This is a list of aviation-related events from 1927:
Events The United States Navys becomes the first aircraft carrier to operate a multi-engine aircraft, the twin-engine Douglas T2D-1.Layman, R.D., Before the Aircraft Carrier: The Development of Aviation Vessels 1849-1922, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1989, , p. 124. The British aircraft carrier brings Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Air Force Fairey IIID aircraft to support the Shanghai Defence Force against rebel Chinese forces. The aircraft fly as landplanes from the Shanghai racecourse and as seaplanes from the Huangpu River.Thetford, Owen, British Naval Aircraft Since 1912, Sixth Edition, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1991, , pp. 123-124. Germanys lead in commercial aviation is such that during the year German airlines fly greater distances with more passengers than the airlines of France, Italy, and the United Kingdom combined.Murray, Williamson, Strategy for Defeat: The Luftwaffe 1933-1945, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama: Air University Press, 1983, no ISBN, p. 4. Fred Weick of the U.S. National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) develops the NACA cowling, an aerodynamic fairing used to streamline radial engines installed on airplanes, a major advance in aerodynamic drag reduction that enables substantial increases in fuel efficiency. It will win the Collier Trophy in 1929. The Société des Avions Bernard (Bernard Aircraft Company) converts a Bernard 18 prototype airliner — replacing its passenger compartment with fuel tanks to give it a range of — for Paul Tarascon to make the first nonstop flight from Paris to New York City and win the Orteig Prize. The converted plane, designated the Bernard 18GR, is unable to become airborne with its full fuel load, and after Charles Lindbergh claims the prize in May it is converted back to its airliner configuration.
January The French aircraft manufacturer Dewoitine (Constructions Aéronautiques Émile Dewoitine) is liquidated and transfers its only remaining active aircraft program (the Dewoitine D.27) to Eidgenoessische Konstruktionswerkstaette (EKW) in Switzerland. It will be reestablished as Société Aéronautique Française, or Avions Dewoitine, in March 1928. January 1 – Prompted by the increase in air traffic over Europe, a regulation goes into effect in the United Kingdom requiring the installation of wireless telegraphy equipment aboard any aircraft capable of carrying 10 or more people including crew and that such aircraft carry a special operator for the equipment. The use of radio telephony is limited to aircraft carrying five to nine people including crew. January 7 – Imperial Airways commences a regular service from Basra to Cairo via Baghdad, the first of its Empire "trunk routes." January 15 – Boeing Air Transport is formed, to carry airmail between Chicago and San Francisco. It eventually will become United Airlines. January 30 – An aerial sightseeing service is inaugurated in Honolulu, Hawaii, using a Ryan monoplane modified to accommodate five people to give sightseers a 15-to-20-minute ride from Ala Moana Park for $5 each. So many customers line up on the first day that a Curtiss JN-4 Jenny is brought in from Haleʻiwa to accommodate the overflow.
February February 10 – Flying a Ford Trimotor, Harry J. Brooks, chief test pilot of the Stout Metal Airplane Division of the Ford Motor Company, makes the first aircraft flight guided solely by a radio-beacon system. February 13 – Regia Aeronautica (Italian Royal Air Force) pilots Francesco de Pinedo and Capitano Carlo Del Prete, accompanied by their mechanic Sergente Vitale Zacchetti, take off from Cagliari, Sardinia, in the Savoia-Marchetti S.55 flying boat Santa Maria to begin their "Four Continents" flight, during which the plan to fly to Africa, cross the South Atlantic to Brazil, make several stops in South America and the Caribbean, visit the United States and Canada, and cross the North Atlantic to recreate the 1919 transatlantic flight of the United States Navy Curtiss NC-4 flying boat before returning to Italy.Anonymous, "Pinedo's Big Flight," Flight, February 27, 1927, p. 87. February 16 – After stops at Villa Cisneros in Spanish Sahara and Bolama in Portuguese Guinea, Pinedo, Del Prete, and Zacchetti attempt to take off from Bolama to cross the Atlantic Ocean to Brazil. Sweltering conditions prevent their plane from becoming airborne until they dump a large quantity of gasoline, forcing them to fly to the Cape Verde Islands instead, where cooler conditions prevail. February 23 – Pinedo, Del Prete, and Zacchetti cross the Atlantic, flying from the Cape Verde Islands to Fernando de Noronha, where the Brazilian Navy protected cruiser meets them and tows their flying boat into port. The next day, they fly to Natal, Brazil, to begin the South American phase of their "Four Continents" flight.
March While exploring drift ice in the Arctic north of the Territory of Alaska, Australian explorer George Hubert Wilkins and American pilot Carl Ben Eielson land on it in Eielson's airplane in the first land-plane descent onto drift ice. Wilkins later hypothesizes from the experience that future Arctic expeditions would take advantage of the wide expanses of open ice to use aircraft in exploration.Althoff, William F. Drift Station: Arctic outposts of superpower science. Potomac Books Inc., Dulles, Virginia. 2007. p. 35. March 9 – United States Army Air Corps Captain Hawthorne C. Gray sets an unofficial U.S. balloon altitude record of in a balloon with an open basket launched from Scott Field, Illinois. He passes out from hypoxia in the thin air, regaining consciousness only just in time to drop ballast and slow his fall after the balloon descends on its own. March 14 – Pan American Airways (the future Pan American World Airways) is formed to carry airmail on the Key West-Havana route. March 16 – After stops at various cities in South America including Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Buenos Aires, Argentina, Montevideo, Uruguay, and Asunción, Paraguay, the Italian aviators Francesco de Pinedo and Carlo Del Prete and their mechanic Vitale Zacchetti continue their "Four Continents" flight by beginning a long leg over the dense jungle of Brazil's Mato Grosso region. At one point, their Savoia-Marchetti S.55 flying boat Santa Maria is towed by a Brazilian river boat for along the Paraguay River in search of a suitable takeoff area after a refueling stop, and it takes them until March 20 to complete their crossing of the Matto Grosso and land at Manaós, Brazil. It is history's first flight over the Mato Grosso. March 21 – John Rodgers Airport (the future Honolulu International Airport, later renamed Daniel K. Inouye International Airport) is dedicated in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii.Aviation Hawaii: 1920-1929 Chronology of Aviation in Hawaii March 25 – Belgrade International Airport opens in Belgrade in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. March 29 Fritz Loose flies in 14 hours 8 minutes 2 seconds in a Junkers W 33 floatplane with a load on board at Aken-s-Elbe, Germany, setting new records for nonstop flight distance and duration for Class C2 seaplanes. After stops over the previous four days at Georgetown, British Guiana; Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe; Port-au-Prince, Haiti; and Havana, Cuba, the Savoia-Marchetti S.55 Santa Maria of de Pinedo, Del Prete, and Zacchetti crosses the Gulf of Mexico and arrives at New Orleans, Louisiana, becoming the first foreign airplane ever to fly into the United States. The United States Department of Commerce's Aeronautics Branch (predecessor of the Federal Aviation Administration) issues its first type certificate, Air Type Certificate No. 1, to the Buhl Airster C-A3.
April April 1 – Waldemar Roeder achieves a new world distance record for an aircraft with a payload, flying in 7 hours 52 minutes in a Junkers G 24L.German Aviation History Homepage: Junkers G 24 April 4 – Fritz Horn achieves a new world distance record for an aircraft with a payload, flying in 14 hours 23 minutes in a Junkers G 24L. April 6 The United States Department of Commerce's Aeronautics Branch (predecessor of the Federal Aviation Administration) issues Pilot License No. 1, a private pilot license, to Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Aeronautics William P. MacCracken, Jr. MacCracken becomes the first person to obtain a pilot license from a civilian agency of the United States Government. After departing New Orleans, Louisiana, and flying through Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona as part of their "Four Continents" flight, Francesco de Pinedo, Carlo Del Prete, and Vitale Zacchetti stop on Theodore Roosevelt Lake in Arizona to refuel their Savoia-Marchetti S.55 flying boat Santa Maria. An accidental fire breaks out and destroys the plane; its engines sink to the bottom of the lake and are not recovered until April 19. The three Italians will fly to San Diego, California, as passengers on a United States Navy plane and then travel by train to New York City to meet a new S.55 shipped there by the Italian Fascist government so that they can continue their flight. The new plane will arrive in New York by ship on May 1. April 10 – In a single flight in a Junkers G 24L, Hermann Roeder achieves two new world speed records for an aircraft with a payload, averaging over a distance of and over a distance of . April 16 – The Portuguese Military Aviation seaplane Argos, crewed by Sarmento de Beires (pilot), Duvalle Portugal (co-pilot), Jorge de Castilho (navigator), and Manuel Gouveia (mechanic), makes the first night aerial crossing of the Atlantic Ocean, taking off from Portuguese Guinea and landing in Brazil, where it arrives after flying nonstop in 18 hours 12 minutes. April 26 – Attempting a test flight with a full load of gasoline of the Keystone K-47 Pathfinder American Legion (registration NX179), which they plan to use in an American Legion-sponsored attempt to win the Orteig Prize by making the first nonstop transatlantic flight from New York City to Paris, United States Navy Commander Noel Guy Davis and Lieutenant Stanton Hall Wooster crash on takeoff from Langley Field in Hampton Roads, Virginia. Both men are killed.Aviation Safety Network ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 34276
May May 1 – Imperial Airways introduces its luxury "Silver Wing" service between London and Paris. May 2 30,000 people are on hand for the arrival in Belgrade of Yugoslavian aeronautical engineer Tadija Sondermajer and pilot Leonid Bajdak as they complete a 14-stage, 11-day, flight from Paris to Bombay to Belgrade. Departing Paris on 20 April, they have followed the route Paris-Belgrade-Aleppo-Basra-Jask-Karachi-Bombay-Karachi-Jask-Basra-Aleppo-Belgrade. They make the flight to spur interest in investment in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia′s first civilian airline, Aeroput. Investment in Aeroput increases greatly, saving the new airline from abolition due a lack of capital. The InterAmerican Commercial Aviation Commission meets in Washington, D.C., to consider problems relating to aviation, draw up conclusions in the form of one or more conventions, and submit the convention or conventions to the member countries of the Pan-American Union for ratification. May 4 – United States Army Air Corps Captain Hawthorne C. Gray sets an unofficial record for the highest altitude reached by a human being, attaining in a balloon with an open basket over Belleville, Illinois. Because of the rapid descent of the balloon, he parachutes out at , disqualifying him from recognition for an official record by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI), which requires that a balloonist land with his craft in order to set an official record.