| content | |||||||||||||||||
Contents |
Events
January
- January 1 - the Luftwaffe begins targeting Allied airfields in Europe as "Operation Bodenplatte"
February
- The U.S. Navy's first recorded use of JATO, utilized to lift a PBM-5 Mariner off of a stretch of the Colorado River near Yuma, Arizona after being forced down. 1
- February 13-15 - Allied bombers attack Dresden with incendiary weapons, destroying most of the city and killing some 50,000 people.
- February 21 - aircraft carrier USS Saratoga is badly damaged by a kamikaze attack
March
- March 13-14 - an Avro Lancaster of No. 617 Squadron RAF drops the first 22,000 lb (9,980 kg) Grand Slam bomb
- March 21 - the Ohka dedicated kamikaze weapon is used operationally for the first time but with no success.
- March 24 - Allied forces began large-scale crossings of the Rhine as Operation Varsity, the operation involved 2,000 transport aircraft and gliders.
- March 27 - the final V-2 missile to hit England falls in Kent
April
- April 1 - Ohkas score hits on the USS West Virginia and three of her escorts.
- April 10 - the Luftwaffe flies its final sortie over England (with an Arado Ar 234 on a reconnaissance mission from Norway)
- April 12 - USS Mannert L. Abele is sunk by an Ohka
- April 23 - the US Navy puts its first radar-guided bomb into use, the SWOD-9 "Bat", dropped from Consolidated PB4Ys on Japanese shipping in Balikpapan Harbour.
- April 25 - 275 B-17s escorted by four groups of P-51 Mustangs attacked the Pilzen-Škoda armament factory in Czechoslovakia - the last heavy bomber mission by the United States 8th Air Force against an industrial target.
May
- May 3 - the Royal Air Force sinks Cap Arcona, Thielbek, and Deutschland
- World's top-scoring fighter ace German pilot Erich Hartmann surrenders to Allied forces
- May 7 - the Royal Air Force sinks its last German submarine
- May 8 - VE Day - Germany surrenders, ending the War in Europe
July
- July 5 – American Airlines acquires American Export Airlines and forms American Overseas Airlines
- July 12 – An Eastern Air Lines flight en route from Boston, Massachusetts to Miami with stops in Washington, DC and Columbia, SC collided with a US Army B-25 Mitchell bomber about 3,000 feet above Syracuse, SC (about 20 miles from Florence, SC). The commercial pilot, G. D. Davis, landed his craft in a cornfield nearby. One passenger, an infant, was killed. The bomber exploded; two died and one was able to parachute safely.
- July 28 - a B-25 Mitchell bomber crashed into the Empire State Building
August
- August 1 - Toyama is the subject of an incendiary attack by the USAAF that destroys almost the entire city
- August 6 - B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay drops "Little Boy" the first nuclear weapon used in warfare over the Japanese city of Hiroshima
- August 9 - B-29 Bockscar drops a plutonium-239 nuclear weapon, Fat Man, on Nagasaki.
- August 14 - VJ Day - Japan surrenders, ending the War in the Pacific, and World War II.
- August 15 - seven Imperial Japanese Navy aircraft make the last kamikaze attack of the war.
- August 19 - two Mitsubishi G4Ms carry Japan's surrender delegation to Ie Shima
September
- a captured Focke Achgelis Fa 223 makes the first helicopter crossing of the English Channel
- September 20, an experimental Gloster Meteor with Rolls-Royce Trent engines makes the first turboprop-powered flight.
October
- 1 October - 1st annual general meeting of the International Air Transport Association begins in Montreal, Canada.
- 24 October - American Overseas Airlines operates the first scheduled commercial trans-atlantic flight by a landplane (Douglas C-54 Skymaster), between New York and Hurn, England.
November
- November 7 – Gp Cpt H. J. Wilson sets a new official airspeed record of 606 mph (976 km/h) in a Gloster Meteor. Unofficial German speed records by the rocket-powered Messerschmitt Me 163 during the war had already exceeded 625 mph (1,000 km/h)
December
- December 3 - A Mk5 Sea Vampire became the first jet aircraft to take off and land from an aircraft carrier, HMS Ocean.
First flights
January
- January 26 - McDonnell XFD-1 Phantom, the first jet aircraft to operate from a US Navy aircraft carrier
February
- February 1 - Kawasaki Ki-100
- February 7 - Consolidated-Vultee XP-81
- February 21 - Hawker Sea Fury prototype SR661
- February 25 - Bell XP-83
March
- March 1 - Bachem Ba 349
- March 3 - Mikoyan-Gurevich I-250 (N), first Soviet thermojet.
- March 18 - Douglas XB2D-1, prototype of the AD Skyraider
April
- April 19 - de Havilland Sea Hornet prototype PX212
- April 27 - Pilatus P-2
May
- May 17 - Lockheed Neptune Bu48237
June
- June 10 - Ilyushin Il-16
- June 14 - Avro Tudor 1 G-AGPF
- June 22 - Vickers Viking prototype G-AGOK
August
- August 3 - Kyūshū J7W Shinden
- August 7 - Nakajima Kikka, first Japanese jet
September
October
November
December
- December 2 - Bristol 170 G-AGPV
- December 8 - Bell 47 prototype NC1H
- December 19- Grumman Guardian prototype Bu90504
- December 22 - Beechcraft Bonanza
Unknown Date
Entered service
January
- Ilyushin Il-10 in the Soviet Air Force
August
November
|
||||||||||||||
