This is a list of aviation-related events from 1936:
Events The Royal Air Forces first monoplane bomber, the Avro Anson, enters service.Crosby, Francis, The Complete Guide to Fighters & Bombers of the World: An Illustrated History of the Worlds Greatest Military Aircraft, From the Pioneering Days of Air Fighting in World War I Through the Jet Fighters and Stealth Bombers of the Present Day, London: Hermes House, 2006, , p. 267. The German Luftwaffe begins experiments with helle Nachtjagd (abbreviated Henaja) techniques, the operation of night fighters with the aid of searchlights.Hinchcliffe, Peter, The Other Battle: Luftwaffe Night Aces Versus Bomber Command, Edison, New Jersey: Castle Books, 2001, , p. 44. The Soviet aviator Valery Chkalov with two crew members makes a non-stop flight in a Tupolev ANT-25 to Udd Island in the Arctic.Hardesty, Von, Red Phoenix: The Rise of Soviet Air Power 1941-1945, Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1982, , p. 48. The Bureau of Air Commerce begins to develop a nationwide air traffic control system in the United States.A Chronological History of Coast Guard Aviation: The Early Years, 1915-1938. The Curtiss-Wright Corporation reorganizes, amalgamating all manufacturing into the Curtiss-Wright Corporation, which builds aircraft, and the Wright Aeronautical Corporation, which builds 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. 108.
January January 10 – The civil transport version of the Heinkel He 111 bomber is revealed in public for the first time at Berlin′s Tempelhof airport. Named Dresden, the He 111 V4 carries registration D-AHAO. January 12 – In the Second Italo-Abyssinian War, aircraft of the Italian Royal Air Force (Regia Aeronautica) begin the Battle of Genale Doria by dropping two tons (1,814 kg) of mustard gas on Ethiopian positions.Barker, A. J., The Rape of Ethiopia 1936, New York: Ballantine Books, Inc., 1971, p. 76. January 13–14 – Howard Hughes makes a record-breaking sprint across the United States from Burbank, California to Newark, New Jersey in 9 hours 26 minutes 10 seconds at an average speed of . He uses a Northrop Gamma specially fitted with a 1,000-hp (747-kW) Wright SR-1820-G2 radial engine. January 14 – Bound for Little Rock, Arkansas, American Airlines Flight 1 — the Douglas DC-2-120 Southerner — crashes into a swamp near Goodwin, Arkansas, 14 minutes after takeoff from Memphis, Tennessee, killing all 17 people on board. January 16 – Searchers find American polar explorer Lincoln Ellsworth and his pilot, Herbert Hollick-Kenyon, alive and well at the abandoned base at Little America on the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica. They had arrived there on 15 December 1935 after completing the first flight across Antarctica in the Northrop Gamma aircraft Polar Star, but had been unable to report their arrival due to a faulty radio."Ellsworth and Kenyon Found Safe: Missing Men Located At Byrd's Camp", Fairbanks (Alaska) Daily News-Miner. January 17, 1936. Page A1. January 17 – The United States Army Air Corps orders 13 Boeing Y1B-17 Flying Fortresses, previously known by the manufacturer's designation, Model 299. January 20 – Italian troops take the Ethiopian town of Negele Boran without firing a shot. Its inhabitants have all fled after Italian aircraft drop 40 tons (36,288 kg) of bombs on the town during the Battle of Genale Doria.Barker, A. J., The Rape of Ethiopia 1936, New York: Ballantine Books, Inc., 1971, p. 77. January 22 – Italian aircraft play a decisive role in the First Battle of Tembien, dropping mustard gas to defeat a promising offensive by Ethiopian forces.
February British Marine Aircraft Ltd. is established at Hamble, Hampshire to produce Sikorsky S-42-A flying boats under licence in the United Kingdom but nothing comes of it. The company subsequently will become Folland Aircraft Limited.Fagan, Dave. 'Hamble' Aviation in Hampshire UK 1900 to 2000 Retrieved May 20, 2005 Flying an Aeronca C-3, Helen Richey sets an international womens speed record for light planes, averaging during a 51-minute flight covering .Lynch, Adam, "Hometown Heroine," Aviation History, March 2012, p. 56. February 2 – Karl Lange makes a daring landing on the ice of Chesapeake Bay in the Goodyear Blimp Enterprise as part of a United States Army Air Corps operation to bring supplies by air to the residents of Virginia′s Tangier Island, who face starvation after a severe winter storm. Ships have been unable to reach the island because of ice in the bay.Anonymous, "Bombing Planes to Bring Food to Ice Victims," Chicago Tribune, February 2, 1936. February 9 – After a one-hour, 54-mile (87-km) flight from Langley Field, Virginia, a U.S. Army Air Corps 49th Bomb Squadron Keystone B-6A bomber drops of supplies in parcels to the residents of Tangier Island, flying at an altitude of not more than . February 10 – During the morning, two U.S. Army Air Corps 49th Bomb Squadron B-6A bombers make flights to drop supplies at very low altitudes at Tangier Island, and a third B-6A drops supplies at nearby Smith Island, Maryland. Two B-6As drop additional supplies at Tangier Island during the afternoon. Based on the success of the supply flights of February 9 and 10, the 49th Bomb Squadron will fly an additional 13 flights to drop supplies to the islands using Martin B-10B bombers. February 13 – Imperial Airways commences airmail services to West Africa. February 15 – Italian aircraft based at nearby Mek'ele, Ethiopia, maintain at least 12 aircraft over the battlefield all day during the Battle of Amba Aradam against Ethiopian troops. It is a forerunner of the World War II "cab rank" technique of keeping airborne aircraft continually on call over a battlefield to bomb enemy positions when needed.Barker, A. J., The Rape of Ethiopia 1936, New York: Ballantine Books, Inc., 1971, p. 81.flightglobal.com Close Air Support in Burma February 16–19 – On February 16, Marshal Pietro Badoglio orders Italian ground forces not to pursue Ethiopian forces after they begin to retreat from Amba Aradam and assigns the task of exploitation of Italys victory to the Italian Royal Air Force (Regia Aeronautica), a novel task for an air force. Italian aircraft drop 40 tons (36,288 kg) of bombs on retreating Ethiopian forces over the last four days of the battle with devastating effect, and on February 19 a strafing aircraft mortally wounds the Ethiopian military leader Ras Mulugeta Yeggazu, who dies eight days later.Barker, A. J., The Rape of Ethiopia 1936, New York: Ballantine Books, Inc., 1971, pp. 82-83. February 17 – The Australian airline Ansett Airways (the future Ansett Australia) begins flight operations. Its first flight is from Hamilton Airport in Victoria to Melbourne, using a Fokker Universal. February 19 – Controversial United States Army airpower advocate Billy Mitchell dies. He had resigned from the United States Army Air Service in February 1926.Colonel Phillip S. Meilinger, USAF. Maxwell AFB. American Airpower Biography: Billy Mitchell February 27 – During the Second Battle of Tembien, Italian aircraft drop 200 tons (181 tonnes/metric tons) of high-explosive bombs on forming-up areas for Ethiopian troops and kill many Ethiopians fleeing the battlefield as they ford the Takkaze River.Barker, A. J., The Rape of Ethiopia 1936, New York: Ballantine Books, Inc., 1971, p. 84.
March The National Socialist German Workers Party requisitions the dirigibles Graf Zeppelin and Hindenburg to conduct leaflet-dropping propaganda flights over Germany to garner support for Hitlers planned remilitarization of the Rhineland.Phythyon, John R., Jr., Great War at Sea: Zeppelins, Virginia Beach, Virginia: Avalanche Press, Inc., 2007, p. 47. March 3–4 – Italian aircraft attack Ethiopian ground forces as they retreat across the Takkaze River, dropping mustard gas and 80 tons (72.6 tonnes/metric tons) of high-explosive and incendiary bombs. Thousands of Ethiopian troops are killed.Barker, A. J., The Rape of Ethiopia 1936, New York: Ballantine Books, Inc., 1971, p. 91. March 23 – Imperial Airways begins scheduled flights between Hong Kong and Malaysia. March 26 – Adolf II, Prince of Schaumburg-Lippe, and his wife are killed in a plane crash at Zumpango, Mexico. March 28 – The U.S. National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics begins operational use of newly constructed 8-foot- (2.4-meter-) high speed tunnel (8-Foot HST) at the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory, Langley, Virginia. March 31 – During the Battle of Maychew, Italian aircraft bomb Ethiopian troops heavily, helping to blunt a major Ethiopian attack.Barker, A. J., The Rape of Ethiopia 1936, New York: Ballantine Books, Inc., 1971, pp. 97-99.
April The German Luftwaffe staff holds a war game which finds that German air rearmament thus far has been inadequate and that the Luftwaffe is inferior to the French Air Force.Murray, Williamson, Strategy for Defeat: The Luftwaffe 1933-1945, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama: Air University Press, 1983, no ISBN, p. 15. April 4 – Italian aircraft drop mustard gas and 73 tons (66.2 tonnes/metric tons) of high-explosive bombs on a force of 20,000 Ethiopian troops retreating across the plain of Lake Ashangi, killing thousands.Barker, A. J., The Rape of Ethiopia 1936, New York: Ballantine Books, Inc., 1971, p. 105. April 7 – Transcontinental and Western Airways Flight 1, a Douglas DC-2, crashes into Cheat Mountain near Uniontown, Pennsylvania, while on approach to Allegheny County Airport in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, killing 12 of the 14 people on board. April 15 – Aer Lingus, the Republic of Irelands, national airline, is founded. It will begin flight operations in May. April 19 – Italian aircraft bomb Ethiopian forces attacking Italian troops at Birkut.Barker, A. J., The Rape of Ethiopia 1936, New York: Ballantine Books, Inc., 1971, p. 120.
May Flying a light plane borrowed from sportsman Ben King, Helen Richey sets an international altitude record for aircraft weighing under , reaching during a flight from Congressional Airport in Rockville, Maryland, to New Market, Virginia. May 4–7 – Amy Johnson sets a new England-South Africa speed record of 3 days 6 hours 26 minutes in a Percival Gull Six. May 5 – The Second Italo-Abyssinian War ends in an Italian conquest of Ethiopia as Italian forces enter Addis Ababa.Barker, A. J., The Rape of Ethiopia 1936, New York: Ballantine Books, Inc., 1971, p. 128. Facing no opposition, the Italian Royal Air Force (Regia Aeronautica) has played a decisive role in Italys victory in the eight-month war, but has engaged in a brutal campaign – in which Benito Mussolinis sons Vittorio and Bruno and son-in-law Count Ciano voluntarily participate – of indiscriminate terror bombing and widespread use of mustard gas.Barker, A. J., The Rape of Ethiopia 1936, New York: Ballantine Books, Inc., 1971, p. 65. May 27 – Aer Lingus, the Republic of Ireland's national airline, begins flight operations. Its first flight is by the de Havilland 84 Dragon Iolar (registration EI-ABI) from Baldonnel Airfield in Dublin, Ireland, to Bristol (Whitchurch) Airport in England.
June June 3 – Generalleutnant Walther Wever, the first chief-of-staff of the restored German Luftwaffe and the main proponent for the new force to have the aircraft to perform strategic bombing, dies along with his flight engineer when the Heinkel He 70 he is piloting crashes on takeoff at Dresden, Germany from its gust locks remaining in place. Ironically, the very same day, the German RLM proposes the Bomber A specification and aircraft design competition, which leads directly to the beginnings of the He 177 Greif German heavy bomber project over a year later. June 10 – First timetabled service to Barra Airport (Scotland), on Traigh Mhòr beach, offered by Northern & Scottish Airways. The airport is officially licensed on August 7.