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On This Day: 1914

Aviation events for 1914

January 1: The U.S. Weather Bureau begins daily publication of a weather map of the Northern Hemisphere designed specifically as an aid to aviation.
 
January 1: The world’s first scheduled airplane passenger service operated by an airline company – the Airboat Line – begins at 10:00 A.M. when Anthony Janus flies his first passenger from St. Petersburg to Tampa, Florida. The fare for 22-mile over-water flight was $5 with a surcharge if the passenger weighs more than 200 lbs.
 
January 15: The first regularly scheduled passenger airline in the United States begins service. The Benoist Company, flying its Benoist flying boat, runs a line between St. Petersburg and Tampa, Florida.
 
February 8: Berliner, Haase and Nikolai depart on a 1897-mile record flight in their free balloon from Bitterfeld to Perm. This record lasted until 1950.
 
February 11: Distance record for balloons over land is set by H. Berliner, who flies 1,890 miles (c. 3,040 km) from Bitterfeldt, Germany to Kirgischano, Russia.
 
February 12: Igor Sikorsky’s giant four-engined biplane, the Ilya Muromets flies in Russia. It is an improved version of last year’s Bolshoi Baltiskii.
 
February 14: An official American nonstop duration and distance record is made when Lt. Townsend Dodd and Sgt. Herbert Marcus fly the U.S. Signal Corps Burgess H tractor biplane. (S.C. No. 26) 244.8 mi. in 4 hours 43 minutes. Although it established a record for two people in one airplane, it also exceeded the previous single-seat record.
 
February 23: Harry Busteed makes the first test flight of the Bristol Scout biplane at Larkhill training center in England.
 
April 21: The first news movie shot from the air is filmed by cameraman B.C. Hucks, Warwick Bioscope Chronicle Film, England. He flies down to within 400 ft. of the royal yacht with King George aboard, crossing the English Channel from Dover, England to Calais, France.
 
May 28: Glenn Curtiss successfully flies the refurbished Langley Aerodrome for a distance of approximately 150 ft. at Keuka Lake, Hammindsport, New York.
 
June 25: Tom Blakely flies the West Wind in Calgary, Canada. The Curtiss-type biplane was designed by Frank Ellis.
 
June 29: Glenn Curtiss takes up nine passengers in New York in his seaplane America, built for Rodman Wanamaker, to make an attempt on the £10,000 prize offered by the Daily Mail for the first transatlantic crossing in a heavier-than-air machine.
 
July 7: American physics professor, Robert H. Goddard receives a patent for his two-stage solid fuel rocket.
 
July 14: Dr. Robert H. Goddard is granted a patent for his liquid fuel rocket engine.
 
July 18: French pilot, Maurice Guillaux, makes the first official airmail flight in Australia. His cargo includes 1,785 letters, some Lipton’s Tea and OT Lemon Squash.
 
July 18: The Aviation Section of the U.S. Army Signal Corps is formed in Washington, D.C., with 60 officers, 260 men, and 6 airplanes.
 
July 22: Britain’s first airplane passenger service is launched. The short-lived service flies from Leeds to Bradford and back, on half-hour intervals.
 
July 30: Norwegian pilot Tryggve Gran makes the first crossing of the North Sea by airplane, flying his Bleriot from Cruden Bay, Scotland to Revtangen, Norway. Unfortunately for Mr. Gran, Europe was focused on the conflagration which would become World War I, which had begun brewing a month earlier with the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, and Gran’s feat received little attention.
 
August 13: The first British airplane to reach French soil after mobilization is a BE2a, serial number 327, flown by Capt. F. F. Waldron and Air Mechanic Skerritt of No. 2 Sqdr. RFC commanded by Maj. C. J. Burke.
 
September 1: The 1st U.S. tactical air unit, the First Aero Squadron, is organized because of the August outbreak of war in Europe. Based in San Diego, California, the unit has 16 officers, 77 enlisted men, and 8 airplanes.
 
September 16: The Canadian Aviation Corps is authorized by the Minister of Militia and Defense to be formed. This is the beginning of Canada's military air force.
 
October 5: A German Aviatik becomes the 1st aircraft to be shot down in a dogfight by a French Army-owned Voisin airplane.
 
December 21: The UK is bombed by a German aircraft for the first time – a Taube drops two bombs near the Admiralty Pier, Kent.
 
 
 

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