1944 in aviation

This is a list of aviation-related events from 1944:

Events

January

United States Coast Guard pilot Lieutenant, junior grade, Stewart Graham makes the first helicopter flight from a merchant ship in convoy in the North Atlantic Ocean. It is part of the United States Department of the Navy's development of the helicopter as an antisubmarine warfare platform.
January 11 - in one of their largest air raids to date, 570 USAAF bombers strike Brunswick, Halberstadt, and Oschersleben.

February

February 18 - Operation Jericho: de Havilland Mosquitos of No. 487 Squadron, Royal New Zealand Air Force and No. 464 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force, breach the prison walls at Amiens, France, allowing captured members of the French Resistance to escape.

March

March 10 - Icelandic airline Loftleidir is formed.

April

The United States Coast Guard begins to experiment with dipping sonar as it leads the United States Department of the Navy's effort to develop the helicopter as an antisubmarine warfare platform.
April 2 - The first United States Army Air Forces B-29 Superfortress arrives at Calcutta, India, after an 11,530-mile (18,567-km) trip from Kansas which includes stops at Presque Isle, Maine; Gander, Newfoundland; Marrakech, Morocco; Cairo, Egypt; and Karachi, and a 2,700-mile (4,348-km) non-stop transatlantic flight between Gander and Marrakech.
April 3 - German battleship Tirpitz is sunk by attacks by the Fleet Air Arm and RAF.
April 4 - The United States Army Air Forces activate the 20th Air Force, which will conduct a strategic bombing campaign against Japan.
April 17 - Howard Hughes sets a new US transcontinental speed record, flying a Lockheed Constellation
April 24 - The first B-29 Superfortress arrives in China, beginning the build-up by the United States Army Air Forces' 20th Air Force for a strategic bombing offensive against Japan.

May

May 29 - The escort aircraft carrier USS Block Island (CVE-21) is torpedoed and sunk near the Azores by a German submarine. She is the only United States Navy aircraft carrier lost in the Atlantic Ocean.

June

June 5 - The B-29 Superfortress flies its first combat mission; 98 B-29s take off from bases in India and attack railroad shops in Bangkok, Thailand. Five are lost, none to enemy action.
June 5-6 - "D-Day" - the Allied invasion of France is spearheaded by paratrooper drops and assault glider landings.
June 12 - England suffers its first V1 flying bomb attacks, .
June 14-15 (overnight) - Flying a Mosquito of 605 Sqn, Flight Lieutenant J. G. Musgrave became first pilot to shoot down a V1 flying bomb.
June 15 - The United States Army Air Forces' 20th Air Force begins the strategic bombing offensive against Japan, with China-based B-29 Superfortresses attacking Yawata (now Kitakyūshū) on Kyūshū. It is the second air raid against Japan proper in history, and the first since the Doolittle Raid of April 1942.
June 24-25 - The Luftwaffe makes its first operational use of the "Mistel" composite aircraft, against Allied shipping in Seine Bay.

July

July 8 - The second B-29 Superfortress raid on Japan attacks four cities on Kyūshū from bases in China.
July 27 - Gloster Meteors of No. 616 Squadron RAF fly their first V1 interception mission

August

August 10 - United States Army Air Forces B-29 Superfortresses carry out raids against Palembang on Sumatra and Nagasaki, Japan. The Palembang raid is the longest carried out by the 20th Air Force during World War II, requiring a round trip of 4,030 miles (6,490 km) between a staging base on Ceylon and the target. The Nagasaki raid employs the heaviest B-29 bomb loads to date - 6,000 lbs (2,722 kg) per bomber - and results in the 20th Air Force's first air-to-air kill, a Japanese fighter shot down by B-29 gunner Technical Sergeant H. C. Edwards.
August 15 - Luftwaffe Feldwebel Helmut Lennartz scores the first air-to-air victory by a jet, shooting down a B-17 Flying Fortress in a Messerschmitt Me 262
August 16 - The Messerschmitt Me 163 rocket-powered interceptor is used against Allied bombers for the first time.
August 23 - Sixty-one people die in the Freckleton Air Disaster, when a United States Army Air Forces B-24 Liberator crashes into the village of Freckleton, England.
August 23 - While attempting to fly one of the new Martin Baltimore light bombers without an instructor early in the transition training phase, Major Carlo Emanuele Buscaglia, one of Italy's most noted aviators and commanding officer of the 28th Bomber Wing, crashes on take-off. He dies in a hospital in Naples the following day.

September

September 6- The sole completed McDonnell XP-67 Bat prototype is destroyed by an engine fire, prompting USAAF leaders to declare the aircraft redundant and cancel the program a week later.
September 7 - 108 B-29 Superfortresses bomb the Showa Steel Works in Anshan, Manchuria, from bases in China.

October

October 12 - The first B-29 Superfortress lands on Saipan, beginning the 20th Air Force's build-up of a strategic bombing capability in the Mariana Islands. For the first time, all of Japan proper is within range of United States Army Air Forces strategic bombers.
October 14 - 104 China-based B-29s attack Formosa for the first time, striking an aircraft plant at Okayama. The combined bombload of 650 tons (589,676 kg) is the largest in history at the time.
October 25 - The first kamikaze mission takes place, with aircraft of the 201st Kokutai sinking the United States Navy escort aircraft carrier USS St. Lo (CVE-63).
October 28 - The United States Army Air Forces' 20th Air Force carries out its first strike from its new bases in the Mariana Islands, a raid by 14 Saipan-based B-29 Superfortresses against Truk Atoll. It is the first B-29 combat mission from the Marianas.

November

The United States establishes a nationwide air-sea rescue organization to coordinate air-sea rescue operations by the U.S. armed forces along the U.S. coast. The United States Coast Guard is the control agency for the organization.
November 1 - An F-13 photographic reconnaissance aircraft (a variant of the B-29 Superfortress bomber) conducts a mission over Tokyo. It is the first Allied aircraft to fly over Tokyo since the April 1942 Doolittle Raid.
November 3 - The first Japanese Fu-Go balloon bombs are launched against the United States.
November 13 - Civil air services to London are restored, with the first flights carried out by Railway Air Services.
November 24 - 111 United States Army Air Forces B-29 Superfortresses attack Tokyo, targeting the Musashino aircraft plant. Although they do not damage the plant, it is the first strategic bombing raid against Japan from the 20th Air Force's new bases in the Mariana Islands, and the first air attack of any kind on Tokyo except for the April 1942 Doolittle Raid.
November 27 - 81 B-29s attempt a second attack the Musashino aircraft plant in Tokyo. Heavy cloud cover forces them to bomb secondary targets instead.
November 29-30 (overnight) - 29 B-29s conduct the first night incendiary raid against Japan, attacking industrial areas in Tokyo and destroying an estimated 0.1 square mile (0.15 square kilometer) of the city.

December

December 7 - Signing of the Convention on International Civil Aviation in Chicago, Illinois.

First flights

January

January 8 - P-80 Shooting Star

February

February 2 - Republic XP-72
February 16 - Curtiss SC-1 Seahawk

April

April 5 - Miles Monitor

May

May 6 - XB-42 Mixmaster
May 7 - XA-38 Grizzly
May 30 - Pilatus SB-2

June

June 9 - Avro Lincoln

July

July 5 - Northrop MX-324
July 28 - de Havilland Hornet

August

August 16 - Junkers Ju 287
August 26 - Martin AM Mauler

September

September 1 - Hawker Sea Fury
September 10 - Fairchild XC-82

October

October 27 - Bristol Buckmaster

November

November 15 - Boeing XC-97

December

December 4 - Bristol Brigand
December 6 - Heinkel He 162
December 14 - Short Shetland

Entered service

July

Fairey Firefly with No. 1770 Squadron FAA
July 12 - Gloster Meteor with No. 616 Squadron RAF

1944 in Aviation Pictures

More aircraft.

Source: WikiPedia