1934 in aviation

January
January 10-11 - A flight of six US Navy Consolidated P2Y flying boats set a new distance record for formation flying, 2,400 miles (3,862 km) between San Francisco and Pearl Harbor, also setting a new speed record for this crossing of 24 hours 35 minutes.

January 30 - Soviet pilots Fedossenko, Wassenko and Usyskin take the stratosphere-balloon Ossoaviachim I to 22,000 m (72,160 ft). Thick ice covered the cabin, and it tore loose from the balloon during the descent, crashing to the ground and killing the crew.[1]

February
February 3 - Lufthansa begins the first regular airmail service across the Atlantic Ocean, between Berlin and Rio de Janeiro.

February 7 - the first airmail flight between Australia and New Zealand is made by Charles Ulm in an Avro Ten, taking 14 hours 10 minutes.

February 19 - the United States Army Air Corps begins flying US airmail after the government cancels all existing airmail contracts due to alleged improprieties by the previous administration during the negotiations of those contracts.

April
April 11 - Renato Donati sets a new altitude record of 14,433 m (47,352 ft) in a Caproni Ca 113.

May
May 8-23 - Jean Batten sets a new women's speed record between England and Australia. She flies a de Havilland DH.60 and makes the trip in 14 days 22 hours.

May 29 - Highland Airways commences the first regular airmail service within the United Kingdom, between Inverness and Kirkwall

June
June 4 - the US Navy commissions its first purpose-built aircraft carrier, USS Ranger.

June 26 - Initial flight of the Focke-Wulf Fw 61, the first practical helicopter.

June 29-30 - Benjamin and Joseph Adamowicz brothers, amateur pilots, flew across the Atlantic

July
July 15 - Varney Speed Lines (later to be Continental Airlines) makes its first passenger-carrying flight.

July 19 - F9C Sparrowhawk parasite fighters from airship USS Macon successfully launch from the airship, scout out the cruiser USS Houston and return to the Macon.

July 19-August 20 - Gen Henry Arnold leads ten Martin B-10 bombers on an 8,000 mile (12,875 km) proving flight.

August
August 8-9 - James Ayling and Leonard Reid make the first non-stop flight from Canada to England, in a de Havilland DH84, taking 30 hours 50 minutes for the flight.

August 28 - September 16 - the fourth International Tourist Aircraft Contest Challenge 1934 in Warsaw, won by the Polish crew of Jerzy Bajan on the RWD-9 plane.

September
September 7 - 16 - 9,537 km race over Europe and North Africa and a speed trial of the Challenge 1934 contest.

September 22 - Sir Alan Cobham sets out in an Airspeed Courier in a failed attempt to fly non-stop from England to India.

October
October 20-November 3 - Sir Charles Kingsford Smith makes the first eastward crossing of the Pacific Ocean, from Brisbane, Australia to San Francisco, California, in the Lady Southern Cross.

October 20-November 5 - MacRobertson Air Race flown from England to Melbourne, Australia to celebrate the centenary of the state of Victoria. The £75,000 prize money is won by Charles Scott and Tom Black flying de Havilland DH88 Comet Grosvenor House.

October 23 - Francesco Agello passes his 1933 world speed with a new airspeed record of 709 km/h (440 mph). Again he flies the Italian seaplane the Macchi M.C.72.

December
December 3 - Charles Ulm disappears while flying over the Pacific, between Oakland, California and Hawaii.

December 8 - Imperial Airways extends its airmail service to Australia.

First flights

January
January 14 - De Havilland DH.86

February
Supermarine Type 224
Gotha Go 145

March
March 30 - Sikorsky S-42

April
Mitsubishi G3M (as Ka-9 prototype)
April 17 - De Havilland Dragon Rapide
April 17 - Fairey Swordfish prototype K 4190

May
May 9 - De Havilland Hornet Moth
May 11 - Douglas DC-2

June
June 26 - Airspeed Envoy

July
July 27 - Supermarine Stranraer

August
PZL.23 Karas
August 14 - Dewoitine D.510

September
September 7 - Hawker Hardy
September 8 - De Havilland DH.88
September 12 - Gloster Gladiator
September 12 - Hawker Hind

October
October 7 - First prototype Tupolev ANT-40RT which becomes Tupolev SB

November
November 23 - Bloch MB.210

Entered service

May
May 18 - Douglas DC-2 with Transcontinental and Western Air
exact date unclear - PZL P.11a in the Polish Air Force and PZL P.11b in the Romanian Air Force