This is a list of aviation-related events from 1928:
Events The Soviet Unions first five-year plan (1928–1932) begins, placing a high priority on the construction of new aircraft factories. It begins a rapid expansion of the Soviet aircraft industry.Hardesty, Von, Red Phoenix: The Rise of Soviet Air Power 1941-1945, Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1982, , p. 46. The Aeromarine Plane and Motor Company renames itself the Aeromarine-Klemm Corporation and begins to produce the German-designed Klemm aircraft.Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, p. 35. The Douglas Company renames itself the Douglas Aircraft Company.Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, p. 182. The Kawanishi Aircraft Company is founded.Francillon, René J., Japanese Aircraft of the Pacific War, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1979, , p. 20. The Mitsubishi Internal Combustion Engine Company Ltd. changes its name to Mitsubishi Aircraft Company Ltd.Francillon, René J., Japanese Aircraft of the Pacific War, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1979, , p. 23. Italy officially records its production rate for military aircraft at 150 per month, with a capacity to expand to 600 per month in wartime. The Regia Aeronautica (Italian Royal Air Force), meanwhile, determines that it will require a production rate of 900 aircraft per month during a war.Gooch, John, Mussolini and His Generals: The Armed Forces and Fascist Foreign Policy, 1922-1940, Cambridge, U.K: Cambridge University Press, 2007, , p. 80. The United States Coast Guard establishes an Aviation Section at its headquarters.A Chronological History of Coast Guard Aviation: The Early Years, 1915-1938. Frank Hawks makes a nationwide goodwill tour of the United States for Texaco piloting the custom-built Ford Trimotor Texaco One. He visits more than 150 cities and covers approximately . An estimated 500,000 people see Texaco One, and Hawks carries 7,200 passengers in the plane without mishap.Daniels, C. M., "Speed: The Story of Frank Hawks," Air Classics, Vol. 6, No. 2, December 1969, p. 45. Twenty-three-year-old Karolina Iwaszkiewicz becomes the first woman from Poland to earn a pilot's license. At the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory at Langley Field in Hampton, Virginia, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) begins the operation of a refrigerated wind tunnel, which gives researchers the ability to study icing on wings and propellers. German President Paul von Hindenburg founds the Hindenburg Cup () to recognize achievements in powered flight. An additional prize for gliding will be awarded beginning in 1930.
January Hoping to become the first person to fly a small, open-cockpit plane solo from South Africa to London, Mary, Lady Heath, takes off in an Avro Avian for what she hopes will be a three-week trip. Instead, the trip will take three months, and she will not arrive in London until May.O'Brien, Lora, "Lady Heath," Aviation History, March 2016, p. 15. To advertise Texaco, Frank Hawks flies a Texas delegation in the custom-built Ford Trimotor Texaco One from Houston, Texas, to Mexico City, Mexico. The first goodwill trade extension air tour from the United States to Mexico, the flight receives widespread coverage in American and Mexican newspapers.Musciano, Walter A. "The story of the legendary speed flying king." historynet.com., November 2005. Retrieved: September 26, 2010. January 6–8 – United States Marine Corps First Lieutenant Christian Schilt makes ten flights in an O2U Corsair to evacuate wounded Marines from an airfield hacked out of the jungle at the village of Quilali, Nicaragua, which is besieged by the guerrilla forces of Augusto César Sandino. Schilt will receive the Medal of Honor for the flights."Twenty-Five Significant Dates in USMC Aviation History," The Washington Post, May 2, 2012, p. H5. January 10 – John Moncrieff and George Hood disappear while attempting the first trans-Tasman Sea flight between Australia and New Zealand in the Ryan B-1 Brougham Aotearoa (registration G-AUNZ). No trace of them or their aircraft ever is found. Theirs is the first aircraft ever to disappear without trace in or near New Zealand. January 15 – The United States Department of Commerce's Aeronautics Branch (predecessor of the Federal Aviation Administration) publishes a list of newly licensed pilots that includes James Herman Banning as the holder of a limited commercial license. He is the first known African American to receive a United States Government pilot license. January 16 – Pan American Airways (the future Pan American World Airways) begins scheduled passenger service between Key West, Florida, and Havana, Cuba, its first scheduled international passenger service. It had begun regular air mail service on the route in October 1927. January 24 French aviator Antoine Paillard breaks the international speed record for an airplane carrying a payload, reaching in the Bernard 18T Ingénieur Hubert at Istres, France. Witnessed by Henry Ford, Harry J. Brooks, chief test pilot of the Stout Metal Airplane Division of the Ford Motor Company, takes off from Ford Airport in Dearborn, Michigan, in the third prototype of the Ford Flivver in an attempt to set a new record for an unrefueled flight by a C-class airplane — i.e., an airplane that weighs between — by flying nonstop to Miami, Florida. He falls short of that goal, landing at Asheville, North Carolina."Ford Flivvers Forever." Skyways, October 1995. January 26 – Veteran movie actor Earl Metcalfe is killed during a flying lesson when he falls or jumps from a plane at an altitude of over Burbank, California, when it goes into a double roll. January 31 – An issue of Domestic Air News — an official publication of the United States Department of Commerce's Aeronautics Branch (the predecessor of the Federal Aviation Administration) — reports an early instance of airplane noise nuisance in the United States in which a poultry farm proprietor in Garrettsville, Ohio, has complained to the Postmaster General of the United States that low-flying airplanes are disrupting egg production at the farm. The Postmaster General had forwarded the proprieter's letter to National Air Transport, the private company operating the New York City-to-Chicago air mail route, suggesting it make a special effort to maintain altitude over Garrettsville.
February The United States Department of Commerce's Aeronautics Branch (predecessor of the Federal Aviation Administration) completes the second of two series of flight tests — both conducted on the New York City-to-Cleveland, Ohio, airway — of a practical radio navigation beacon system. It had begun the first series of flight tests in July 1927. February 3 – New York City decides to build its first municipal airport.A Chronological History of Coast Guard Aviation - The Early Years (1915-1938) February 7–22 – Australian aviator Bert Hinkler makes the first solo flight from England to Australia, flying from Croydon to Darwin in an Avro Avian. His flight sets a new time world record for an England-to-Australia flight of just under 15½ days, smashing the previous record of 28 days. He then flies on to Bundaberg, Queensland, Australia, arriving there on February 27. February 12 – Mary, Lady Heath leaves Cape Town in an Avro Avian in an attempt to make the first solo flight by a woman from South Africa to England. She will arrive in Croydon on May 17. February 13 – Charles Lindbergh arrives in St. Louis, Missouri, completing a goodwill tour of Latin America at the controls of the Spirit of St. Louis which started with a nonstop flight from Washington, D.C. to Mexico City on December 13–14, 1927, and included stops elsewhere in Mexico and in Guatemala, British Honduras, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Cuba.Jose, Juan, "Lindbergh in Mexico," charleslindbergh.com February 15 – Aeroput, the flag carrier of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and Yugoslavia's first civilian airline, makes its first flight, a 2-hour 25-minute trip from Belgrade International Airport in Belgrade to Borongaj Airfield in Zagreb by a Potez 29/2 (registration X-SECD) carrying two pilots and five journalists and news photographers. The airliner makes passes over Zagreb before landing. In the afternoon, the airliner returns to Belgrade, again carrying journalists as passengers. February 20 – The Havana Convention on Commercial Aviation is adopted by the delegates to the Sixth International Conference of American States at Havana, Cuba. It governs aeronautical navigation in the Western Hemisphere, including provisions relating to marking of aircraft, landing facilities, prohibited transport, competency of airmen, registration of aircraft, prohibited areas, and the rights of each country to prescribe the route to be followed over its territory by the aircraft of other countries. February 21 – Witnessed by Edsel Ford, Harry J. Brooks, chief test pilot of the Stout Metal Airplane Division of the Ford Motor Company, takes off from Ford Airport in Dearborn, Michigan, in the second prototype of the Ford Flivver in a second attempt to set a new record for an unrefueled flight by a C-class airplane — i.e., an airplane that weighs between — by flying nonstop to Miami, Florida. He lands short of Miami, landing at Titusville, Florida, but nonetheless sets a distance record of . February 25 Over Villacoublay airfield in Villacoublay, France, French pilot Alfred Fronval sets a world record for consecutive loop-the-loops, completing 1,111 loops in 4 hours 56 minutes. After taking off from Titusville, Florida, to complete his flight to Miami, Florida, Harry J. Brooks is circling over the Atlantic Ocean when his Ford Flivver's engine quits. The plane crashes into the sea off Melbourne, Florida, killing him.Smoot, Tom. The Edisons of Fort Myers: Discoveries of the Heart. Sarasota, Florida: Pineapple Press, 2004. . The airplane's wreckage washes up on shore, but his body is never found.
March Fourteen months after its liquidation, the French aircraft manufacturer Dewoitine is reestablished as Société Aéronautique Française (or Avions Dewoitine). March 1 – The British aircraft carrier HMS Courageous enters service as the worlds first aircraft carrier with transverse arresting gear.Sturtivant, Ray, British Naval Aviation: The Fleet Air Arm, 1917-1990, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1990, , p. 215. March 5 – de Havilland Canada is established by de Havilland as a Canadian subsidiary. March 8 – The Foreign Air Mail Act becomes law in the United States. It expands the role of the United States Post Office Department in international mail by giving it new authority to award contracts for periods of up to ten years for the transportation of mail by air to foreign countries and to U.S. insular areas. March 12 – Attempting to set a new world airspeed record, South African pilot Flight Lieutenant Samuel M. "Kinky" Kinkead, commander of the Royal Air Force High Speed Flight and a decorated World War I flying ace, dies when his Supermarine S.5 seaplane, N221, suddenly nose-dives into the Solent off Englands Isle of Wight.Dobson, Christopher, and John Miller, The Day They Almost Bombed Moscow: The Allied War in Russia, 1918-1920, New York: Atheneum, 1986, no ISBN, pp. 18-19. March 26 – The Italian Secretary of State for Air, Italo Balbo, founds the airline Società Aerea Mediterranea (SAM) as an early step toward an Italian Fascist government takeover of all Italian airlines and rationalization of their routes.