1932 in aviation

Events

The Canadian Siskins aerobatic team is retired.

January
Imperial Japanese Navy aircraft carriers Hōshō and Kaga sail into Chinese territorial waters at the outbreak of the Shanghai Incident.

January 20 - Imperial Airways weekly airmail service is extended through Africa as far as Cape Town.

February
February 14 - Ruth Nichols sets a new altitude record for a diesel-powered aircraft, 6,047 m (19,928 ft) in a modified Lockheed Vega

March
The final Avro 504 leaves the production line. The type has been in continuous production for nineteen years.

March 20 - Luftschiffbau Zeppelin begins regular trans-atlantic services between Germany and Brazil, using the Graf Zeppelin.

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
April 19-28 - Charles Scott sets a new solo speed record between the UK and Darwin, taking 8 days 20 hours in a de Havilland Gipsy Moth

April 27 - Imperial Airways commences a regular passenger service to Cape Town.

May
the Egyptian Air Force is formed

May 9 - Captain Albert Hegenberger makes the first completely blind solo flight entirely on instruments, in a Consolidated NY-2.

May 20-21 - Amelia Earhart, flying a Lockheed Vega, becomes the first woman to make a solo flight across the North Atlantic, from Harbour Grace in Newfoundland to Derry in Northern Ireland.

June
June 29 - a F9C Sparrowhawk parasite fighter hooks onto the USS Akron for the first time.

July
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 - an aviation pioneer, Alberto Santos-Dumont hangs himself

August
August 14-28 - the third International Tourist Aircraft Contest Challenge 1932 in Berlin, won by the Polish crew Franciszek Zwirko and Stanislaw Wigura on the RWD-6 plane.

August 14-23 Frances Mersalis and Louise Thaden set a women's endurance record of 8 days 4 hours.

August 18 - Auguste Piccard and Max Cosyns set a new balloon altitude record of 16,201 m (53,153 ft).

August 18-19 - Jim Mollison makes the first solo East-to-West crossing of the Atlantic, flying a de Havilland Puss Moth from Dublin to New Brunswick

August 21-27 - 7,363 km race over Europe of the Challenge 1932 contest.

August 25 - Amelia Earhart makes the first transcontinental flight across the US by a woman. She flies a Lockheed Vega.

September
September 3 - Jimmy Doolittle sets a new landplane airspeed record of 296 mph (476 km/h) in the Gee Bee R-1

September 7 - Thomas Settle and Winfield Bushnell set a new balloon distance record of 1,550 km (963 miles) between Basle, Switzerland and Vilna, Poland.

September 11 - Polish Challenge 1932 winners, Franciszek Zwirko and Stanislaw Wigura died in an aircrash.

September 16 - Cyril Uwins sets a new heavier-than-air altitude record of 43,976 ft (13,404 m) in a Vickers Vespa.

September 25 - Lewis Yancey sets an autogyro altitude record of 21,500 ft (6,553 m) in a Pitcairn PCA-2

October
October 15 - Tata Sons opens an airmail route between Karachi and Madras, the first regular air service within India.

November
November 14-18 - Amy Johnson breaks the UK-Cape Town speed record, shaving 11 hours off Mollison's record in March. She flies a de Havilland Puss Moth.

November 19 - a national monument to the Wright Brothers is unveiled at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

First flights

January
January 29 - De Havilland Fox Moth

March
March 20 - P-26 Peashooter

May
May 7 - Dornier Do 11

June
June 3 - RWD-6
June 6 - Armstrong Whitworth Atalanta
June 18 - Dewoitine D.500
June 25 - Farman 1000

July
July 8 - Supermarine Scapa

August
August 13 - Gee Bee R-1

September
September 30 - Blackburn Baffin

November
November 4 - Beech Staggerwing
November 24 - De Havilland Dragon

December
December 1 - Heinkel He 70
December 21 - Vickers Vincent

Entered service

February
De Havilland Tiger Moth with RAF Central Flying School.

December
PZL P.7a in the Polish Air Force