This is a list of aviation-related events from 1919:
Events A Sopwith Baby attached to a Chilean Navy cruiser is the first shipboard aircraft in Latin American history.Scheina, Robert L., Latin America: A Naval History 1810-1987, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1987, , p. 199.
January Flying a Breguet 14, Capitaine Coli and a Lieutenant Roget of the French Armys Aéronautique Militaire make a double crossing of the Mediterranean Sea, covering .Donald, David, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997, , p. 186. January 8 – Civil aviation resumes in Germany January 10 – Airco DH.4s of the Royal Air Forces No. 2 (Communications) Squadron are converted for transporting passengers and mail between London and Paris, in support of the Versailles Peace Conference. January 16 – Royal Air Force Major A. S. C. MacLaren and Captain Robert Halley, in a Handley Page V/1500, arrive in Delhi, completing the first England-to-India flight. January 19 – Jules Védrines claims a FF25,000 prize by landing an aircraft – a Caudron G-3 – on the roof of a department store in Paris. Making a hard landing in a space only , Védrines is injured and his aircraft is damaged beyond repair.
February February 5 – Regular flights begin between Berlin and Weimar in Germany by the Deutsche Luft-Reederei, using AEG and DFW biplanes. February 8 – Lucien Bossoutrot pilots a Farman F.60 Goliath carrying 12 passengers from Toussus-le-Noble, France, to RAF Kenley in England, on the first commercial flight between London and Paris to promote the Goliath and Henry Farman's plans for commercial aviation. To get around a prohibition on non-military flights still in place after the end of World War I, the Goliath's passengers are all former military pilots in uniform and carrying military orders directing them to take the flight, which takes 2 hours 30 minutes. The return flight the next day takes 2 hours 10 minutes. February 25 – An Air Traffic Committee made up of representatives of 36 states in the British Empire under the Council of Defence meets for the first time.
March An airmail service begins between Folkestone, England, and Cologne, Germany. March 1 – The German airline Deutsche Luft-Reederei (DLR) begins scheduled flights to Hamburg, Germany. March 3 – The first U.S. international airmail is carried between Vancouver, British Columbia, and Seattle, Washington, by William Boeing in a Boeing CL-4S. March 10 – Prime Minister of Australia Billy Hughes announces a £10,000 reward to the first aviator who will fly from the United Kingdom to Australia in less than 30 days. March 12 – The Lithuanian Army forms an aviation unit. This is considered the birth of the Lithuanian Air Force. March 22 – The first regular international commercial route opens between Paris and Brussels, flown by an F.60 Goliath from Farman airlines. March 24 Igor Sikorsky emigrates to the United States. A contingent of Women's Royal Air Force (WRAF) personnel arrive in France for overseas service, the first time that WRAF personnel have served outside the United Kingdom. Later in the year, another WRAF contingent will be sent to Germany.rafmuseum.org.uk Women's Royal Air Force (WRAF) 1918 - 1920 March 31 – The Belgian airline SNETA (; National Syndicate for the Study of Aerial Transport) is founded. Intended to experiment with the possibilities for commercial aviation, it will operate until it merges with other airlines to form Belgium's first true commercial airline, SABENA, on 23 May 1923.Weather & Aviation Page - SNETA
April The Imperial Japanese Army further increases the independence of its aviation element by reorganizing it as the Army Air Division under the command of Major General Ikutaro Inouye.Francillon, René J., Japanese Aircraft of the Pacific War, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1979, , p. 30. April 3 – In a flight to publicize the Farman F.60 Goliath airliner, a Goliath carries 14 passengers to an altitude of 6,200 meters (20,341 feet). April 5 – In a Breguet 14, Lieutenant Roget of the French Armys Aéronautique Militaire makes a flight from Lyon, France, to Rome, Italy, to Nice, France. Later in the year, again flying a Breguet 14, Roget and Capitaine Coli will set a French flight distance record, flying from Paris – Le Bourget Airport in France to Kenitra, French Morocco. April 15 – The United States Navy selects the collier USS Jupiter for conversion into its first aircraft carrier.Layman, R.D., Before the Aircraft Carrier: The Development of Aviation Vessels 1849-1922, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1989, , p. 122. April 18 – CMA (Compagnie des Messageries Aériennes) commences a mail and freight service between Paris and Lille, using ex-military Breguet 14s. April 23 – The North Sea Aerial Navigation Company starts a passenger service between Leeds and Hounslow Heath Aerodrome in ex-military Blackburn Kangaroos. April 29 During the Polish-Soviet War, Lieutenant Stefan Stec, flying a Fokker D.VIII, scores the first kill in the history of the Polish Air Force, shooting down a Ukrainian Nieuport fighter. The United States Army Air Service establishes Luke Field on Ford Island in Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.
May Raymond Orteig offers the Orteig Prize of US$25,000 for the first non-stop transatlantic flight between New York City and Paris. Charles Lindbergh finally will win the prize in May 1927. A Fairey IIIC seaplane is used for a regular newspaper run, carrying the Evening Times to towns along the Kent coast of England. May 2 – United States Army Major Harold M. Clark, Jr., who had made the first interisland flight in Hawaii in May 1918, dies in a seaplane crash in the Miraflores Locks in the Panama Canal Zone. Clark Field in the Philippines will be named for him. May 8 – The United States Navy Curtiss NC-4 flying boat, piloted by United States Coast Guard pilot Elmer F. Stone and under the command of Albert Cushing Read begins an Atlantic crossing in company, to fly by short stages from Naval Air Station Rockaway on Long Island, New York, to Lisbon, Portugal. May 15 The United States Post Office Department inaugurates an intercity air route between Chicago, Illinois, and Cleveland, Ohio. The U.S. Navy blimp C-5 completes a pioneering overnight flight from her base at Cape May, New Jersey, to St. John's in the Dominion of Newfoundland, becoming the first airship to visit St. John's. The U.S. Navy plans for C-5 to become the first airship to fly across the Atlantic Ocean, from St. John's to Europe. However, shortly after arriving at St. John's, C-5 breaks her mooring lines during high winds and drifts out unmanned over the Atlantic, where she crashes in the evening from St. Johns. Recovered by a British ship, C-5 never flies again."Blimp Loosed By Gale; The Navy Dirigible C-5, Blown to Sea from Newfoundland and Picked Up by British Ship," The New York Times, May 16, 1919, pp. 1."Our Runaway Airship Captured by British Ship Eighty-five Miles at Sea, East of St. John's, N.F.", The New York Times, May 16, 1919, pp. 1.Shock, James R., US Navy Airships, Edgewater, Florida: Atlantic Press, 2001, , pp. 22-27. May 16–17 – The Curtiss NC-4 flies from Trepassey Bay in Newfoundland to Horta in the Azores. May 18 – Harry Hawker and Lieutenant Commander Kenneth Mackenzie-Grieve attempt a non-stop transatlantic flight in the Sopwith Atlantic but are forced to ditch their aircraft only after leaving Newfoundland due to an overheating engine. They are rescued, and London's Daily Mail newspaper awards them a prize of £5,000 for their attempt anyway. May 24 – British Handley Page Type O bombers attack Kabul, Afghanistan, during the Third Anglo-Afghan War. May 27 – The Curtiss NC-4 flies from the Azores to Lisbon, completing the first transoceanic flight. May 30–31 – The Curtiss NC-4 flies from Lisbon to Plymouth, England.
June June 1 – A permanent flight of World War I-surplus Curtiss JN-4s is stationed in San Diego, California, to serve as a forest fire patrol. June 2 – Prime Minister of the United Kingdom David Lloyd George and the British Colonial Office approve a Royal Air Force proposal to send a self-contained air unit (the "Z Unit") to British Somaliland to regain control over the colony from the Dervish State of Diiriye Guure. The campaign, which will begin in January 1920, will be the first test of the Royal Air Force concept of "aerial policing" – the use of independent air power to suppress colonial rebellions.O'Connor, Derek, "The Hunt For the Mad Mullah," Aviation History, July 2012, pp. 44-45. June 6 – Canada becomes the first country to legislate and implement rules governing the entire domain of aviation within its borders when the Government of Canada establishes the Air Board as Canada's civil aviation authority. The Air Board is responsible for devising a means of and administering Canadian air defence, controlling and conducting all non-military government flying operations, and providing rules and regulations for all flying within Canada, including licensing, issuing air regulations, and managing air traffic. The Air Board is organized into three sections: the Department of the Controller of Civil Aviation, which controls all civil aviation; the Directorate of Flying Operations, which controls non-military government flying operations of the Air Board; and the headquarters of the Canadian Air Force. June 7 The Latvian Air Force is founded. Flying a Caudron G.3, Raymonde de Laroche of France sets a women's altitude record of nearly .Pawlak, Debra Ann, "The Baroness of Flight," Aviation History, July 2008, p. 17. June 8 – In the Russian Civil War, Royal Air Force Fairey IIIC seaplanes attack four armed Bolshevik steamers on Russia's Lake Onega. Although their attack has little physical effect on the ships, the Bolsheviks are taken by surprise and flee, pursued by four smaller and less-well-armed Royal Navy torpedo boats.Thetford, Owen, British Naval Aircraft Since 1912, Sixth Edition, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1991, , p. 121.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. 222-223. June 10 – Ruth Law of the United States breaks the women's altitude record, flying to . June 12 – Raymonde de Laroche again breaks the women's altitude record, flying to a height of .Pawlak, Debra Ann, "The Baroness of Flight," Aviation History, July 2008, p. 17, claims the height reached was . June 14 – United States Navy pilot Charles Hammann dies in an aircraft crash at Langley Field in Virginia. He will receive the Medal of Honor posthumously in 1920 for a heroic World War I action on August 21, 1918, retroactively becoming the first U.S. aviator ever to receive the award.Tillman, Barrett, "Above and Beyond," Aviation History, January 1918, p. 30. June 14–15 – Captain John Alcock and Lieutenant Arthur Whitten Brown make the first successful non-stop Atlantic crossing by air, flying a Vickers VimyMondey, David, ed., The Complete Illustrated History of the Worlds Aircraft, Secaucus, New Jersey: Chartwell Books, Inc., 1978, , p. 28. from St. John's, Newfoundland, to Clifden, Ireland, in 16 hours. They win £10,000 from the Daily Mail and are both knighted.