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

1937–38
April 12: Frank Whittle tested the first practical jet engine in a laboratory at
Cambridge University, England.
April 26: German airplanes of the Kondor Legion bombed the Spanish town
of Guernica, leaving 6,000 dead. The air raid inspired a famous antiwar
painting by Pablo Picasso.
May 6: The German dirigible Hindenburg, the largest and most luxurious
airship ever built, burned while mooring at Lakehurst, New Jersey.
Thirty-five people died in the disaster.
July 2: Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan disappeared over the Pacific Ocean
in their attempt to fly around the world, a trip they had begun on May
21 from San Francisco eastward.
1938
February 27: A flight of six B–17s under Lt. Col. Robert D. Olds completed
a goodwill flight from Miami, Florida, to Buenos Aires, Argentina, and
back to Langley Field, Virginia. The flight of about 10,000 miles had
begun on February 17.
May 12: Three Army B–17 crews intercepted the Italian ocean liner Rex in
the Atlantic Ocean 700 miles from U.S. shores, proving the potential
of long-range bombers in coastal defense. The demonstration backfired
when the Navy demanded that Air Corps bombers be restricted
to within 100 miles of the coast.
August 12: Three B–17 crews of the 2d Bombardment Group under the
command of Maj. Vincent J. Meloy completed a goodwill mission from
Langley Field, Virginia, to Bogotá, Colombia.
August 22: The Civil Aeronautics Act placed all nonmilitary aviation under
the regulatory authority of the Civil Aeronautics Authority.
August 24: The Navy flew the first drone target in the United States—a
radio-controlled JH–1—to test antiaircraft batteries on the aircraft carrier
USS Ranger.
September 29: Maj. Gen. Henry H. Arnold became chief of the Army Air
Corps, formally taking the place of Maj. Gen. Oscar Westover, who
died in an airplane crash at Burbank, California, on September 21.
October 14: Edward Elliott conducted the first flight test of the Curtiss
XP–40 at Buffalo, New York. The XP–40 was the prototype of the P–40
of World War II fame.
November 14: At a secret White House meeting with his military leaders,
President Franklin D. Roosevelt called for an Air Corps of 20,000 air-
34