1945 IN AVIATION

This is a list of aviation-related events from 1945:

Contents

Events

January

February

March

April

May

July

August

September

October

November

December

First flights

Entered service

January

August

November

Events

January

★ January 1 - the Luftwaffe begins targeting Allied airfields in Europe as "Operation Bodenplatte"

February

★ February 13-15 - Allied bombers attack Dresden with incendiary weapons, destroying most of the city and killing some 50,000 people.

★ February 21 - aircraft carrier USS ''Saratoga'' is badly damaged by a kamikaze attack

March

★ March 13-14 - an Avro Lancaster of No. 617 Squadron RAF drops the first 22,000 lb (9,980 kg) Grand Slam bomb

★ March 21 - the Ohka dedicated kamikaze weapon is used operationally for the first time but with no success.

★ March 24 - Allied forces began large-scale crossings of the Rhine as Operation Varsity, the operation involved 2,000 transport aircraft and gliders.

★ March 27 - the final V-2 missile to hit England falls in Kent

April

★ April 1 - Ohkas score hits on the USS ''West Virginia'' and three of her escorts.

★ April 10 - the Luftwaffe flies its final sortie over England (with an Arado Ar 234 on a reconnaissance mission from Norway)

★ April 12 - USS ''Mannert L. Abele'' is sunk by an Ohka

★ April 23 - the US Navy puts its first radar-guided bomb into use, the SWOD-9 "Bat", dropped from Consolidated PB4Ys on Japanese shipping in Balikpapan Harbour.

★ April 25 - 275 B-17s escorted by four groups of P-51 Mustangs attacked the Pilzen-Škoda armament factory in Czechoslovakia - the last heavy bomber mission by the United States 8th Air Force against an industrial target.

May

★ Germany's top-scoring fighter ace Erich Hartmann surrenders to Allied forces

★ May 7 - the Royal Air Force sinks its last German submarine

★ May 8 - 'VE Day' - Germany surrenders, ending the War in Europe

July

★ July 12 – An Eastern Air Lines flight en route from Boston, Massachusetts to Miami with stops in Washington, DC and Columbia, SC collided with a US Army B-25 Mitchell bomber about 3,000 feet above Syracuse, SC (about 20 miles from Florence, SC). The commercial pilot, G. D. Davis, landed his craft in a cornfield nearby. One passenger, an infant, was killed. The bomber exploded; two died and one was able to parachute safely.

★ July 28 - a B-25 Mitchell bomber crashed into the Empire State Building

August

★ August 1 - Toyama is the subject of an incendiary attack by the USAAF that destroys almost the entire city

★ August 6 - B-29 Superfortress ''Enola Gay'' drops "Little Boy" the first nuclear weapon used in warfare over the Japanese city of Hiroshima

★ August 9 - B-29 ''Bockscar'' drops a plutonium-239 nuclear weapon, ''Fat Man'', on Nagasaki.

★ August 14 - 'VJ Day' - Japan surrenders, ending the War in the Pacific, and World War II.

★ August 15 - seven Imperial Japanese Navy aircraft make the last kamikaze attack of the war.

★ August 19 - two Mitsubishi G4Ms carry Japan's surrender delegation to Ie Shima

September

★ a captured Focke Achgelis Fa 223 makes the first helicopter crossing of the English Channel

★ September 20, an experimental Gloster Meteor with Rolls-Royce Trent engines makes the first turboprop-powered flight.

October

★ 1 October - 1st annual general meeting of the International Air Transport Association begins in Montreal, Canada.

★ 24 October - American Export Airlines operates the first scheduled commercial trans-atlantic flight by a landplane (Douglas C-54 Skymaster), between New York and Hurn, England.

November

★ November 7 – Gp Cpt H. J. Wilson sets a new official airspeed record of 606 mph (976 km/h) in a Gloster Meteor. Unofficial German speed records by the rocket-powered Messerschmitt Me 163 during the war had already exceeded 625 mph (1,000 km/h)

December

★ December 3 - A Mk5 Sea Vampire became the first jet aircraft to take off and land from an aircraft carrier, HMS ''Ocean''.

First flights

'January'

★ January 26 - McDonnell XFD-1 Phantom, the first jet aircraft to operate from a US Navy aircraft carrier
'February'

★ February 1 - Kawasaki Ki-100

★ February 7 - Consolidated-Vultee XP-81

★ February 21 - Hawker Sea Fury prototype ''SR661''

★ February 25 - Bell XP-83
'March'

★ March 1 - Bachem Ba 349

★ March 3 - Mikoyan-Gurevich I-250 (N), first Soviet thermojet.

★ March 18 - 'Douglas XB2D-1', prototype of the AD Skyraider
'April'

★ April 19 - de Havilland Sea Hornet prototype ''PX212''

★ April 27 - Pilatus P-2
'May'

★ May 17 - Lockheed Neptune ''Bu48237''
'June'

★ June 10 - Ilyushin Il-16

★ June 14 - Avro Tudor 1 ''G-AGPF''

★ June 22 - Vickers Viking prototype ''G-AGOK''
'August'

★ August 3 - Kyūshū J7W ''Shinden''

★ August 7 - Nakajima Kikka, first Japanese jet
'September'

★ September 5 - C-74 Globemaster
'October'

★ October 27 - Bristol Buckmaster

★ October 28 - LWD Szpak
'November'

★ November 10 - Yakovlev Yak-11

★ November 15 - PZL S-1

★ November 20 - Saab 91 Safir
'December'

★ December 2 - Bristol 170 ''G-AGPV''

★ December 8 - Bell 47 prototype ''NC1H''

★ December 19- Grumman Guardian prototype ''Bu90504''

★ December 22 - Beechcraft Bonanza
'Unknown Date'

★ Thorp T-211

Entered service

January

★ Ilyushin Il-10 in the Soviet Air Force

August

★ Avro Lincoln with No. 57 Squadron RAF

November

★ Hawker Tempest II with No. 54 Squadron RAF