1926

Master Index

1928

1927 Chronology of Aviation History
Major Aviation Events

1927 Aviation Records

• Speed: (Italy), 297.83-mph, Mario de Bernardi, Macchi M.52, 4 November 1927.

• Distance: (USA), 3,911-miles, Chamberlin and Levine, Bellanca, 6 June 1927.

• Altitude: (USA), 38,418-feet, CC Champion, Wright Apache, 25 July 1927.

• Weight: (Italy), 57,319-lbs, SAI Caproni, Caproni Ca.60.

• Engine Power: (UK), 1,000-hp, Napier, Cub.

1927

• 1927 — First flight of the Hamilton H-47, first US all-metal aircraft.

• 1927 — First flight of the Nieuport-Delage Ni-D 52.

January 1927

• January 7 — Imperial Airways commences a regular service from Basra to Cairo via Baghdad, the first of its Empire “trunk routes”.

• January 15 — Boeing Air Transport is formed, to carry airmail between Chicago and San Francisco. This will eventually become United Airlines.

February 1927

• No data.

March 1927

• March 7 — First flight of the Westland Wapiti.

• March 14 — Pan American Airways is formed to carry airmail on the Key West-Havana route.

• March 26 — First flight of the Handley Page Hinaidi.

April 1927

• April 27 — First flight of the Stinson Detroiter.

May 1927

• May 1 — Imperial Airways introduces its luxury “Silver Wing” service between London and Paris.

• May 8-9 — Charles Nungesser and FranÇois Coli attempted to cross the Atlantic from Paris to the USA in Levasseur PL-8 The White Bird (L'Oiseau Blanc) biplane, but were lost.

• May 12 — First flight of the Armstrong Whitworth Starling.

• May 17 — First flight of the Bristol Bulldog.

• May 20-21 — Charles Lindbergh flies “The Spirit of St. Louis” across the Atlantic nonstop and solo, direct from New York City to Paris, as a first solo transatlantic flight.

• May 20 — Flt Lt Roderic Carr sets out to set a new distance record, attempting to fly from England to India in a Hawker Horsely. Three days later, he will be rescued from the Persian Gulf.

• May 27 — France's first aircraft carrier, the Bearn is commissioned.

June 1927

• June 4-6 — With Charles A. Levine as his passenger, Clarence Duncan Chamberlin made a record nonstop transatlantic flight, in his monoplane Columbia, from Roosevelt Field, Long Island to Eisleben, Germany, a distance of 3,911 miles, in 42 hours and 31 minutes.

• June 5 — The Verein fÜr Raumschiffahrt (“Society for spaceship travel”) is formed in Germany.

• June 6 — Canadian innovator Wallace Turnbull sells the parent of the variable-pitch propeller to Curtiss-Wright in the United States and Bristol in the United Kingdom. It will be successfully flight tested on June 29.

• June 15 — US businessman Van Lear Black charters a KLM Fokker F.VIIa for a flight from the Netherlands to Batavia, the first international charter flight.

• June 28-29 — A US Army Fokker C-2 makes the first non-stop flight from the continental US to Hawaii.

• June 29 to July 1 — Richard Evelyn Byrd with crew flies Fokker F.VIIa/3m “America” from New York City to France.

July 1927

• July 1 — The Boeing Model 40 entered service with Boeing Air Transport.

• July 4 — First flight of the Lockheed Vega.

• July 17 — USMC de Havilland DH.4's are used to attack bandits in Nicaragua threatening the garrison at Ocotal.

August 1927

• August 12 — The Royal Air Force holds a fly-off between four competing flying boat designs, the Supermarine Southampton, Blackburn Iris, Short Singapore, and the Saunders-Roe Valkyrie.

• August 26 — Bert Hinkler sets a new non-stop distance record, flying from Croydon, England to Riga, Latvia.

September 1927

• September 8 — The Cessna company is established.

• September 26 — Schneider Trophy race flown at Venice, Italy. Won by Flight Lt. S.N Webster (UK) in a Supermarine S.5 at 453.2 km/h (281.7 mph).

• September 28 — Lt Dick Bently of the South African Air Force arrives in South Africa after having made the first solo flight there from England. He left London on September 1.

October 1927

• October 14-15 — Dieudonne Costes and Joseph le Brix make the first non-stop aerial crossing of the South Atlantic, flying a Breguet 19 from Saint-Louis, Senegal to Port Natal in Brazil, as a part of their round-the-world 57,000 km trip.

November 1927

• November 16 — US aircraft carrier USS Saratoga is commissioned.

• November 17 — Sir Alan Cobham sets out from England in a Short Singapore to make an aerial survey of Africa.

December 1927

• December 14 — US aircraft carrier USS Lexington is commissioned.

• December 29 — Georg Wulf, co-founder of Focke-Wulf, is killed in the crash of the Focke-Wulf Fw.19.

Works Cited

1. Gunston, Bill, et al. Chronicle of Aviation. Liberty, Missouri: JL Publishing Inc., 1992. 14-17
2. Parrish, Wayne W. (Publisher). "United States Chronology". 1962 Aerospace Yearbook, Forty-Third Annual Edition. Washington, DC: American Aviation Publications, Inc., 1962, 446-469.
3. Wikipedia, 1927 in aviation
4. Shupek, John (photos and card images), The Skytamer Archive. Skytamer.com, Whittier, CA