1930 in aviation

Events

The Surrey Aero Club inaugurates recreational flights from Gatwick Race Course (now London Gatwick Airport).

The German airship LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin makes its first crossing of the South Atlantic.

January
January 25 - American Airways is formed

March
March 21 - the Chilean army and navy combine their air arms into a separate, independent command.

May
May 5-24 - Amy Johnson flies from Croydon, England, to Darwin, Australia in a de Havilland Gipsy Moth

May 15 - Ellen Church becomes the world's first flight attendant, working for Boeing Air Transport

June
June 4 - Lt Apollo Soucek sets a new seaplane altitude record of 43,166 ft (13,157 m) in a F3W Apache

July
July 16 - August 8 - the second International Tourist Aircraft Contest Challenge 1930 in Berlin, won by the German crew of Fritz Morzik on the BFW M.23 plane.

July 19 - Death of Frank Goldsborough in a crash in Vermont.

July 20 - August 1 - 7,560 km race over Europe of the Challenge 1930 contest.

July 29 - British airship R.100 makes a test flight to Montreal and back.

August
August 8 - end of the Challenge 1930 contest, won by Fritz Morzik.

August 23 - Ford National Reliability Air Tour starts in Chicago.

August 25 - Eddie August Schneider sets the junior transcontinental air speed record. He flew from Westfield, New Jersey

September
September 3 - Ford National Reliability Air Tour finishes in Chicago. Harry Russell takes first place, and Eddie August Schneider finishes in eight place, but wins the Great Lakes Trophy.

October
October 5 - British airship R.101 crashes in France while en route to India. Forty-seven people are killed.

October 25 - TWA (originally "Transcontinental and Western Air") begins the first regular passenger flights between New York and Los Angeles.

First flights
RWD-4 (spring)

April
RWD-3
April 29 - Polikarpov I-5

May
May 6 - Boeing Monomail
May 16 - Blériot 110

June
June 12 - Handley Page Heyford

July
July 18 - Blackburn Sydney

September
September 12 - Taylor E-2
September 24 - Short Rangoon

October
October 5 - Junkers Ju 52
PZL P.7

November
November 14 - Handley Page HP.42
November 18 - Boeing XP-9
November 25 - Fairey Hendon

December
December 22 - Tupolev ANT-6