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

November 29: The Pan American Airways China Clipper, a Martin 130 fourengine
flying boat, completed the first transpacific airmail flight
between San Francisco and Manila, the Philippines.
December 17: The DC–3, a revolutionary new airliner that became the most
popular transport in the world, flew for the first time.
December 22: Brig. Gen. Oscar Westover succeeded Maj. Gen. Benjamin D.
Foulois as chief of the Air Corps.
December 27: The Air Corps’s 5th Group (Composite) dropped bombs to
divert lava flowing from Mauna Loa volcano, which was threatening
the city of Hilo, Hawaii.
1936
February 19: William “Billy” Mitchell died in New York City. He was buried
in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
June 6: The Socony-Vacuum Oil Company of Paulsboro, New Jersey, began
producing 100-octane aviation gasoline, which provided more power
for aircraft engines, allowing planes to fly faster and carry heavier
weights.
June 7: Flying from New York to Los Angeles entirely on instruments, Maj.
Ira C. Eaker completed the first transcontinental “blind” flight.
June 16: Seversky Aircraft Company won a contract to provide the Air Corps
with P–35 airplanes—the Army’s first single-seat fighters with enclosed
cockpits and retractable landing gear.
July 26: German airplanes arrived in Morocco to airlift the Army of Africa
to Spain at the opening of the Spanish Civil War. Gen. Francisco
Franco of Spain commanded this army.
November 4: The Pan American Hawaiian Clipper completed the first regular
passenger transpacific flight from Alameda, California, to Manila,
the Philippines, and back.
1937
1935–37
March 1: The 2d Bombardment Group at Langley Field, Virginia, acquired
its first YB–17A, the prototype of the B–17 Flying Fortress. Equipped
with multiple machine guns to defend itself against fighters swift
enough to catch it, the B–17 was designed to fly unescorted to longrange
enemy targets.
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