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

1929–31
August 15: Flying a Buhl sesquiplane called Spokane Sun God, Lt. Nicholas B.
Mamer and Arthur Walker traveled nonstop from Spokane, Washington,
to the east coast and back, refueling in the air 11 times on the
7,200-mile flight.
August 29: Graf Zeppelin, under the command of Dr. Hugo Eckener, completed
the first airship flight around the world. Originating and ending
in Lakehurst, New Jersey, the trip took 21 days.
September 24: Lt. James H. “Jimmy” Doolittle made the first instrumentsonly
flight, from takeoff to landing. He flew over Mitchel Field, New
York, in a Consolidated NY–2 airplane with a completely covered cockpit,
accompanied by a check pilot who monitored the flight.
November 29: Cmdr. Richard E. Byrd of the Navy made the first flight over
the South Pole in the Floyd Bennett, a Ford C–4 Trimotor airplane
piloted by Bernt Balchen and named for the pilot who had taken Byrd
over the North Pole in 1926.
1930
June 20: The Air Corps established Randolph Field at San Antonio, Texas,
for primary and basic pilot training. Known as the “West Point of the
Air,” the field eventually became headquarters of Air Education and
Training Command.
October 8: Near Rome, Maj. Marinello Nelli of Italy’s Regia Aeronautica
completed the first official helicopter flight in a twin-rotor aircraft
designed by Corrandino D’Ascanio. The craft flew to a height of 59
feet on a flight that lasted more than eight minutes.
October 25: Transcontinental and Western Air, Incorporated, inaugurated
the first transcontinental passenger air service between New York and
Los Angeles.
November 10: Flying a Lockheed Sirius Blue Flash powered by a Pratt and
Whitney Wasp radial engine, Capt. Roy W. Ammel of the Army completed
the first solo nonstop flight from New York to the Panama
Canal Zone, having flown 2,700 miles in 24 hours and 35 minutes.
1931
January 9: Gen. Douglas MacArthur, Army chief of staff, and Adm. William
V. Pratt, chief of naval operations, came to a verbal agreement that the
Army Air Corps would have primary responsibility for coastal defense.
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