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

1942
May 7–8: The Battle of the Coral Sea was the first naval battle in which the
opposing ships, beyond visual range, attacked each other entirely with
aircraft. Both the United States and Japan lost an aircraft carrier, but
the battle thwarted an invasion of Port Moresby, New Guinea, from
which the Japanese could have invaded Australia.
May 17: Igor I. Sikorsky’s XR–4, flown by Sikorsky and Les Morris, landed at
Wright Field, Ohio, to complete delivery of the first Army Air Forces
helicopter.
May 26: The Northrop prototype for the P–61 Black Widow, the first U.S.
aircraft designed as a night fighter, first flew at Hawthorne, California,
with test pilot Vance Breese at the controls.
June 4–5: The Japanese attempt to take the island of Midway in the mid-
Pacific failed in a major battle—the most important turning point in
the war in the Pacific. Having broken the Japanese code, U.S. forces
were ready for the invaders. As a result of the Battle of Midway, fought
primarily by carrier aircraft but also by some Army Air Forces aircraft
from Midway, the Japanese lost four aircraft carriers, a heavy cruiser,
322 aircraft, and some 5,000 men, including many skilled pilots. The
United States lost the USS Yorktown, one of its three aircraft carriers.
After this battle, the Japanese were forced to go on the defensive.
June 12: The Army Air Forces launched its first strategic air raid in the
European-African-Middle Eastern theater, sending 13 B–24 Liberator
42
When he was a colonel, James H.
“Jimmy” Doolittle led the first air
raid on Tokyo.