appointed Engineer-in-Charge of the NACA Ames Aeronautical Laboratory, Moffett Field, Calif. August 25: First RAF bombing of Berlin . During September: Royal —— : Development work at the British Royal Aircraft Factory at Farnborough included a measured-injection carburetor, prototype design of 14-cylinder, April 12: President Harding recommended establishment of a Bureau of Aviation within the Department of Commerce, in his address to Congress. April 18: John J. Ide appointed as technical assistant in charge of the Paris office of the NACA, a post he held until 1940 and resumed after the end of World War II. April 23: Aerial photo survey of Dominican Republic coastline completed by First Air Squadron of the USMC; and in June, it completed aerial survey of Haitian coastline. June 8: First flight of an Army Air Service pressurized cabin airplane was made, a D-9-A aircraft piloted by Lt. Harold R. Harris. —— : First of nine volumes of an encyclopedia on interplanetary travel by Prof. Nikolai A. Rynin published in the Soviet Union, the final volume of which appeared in 1932. 1929 January 1-7: An unofficial endurance record for refueled airplane flight was set by Maj. Carl Spaatz, Capt. Ira C. Eaker, and Lt. Elwood Quesada in the Question Mark , Fokker C2-3 Wright 220, over Los Angeles Airport, with flying time of 150 hours 40 minutes 15 seconds. January 23-27: Modern aircraft carriers Lexington and Saratoga participated in fleet exercises for the first time. February 4-5: Capt. Frank Hawks and O. E. June 6: Socony-Vacuum Oil Co., Inc., at Paulsboro, N.J., began production of aviation gasoline (100 octane) by the catalytic cracking method. June 7: Maj. Ira C. Eaker (AAC) made first transcontinental blind flight, from New York to Los Angeles. June 15: Vickers Wellington prototype RAF bomber made its first flight, while flight of first production model was made on December 23, 1937. July 18: Spanish Civil War began, which was to involve German, Italian, and Russian air units as well as aircraft of France and the United States. July 21: Lt. Comdr. D. S. Fedden for "contributions to the development of aircraft engine design and for the specific design of the sleeve valve aircraft engine." June 9: British Government announced intention to purchase U.S. Lockheed Hudsons and North American Harvards for aerial reconnaissance and training purposes. June 28: President Roosevelt signed the Civil Air Authority Act. August 22: The Civil Aeronautics Act became effective, coordinating all nonmilitary aviation under the Civil Aeronautics Authority. August 22: First American use of drone target aircraft in antiaircraft exercises, the Ranger fired upon a radio-controlled JH-1 making simulated horizontal bombing attack on the fleet. August 29: Maj. September 30: Agreement signed at Munich, Germany, between Germany, Britain, France, and Italy, allowing Germany to occupy the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia, an event in which the relative air strength of the major nations was a prominent factor. October 19: Curtiss XP-40 Tomahawk made its first flight. During October: British Purchasing Commission ordered 200 Lockheed Hudsons (military version of Super Electra airliner), the first American-built aircraft to see operational service with the RAF in World War II. —— : All-wood British de Havilland Mosquito twin-engine bomber conceived, official order for 50 received on March 1, 1940. August 27: First complete flights of jet-propelled aircraft made secretly in Germany, a Heinkel 178 powered by the He S-3B jet engine, piloted by Erich Warsitz. September 1: German blitzkrieg launched on Poland. President Roosevelt appealed to the European nations not to bomb civilian populations or unfortified cities. September 3-4: RAF Bomber Command carried out the first night propaganda raid, dropping leaflets over Hamburg, Bremen, and the Ruhr. On September 27, the British Air Ministry announced that the RAF had dropped 18 million leaflets over Germany since the beginning of the war. When leaflet bombing was suspended on April 6, 1940, Bomber Command had dropped 65 million leaflets. During August: Sir Henry Tizard, scientific adviser to the British Ministry of Aircraft Production, headed a mission of leading British and Canadian scientists to brief official American representatives on devices under active development for war use and to enlist the support of American scientists. This marked the beginning of very close cooperation of Anglo-American scientists in many fields, including aeronautics and rocketry, enabling American laboratories to catch up with war-accelerated progress. August 20: Smith J. DeFrance appointed Engineer-in-Charge of the NACA Ames Aeronautical Laboratory, Moffett Field, Calif. August 25: First RAF bombing of Berlin. Heinz von Diringshofen of Berlin, Germany, "discovered" the effect of weightlessness during flight maneuvers with high-performance aircraft. —— : N. W. Thorner and F. H. Lewey demonstrated the destruction of certain brain cells in experimental animals by short and severe exposures to hypoxia induced by inhalation of pure nitrogen. —— : Graf Zeppelin I and II were intentionally destroyed by the Germans and their metal used for the Reich war effort. 1941 January 11: Army Air Corps announced the control of robot planes, either by radio from the ground or from another plane, had been tested successfully. August 19: President Roosevelt announced that Pan American Airways would establish a ferry service to fly American aircraft to the RAF in the Middle East. During August: Caproni-Campini jet-propelled plane, conventional engine with ducted fan, produced and test flown in Italy. During September: Messerschmitt Me-163A powered by "cold" H. Walther rocket successfully flown at Augsburg, Germany, development of which had begun in 1937, but "cold" engine proved unreliable. Flights were also made in October which reached speeds of 1,003 km/hr, or Mach 0.85. During September: Dr. Robert H.