1938 in aviation

This is a list of aviation-related events from 1938:

Events

Imperial Airways inaugurates scheduled service from London to Montreal. Pan American World Airways is banned from British airports out of fears that more advanced U.S. aircraft will drive Imperial out of the transatlantic market.
The National Trophy, the Harmon Trophy presented to the outstanding aviator for the year in each of the 21 member countries of the International League of Aviators, is awarded for the last time, although the annual award of the Harmon Trophy to the world's outstanding aviator, aviatrix (female aviator), and aeronaut (balloon or dirigible aviator or aviatrix) continues.
The Imperial Japanese Navy's air arm conducts a six-month bombing campaign against Hankow and other centers of Chinese resistance in central China.
The Civil Aeronautics Authority is established in the United States and takes over operation of the air traffic control system.

January

January 20 - A Flight Refuelling Ltd Armstrong Whitworth AW.23 refuels an Imperial Airways Short Empire over Southampton Water

February

February 15-27 - Six USAAC B-17 Flying Fortresses make a goodwill tour of Latin America, traveling 12,000 miles (19,312 km) to Lima, Buenos Aires, Santiago and back.

April

April 20 - British Air Commodore Arthur Travers Harris makes a purchasing trip to the United States to select aircraft to expand the Royal Air Force. The Lockheed Hudson and North American Harvard are chosen.
April 29 - In the largest air battle of the Second Sino-Japanese War to date, 18 Mitsubishi G3M bombers and approximately 30 Mitsubishi A5M fighters encounter 60 to 80 Soviet-built Nationalist Chinese fighters over Hankow. The Japanese claim the destruction of 51 Chinese fighters and admit losing two fighters and two bombers, while the Chinese admit the loss of 12 aircraft and claim to have shot down anywhere from 21 Japanese aircraft to as many as 45.

May

For the second time in six months, a Mitsubishi A5M fighter loses a third of its right wing in when it is rammed by a Nationalist Chinese fighter but flies 200 miles (322 km) to its base without further incident. This time, the collision occurs over Hankow.
A terror bombing raid by Imperial Japanese Navy Mitsubishi G3M bombers on Canton, China, kills 600 and injures 900.
May 12 - Three B-17 Flying Fortresses use dead reckoning navigation to intercept the ocean liner SS Rex more than 600 miles at sea.
May 12 - The US Navy commissions its sixth aircraft carrier, USS Enterprise.
May 13-May 15 A Japanese Gasuden Koken aircraft breaks the closed-circuit world distance record of 11,651 km (7,240 mi).
May 17 - The US Congress passes the Naval Expansion Act, leading to the construction of the Essex class aircraft carriers
May 21 - The first flight of the Dornier Do 26 long-range seaplane.

June

A prototype Heinkel He 118 makes the first airborne tests of a turbojet engine
June 9 - the Nicaraguan Air Force is formed as the Fuerza Aérea de la Guarda Nacional
June 25 - Official public opening of Manchester Airport at Ringway (England) with extensive air display.

July

In an Imperial Japanese Navy raid on a Nationalist Chinese airfield at Nanchang, three Japanese aircraft land on the field and their pilots disembark to shoot up Chinese personnel, barracks, and hangars and set Chinese aircraft on fire on foot before taking off and departing unscathed. The Japanese will use this attack technique on several future occasions.
July 14 - Howard Hughes flies a Lockheed 14N around the world in 3 days 19 hours, to and from Floyd Bennett Field New York, more than halving the time that Wiley Post took to make the trip.

August

August 10-11 - a Lufthansa Focke-Wulf Fw 200 (D-ACON Brandenberg) makes a non-stop flight from Berlin to New York, via Hamburg, Glasgow, Newfoundland, and Halifax, Nova Scotia, taking 24 hours 36 minutes for the trip.

September

September 10 - Germany prohibits all foreign air traffic in its airspace except along specific air corridors.
September 21 - Major General Oscar Westover, Chief of the United States Army Air Corps, is killed at Burbank, California, in the crash of a Northrop A-17AS he is piloting.
September 24-25 - Three Soviet women - Valentina Grizodubova, Polina Osipenko, and Marina Raskova - fly the Tupolev ANT-37 Rodina ("Motherland") nonstop across the Soviet Union, achieving a women's world nonstop distance record of 5,913 km (3,672 statute miles) in 26 hours 29 minutes.

November

November 5-7 - Non-stop flight by a pair of Vickers Wellesleys from Egypt to Darwin, Australia. This sets a new world distance record of 7,158 miles (11,520 km).
November 28-30 - a Lufthansa Fw 200 makes the airline's first flight to Japan, flying non-stop from Berlin to Tokyo via Basra, Karachi, and Hanoi. The 14,228 km (8,841 mile) flight breaks the distance record and takes 46 hours 18 minutes.

First flights

January

Aichi D3A
January 5 - Miles Mentor L4932
January 22 - Heinkel He 100
January 24 - Armstrong Whitworth Ensign

February

February 2 - Junkers Ju 88 V4

March

March 12 - PZL.44 Wicher

June

June 7 - Douglas DC-4E
June 14 -- Hawker Hotspur K8309

August

Dornier Do 217
PZL.46 Sum

September

September 29 - Supermarine Sea Otter

October

October 2 - Dewoitine D.520
October 11 - Westland Whirlwind prototype L6844
October 14 - Curtiss XP-40
October 15 - Bristol Beaufort prototype L4441

December

December 4 - Miles M.18
December 10 - Lockheed Hudson
December 12 - Fairey Albacore prototype L7074
December 22 - De Havilland Flamingo
December 23 - Blackburn Roc prototype L3057
December 28 - Blackburn Botha
December 31 - Boeing 307

Entered service

April

Northrop BT with VB-5 aboard USS Yorktown

June

Westland Lysander with No. 16 Squadron RAF

July

Supermarine Spitfire with No. 19 Squadron RAF

September

Handley Page Hampden with No. 49 Squadron RAF

October

Vickers Wellington with No. 9 Squadron RAF
Armstrong Whitworth Ensign with Imperial Airways

November

Arado Ar 196

1938 in Aviation Pictures

More aircraft.

Source: WikiPedia