1941 in aviation - Definition and Overview

This is a list of aviation-related events from 1941:

Events

• Jacqueline Cochran became the first woman to fly a bomber across the Atlantic Ocean.

February

• February 8 - a fleet of Junkers Ju 52s is used to airlift German troops to North Africa.
• February 10 - Britain uses paratroops for the first time in an attack on Tragino

March

• March 1 - New Zealand's first fighter squadron, No. 485 Squadron RAF is formed.
• March 11 - the Congress of the United States passes the Lend-Lease bill, paving the way for the provision of (amongst other equipment) 16,000 warplanes to the UK. Later Lend-Lease arrangements will supply other Allied nations.

April

• April 15 - CAMCO signs an agreement with the Chinese government to equip and administer the American Volunteer Group in China.
• April 16 - London comes under intense bomber attack, with nearly 900 tonnes of high explosive dropped on the city.

May

• May 6 - Igor Sikorsky sets a world endurance record for helicopter flight of 1 hour 32 minutes, in a Sikorsky VS-300
• May 10 - Rudolf Hess parachutes into Scotland to try and negotiate an alliance with Britain against the Soviet Union
• May 20 - the Luftwaffe's largest paratroop assault sees 22,750 troops landed in Crete in Operation Merkur. The heavy losses taken mean this will also be the Luftwaffe's last such operation for the war.
• May 26 - Royal Air Force and Fleet Air Arm aircraft play a key role in finding and sinking the German battleship Bismarck.
• May 29 - the USAAC forms Ferrying Command to fly newly manufactured aircraft across the Atlantic to Britain.

June

• June 8 - July 8 - the British invades Syria - air combat between British and French aircraft
• June 20 - the USAAC is renamed the USAAF and placed under the command of General Henry Arnold
• June 22 - Germany invades the Soviet Union (Operation Barbarossa). 1,200 Soviet aircraft are destroyed on the first day alone.

July

• July 18 - the first RAF aircraft equipped with radar
• July 28 - the Vichy government agrees to build German aircraft in France

August

• August 1 - the Soviet Union makes the first operational use of parasite fighters, attacking Constanza with modified Polikarpov I-16s carried into action by Tupolev TB-3s.
• August 1 - the United States embargoes the sale of aviation fuel to Japan.

September

• September 23 - Hans-Ulrich Rudel single-handedly sinks a Soviet battleship (the Marat) flying a Junkers Ju 87

October

• October 2 - Heini Dittmar sets a new airspeed record of 1,004 km/h (624 mph) in a Messerschmitt Me 163A. The record is unofficial because the flight (and the Me 163 programme) is kept secret.

November

• November 12 - aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal is sunk by a German submarine

December

• December 7 - the Imperial Japanese Navy makes a devastatingly successful surprise attack on the US Navy fleet at Pearl Harbor. Six aircraft carriers launched a total of nearly 400 warplanes which claimed five US battleships and ten other vessels, and damaged three other battleships. The US declares war on Japan.
• December 18 - Lt Buzz Wagner becomes the first US ace of the war.
• December 22 - a radar-equipped Fairey Firefly sinks a German submarine (U-451) at night, the first such victory

First flights

January

• Junkers Ju 288
• January 9 - Avro Lancaster prototype BT 308 (at the time, an Avro Manchester Mk III)

February

• February 25 - Messerschmitt Me 321

April

• April 2 - Heinkel He 280

May

• Nakajima J1N
• May 15 - Gloster E.28/39, first British jet

August

• August 1 - Grumman TBF Avenger

December

• December 22 - Fairey Firefly prototype Z 1826

Entered service

February

• P-39 Airacobra with 31st Pursuit Group (39th, 40th, and 41st Pursuit Squadrons, USAAC)

November

• de Havilland Mosquito with No. 105 Squadron RAF

December

• Avro Lancaster with No. 44 (Rhodesia) Squadron RAF