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On This Day: 1920

Aviation events for 1920

January 29: President Woodrow Wilson appoints Orville Wright to the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA).
 
February 1: South African Air Force is established as an independent air arm.
 
February 4: Pioneers Pierre van Ryneveld and Quentin Brand fly out of Cairo in a Vickers Vimy, crossing Africa by air from North to South. They arrived in Cape Town on March 20th.
 
February 5: The Royal Air Force College is established in Cranwell, Licolnshire.
 
February 7: French aviator Sadi Lacointe, piloting a Nieuport-Delage 29V, becomes the first pilot to set a new Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI) world speed record after World War I. He reaches a measured speed of 275.862 km/h (171.141 mph) along 1 km (3,280 ft.) course.
 
February 27: Major Rudolph W. Schroeder of the US Army Air Service sets a new world altitude record when he flies to the height of 33,143 feet. During the flight over McCook Field in Dayton, Ohio he nearly loses his life when his oxygen system fails.
 
March 20: Two South African pilots complete the first flight from Britain to South Africa after a flying time of four days, 13 hours, 30 minutes.
 
March 29: Located about 10 miles due south of the City of London, England, Waddon Airport at Croydon is used for the first time as London’s airport. Until this date, Hownslow has been considered the capital’s main airport.
 
April 17: The Venezuelan Air Force is formed.
 
May 17: KLM Royal Dutch Airlines commences flight operations.
 
May 28: The first Lewis & Vought VE-7 (Vought Experimental No.7) is delivered to the U.S. Navy.
 
June 7: The U.S. Army orders 20 GAX (Ground Attack Experimental) triplanes from Boeing as the Model 10, an order later reduced to 10 before the first was delivered in May 1921.
 
June 8: Lieutenant John Wilson makes a world record parachute jump from 19,861 feet in San Antonio, Texas.
 
July 19: The Vickers R. 80 airship, designed in an innovative streamlined shape by company designer Barnes Wallis, makes its first flight.
 
July 22: Aviation enthusiast David R. Davis and airplane designer Donald W. Douglas team up to form the Davis-Douglas Company. Their goal is to build the first aircraft capable of flying non-stop across the U.S.
 
September 8: The final leg of the transcontinental air mail route is completed between New York City and San Francisco.
 
September 11: Edison Mouton flies into Marina Field, San Francisco, to complete the 1st US transcontinental airmail flight. Having left from New York, it took Mouton and his crew over 75 hours to complete the feat.
 
September 28: American pilot Howard Rinehart, flying a Dayton-Wright R.B Racer, becomes the 1st person to fly an airplane fitted with retractable landing gear.
 
October 20: Flying his Nieuport Delage, Sadi Lecointe set a world speed record flying at 187.99-mph.
 
November 16: QANTAS is founded in Winton, Queensland. Read more...
 
December 14: An AT&T Handley Page 0/400crashes in Cricklewood, UK killing four. Likely cause was fog.
 
December 15: The first of a number of flying schools to train reserve pilots for the military opens at Orly, south of Paris.
 
 
 

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