One Hundred Years of Flight USAF Chronology ... - The Air University

1919
Personnel of the 11th Aero Squadron Day Bombardment, Maulan, France, 1918
1919
January 2: Maj. Gen. Charles T. Menoher became director of the Army Air
Service.
April 28: At McCook Field, Ohio, Leslie L. Irvin first tested a free-type backpack
parachute designed by James F. Smith for the Army, jumping
from a DeHavilland DH–9 at 1,500 feet. Although he broke an ankle
on landing, Irvin survived the test. After further testing, the Army
ordered 400 such parachutes later that year from Irvin’s company.
May 19: MSgt. Ralph W. Bottriell became the first member of the Army to
jump from an airplane with a backpack-type parachute, later receiving
the Distinguished Flying Cross for this feat.
May 27: Lt. Cmdr. Albert C. “Puffy” Read and his five-man crew in a Navy
Curtiss NC–4 Flying Boat completed the first crossing of the Atlantic
Ocean by air, traveling from Newfoundland to Portugal, stopping once
in the Azores.
June 15: Capt. John Alcock and Lt. Arthur W. Brown of Great Britain completed
the first nonstop crossing of the Atlantic Ocean by air, flying
from Saint Johns, Newfoundland, to Clifden, Ireland.
July 13: The first airship to cross the Atlantic Ocean, the British R–34,
landed at Roosevelt Field, Long Island, after leaving England on 2 July.
October 27: A board led by Maj. Gen. Charles T. Menoher, director of the
Air Service, released a report that rejected the proposals of Rep.
Charles F. Curry of California and Sen. Harry S. New of Indiana for an
air force department separate from the Army and Navy.
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