1912 in aviation

Years in aviation:	1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915
Centuries:	19th Century · 20th century · 21st century
Decades:	1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s
Years:	1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915

This is a list of aviation-related events from 1912:

Events

January

• 10 January – Lieutenant Commander Charles Samson flies Short Improved S.27 No. 38 from a platform constructed over the deck of battleship HMS Africa moored in the River Medway, England. It is the United Kingdom's first takeoff by an airplane from a ship.

February

• 4 February – Austrian-born French inventor Franz Reichelt, the "Flying Tailor," dies in a jump from the Eiffel Tower in an attempt to demonstrate his "parachute-suit," a wearable parachute. The jump is captured on film.
• 22 February – Jules Vedrines becomes the first pilot to exceed 100 miles per hour (161 km/h). He makes his flight in a Deperdussin monoplane near Pau, France.
• Anthony Fokker establishes Fokker Aeroplanbau in Germany, predecessor to Fokker Aircraft Company.

March

• The conversion of the ex-torpedo boat tender Foudre into the French Navy's first ship capable of carrying and handling airplanes is completed. In her new role, Foudre is the first ship with an airplane hangar. She also is the first warship to be permanently altered for service as an aviation ship.
• 1 March - Albert Berry makes the first parachute jump out of an aeroplane in St. Louis, Missouri.

April

• 16 April – Harriet Quimby becomes the first woman to fly the English Channel.
• 22 April – Englishman Denys Corbett Wilson makes the first aeroplane crossing from Britain to Ireland.

May

• A recommendation is made that the French Navy investigate the design and procurement of an aircraft carrier with a flight deck. For the first time, an armored hangar is suggested for such a ship. Plans for the ship are cancelled ca. 1917 prior to any construction.
• 9 May – Lieutenant Commander Charles Samson becomes the first person to fly an aircraft off the deck of a moving ship. He takes off in Short Improved S.27 No.38 from a ramp built over the deck of battleship HMS Hibernia in Weymouth Bay.
• 13 May – King George V of the United Kingdom approves the formation of the Royal Flying Corps. Under overall control of the British Army, it includes all British military and naval aircraft, organized into a Military Wing and a Naval Wing.
• 27 May – The world's first seaplane carrier, the French Navy's Foudre, embarks her first floatplane, a Canard Voisin.
• 30 May – Wilbur Wright, co-inventor of the airplane, dies in Dayton, Ohio.

June

• Sopwith Aviation Company founded.
• The Imperial Japanese Navy takes its first step toward establishing an aviation arm, establishing the Naval Aeronautical Research Committee.
• 1 June – The first aeroplane flight in Norway is made by Lt Hans Dons in a Etrich Taube.
• 2 June – The Lewis machine gun is first tested in an aircraft by the US Army. This weapon would go on to become the standard armament of many fighter aircraft during World War I.
• 10 June – The Austro-Hungarian submarine U-5 tows a kite balloon, apparently to determine the best coloration for submarines to avoid detection while underwater. Other than the experimental use of balloons from ships to bombard Venice in 1849 by its predecessor the Austrian Navy, it is the only operation of an observation balloon by the Austro-Hungarian Navy.
• 19 June – The RFC's Central Flying School opens at Upavon, Wiltshire.
• 27 June – Following successes using aircraft against the Turks in North Africa, Italy forms a specialised Air Battalion (Battagliore Aviatori).

July

• 1 July – Harriet Quimby and a meet organizer passenger die in an airplane crash during an air show in Dorchester Bay off Boston, Massachusetts, in the United States.
• 2 July – Denmark estblishes an army air corps. It is the predecessor of the Danish Air Force .
• 31 July – The United States Navy tests an aircraft catapult for the first time. The test, which is conducted ashore, is a failure, as the aircraft is badly damaged.

August

• 2 August – Start of British Military Aeroplane Competition at Larkhill on Salisbury Plain for aircraft to meet the requirements of the newly-formed Royal Flying Corps. The competition attracts 32 entrants and is won by S. F. Cody with his Cody V biplane.

September

• 8 September – The Argentine Air Force is formed as a flying school at El Palomar, the military airport near Buenos Aires.
• 6 September – Royal Flying Corps members Captain Patrick Hamilton and Lieutenant Atholl Wyness-Stuart, killed in a crash near Willian, Hertfordshire.
• 25 September – Charles Voisin dies and Raymonde de Laroche suffers serious injuries in an automobile accident near Lyons, France.

October

• 6 October – At Yokosuka Naval Air Technical Arsenal, Japan, Lieutenant Yōzō Kaneko makes the Imperial Japanese Navy's first flight, piloting a Farman seaplane for 15 minutes and reaching an altitude of 30 meters (100 feet).
• 16 October – The first aerial bomb is used by Bulgarian Army Aviation Department pilots Radul Milkov and Prodan Toprakchiev on the Turkish railway station of Karaagac (near Edirne), during the Balkan War. This is the first use of an airplane (Albatros F.II) as bomber.
• 22 October – Australian Flying Corps formed.

November

• The British Admiralty establishes an air department and orders the Vickers Destroyer E.F.B.1, the first British airplane built as an armed fighting aircraft.
• 2 November – The first airplane flights in Japan by Imperial Japanese Navy personnel are made by two officers at Yokosuka Naval Air Technical Arsenal using Farman and Curtiss seaplanes.
• 12 November – A Curtiss Triad becomes the first aircraft to be launched by catapult, at the US Navy's Washington Navy Yard.
• 12 November – The first demonstration of naval aircraft at an Imperial Japanese Navy fleet review takes place at Yokohama, with Lieutenant Yōzō Kaneko flying a Farman seaplane and Lieutenant Sankichi Kōno a Curtiss seaplane.
• 19 November – Italy's colonial air force is established as the Servizio d'Aviazione Coloniale.
• 28 November – The Italian Air Battalion is made a fully operational command, the (Flotta Aerea d'Italia).

December

• The United States Navy launches a flying boat by catapult for the first time.
• William Beardmore & Company proposes the first Royal Navy aircraft carrier with a flight deck - a 450-foot (137-meter), 15,000-ton ship capable of carrying ten airplanes - to the British Admiralty. The Admiralty rejects the proposal on the grounds of insufficient experience with operation of aircraft at sea.
• December 31 – The Royal Navy has 16 aircraft in service – eight biplane landplanes, five monoplane landplanes, and three "hydro-aeroplanes."

Undated

• First successful all-metal aircraft flies, the Tubavion monoplane built by Ponche and Maurice Primard in France.
• The French Navy officially establishes an air arm, the Service Aéronautique.
• The first Bulgarian Air Force is formed, using Blériot, Albatros, Farman, Nieuport, Voisin, Somer, Skiorski, and Bristol aircraft (23 in total) to fight in the First Balkan War.
• Captain Alessandro Guidoni of Italy experiments with the air-launching of torpedoes by dropping weights from a Farman biplane.

Deaths

Undated

Fung Joe Guey Chinese aviation pioneer

First flights

January

• 10 January – Short S.36

February

• Royal Aircraft Factory BE.2 flown by designer Geoffrey de Havilland.

March

• 1 March – AEA Cygnet
• 3 March – Avro Type E

References

• 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
• Peattie, Mark R., Sunburst: The Rise of Japanese Naval Air Power 1909-1941, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 2001, ISBN 1-55750-432-6