Mitsubishi Internal Combustion Engine Company Ltd. registers as an aircraft manufacturing company, with its factory at Kobe, Japan, and takes over the aircraft manufacturing business of its parent company, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.[5]
British military thinker ColonelJ. F. C. Fuller writes that in the next war "Fleets of aeroplanes will attack the enemy's great industrial and governing centres. All these attacks will be made against the civil population in order to compel it to accept the will of the attacker..."[6]
The Royal Air Force's "Z Unit" – the first self-contained air unit dedicated to "aerial policing", the use of independent air power to suppress colonial rebellions – begins operations in British Somaliland against the Dervish State of Diiriye Guure and Mohammed Abdullah Hassan (the "Mad Mullah") using 10 Airco DH.9s. On the first day, a DH.9 drops a bomb on the tent of the Mullah – who has never seen an airplane before and whose advisers tell him that the aircraft must be either chariots from Allah or friendly messengers from the Ottoman Empire's Sultan Mehmed VI – while he waits to receive their crews as important guests. He survives and flees.[9] The Z Unit will continue to bomb and strafe the Mullah's forces on January 22 and 23.[10]
January 24 – Extensive aerial reconnaissance by the Royal Air Force's Z Unit establishes that the Dervish State has abandoned the area around its Dhulbahante garesa forts at Medishi (later Medistie) and Jid Ali (later Jideli). Independent air operations against the forces of Diiriye Guure and Mohammed Abdullah Hassan end, and the Z Unit begins direct support to British troops pursuing Hassan.[10]
Early in the month, Royal Air Force Airco DH.9s bomb the Dervish State stronghold at Tale, including Mohammed Abdullah Hassan's personal compound. Hassan again survives and flees into Abyssinia.[10] The British campaign to restore their control over British Somaliland comes to a successful conclusion in only three weeks, at a low cost in British lives and money. It is the prototype of the "aerial policing" of rebellious colonies that the Royal Air Force will conduct in the 1920s and 1930s, most notably in Iraq.[12]
The first interisland commercial flight in the Hawaiian Islands takes place when pilot Charles Fern carries a paying passenger from Honolulu to Maui and back. The outbound flight requires an emergency stop on Molokai.[7]
February 27 – Piloting a U.S. Army Air Service Packard-Le Peré LUSAC-11 fighter equipped with one of the first turbochargers, MajorRudolf Schroeder sets a new world altitude record of 10,099 metres (33,133 feet). His oxygen system fails and he passes out; he regains consciousness only very near the ground and lands safely, but is hospitalized.
March 16 – The Royal Air Force renames its Marine Aircraft Experimental Station the "Marine and Armament Experimental Establishment" to reflect its involvement in evaluating weapons and equipment as well as seaplanes, flying boats, and other aircraft connected with naval operations. In March 1924 it will become the Marine Aircraft Experimental Establishment.
Bert Hinkler flies the first leg of an attempt to fly from England to Australia in an Avro Baby, departing London's Croydon Airport and flying to Turin, Italy, in 9 hours 30 minutes, crossing the Alps during the flight. Although mechanical problems force him to abandon his plans to continue beyond Turin, he wins the Britannia Trophy for his Croydon-Turin flight.[21]
July 4 – The first civil airplane fatalities in Cuba take place when a Bleriot XI piloted by the famed Cuban aviator Jaime González Grocierstalls on takeoff and crashes at Havana, killing him and another person on board.[24]
July 24 – The fifth annual Aerial Derby is held, sponsored for the first time by the Royal Aero Club, with a trophy and a £500 prize for the overall winner and prizes of £250, £100, and £50 for the first three places in the handicap competition. Fifteen participants fly over a 102.5-mile (165-kilometer) circuit beginning and ending at Hendon Aerodrome in London with control points at Brooklands, Esher, Purley, and Purfleet; the aircraft fly the circuit twice. F. T. Courtney is the overall winner, completing the course in a Martinsyde Semiquaver at an average speed of 154.70 mph (248.97 km/h) in 38 minutes 47.2 seconds with a handicap of 1 minute; H. A. Hammersley wins the handicap competition in an Avro Baby for the second consecutive year with a time of 2 hours 32 minutes 6 seconds at an average speed of 78.89 mph (126.96 km/h) with a handicap of 1 hour 35 minutes 0 seconds.
August 2 – Filming a nighttime spin before a large crowd at DeMille Field in Los Angeles, California, as a stunt for the movie The Skywayman, stunt pilot and film actor Ormer Locklear and his flying partner Milton "Skeets" Elliot are killed when their Curtiss JN-4 crashes into the sludge pool of an oil well, igniting a massive explosion and fire.
Post-World War I budget cuts have reduced United States Marine Corps aviation from almost 400 aviators to fewer than 50, prompting the Marine Corps' first aviator, MajorAlfred A. Cunningham, to write in the Marine Corps Gazette, "One of the greatest handicaps which Marine Corps Aviation must now overcome is a combination of doubt as to usefulness, lack of sympathy, and a feeling on the part of some line officers that aviators and aviation men are not real Marines."[30]
September 8 – The final leg is added to the U.S. transcontinental airmail service, across the Rocky Mountains from Omaha, Nebraska, to Sacramento, California. Because flying at night is dangerous, the mail is carried along the route by train during the hours of darkness.[31]
September 20 – The 1920 Schneider Trophy race is flown at Venice, Italy. Lieutenant Luigi Bolgna in a Savoia S.12 is the only starter and wins simply by finishing the race, with an average speed of 172.6 km/h (107.2 mph).
October 7 – First transcontinental flight in Canada, from Halifax NS to Vancouver BC by the Canadian Air Board, started at Dartmouth Air Base. Damage to their Fairey 3.C seaplane over the Bay of Fundy forced Lt.-Col. Robert R. Leckie and Major Basil D. Hobbs and mechanic C.W. Heath to crash-land in the Saint John River. They flew a replacement Curtiss HS-2L flying boat to Fredericton NB and Riviere du Loup, QC. They then flew a twin-engined Felixstowe F.3 flying boat to Rockcliffe (Ottawa) and, with Captain G.O. Johnson as navigator, to Sault Ste. Marie, Kenora ON, Selkirk MB (mist forced landing on Red River) and Winnipeg arriving on October 11. Next three relay stages were flown in three single-engined DH9A land planes piloted by Flight Lieutenants J.B. Home-Hay to Regina, C.W. Cudamore to Calgary, and G.A. Thompson to Vancouver, with passenger Air Commodore A.K. Tylee. Final leg from Calgary took 6 days through mountain valleys as snow, fog, and low cloud forced landings at Revelstoke and Merrett BC. Flight ended at Minoru Park in Richmond BC on October 17. Overall elapsed time was 10-1/2 days, with total flying time over 3,341 mile route of 49 hours 7 minutes (63 MPH average speed).[33]
December 10 – Military aviation begins in Venezuela with the opening of the Venezuelan Military Aviation School as a component of the Venezuelan Army.[38]
December 16 – Frank Briggs completes the first east-to-west or west-to-east crossing of Australia, traveling east-to-west between Sydney and Perth, covering a distance of 3,912 km (2,431 miles), in a de Havilland D.H. 4.[37][40] (For the first south to north crossing, by Henry Wrigley and Arthur Murphy, see 1919 in aviation). Also on board are Briggs' employer, aviation entrepreneur C. J. (Jack) De Garis and mechanic Jack Howard. They had left Perth in the early hours of December 13 and spent 21 hours, 38 minutes in the air (not including re-fueling).
December 28 – Exhibition pilot Frank Hawks takes 23-year-old Amelia Earhart on her first flight – a 10-minute "hop" Earhart's father had arranged and paid $10 for – at a state fair in Los Angeles, California. Both Hawks and Earhart will becomes famous aviators in the years ahead for various firsts and records.
^Scheina, Robert L., Latin America: A Naval History 1810-1987, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1987, ISBN0-87021-295-8, p. 193.
^Scheina, Robert L., Latin America: A Naval History 1810-1987, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1987, ISBN0-87021-295-8, p. 200.
^Francillon, René J., Japanese Aircraft of the Pacific War, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1979, ISBN0-87021-313-X, p. 30.
^Francillon, René J., Japanese Aircraft of the Pacific War, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1979, ISBN0-87021-313-X, p. 18.
^Francillon, René J., Japanese Aircraft of the Pacific War, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1979, ISBN0-87021-313-X, p. 23.
^Fuller, J. F. C., Tanks in the Great War, London, 1920, p. 314, quoted in Hastings, Max, Bomber Command: Churchill's Epic Campaign - The Inside Story of the RAF's Valiant Attempt to End the War, New York: Simon & Schuster Inc., 1987, ISBN0-671-68070-6, p. 41.
^Layman, R.D., Before the Aircraft Carrier: The Development of Aviation Vessels 1849-1922, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1989, ISBN0-87021-210-9, p. 77.
^O'Connor, Derek, "The Hunt For the Mad Mullah", Aviation History, July 2012, p. 45.
^ abcdeO'Connor, Derek, "The Hunt For the Mad Mullah", Aviation History, July 2012, p. 46.
^Franks, Norman, Aircraft vs. Aircraft: The Illustrated Story of Fighter Pilot Combat From 1914 to the Present Day, London: Grub Street, 1998, ISBN1-902304-04-7, pp. 58, 63. Franks' statement on p. 58 that Berthold was killed on December 15, 1919, appears to be incorrect.
^Layman, R.D., Before the Aircraft Carrier: The Development of Aviation Vessels 1849-1922, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1989, ISBN0-87021-210-9, p. 122.
^Peattie, Mark R., Sunburst: The Rise of Japanese Naval Air Power 1909-1941, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 2001, ISBN1-55750-432-6, p. 16.
^Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, p. 182.
^Butler, Glen, Colonel, USMC, "That Other Air Service Centennial", Naval History, June 2012, p. 56.
^Jensen, Richard, "The Suicide Club", Aviation History, May 2017, p. 52.
^ abChant, Chris, The World's Great Bombers, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 2000, ISBN0-7607-2012-6, p. 44.
^Hitchins, Wing Commander F.H. (1972). Air Board, Canadian Air Force and Royal Canadian Air Force. Mercury Series: Canadian War Museum Paper No. 2. University of Ottawa Press. pp. 41–53. ISBN9781772824391.
^Daniel, Clifton, Chronicle of the 20th Century, Mount Kisco, New York: Chronicle Publications, 1987, ISBN0-942191-01-3, p. 272.
^Borch, Fred L.; Robert E. Dorr, "Bravery Over Belgium", Military History, March 2012, p. 17.
^Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, p. 197.
^Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, p. 323.
^Donald, David, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997, ISBN978-0-7607-0592-6, p. 77.
