1913 in aviation

This is a list of aviation-related events from 1913:

Events

January

13 January - Brazilian naval aviation commences with the foundation of a flying school.

February

8 February - Russian pilot N. de Sackoff becomes the first pilot shot down in combat when his biplane is hit by ground fire following a bombing run on the walls of Fort Bezhani during the First Balkan War. Flying for Greece, he comes down near Preveza, on the coast north of the Aegean island of Levkas, secures local Greek assistance, repairs his airplane, and flies back to base.
11 February - The Chilean Army establishes a Military Aviation School. at Lo Espejo (now El Bosque).

March

The Republic of China obtains twelve military aircraft from France.
15 March - The United States Army forms the 1st Aero Squadron under Capt Charles Chandler at Texas City to scout for Mexican incursions along the border.

April

Austro-Hungarian Navy battleships transport flying boats from Pola to the Gulf of Cattaro as part of an international peacekeeping force sent to the region toward the end of the First Balkan War.
16 April - The inaugural Schneider Trophy is won by Maurice Prévost in a Deperdussin monoplane, who completes 28 circuits of the 10 km (6.2 mile) course with an average speed of 73.63 km/h (45.75 mph)
24 April - O. Gilbert flies 825 km from Villacoublay to Vitoria (8 hours and 23 minutes).
27 April - Robert G. Fowler makes first flight across the Isthmus of Panama. Technically this is the first flight from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

May

7 May - HMS Hermes, formerly a protected cruiser, recommissions as the Royal Navy's first experimental seaplane carrier.

July

1 July - Royal Netherlands Army forms its Aviation Division (Luchtvaart Afdeling)
5 July - A seaplane carrier participates in the Royal Navy's annual maneuvers for the first time, as HMS Hermes embarks two seaplanes, the Short Folder S.64 biplane and a Caudron G.3 amphibian. The Short aircraft is the first with folding wings to be used aboard a ship. The maneuvers, which conclude on October 6, demonstrate both the feasibility of extended operations by aircraft at sea and the value of folding wings.
28 July - A Caudron G.3 amphibian takes off from a platform aboard the Hermes while she is underway and lands at Great Yarmouth. It is the first time an aircraft launches from the deck of a ship and lands ashore.

August

7 August - Aviation pioneer Samuel Cody is killed in a crash.
20 August - French parachutist Adolphe Pegoud becomes the first person in Europe to jump from an airplane and land safely when he jumps from 700 feet (213 m) above Buc, France.

September

1 September - Adolphe Pégoud makes the first inverted flight.
9 September - Maurice Prevost reaches 204 km/h (127 mph) in a Deperdussin racing aeroplane.
13 September - Aurel Vlaicu, Romanian engineer and inventor, dies near Cx¢mpina, Romania, while attempting to fly across the Carpathian Mountains in his Vlaicu II airplane.
23 September - Roland Garros makes the first flight across the Mediterranean Sea, 729 km (453 miles) from Saint-Raphax«l to Bizerte in 7 hours 53 minutes.

October-November

The Imperial Japanese Navy includes an aviation ship, the naval auxiliary Wakamiya, in its annual naval exercises for the first time. Wakamiya operates one or two Farman floatplanes during the exercise.

November

The first air-to-air combat in history takes place over Mexico when aircraft exchange pistol shots during the Mexican Revolution, apparently scoring no hits.

December

13-14 December - German balloonist Hugo Kaulen stays aloft for 87 hours. This record lasts until 1935.

Undated

The Serbian air force is established as an army air service. Six officers receive pilot training in France.
The first air strike ever takes places when Mexican pilot Gustavo Salinas Camilla and Frenchman Didier Masson, flying for rebel forces led by Pancho Villa during the Mexican Revolution, attack Mexican federal ground and naval forces.
The Imperial Japanese Navy places its first aviation ship, the naval auxiliary Wakamiya, in service to operate naval floatplanes.
The Imperial Russian Navy experiments with shipboard airplane operations for the first time, embarking a Curtiss floatplane aboard the protected cruiser Kagul in the Black Sea. It is its only such experiment prior to World War I.
The Royal Swedish Navy acquires its first seaplane.
Short Brothers patents the first folding wing mechanism.
In the United Kingdom, a Sopwith Type C floatplane succeeds in lifting a 14-inch (356-mm), 900-lb (408-kg) torpedo into the air.

First flights

May

13 May - Sikorsky Russky Vityaz, the world's first four-engined aircraft and the first aeroplane with a lavatory.

August

12 August - Bristol TB.8

September

18 September - Avro 504

November

Sopwith Tabloid

December

11 December - Sikorsky Ilya Muromets

Entered service

Layman, R.D., Before the Aircraft Carrier: The Development of Aviation Vessels 1849-1922, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1989, ISBN 0-87021-210-9

1913 in Aviation Pictures

More aircraft.

Source: WikiPedia