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

October 30: Personnel at McCook Field, Dayton, Ohio, tested a reversiblepitch
propeller, an invention that allowed an aircraft to slow down and
stop more rapidly when landing on short runways.
November 9: Flying a Martin bomber, Lt. Col. Rutherford S. Hartz and his
Army crew completed the first flight around the rim of the United
States, covering 9,823 miles in 108 days.
1920
February 22: The first U.S. transcontinental mail-service flight landed in
New York. U.S.-built DeHavilland DH–4s completed the mission in 14
segments.
June 4: Congress passed the National Defense Act to establish the Air Service
on a permanent basis as a combatant arm of the Army, making it
the equivalent of the infantry, cavalry, and artillery. Congress also created
the rating of “airplane pilot” and authorized flying pay of 50 percent
above base pay.
October 14: The Navy began tests to determine the effectiveness of aerial
attacks against ships, dropping sand-filled dummy bombs on the old
battleship Indiana at Tangier Sound in Chesapeake Bay.
November 1: Aeromarine West Indies Airways began flights between Key
West, Florida, and Havana, Cuba, thus inaugurating U.S. international
passenger service.
November 1: A Field Officers School opened at Langley Field, Virginia,
under Maj. Thomas DeWitt Milling. Later known as the Air Service
Tactical School and, later still, the Air Corps Tactical School, it taught
students the tactical employment of aviation and became the most
important source of Army air doctrine between the world wars.
1921
1919–21
July 21: Under the leadership of Brig. Gen. William “Billy” Mitchell, Martin
and Handley Page bombers from the Army’s 1st Provisional Air
Brigade bombed and sank the captured German battleship Ostfriesland
in Chesapeake Bay. The tests proved General Mitchell’s contention
that airplanes could sink the largest and most powerful naval
vessels.
July 29: Hoping to demonstrate the vulnerability of Atlantic seaboard cities
to air attack, Brig. Gen. William “Billy” Mitchell led 19 bombers in a
mock raid against New York City, after which he concluded that his target
had been theoretically destroyed. He used this raid to support his
21