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

1925
April 13: Henry Ford established the first regularly scheduled commercial
airfreight line in the United States between Detroit and Chicago.
September 3: The Navy dirigible Shenandoah broke apart and crashed during
a violent storm over Ava, Ohio, killing 14 of 43 persons aboard.
September 5: Col. William “Billy” Mitchell charged that the loss of a Navy
airplane on a flight from California to Hawaii and the loss of the Navy
dirigible Shenandoah in Ohio resulted from “incompetency,” “criminal
negligence,” and “almost treasonable administration” by the Navy and
War Departments. As a result, President Calvin Coolidge ordered
Mitchell’s court-martial.
November 30: A board appointed by President Calvin Coolidge and headed
by Dwight W. Morrow released a report recommending conservative
reorganization of the Air Service and its redesignation as the Air
Corps, rather than establishment of an independent air force coequal
with the Army and Navy. The Morrow Board Report also recommended
a five-year expansion plan for Army aviation.
December 17: After a seven-week trial, the Army convicted Col. William “Billy”
Mitchell of violating the 96th article of war by having made “insubordinate”
statements. Sentenced to five years’ suspension of rank, pay, and
command, he resigned from the Army shortly thereafter.
1926
1925–26
March 16: At Auburn, Massachusetts, Dr. Robert H. Goddard successfully
launched the world’s first liquid-fueled rocket.
May 9: In a Fokker C–2 Trimotor monoplane, Lt. Cmdr. Richard E. Byrd of
the Navy and civilian pilot Floyd Bennett completed the first flight
over the North Pole, taking off and landing at the Norwegian island of
Spitzbergen.
May 20: President Calvin Coolidge signed the Air Commerce Act, the first
federal legislation to regulate civil aeronautics.
July 2: The Air Corps Act redesignated the Army Air Service as the Army Air
Corps and created an assistant secretary of war for air, as recommended
by the Morrow Board in November 1925. On the same day,
Maj. Gen. Mason M. Patrick, chief of the Air Service, became chief of
the Air Corps. Congress also established the Distinguished Flying
Cross, directing that it be awarded to individuals for outstanding flying
achievements since April 6, 1917.
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