This is a list of aviation-related events from 1930:
Events The Surrey Aero Club inaugurates recreational flights from Gatwick Race Course (now London Gatwick Airport). The German airship LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin makes its first crossing of the South Atlantic. The Aeromarine-Klemm Corporation, formerly the Aeromarine Plane and Motor Company, goes out of business, although the Uppercu-Burnelli Corporation takes over production of Aeromarine aircraft engines.Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, p. 37. French test pilot Roger Baptiste achieves a speed of at an altitude of in the Bernard 20 monoplane fighter prototype.Donald, David, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997, , p. 125. Nineteen-year-old Rex Finney of Los Angeles, California, uses the first successful wingsuit, employing it to increase horizontal movement and maneuverability during a parachute jump. A prize for gliding is added to the annual Hindenburg Cup (). Founded in 1928, it had previously recognized only achievements in powered flight. At the Hamilton Standard Propeller Corporation, Frank W. Caldwell develops the first practical variable-pitch propeller. The new propeller improves the propulsive efficiency of modern aircraft with highly supercharged engines, giving them more thrust than a fixed-pitch propeller during takeoff and allowing adjustment to a more efficient setting for flight at different altitudes and speeds. Cleveland Municipal Airport (the future Cleveland Hopkins International Airport) in Cleveland, Ohio, becomes the first airport in the United States to establish radio control of airport traffic. During the year, the percentage of United States Navy enlisted personnel with an aviation-related rating rises to 9 percent.Isenberg, Michael T., Shield of the Republic: The United States Navy in an Era of Cold War and Violent Peace, Volume I: 1945-1962, New York: St. Martin's Press, , p. 489. Autumn 1930 – The Royal Air Force rededicates No. 443 Flight of the Fleet Air Arm as the first British catapult flight of aircraft assigned to operate from battleship and cruiser catapults.Sturtivant, Ray, British Naval Aviation: The Fleet Air Arm, 1917-1990, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1990, , p. 17.
January The U.S. National Aeronautic Association announces that the U.S. National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) has won the 1929 Collier Trophy for the greatest achievement in American aviation in 1929 for developing the NACA cowling, a major advance in the reduction of aerodynamic drag that has enabled significant gains in speed and fuel efficiency. January 1 – Australian National Airways (ANA), the first airline of that name, begins scheduled services. Using six airplanes — five Avro 618 Tens it owns and co-founder Charles Ulm's Fokker VII/3m Southern Cross — it operates a regular passenger and airmail service between Brisbane, Sydney, and Melbourne, Australia. January 2 – Leroy Grumman, Leon Swirbul, and William Schwender found the Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation at Baldwin on Long Island, New York.Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, p. 214. January 15 – The United States Department of Commerce's Aeronautics Branch (predecessor of the Federal Aviation Administration) has issued a total of 287 type certificates to aircraft. January 16 On speed trials, the British airship R100 reaches , making her the fastest airship in the world. British Royal Air Force officer and engineer Frank Whittle receives a patent for his design of a turbojet aircraft engine. Manufacture of an experimental version of the engine will begin in 1936. January 17 – Record-setting aviator Frank Hawks attempts to take off in the Lockheed Air Express Texaco Five (registration NR7955) from a soggy field in West Palm Beach, Florida, but the plane is destroyed in a spectacular crash into a row of three parked aircraft. Hawks is unharmed.Allen, Richard Sanders, Revolution in the Sky: Those Fabulous Lockheeds, The Pilots Who Flew Them, Brattleboro, Vermont: The Stephen Greene Press, 1964, p. 36. January 19 – Trying to return to Tijuana, Mexico, after taking off in poor weather for a scheduled passenger flight to Los Angeles, California, Maddux Airlines Flight 7 – the Ford 5-AT-C Tri-Motor NC9689 – crashes in Oceanside, California, and catches fire, killing all 16 people on board. It is the deadliest aviation accident in American history at the time.Aviation Safety Network: Accident description January 25 In an amendment to the Air Commerce Regulations, the United States Department of Commerce's Aeronautics Branch sets as the minimum altitude at which aircraft may fly over the United States, except when landing and taking off. American Airways is formed out of a group of air carriers that had operated separately under the Aviation Corporation (Avco), a holding company. American Airways will be renamed American Airlines in April 1934.
February At the Philadelphia Navy Yard in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the United States Navy tests a Ford 5-AT-74 Trimotor equipped with 30-foot (9.1-meter) floats during the month for use as a torpedo bomber, but does not pursue the concept further.Polar, Norman, "'There's a Ford in Your Future'," Naval History, December 2015, pp. 14-15. February 1 – The Daniel Guggenheim Fund for the Promotion of Aeronautics terminates its activities, having determined that the time had come when private enterprise would find it "practicable and profitable to carry on" the fund's mission. February 10 – The Air Union Farman F.63bis Goliath F-FHMY suffers a tailplane structural failure during a flight from Paris-Le Bourget Airport outside Paris to Croydon Airport in London with six people on board. The pilot tries to land at the Pagehurst Emergency Landing Ground in Marden, Kent, England, but the plane stalls and crashes at Marden. Two passengers die, and the other two passengers and both crew members suffer injuries.Aviation Safety Network: Accident Description February 15 The Italian air power theorist Giulio Douhet dies at the age of 60. The United States Department of Commerce's Aeronautics Branch (predecessor of the Federal Aviation Administration) issues its first airport rating, giving Pontiac Municipal Airport (the future Oakland County International Airport) at Pontiac, Michigan, the highest possible rating of A-1-A. The United States Government intends the rating program — in which airport operators submit voluntary applications for inspection by the Aeronautics Branch — to enable pilots to know at a glance what facilities to expect at any of the rated airports and is part of the Aeronautics Branch’s efforts to encourage airport development through promotional and other activities. February 17 – A fire destroys the workshops of the Société d'Aviation Letord at Meudon, France, as well as aircraft, including the first Couzinet 20 and the Couzinet 27 Arc-en-ciel II. February 24 – Rancho-Boyeros Airport – the future José Martí International Airport – opens at Havana, Cuba.
March The Government of Chile creates the Directorate General of Civil Aviation as Chile′s national civil aviation authority. March 21 – The Chilean army and navy air arms are combined to form the Chilean Air Force. March 26 – The United States Department of Commerce's Aeronautics Branch (predecessor of the Federal Aviation Administration) begins issuing approved repair station certificates that entitle repair stations in the United States to repair aircraft of types for which they are adequately equipped, eliminating the previous requirement for them to submit to the Aeronautics Branch detailed drawings of the repairs they make to licensed aircraft and, in some cases, a stress analysis. Boeing Air Transport of Oakland, California, and National Air Transport of Chicago, Illinois, receive the first two certificates. March 28 – The Imperial Ethiopian Air Force flies its first mission, when three of its biplanes drop propaganda leaflets over the army of the rebel Gugsa Welle as it advances across Ethiopia's Begemder province. The leaflets prompt some members of his army to desert. March 30 – Towed by a Waco ASO biplane, the glider Texaco Eaglet, piloted by Frank Hawks, takes off from San Diego, California, to make a multi-day flight across the continental United States to New York City."Glider is towed by plane across the nation." Popular Mechanics, June 1930. March 31 – The three Imperial Ethiopian Air Force biplanes reappear over Gugsa Welle's army and bomb it at the beginning of the Battle of Anchem in the first combat mission in the air force's history. The bombing proves decisive, as it prompts so many members of Gugsa Welle's army to desert that it is badly outnumbered by the time ground combat begins between it and Imperial forces at Debre Zebit, when many more of its members desert, resulting in its defeat and Gugsa Welle's death.
April A float-equipped Cierva C.12 autogyro – dubbed the "Hydrogiro" – takes off from Southampton Water off the south coast of England. It is the first time that a rotary-wing aircraft takes off from a body of water. April 1 – Gerhard Fieseler founds the Fieseler aircraft manufacturing company under the name Fieseler Flugzeugbau Kassel. April 2 The first Korean aviator, An Chang-nam, dies in the crash of his aircraft while he is returning to the airport at the Shanxi Aviation Academy at Taiyuan, Shanxi, China, in bad weather. The prototype of the Latécoère 340 trimotor parasol-winged flying boat (registration F-AKDI) breaks up in the air and crashes while being demonstrated for a French Navy official, killing both men on board. No further examples of the aircraft are built. April 6 Flying the Wright XF3W-1 Apache, United States Navy Lieutenant Apollo Soucek sets a world altitude record, climbing to .Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, , p. 462. Towed by a Waco ASO biplane, the glider Texaco Eaglet, piloted by Frank Hawks, arrives at New York City after an eight-day journey from San Diego, California, during which it has spent 44 hours 10 minutes in the air. The flight demonstrates the feasibility of towing gliders over long distances. April 9 – Flying his de Havilland DH.60 Moth Miss India, Man Mohan Singh becomes the first Indian to fly solo from England to British India, landing at RAF Drigh Road in Karachi one month and one day after departing from Croydon Airport. April 10 – Flying the Junkers G 38 D-2000, Wilhelm Zimmermann sets four new world records for an aircraft carrying a payload of , averaging a record over a distance of and a record over a distance of and setting a distance record of and an endurance record of 3 hours 2 minutes.German Aviation History Homepage: Junkers Who is Who? Wilhelm Zimmermann April 10–20 – The English aviator and ornithologist Mary Russell, Duchess of Bedford, and her personal pilot C. D. Barnard make a record-breaking flight in the Fokker F.VII Spider (G-EBTS) of from Lympne Airport in Lympne, England, to Cape Town, South Africa, in 100 flying hours over 10 days. April 23 – A diesel-engined Verville Air Coach cabin monoplane crashes into a hill near Attica, New York, in a blinding snowstorm during a flight from Detroit, Michigan, to New York City, killing the three men on board. Among the dead is Lionel Woolson, designer of the radial air-cooled aero diesel engine used in the plane.