1912 in aviation - Definition and Overview

This is a list of aviation-related events from 1912:

Events

• First all-metal aircraft flies, the Tubavion monoplane built by Ponche and Maurice Primard in France.
• The first Bulgarian air force is formed, using Blériot and Bristol aircraft to fight in the Balkan War.

January

• January 10 - Lt Cdr Charles Samson flies a Short S.38 from the deck of battleship HMS Africa, becoming the first British naval aviator.

February

• February 22 - Jules Vedrines becomes the first pilot to exceed 100 miles per hour (161 km/h). He makes his flight in a Deperdussin monoplane near Pau, France.

March

• Albert Berry makes the first parachute jump out of an aeroplane in St. Louis (USA).

April

• April 16 - Harriet Quimby becomes the first woman to fly the English Channel.
• April 22 - Englishman Denys Corbett Wilson makes the first aeroplane crossing from Britain to Ireland.

May

• May 9 - Lt Cdr Charles Samson becomes the first person to fly an aircraft off the deck of a moving ship. He takes off in a Short S.38 from the deck of HMS Hibernia.
• May 13 - King George V approves the formation of the Royal Flying Corps.

June

• Sopwith Aviation Company founded
• June 1 - The first aeroplane flight in Norway is made by Lt Hans Dons in a Etrich Taube.
• June 2 - The Lewis machine gun is first tested in an aircraft by the US Army. The results are extremely encouraging, and this weapon would go on to become the standard armament of many fighter aircraft during World War I.
• June 19 - The RFC's Central Flying School opened at Upavon, Wiltshire.
• June 27 - Following successes using aircraft against the Turks in North Africa, Italy forms a specialised Air Battalion (Battagliore Aviatori).

July

• July 1 - Harriet Quimby, the first licensed female pilot in the United States, as part of an Air Show spectacular flew around the Boston Light. During the flight, her Berliot plane was caught in turbulent air and nose-dived, plummeting both Quimby and a meet organizer passenger to their deaths in Dorchester Bay.
• July 2 - The Danish Air Force is established as an army air corps.

September

• September 8 - The Argentine Air Force is formed as a flying school at Palomar.

October

• October 22 - Australian Flying Corps formed.

November

• November 12 - A Curtiss Triad becomes the first aircraft to be launched by catapult, at the US Navy's Washington Navy Yard.
• November 19 - Italy's colonial air force is established as the Servizio d'Aviazione Coloniale.
• November 28 - The Italian Air Battalion is made a fully operational command, the (Flotta Aerea d'Italia).

First flights

February

• Royal Aircraft Factory BE.2 flown by designer Geoffrey de Havilland.

March

• March 1 - AEA Cygnet

Entered service