1927 in aviation - Definition and Overview

This is a list of aviation-related events from 1927:

Events

January

• January 7 - Imperial Airways commences a regular service from Basra to Cairo via Baghdad, the first of its Empire "trunk routes"
• January 15 - Boeing Air Transport is formed, to carry airmail between Chicago and San Francisco. This will eventually become United Airlines

March

• March 14 - Pan American Airways is formed to carry airmail on the Key West-Havana route.

May

• May 1 - Imperial Airways introduces its luxury "Silver Wing" service between London and Paris.
• May 20-21 - Charles Lindbergh flies The Spirit of St. Louis across the Atlantic nonstop and solo, direct from New York City to Paris.
• May 20 - Flt Lt Roderic Carr sets out to set a new distance record, attempting to fly from England to India in a Hawker Horsely. Three days later, he will be rescued from the Persian Gulf.
• May 27 - France's first aircraft carrier, the Bearn is commissioned

June

• June 5 - the Verein für Raumschiffahrt ("Society for spaceship travel") is formed in Germany.
• June 6 - Canadian innovator Wallace Turnbull sells the parent of the variable-pitch propeller to Curtiss-Wright in the United States and Bristol in the United Kingdom. It will be successfully flight tested on June 29.
• June 15 - US businessman Van Lear Black charters a KLM Fokker F.VIIa for a flight from the Netherlands to Batavia, the first international charter flight.
• June 28-29 - a US Army Fokker C-2 makes the first non-stop flight from the continental US to Hawaii.

July

• July 17 - USMC de Havilland DH.4s are used to attack bandits in Nicaragua threatening the garrison at Ocotal.

August

• August 12 - the Royal Air Force holds a fly-off between four competing flying boat designs, the Supermarine Southampton, Blackburn Iris, Short Singapore, and the Saunders-Roe Valkyrie.
• August 26 - Bert Hinkler sets a new non-stop distance record, flying from Croydon, England to Riga, Latvia.

September

• September 8 - the Cessna company is established.
• September 26 - Schneider Trophy race flown at Venice, Italy. Won by Flight Lt. S.N Webster (UK) in a Supermarine S5 at 453.2 km/h (281.7mph).
• September 28 - Lt Dick Bently of the South African Air Force arrives in South Africa after having made the first solo flight there from England. He left London on September 1.

October

• October 14-15 - Dieudonne Costes and Joseph le Brix make the first non-stop aerial crossing of the South Atlantic, flying a Breguet 19 from Saint-Louis, Senegal to Port Natal in Brazil.

November

• November 16 - US aircraft carrier USS Saratoga is commissioned.
• November 17 - Sir Alan Cobham sets out from England in a Short Singapore to make an aerial survey of Africa.

December

• December 14 - US aircraft carrier USS Lexington is commissioned.
• December 29 - Georg Wulf, co-founded of Focke-Wulf is killed in the crash of the Focke-Wulf Fw 19

First flights

• Hamilton H-47, first US all-metal aircraft
• Nieuport-Delage Ni-D 52

March

• March 7 - Westland Wapiti
• March 26 - Handley Page Hinaidi

April

• April 27 - Stinson Detroiter

May

• May 17 - Bristol Bulldog

July

• July 4 - Lockheed Vega

Entered service

July

• July 1 - Boeing 40 with Boeing Air Transport