1932 in aviation

This is a list of aviation-related events from 1932:

Events

The Canadian Siskins aerobatic team is retired.
James Work founds the Brewster Aeronautical Corporation.
Richard Ormonde Shuttleworth buys a 1928 de Havilland DH.60X Moth (G-EBWD), which he bases at Old Warden airfield in Bedfordshire, England. It remains there as of 2012, the longest continuous base for a single aircraft in aviation history.
The French Armys Aéronautique Militaire retires the last of its Breguet 14 aircraft. The Breguet 14 had been in service since 1917.
The United States Department of Commerce's Aeronautics Branch (predecessor of the Federal Aviation Administration) issues a transport pilot license issued to C. Alfred "Chief" Anderson. Anderson is believed to be the first African American to receive a United States Government transport pilot license.
The planned eighth Ford National Reliability Air Tour is cancelled. The Great Depression has placed severe financial pressure on municipal budgets, leaving cities and towns that might have hosted pilots participating in the air tour without the funds to host them or to maintain the airports the tour would have used. Moreover, the Ford Trimotor no longer sets the aviation industry standard for airliner technology thanks to the technological advances made by competitors such as Boeing and the Douglas Aircraft Company, and Henry Ford's interest in promoting aviation or expanding his company's aviation ventures has waned after the February 1928 death of his chief test pilot and close friend Harry J. Brooks in an airplane crash. Although Ford sponsors no further National Reliability Air Tours, a recreation of the air tours of 1925–1931 will take place in 2003.

January

January 1 – The first United States Government regulations governing gliders and gliding go into effect.

February

February 1 – The Imperial Japanese Navy aircraft carrier Hōshō joins the carrier Kaga in Chinese territorial waters during the Shanghai Incident.
February 5 – The first air-to-air clash of the Shanghai Incident takes place, between five Japanese aircraft from the aircraft carrier Hōshō and nine Nationalist Chinese fighters.
February 14 – Ruth Nichols sets a new altitude record for a diesel-powered aircraft, in a modified Lockheed Vega.
February 22 – During the Shanghai Incident, three Imperial Japanese Navy Nakajima A1N2 fighters from the aircraft carrier Kaga score the first air-to-air kill in Japanese history, shooting down a Nationalist Chinese Boeing fighter piloted by an American volunteer.

March

During the German election campaign of March–April 1932, Adolf Hitler becomes the first politician in history to use air travel to make political campaign appearances in several cities and towns possible in a single day, flying with planes operated by Deutsche Luft Hansa. Before the campaign ends in the election of April 10, 1932, Hitler will speak in 46 cities and towns during two one-week-long "Flights Over Germany."
The final Avro 504 leaves the production line. The type has been in continuous production for nineteen years.
March 6 – The Couzinet 33 passenger aircraft Biarritz sets out from France to establish the first air link between France and New Caledonia.
March 20 – Luftschiffbau Zeppelin begins regular transatlantic services between Germany and Recife, Brazil, using the dirigible Graf Zeppelin. The service will continue until 1936, averaging one round-trip per month.
March 24–28 – Jim Mollison sets a new speed record between the United Kingdom and Cape Town, taking 4 days 17 hours in a de Havilland Puss Moth
March 25 – Dobrolyot is expanded into a USSR-wide service and has its name changed to Aeroflot

April

The Spanish airline LAPE begins operations.
April 1 – Hillman's Airways begins its first scheduled service, flying between Romford and Clacton-on-Sea, England, using a de Havilland Puss Moth and a de Havilland Fox Moth.
April 5 – The Couzinet 33 passenger aircraft Biarritz lands at La Tontouta, New Caledonia, establishing the first air link between France and New Caledonia. It had departed France on March 6.
April 16 – Record-setting aviator Frank Hawks is injured and his Travel Air Type R Mystery Ship Texaco 13 is badly damaged when he crashes on takeoff from a soggy field at Worcester, Massachusetts. He recovers and the airplane is repaired.
April 19–28 – C. W. A. Scott sets a new solo speed record between the United Kingdom and Darwin, Australia, taking 8 days 20 hours in a de Havilland Gipsy Moth
April 27 – Imperial Airways commences a regular passenger service to Cape Town, South Africa.

May

The Egyptian Air Force is formed.
Participating in prototype form, the Boeing Y1B-9 bomber proves impossible to intercept during United States Army Air Corps exercises, strengthening calls for improved air defense warning systems in the United States.
May 9 – At Wright Field outside Dayton, Ohio, United States Army Air Corps Captain Albert Hegenberger makes the first completely blind solo flight entirely on instruments, in a Consolidated NY-2.
May 11 – Tragedy strikes as the United States Navy dirigible attempts to land in front of thousands of spectators at Camp Kearny in San Diego, California, after a 77-hour flight from Naval Air Station Lakehurst, New Jersey, when Akron suddenly lurches upward, surprising the sailors handling her lines. Four men cling to a line as Akron rises; one falls from a height of and survives with a broken arm, but two others fall to their deaths from altitudes of between . Dangling below Akron, the fourth man, Seaman Apprentice C. M. "Bud" Cowart, is carried out to sea at an altitude of and finally is reeled aboard Akron after two hours on the rope.
May 15 – 1932 Kimberley rescue: German pilot Hans Bertram and mechanic Adolph Klausmann, attempting a global circumnavigation eastabout in a Junkers W 33 seaplane, endure a storm in the Timor Sea, forcing them to land off a remote part of the Kimberley coast of north-western Australia. The stranded men spend almost six weeks severely deprived of food and water and are close to death when rescued by a search party of aborigines on June 22.
May 16 – The United States Department of Commerce's Aeronautics Branch publishes a new rule for a scheduled air transport pilot rating, requiring pilots to demonstrate their ability to use airway navigation aids and to fly specified maneuvers guided entirely by instruments before they can receive the rating. Pilots may receive the new rating at any time during the remainder of 1932, and it will become mandatory on January 1, 1933 for pilots making interstate flights.
May 20–21 – Amelia Earhart, flying a Lockheed Vega, becomes the first woman to make a solo flight across the North Atlantic, flying from Harbour Grace in Newfoundland to Derry in Northern Ireland in 14 hours 54 minutes.

June

During United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) trials, the Martin XB-10 — prototype of the Martin B-10 bomber — records a speed of at an altitude of . Half again as fast as biplane bombers of the period and faster than contemporary fighters, the makes all other existing bombers obsolete and begins a revolution in bomber design. USAAC General Henry H. Arnold describes the B-10 as the airpower wonder of its day.
June 7 – Misr Airlines, which later will become EgyptAir, is founded. It will begin flight operations in July 1933.
June 24 – In the Soviet Union, Leningrad's Shosseynaya Airport (the future Pulkovo Airport) opens. Its first flight, an aircraft carrying passengers and mail, arrives late in the afternoon after a two-hour-and-a-half-hour flight from Moscow.
June 29 – A Curtiss F9C Sparrowhawk parasite fighter hooks onto the U.S. Navy dirigible for the first time.

July

In an early use of air travel to make political campaign appearances in several cities and towns possible in a single day, Adolf Hitler makes his third "Flight Over Germany," a 14-day trip by air in which he makes appearances at 50 urban mass meetings. Hitler had pioneered the use of air travel in political campaigns with his first two "Flights Over Germany" during the March–April 1932 German election campaign.
July 21 – Wolfgang von Gronau sets out to make a round-the-world trip in a Dornier Wal. One hundred and eleven days later, it will be the first such trip made in a flying boat.
July 23 – Aviation pioneer Alberto Santos-Dumont hangs himself.

August

August 14 – Alexei M. Cheremukhin, co-designer (with Boris Yuriev) of the Soviet TsAGI 1-EA pioneering single lift rotor helicopter, takes the 1-EA to an unofficial record altitude for helicopters of the era, of .
August 14–28 – The third International Tourist Aircraft Contest Challenge 1932 takes place in Berlin. The Polish crew of Franciszek Zwirko and Stanislaw Wigura win it in the RWD-6 plane.
August 14–23 – Frances Mersalis and Louise Thaden set a women's flight endurance record of 8 days 4 hours.
August 18 – Auguste Piccard and Max Cosyns set a new world altitude record for human fight, rising in a balloon to an altitude of .
August 18–19 – Jim Mollison makes the first solo east-to-west crossing of the Atlantic, flying his de Havilland Puss Moth G-ABXY The Heart's Content from near Dublin to New Brunswick.
August 21–27 – The Challenge 1932 air race over Europe takes place.
August 23 – Panama establishes its Civil Aviation Authority.
August 24–25 – Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to make a nonstop solo flight across North America, flying from Los Angeles, California, to Newark, New Jersey. The flight also sets a women's endurance record of 19 hours 5 minutes and a women's nonstop distance record of .

September

September 3
Jimmy Doolittle sets a new landplane airspeed record of in the Gee Bee R-1 at the National Air Races in Cleveland, Ohio.
Piloting a replica 1910 Curtiss Model D pusher biplane in a mock dogfight with an autogiro at low altitude at the National Air Races in Cleveland, movie stunt pilot Al Wilson suffers head injuries in the crash of his plane after the autogiro lands, he buzzes it, and his plane loses lift in a downdraft created by the autogiro's still-spinning rotor and collides with the autogiro. He dies on September 5.
September 7 – Thomas Settle and Winfield Bushnell set a new balloon distance record of between Basel, Switzerland and Wilno, Poland.
September 11 – The Challenge 1932 winners, Polish pilots Franciszek Zwirko and Stanislaw Wigura, die in an air crash.
September 13 – The American Nurse, a Bellanca CH-400 or Bellanca J-300 Long-Distance Special formerly known as Miss Veedol, takes off from Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, New York to attempt a record nonstop New York City-to-Rome flight of , lasting 25 to 26 hours and passing over Florence, Italy, where nurse Edna Newcomer is to parachute from the plane in honor of Florence Nightingale. The ocean liner later sights The American Nurse over the Atlantic Ocean about from Cape Finisterre, Spain, but the plane and the three people aboard it subsequently disappear without trace.
September 16 – Cyril Uwins sets a new heavier-than-air altitude record of in a Vickers Vespa.
September 20 – Transcontinental and Western Air signs a contract with Douglas Aircraft for the development of the Douglas Commercial Model 1, or Douglas DC-1. A revolutionary all-metal twin-engine airliner,
December 22 – During the Chaco War, three Bolivian Air Corps aircraft – two Curtiss-Wright CW-14 Osprey and a Curtiss P-6 Hawk – make three bombing and strafing passes against the Paraguayan Navy gunboat ARP Tacuary while she is at anchor in the Paraguay River at Bahía Negra, Paraguay; they drop 15 bombs, 11 of which straddle Tacuary. Tacuary hits one of the CW-14s with a shell, and the CW-14 crashes shortly afterwards in Brazil.
December 24 – The two Bolivian Air Corps aircraft – a CW-14 Osprey and a P-6 Hawk – that survived the 22 December airstrike against the Paraguayan Navy gunboat ARP Tacuary at Bahía Negra return to attack her there again. This time Tacuary takes evasive action. None of the bombs the two aircraft drop hit Tacuary, but their strafing runs against her wound several of her crewmen. The 22 and 24 December attacks against Tacuary have combined to leave 29 splinter holes and 45 bullet holes in her hull.

First flights

Arado Ar 66
Bellanca XSE
Dewoitine D.560
Fairchild 24
Farman F.211
Focke-Wulf A 43
Focke-Wulf Fw 43
IMAM Ro.26
Mitsubishi Ki-20
Piaggio P.10
Pitcairn OP
Pitcairn PA-18
Westland-Hill Pterodactyl Mk. V
Early 1932 – Saro_Percival Mailplane, later redesigned as the Spartan Cruiser
Late summer – Focke-Wulf Fw 44

January

Dewoitine D.481, first variant of the Dewoitine D.480 family to fly.
January 21 – Dewoitine D.31
January 29 – De Havilland Fox Moth

February

Aichi AB-3
February 11 – Couzinet 70
February 16 - Martin Model 123, prototype of the Martin B-10
February 24 – Latécoère 500

March

Junkers Ju 46
March 7 – Junkers Ju 52/3m
March 20 – Boeing P-26 Peashooter
March 25 – Curtiss XF11C-2, prototype of the Curtiss F11C Goshawk, the last Curtiss fighter to go into production for the United States Navy
March 26 – Consolidated P2Y

April

Curtiss XP-23 Hawk, last biplane built for the United States Army Air Corps

May

Aichi AB-4
May 7 – Dornier Do 11
May 22 – General Aviation GA-43
May 26 – Farman F.220, prototype of the Farman F.221, Farman F.222, Farman F.223, and SNCAC NC.223

June

Boeing-Canada A-213 Totem
Potez 430, prototype of the Potez 43 family.
June 3 – RWD-6
June 6 – Armstrong Whitworth Atalanta
June 18 – Dewoitine D.500
June 23 – Dornier Do 12
June 25 – Farman F.1000

July

Abrial A-12 Bagoas
Curtiss XP-934, later purchased by the United States Army Air Corps as the Curtiss XP-31 Swift, the first monoplane design by Curtiss
July 8 – Supermarine Scapa

August

Farman F.1010
Fieseler F 4
Miles M.1 Satyr
Mitsubishi Ki-1
August 13 – Gee Bee R-1

September

Albatros L102
Pitcairn PA-19
September 30 – Blackburn Baffin

October

Levasseur PL.15
October 2 – Dewoitine D.430
October 7 – Stipa-Caproni
October 19 – Mitsubishi 3MT5

November

November 4 – Beech Staggerwing
November 8 – Junkers Ju 60
November 19 – ANF Les Mureau 170C.1
November 24 – De Havilland Dragon

December

Consolidated Y1P-25
Couzinet 22
December 1 – Heinkel He 70
December 21 – Vickers Vincent

Entered service

Avro 643 Cadet
Hall PH-1 with United States Navy Patrol Squadron 8 (VP-8)
Saunders A.7 Severn with No. 209 Squadron, Royal Air Force
Tupolev TB-3 with the Soviet Air Force

February

De Havilland Tiger Moth with the Royal Air Force Central Flying School.
February 27 – Martin BM with he United States Navy

March

March 1 – Berliner-Joyce P-16 (later PB-1) with United States Army Air Corps

April

Junkers Ju 46 with Deutsche Luft Hansa

September

Curtiss F9C Sparrowhawk aboard
September 14 – Boeing Y1B-9A with the 20th and 49th Bombardment Squadrons, 2nd Bomb Group, United States Army Air Corps