1928 in aviation in Encyclopedia

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.^[1]
The Aeromarine Plane and Motor Company renames itself the Aeromarine-Klemm Corporation and begins to produce the German-designed Klemm aircraft.^[2]
The Douglas Company renames itself the Douglas Aircraft Company.^[3]
The Kawanishi Aircraft Company is founded.^[4]
The Mitsubishi Internal Combustion Engine Company Ltd. changes its name to Mitsubishi Aircraft Company Ltd.^[5]
The United States Coast Guard establishes an Aviation Section at its headquarters.^[6]

January 6-8 - Lt Christian Schilt makes ten flights in an O2U Corsair to evacuate wounded marines from the besieged village of Quilali, Nicaragua. He is awarded the Medal of Honor.
January 10 - John Moncrieff and George Hood perish attempting the first trans-Tasman flight between Australia and New Zealand.

February 3 – New York City decides to build its first municipal airport.^[7]
February 7 22 – Bert Hinkler makes the first solo flight from England to Australia, flying from Croydon to Darwin in an Avro Avian.
February 12 – Lady Mary Hearth 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.

March 1 – The British aircraft carrier HMS Courgaeous enters service as the worlds first aircraft carrier with transverse arresting gear.^[8]
March 30 – Mario de Bernardi sets a new airspeed record of 512.776 km/h (318.625 mph) at Venice, Italy - the first over 300 mph (483 km/h) and the first over 500 km/h (310.5 mph). He flies a Macchi M.52bis.

The Imperial Japanese Navy begins to experiment with coordinated torpedo attacks by aircraft and surface ships. It will not abandon the concept as impractical until the mid-1930s.^[9]
April 1 – The Imperial Japanese Navy forms its first seagoing aircraft carrier organization, the First Carrier Division.^[10]
April 13 – The first non-stop flight across the Atlantic Ocean from east to west is made by Hermann K hl, Ehrenfried G nther Freiherr von H nefeld, and Major James Fitzmaurice in a Junkers W.33 named Bremen.
April 14 – In the Breguet 19 G.R. Nungesser-Coli, the French aviators Dieudonn Costes and Joseph Le Brix complete a round-the-world flight they had begun on October 10, 1927, traveling 57,410 km (35,652 miles) with a total flying time of 350 hours, although they have covered the segment between San Francisco, California, and Tokyo, Japan, aboard ship.^[11] Their route has taken them from Paris to Senegal, Argentina, Brazil, the United States, Japan, India, Greece, and back to Paris, and has included the first aerial crossing of the South Atlantic Ocean and flights to every country in South America.^[12]
April 27 – Regia Aeronautica (Italian Royal Air Force) General Alessandro Guidoni is killed at Montecelio, Italy, when a new model of parachute he personally is testing fails. In 1937, the town and surrounding comune will be renamed Guidonia Montecelio in his honor.

Sumitoshi Nakao becomes the first Japanese aviator to save his life by parachute when he bails out of one of two Mitsubishi 1MF2 Hayabusa-type fighter prototypes when it disintegrates during a diving test during official Imperial Japanese Army trials at Tokorozawa. He is uninjured.
May 3 5 – Imperial Japanese Army Air Corps aircraft see action in China during the Tsinan Incident.^[13]
May 15 – The Reverend John Flynn founds the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia at Cloncurry, Queensland, Australia, using a de Havilland DH.50. The service takes medical services to remote parts of the Australian bush.
May 17 – During Fleet Problem VIII, the United States Navy aircraft carrier launches 35 aircraft off the Hawaiian Islands which carry out a successful simulated surprise "attack" against United States Army defenders in the Territory of Hawaii. It is the first in a series of U.S. Navy exercises experimenting with the use of carrier aircraft in surprise attack against enemy ports and bases.^[14]
May 23 – With Umberto Nobile in command, the Italian airship Italia sets out on her ill-fated third Arctic flight, during which she will fly over the North Pole. Italia will crash on her way back.

June 9 – Charles Kingsford Smith and his crew make the first flight across the Pacific Ocean in the Fokker F.VIIb-3m Southern Cross. They had left Oakland, California on May 31 and reach Brisbane via Honolulu and Fiji. The flight takes 83 hours.
June 11 – At the Wasserkuppe, Alexander Lippisch's Ente becomes the first aircraft to fly under rocket power, completing a 1,500-meter (4,921 ft) circuit of the landing strip.
July 12 – Emilio Carranza crashes in the New Jersey Pine Barrens while returning from New York City to Mexico City on a historic goodwill flight.
June 17 – Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean.
June 18 – A Latham 47 flying boat carrying Norwegian polar explorer Roald Amundsen and five others on a flight to search for survivors of the Italian airship Italia disappears. Their bodies are never found.

July 13 – The Imperial Airways Vickers Vulcan G-EBLB crashes nearly Purley, Surrey, in the United Kingdom, during a test flight, killing four of the six people on board. After the crash, Imperial Airways ends the practice of allowing airline staff to take "joy rides" during test flights.

The Daily Mail newspaper fits out a de Havilland DH.61 to use as a mobile press office. It carries its own darkroom and a motorcycle.

September 10 11 - Charles Kingsford Smith and crew make the first successful trans-Tasman flight.
September 18 - Don Juan de la Cierva flies a Cierva C.8 autogyro from Croydon, England, to Le Bourget, France, making the first crossing of the English Channel in a rotary wing aircraft.

October 10 – Flying an Engineering Division XCO-5 observation aircraft, St. Clair "Bill" Streett (pilot) and Albert William Stevens (passenger) set an unofficial altitude record for an aircraft carrying a passenger of 11,538 meters (37,854 feet). Temperatures of –61 C (–71 F) freeze the controls, preventing Streett from losing altitude or turning off the engine; he waits 20 minutes for the engine to run out of gasoline (petrol), then glides to a deadstick landing.
October 11 – The Zeppelin Graf Zeppelin completes a crossing of the Atlantic Ocean in 71 hours.

December 6 – North American Aviation Inc. is founded.^[16]
December 12 – Royal Air Force Vickers Victorias evacuate British civilians from Kabul, Afghanistan.
December 15 17 – The French aviators Dieudonn Costes and Paul Codos set a world distance record for flight over a closed circuit, flying 8,029 km (4,986 miles).
December 19 – Harold Pitcairn flies his first autogyro.