1930-Contin ued

4 June On the first anniversary of his seaplane alti-

tude record, Lieutenant Apollo Soucek took off from

Anacostia in a Wright Apache landplane equipped

with a Pratt & Whitney 450-hp engine; and, flying to a

new height of 43,166 feet, regained the world altitude

record he had held briefly in 1929.

21 July Captain Arthur H. Page, USMC, piloted an

02U from a sealed hooded cockpit on an instrument

flight of about 1,000 miles from Omaha, Nebr., to NAS

Anacostia, D.C., via Chicago, Ill., and Cleveland, Ohio;

the longest blind flight to date. Lieutenant Vernon M.

Guymon, USMC, acted as safety pilot and took over

the controls only for the landings after Captain Page

had brought the plane over the fields at 200 feet.

Page and Guymon made long blind flight 1930460434

1 September In the race for the Thompson Trophy

in Chicago, Ill., Captain Arthur H. Page, USMC, flying

an XF6C-6, was the only military entry. Page gained

and increased an early lead but on the 17th of 20 laps

crashed to his death, a victim of carbon monoxide

pOlsonmg.

5 November The Director of Naval Research

Laboratory reported that Mr. Leo C. Young and Mr. L.

A. Hyland, while conducting experiments in the direc-

tional effects of radio, had detected an airplane flying

overhead. This led to the formal establishment of a

project at the Naval Research Laboratory for

"Detection of Enemy Vessels and Aircraft by Radio."

UNITED STATES NAVAL AVIATION 1910-1995

79

28 November The Chief of Naval Operations,

Admiral William V. Pratt issued a new naval air policy,

effective 1 April 1931, which essentially reorganized

aviation and established it as an integral part of the

fleet to operate with it under the direct command of

the Commander-in-Chief U.S. Fleet (CINCUS). The pol-

icy stressed the importance of fleet mobility and the

need for offensive action in protecting against invasion

from overseas, assigned the development of the offen-

sive power of the fleet and advanced base forces as

the primary task of Naval Aviation, and relegated par-

ticipation in coast defense to the status of a secondary

task. To complete the change, the policy also directed

that air stations in strategic naval operating areas

henceforth be assigned to, and operate under the

Fleet; and only such other stations as necessary for

training, test, aircraft repairs and similar support func-

tions would be maintained under shore command.

2 December The seaplane tender Aroostook (CM 3),

one utility and two patrol squadrons of the Battle Fleet

reported for duty to Commander Base Force, thereby pro-

viding that command with its first aviation organization.

1931

8 January Further development of dive-bombing

equipment and tactics was insured as tests completed

at the Naval Proving Grounds, Dahlgren, Va., showed

that displacing gear eliminated the recently encoun-

tered danger of a bomb colliding with its releasing air-

plane.

9 January An agreement was announced between the

Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral William V. Pratt and

the Army Chief of Staff, General Douglas MacArthur,

governing the operations of their respective air forces,

which climaxed a long standing interservice controversy

over the division of responsibilities for coast defense.

Under the terms, the functions of the two air forces

were closely associated with those of their parent ser-

vices; the naval air force was defined as an element of

the fleet to move with it and to carry out its primary

mission; and the Army Air Corps as a land-based air arm

to be employed as an essential arm of the Army in per-

forming its general mission, including defense of the

coast at home and at possessions overseas.

22 January The Navy ordered its first rotary winged

aircraft, the XOP-l autogiro, from Pitcairn Aircraft,

Incorporated.

25 February A new pilot training syllabus was

issued which added a course in Advanced Seaplane