Earhart, flying a Lockheed Vega, becomes the first woman to make solo flight across the North Atlantic, from Harbour Grace in Newfoundland to Londonderry in Northern Ireland.

June

July

July 21 – Wolfgang von Gronau sets out to make a round-the-world trip in a Dornier Wal. One hundred and eleven days later, it will be the first such trip made in a flying boat.
July 23 – an aviation pioneer, Alberto Santos-Dumont hangs himself

August

August 14-28 – the third International Tourist Aircraft Contest Challenge 1932 in Berlin, won by the Polish crew Franciszek Zwirko and Stanislaw Wigura on the RWD-6 plane.
August 14-23 Frances Mersalis and Louise Thaden set a women's endurance record of 8 days 4 hours.
August 18 – Auguste Piccard and Max Cosyns set a new balloon altitude record of 16,201 m (53,153 ft).
August 18-19 – Jim Mollison makes the first solo East-to-West crossing of the Atlantic, flying a de Havilland Puss Moth from Dublin to New Brunswick
August 21-27 – 7,363 km race over Europe of the Challenge 1932 contest.
August 25 – Amelia Earhart makes the first transcontinental flight across the US by a woman. She flies a Lockheed Vega.

September

September 3 – Jimmy Doolittle sets a new landplane airspeed record of 296 mph (476 km/h) in the Gee Bee R-1
September 7 – Thomas Settle and Winfield Bushnell set a new balloon distance record of 1,550 km (963 miles) between Basle, Switzerland and Vilna, Poland.
September 11 – Polish Challenge 1932 winners, Franciszek Zwirko and Stanislaw Wigura died in an aircrash.
September 16 – Cyril Uwins sets a new heavier-than-air altitude record of 43,976 ft (13,404 m) in a Vickers Vespa.
September 25 – Lewis Yancey sets an autogiro altitude record of 21,500 ft (6,553 m) in a Pitcairn PCA-2

October

October 15 – Tata Sons opens an airmail route between Karachi and Madras, the first regular air service within India.

November

November 14-18 – Amy Johnson breaks the UK-Cape Town speed record, shaving 11 hours off Mollison's record in March. She flies a de Havilland Puss Moth.
November 19 – a national monument to the Wright Brothers is unveiled at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.