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

1932–33
1932
March 20: The Boeing XP–26, prototype of the P–26, flew for the first time.
The P–26 became the first all-metal monoplane fighter procured by
the Air Corps and the last Army pursuit airplane with an open cockpit,
fixed landing gear, and external-wire wing bracing.
The metal Boeing P–26 of the 1930s was better than fabric-covered biplanes, but
the drag of its nonretractable landing gear and open cockpit kept it from being as
fast as contemporary bombers.
May 9: At Dayton, Ohio, Capt. Albert F. Hegenberger completed the first
blind solo flight on instruments alone, without even a check pilot
aboard.
May 21: Amelia Earhart completed the first solo nonstop flight across the
Atlantic Ocean by a woman, flying in a Lockheed Vega from Newfoundland
to Londonderry, Northern Ireland.
August 25: Amelia Earhart became the first woman to complete a nonstop
transcontinental flight, from Los Angeles to Newark, New Jersey.
1933
April 4: The Navy dirigible Akron crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off the
New Jersey coast, killing 73 people, including Rear Adm. William A.
Moffett, chief of the Navy’s Bureau of Aeronautics.
July 22: Wiley Post completed the first solo flight around the world, covering
almost 15,600 miles in fewer than eight days. He flew a Lockheed
Vega called Winnie Mae.
October 11: Secretary of War George H. Dern approved the report of an
Army board chaired by Maj. Gen. Hugh A. Drum, which recommended
establishment of a General Headquarters Air Force. The
Drum Board recommended that the General Headquarters Air Force
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