1927-Continued

21 May Lieutenant Rutledge Irvine, in a Vought 02U

Corsair equipped with a Pratt & Whitney Wasp engine,

established a world record for Class C Seaplanes for

1,000 kilometers at Hampton Roads, Va., with a speed

of 130.932 mph.

23 May A major advance in the transition from

wooden to metal aircraft structures resulted from the

Naval Aircraft Factory's report that the corrosion of

aluminum by salt water-hitherto a serious obstacle

to the use of aluminum alloys on naval aircraft-

could be decreased by the application of anodic

coatings.

27 May Dive bombing came under official study as

the Chief of Naval Operations ordered the Commander

in Chief, Battle Fleet, to conduct tests to evaluate its

effectiveness against moving targets. Carried out by VF

Squadron 5S in late summer and early fall, the results

of these tests generated wide discussion of the need

for special aircraft and units, which led directly to the

development of equipment and adoption of the tactic

as a standard method of attack.

1 July A new system of squadron designation

became effective providing, in addition to the standard

class designation letters and identification number, a

suffix letter to indicate the fleet, force, or unit to which

the squadron was assigned. Under this system VF-1B

was Fighting Squadron 1 of Battle Force.

1 July The practice of sending Naval Reserve avia-

tion officers to one year of training duty with the fleet

after graduation from Pensacola, Fla., began with the

assignment of the first group of 50 newly commis-

sioned ensigns.

4 July Lieutenant Carleton C. Champion, flying a

Wright Apache powered with a Pratt & Whitney

engine, reached 37,995 feet over Anacostia, D.C.,

thereby breaking his own world altitude record for

Class C seaplanes, established 2 months earlier. This

height exceeded any previously reached by heavier-

than-air aircraft.

8 July Lieutenant Byron 1. Connell and Naval

Aviaton Pilot S. R. Pope, flying a PN-lO equipped with

two Packard engines, set new world duration and dis-

tance records for Class C seaplanes with a useful load

of 2,000 kilograms, and a new world duration record

with a 1,000 kilogram load, on the same flight out of

San Diego, logging 11 hours 7 minutes 18 seconds in

the air and a distance of 947.705 miles.

UNITED STATES NAVAL AVIATION 1910-1995

67

17 July Major Ross E. Rowell, USMC, led a flight of

five DHs in a strafing and dive bombing attack

against bandit forces surrounding a garrison of U.S.

Marines at Ocotal, Nicaragua. Although instances of

diving attacks had occurred during World War I and

Marine Corps pilots had used the same technique in

Haiti in 1919, this attack was made according to doc-

trine developed in training and is generally consid-

ered as the first organized dive bombing attack in

combat.

25 July Three weeks after breaking the seaplane

altitude record, Lieutenant Carleton C. Champion took

off from Anacostia, D.C., in a Wright Apache rigged as

a landplane and reached 38,419 feet, establishing a

new world record that stood for 2 years.

15-16 August Lieutenants Byron 1. Connell and

Herbert C. Rodd, flying out of San Diego in a PN-I0

patrol plane equipped with two Packard engines,

broke three world records for Class C seaplanes; dis-

tance with a 500-kilogram load, and duration with a

500-kilogram load, with marks of 1,569.0 miles and 20

hours 45 minutes 40 seconds in the air.

18 August Lieutenants Byron J. Connell and Herbert

C. Rodd took off from San Diego, Calif., in a PN-lO

flying boat with a useful load of 7,726 pounds, and

climbed to 2,000 meters to break the world record for

the greatest payload carried to that altitude by a Class

C seaplane.

16 November Saratoga, first carrier and fifth ship

of the Navy to bear the name, was placed in com-

mission at Camden, N.J., Captain Harry E. Yarnell

commanding.

14 December Lexington, first carrier and fourth ship

of the Navy to carry the name, was commissioned at

Quincy, Mass., Captain Albert W. Marshall commanding.

1928

5 January The first takeoff and landing on

Lexington was made by Lieutenant Alfred M. Pride in a

UO-1 as the ship moved from the Fore River Plant to

the Boston Navy Yard in Massachussetts.

6 January Lieutenant Christian F. Schilt, USMC, fly-

ing an 02U-l, made the first of 10 flights in which he

landed in a street of the village of Quilahi, Nicaragua,

and evacuated 18 wounded officers and men while

under hostile fire. For this feat, which he accom-

plished in three successive days, Schilt was awarded

the Medal of Honor.