1937 in aviation - Definition and Overview

This is a list of aviation-related events from 1937:

Events

March

• March 5 - Imperial Airways opens a new flying boat base at Hythe, Hampshire.

April

• April 12 - Sir Frank Whittle ground-tests the first jet engine designed to power an aircraft at the British Thomson-Houston factory in Rugby, England.
• April 26 - Luftwaffe bombers of Legion Condor attack Guernica
• April 30 - Nationalist Spanish battleship España sunk by air attack by Republican forces.

May

• May 6 - German zeppelin Hindenburg caught fire and was destroyed whilst attempting to dock with its mooring mast at Lakehurst Naval Air Station in Lakehurst, New Jersey.

June

• June 18-20, Valery Chkalov, G.F.Baidukov, A.V.Belyakov flew from Moscow to Vancouver, Washington, USA via the North Pole

July

• July 3, Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan disappear on a flight from Lae, New Guinea to Howland Island, and are never seen again.
• July 3-6 - Pan Am and Imperial Airways flying boats conduct joint survey flights over the Atlantic in preparation for the commencement of regular services.
• July 12-14 - Mikhail Gromov, A. B. Yumashev, and S. A. Danilin establish a new distance record of 10,148 km (6,303 miles) from Moscow to San Jacinto, California, USA via the North Pole.

August

• August 15 - Lufthansa begins seaplane services between the Azores and New York with the assistance of seaplane tenders stationed along the route.

First flights

January

• January 13 - Fairey Fulmar

February

• February 9 - Blackburn Skua

March

• Miles Magister
• March 10 - Hawker Henley

May

• May 7 - Lockheed XC-35
• May 20 - de Havilland Albatross

June

• June 18 - de Havilland Don
• June 19 - Airspeed Oxford
• June 22 - de Havilland Moth Minor

July

• July 27 - Short Mayo Flying-boat / seaplane composite
• July 27 - Focke-Wulf Fw 200 prototype D-AERE
• July 29 - Lockheed Model 14 Super Electra

August

• August 11 - Boulton Paul Defiant prototype K 8310

October

• October 16 - Short S.25 K 4774, prototype of the Short Sunderland

December

• Brewster B-139, prototype of the Brewster Buffalo
• December 24 - Macchi C.200

Entered service

February

• Gloster Gladiator with No. 3 and No. 72 Squadron RAF

March

• March 9 - Armstrong Whitworth Whitley with No. 10 Squadron RAF
• Bristol Blenheim with No. 114 Squadron RAF

April

• Vickers Wellesley
• Junkers Ju 87 with I/StG 162
• April 16 - Supermarine Stranraer

May

• May 20 - Fairey Battle with No. 63 Squadron RAF

October

• Miles Magister
• TBD Devastator with VT-3 aboard USS Saratoga

November

• Airspeed Oxford

December

• SB2U Vindicator with VB-3 aboard USS Saratoga