This is a list of aviation-related events from 1943:
Events Watanabe Iron Works transfers its aircraft manufacturing business to a new subsidiary, the Kyushu Airplane Company Ltd.Francillon, René J., Japanese Aircraft of the Pacific War, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1979, , p. 22.
January January 3 – Thrown clear of the B-17F Flying Fortress Snap! Crackle! Pop! without a parachute as the plane is shot down over Saint-Nazaire, France, United States Army Air Forces Staff Sergeant Alan Magee survives a fall which culminates in him crashing through the glass roof of the Saint-Nazaire railroad station. He becomes a prisoner of war. January 5 – In support of the American occupation of Amchitka in the Aleutian Islands scheduled for the next day, United States Army Air Forces aircraft fly photographic reconnaissance missions over Amchitka and strike Japanese forces on Attu and Kiska, sinking two fully loaded Japanese transports approaching Attu and Kiska. January 6 – Firing at a Japanese Aichi D3A dive bomber (Allied reporting name "Val") south of Guadalcanal, the United States Navy light cruiser claims the first hit on an enemy aircraft by antiaircraft ammunition employing the Mark 32 VT proximity fuse. January 13 The U.S. Army Air Forces activate the Thirteenth Air Force in New Caledonia. Operating from Guadalcanal, United States Marine Corps Major Joe Foss shoots down three Japanese Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighters, bringing his victory total to 26, all scored since October 13, 1942; he is the first American to match Eddie Rickenbackers World War I score of 26. Although Foss never shoots down another plane, his total is enough to make him the second-highest-scoring Marine Corps ace in history and the highest-scoring one to score all of his victories while in Marine Corps service. January 14–15 (overnight) – Royal Air Force Bomber Command begins an area-bombing campaign against ports in France in an effort to attack German submarines and their bases there. January 14 The Casablanca Conference, where Franklin D. Roosevelt becomes the first president of the United States to travel by airplane while in office (Miami, Florida to French Morocco to meet with Winston Churchill to discuss World War II). Aircraft carrier USS Independence is commissioned in the United States. January 15 – A Douglas C-54-DO Skymaster flying from the United States to the Casablanca Conference Morocco and operated by Transcontinental & Western Air on behalf of U.S. Army Air Forces Air Transport Command, disintegrates in mid-air for undetermined reasons and crashes in the jungle near Reynsdorp, Surinam, east-northeast of Paramaribo, killing all 35 people aboard.Aviation Safety Network Accident Description The English novelist and screenwriter Eric Knight, creator of the fictional collie Lassie, is among the dead. January 16–17 (overnight) – British bombing accuracy is poor in a raid on Berlin, which is beyond the range of the Gee and Oboe navigation aids. British bomber losses are small. Target indicator bombs are used for the first time. January 17–18 (overnight) – 188 British bombers attack Berlin, with poor accuracy. The Germans expect a return visit to Berlin and put up a better defence; the British lose 22 bombers, a very high 11.8 percent loss rate. January 21 – The Commander Submarine Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet, Rear Admiral Robert H. English, and all 18 others aboard are killed in the crash of Pan American World Airways Flight 1104, the Martin M-130 flying boat Philippine Clipper, into a mountain near Ukiah, California. January 23 – The pilot of a Japanese Nakajima A6M2-N (Allied reporting name "Rufe") floatplane fighter discovers that American forces have occupied Amchitka. Japanese aircraft from Kiska begin frequent raids against Amchitka that day and continue them for almost four weeks. January 24–25 – German aircraft attack Convoy JW 52 while it is en route the Kola Inlet in the Soviet Union via the Barents Sea but cause no damage. January 26 Three U.S. Army Air Forces B-24 Liberators of the Seventh Air Force make the flight from Funafuti to bomb Tarawa Atoll, where they discover a new Japanese airfield on the island of Betio. A plane carrying Major General Nathan F. Twining, the commander of the U.S. Army Air Forces' Thirteenth Air Force, ditches near the New Hebrides during a flight from Guadalcanal to Espiritu Santo. Twining and 14 others will spend six days in life rafts before they are rescued. January 27 The U.S. Army Air Forces make their first daylight bombing raid on Germany, hitting the naval facilities in Wilhelmshaven. The Soviet Union cancels the Polikarpov I-185 program. January 27–28 – For the first time, Oboe-equipped British Mosquitos leading the way for a British raid on Düsseldorf drop ground markers rather than sky markers to guide follow-on Pathfinder aircraft, clearly improving British night-bombing accuracy over that experienced before. January 28 The Japanese begin to use their new airfield on Betio. A U.S. Army Air Forces P-40 Warhawk fighter squadron begins operations from Amchitka, the first Allied aircraft to do so. They intercept attacking Japanese aircraft for the first time the following day, shooting down both attacking "Rufes". January 29–30 – In the last naval battle of the Guadalcanal campaign, the Battle of Rennell Island, Japanese land-based Mitsubishi G4M (Allied reporting name "Betty") torpedo bombers attack a U.S. convoy bound for Guadalcanal while it is steaming east of Rennell Island in the southeastern Solomon Islands. They sink the U.S. Navy heavy cruiser . January 30 Royal Air Force de Havilland Mosquitos make the first daylight air raid on Berlin. Construction of the incomplete and much-delayed German aircraft carrier is halted for the last time. January 30–31 (overnight) – In a raid on Hamburg, Germany, Royal Air Force bombers use the H2S radar for navigation operationally for the first time. January 31 Piloting one of eight United States Marine Corps F4F-4 Wildcat fighters escorting 12 SBD-3 Dauntless dive bombers attacking Japanese shipping off Kolombangara, First Lieutenant Jefferson J. DeBlanc shoots down two Imperial Japanese Navy Mitsubishi F1M2 (Allied reporting name "Pete") floatplanes before Imperial Japanese Army Air Force Nakajima Ki-43 Hayabusa ("peregrine falcon"; Allied reporting name "Oscar") fighters attack. During the ensuring dogfight, DeBlanc and fellow Wildcat pilot Staff Sergeant James A. Feliton use Thach Weave tactics that allow DeBlanc to shoot down two Ki-43s. After Feliton is shot down, DeBlanc downs another Ki-43 – his fifth victory of the day – before being shot down himself. Japanese ace Takeo Takahashi receives credit for downing both Wildcats. DeBlanc and Feliton parachute into Vella Gulf, swim to Kolombangara, are rescued by coastwatchers, and return to their base on Guadalcanal on February 12. DeBlanc will receive the Medal of Honor for the flight. Bad weather has so restricted operations of the U.S. Army Air Forces Eleventh Air Force during the January that it has dropped only of bombs on Japanese bases in the Aleutian Islands during the month and lost eleven aircraft, none to enemy action.
February February – Nine months after the Amerikabomber aircraft design competition's proposal documents arrive in Hermann Goering's offices there, the Nazi German Reich Air Ministry states to the Heinkel firm during this month, that the only developments of their firm's operational Heinkel He 177A heavy bomber they would approve funding for "further development" of were the He 177A-5, A-6 and A-7 subtypes, and for the firm's entirely separate, 8–277 airframe design project; ordering a trio of four-engined, 8–277 airframed prototypes and ten service test airframes in the spring of 1943 for what would soon become Heinkel's entry in the Amerikabomber trans-Atlantic range strategic bomber design competition. February 1 Major General Nathan F. Twining, the commander of the U.S. Army Air Forces' Thirteenth Air Force, and 14 others are rescued from life rafts near the New Hebrides. Their plane had ditched six days earlier during a flight from Guadalcanal to Espiritu Santo. The Messerschmitt Bf 109 of Luftwaffe ace Erich Paczia – probably already dead – collides with the U.S. Army Air Forces B-17F Flying Fortress All-American over Tunisia, slicing off the bombers left horizontal stabilizer and elevator and leaving the tail section connected to the rest of the aircraft only by a few longerons and a narrow strip of aluminum skin. Despite the damage, the B-17Fs pilot, Lieutenant Kendrick Bragg, lands it safely at Biskra, Algeria, without injury to anyone on board. All-American is repaired and later returns to action.Wilkinson, Stephan, "Amazing But True Stories," Aviation History, May 2014, pp. 34–35. February 3 – While shooting down a British Halifax bomber, German night fighter ace Reinhold Knacke is himself shot down and killed by one of the Halifax's gunners. The first of three out of Germany's top four night fighter aces to die during the month, his score stands at 44, all at night, when he is killed.Hinchcliffe, Peter, The Other Battle: Luftwaffe Night Aces vs. Bomber Command, Edison, New Jersey: Castle Books, 1996, , pp. 113–114. February 3–4 (overnight) – 263 British bombers attack Hamburg, Germany; 16 are shot down, mostly by Messerschmitt Bf 110 night fighters of Nachtjagdgeschwader 1. February 4 – The Casablanca directive directs the Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Forces to accomplish the "progressive destruction and dislocation of the German military, industrial, and economic system and the undermining of the morale of the German people to a point where their capacity for armed resistance is fatally weakened." It also establishes bombing priorities, notably including German submarine construction yards and oil plants and the German aircraft industry and transportation system.Hinchcliffe, Peter, The Other Battle: Luftwaffe Night Aces vs. Bomber Command, Edison, New Jersey: Castle Books, 1996, , p. 115. February 6–15 – Royal Air Force Coastal Command and the U.S. Army Air Forces Antisubmarine Command carry out Operation Gondola over the Bay of Biscay to test the theory that every German submarine transiting an interdicted area could be attacked at least once by Allied aircraft if they flew in sufficient numbers day and night. Aircraft of the two commands fly a combined 2,260 flight hours during the operation.Schoenfeld, Max, Stalking the U-Boat: USAAF Offensive Antisubmarine Operations in World War II, Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1995, , pp. 45–46. February 9 – Shortly after takeoff from West Palm Beach, Florida, for a flight to North Africa via the Azores, a U.S. Army Air Forces C-87 Liberator Express cargo aircraft begins to experience severe vibration. The pilot turns around and attempts to fly to Miami, Florida, for an emergency landing, but short of Miami the vibration becomes so severe that he orders the crew to bail out over the Atlantic Ocean, where six of the eight men are later rescued. On automatic pilot, the unmanned C-87 then climbs to altitude, flies across Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to Zaragoza, Mexico, in 4½ hours, and circles over Zaragoza for two more hours before crashing into a mountain.Wilkinson, Stephan, "Amazing But True Stories," Aviation History, May 2014, pp. 32–33 February 10 – A U.S. Army Air Forces Antisubmarine Command B-24D Liberator sinks a German submarine, apparently , in the North Atlantic Ocean, the first submarine sunk by the command.Schoenfeld, Max, Stalking the U-Boat: USAAF Offensive Antisubmarine Operations in World War II, Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1995, , pp. 50–52.