1945 in aviation - Definition and Overview

This is a list of aviation-related events from 1945:

Events

January

• January 1 - the Luftwaffe begins targeting Allied airfields in Europe as "Operation Bodenplatte"

February

• February 13-15 - Allied bombers attack Dresden with incendiary weapons, destroying most of the city and killing some 50,000 people.
• February 21 - aircraft carrier USS Saratoga is badly damaged by a kamikaze attack

March

• March 13-14 - an Avro Lancaster of No. 617 Squadron RAF drops the first 22,000 lb (9,980 kg) Grand Slam bomb
• March 21 - the Ohka dedicated kamikaze weapon is used operationally for the first time but with no success.
• March 27 - the final V-2 missile to hit the England falls in Kent

April

• April 1 - Ohkas score hits on the USS West Virginia and three of her escorts.
• April 10 - the Luftwaffe flies its final sortie over England (with an Arado Ar 234 on a reconnaissance mission)
• April 12 - USS Mannert L. Abele is sunk by an Ohka
• April 23 - the US Navy puts its first radar-guided bomb into use, the SWOD-9 "Bat", dropped from Consolidated PB4Ys on Japanese shipping in Balikpapan Harbour.

May

• Germany's top-scoring fighter ace Hans-Joachim Marseille surrenders to Allied forces
• May 7 - the Royal Air Force sinks its last German submarine
• May 8 - VE Day - Germany surrenders, ending the War in Europe

July

• July 28 - a B-25 Mitchell bomber crashed into the Empire State Building

August

• August 1 - Toyama is the subject of an incendiary attack by the USAAF that destroys almost the entire city
• August 6 - B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay drops "Little Boy" the first nuclear weapon used in warfare over the Japanese city of Hiroshima
• August 9 - B-29 Bockscar drops a plutonium-239 nuclear weapon, Fat Man, on Nagasaki.
• August 14 - VJ Day - Japan surrenders, ending the War in the Pacific, and World War II.
• August 15 - seven Imperial Japanese Navy aircraft make the last kamikaze attack of the war.
• August 19 - two Mitsubishi G4Ms carry Japan's surrender delegation to Ie Shima

September

• a captured Focke-Achgelis FA 223 makes the first helicopter crossing of the English Channel
• September 20, an experimental Gloster Meteor with Rolls-Royce Trent engines makes the first turboprop-powered flight.

November

• November 7 – Gp Cpt H. J. Wilson sets a new official airspeed record of 606 mph (976 km/h) in a Gloster Meteor. Unofficial German speed records by the rocket-powered Messerschmitt Me 163 during the war had already exceeded 625 mph (1,000 km/h)

December

• December 3 - A Mk5 Sea Vampire became the first jet aircraft to take off and land from an aircraft carrier, HMS Ocean.

First flights

February

• February 7 - Consolidated-Vultee XP-81
• February 21 - Hawker Sea Fury prototype SR 661
• February 25 - Bell XP-83

March

• Blohm & Voss BV 238
• March 18 - Douglas XB2D-1, prototype of the AD Skyraider

April

• April 5 - Miles Monitor
• April 19 - de Havilland Sea Hornet prototype PX 212
• April 27 - Pilatus P-2

June

• June 9 - Avro Lincoln
• June 22 - Vickers Viking prototype G-AGOK

August

• August 3 - Kyushu J7W Shinden
• August 7 - Nakajima Kikka, first Japanese jet

October

• October 27 - Bristol Buckmaster

November

• November 10 - Yakovlev Yak-11
• November 20 - Saab 91 Safir

December

• December 2 - Bristol 170
• December 4 - Bristol Brigand
• December 8 - Bell 47 prototype NC1H
• December 22 - Beechcraft Bonanza

Entered service