December 17, 1925. Airpower pioneer Billy Mitchell is found
 guilty of violating the 96th Article of War ("conduct of a nature
 to bring discredit on the military service") and is sentenced to a
 five-year suspension of rank, pay, and command. Already demoted
 from brigadier general, Colonel Mitchell decides instead to resign
 from the Army.
     January 16, 1926. The Daniel Guggenheim Fund for the Promotion
 of Aeronautics is founded.
     March 16, 1926. Dr. Robert H. Goddard launches the world's first
 liquid-fueled rocket at Auburn, Mass.
     July 2, 1926. US Army Air Service becomes US Army Air Corps.
     July 2, 1926. Congress establishes the Distinguished Flying
 Cross (made retroactive to April 6, 1917).
     May 20-21, 1927. The first solo nonstop transatlantic flight is
 completed by Charles A. Lindbergh in the Ryan NYP Spirit of St.
 Louis: New York to Paris in thirty-three hours, thirty-two minutes.
     May 25, 1927. Lt. James H. Doolittle flies the first successful
 outside loop.
     September 16, 1927. In a staged publicity event, MGM Studios
 attempts to make the first nonstop flight across the United States
 with an animal on board an aircraft. Noted pilot Martin Jensen was
 chosen to fly Leo, MGM's trademark lion, from San Diego, Calif., to
 New York City for a promotional tour. Man and beast never arrive,
 however. After a nationwide search and three days of front-page
 headlines, Mr. Jensen and Leo are found unhurt in the Arizona desert.
 A storm had forced Mr. Jensen down, and the Ryan BI monoplane (that
 had been fitted with a steel cage for Leo) was heavily damaged on
 landing.
     November 16, 1927. The US Navy's second true aircraft carrier-
 -USS Saratoga (CV-3)--is commissioned. The ship will later be
 deliberately destroyed during a 1946 atomic bomb test.
     January 27, 1928. The Navy airship USS Los Angeles (ZR-3) lands
 on the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga (CV-3) during a fleet exercise
 near Newport, R.I., and resumes its patrol after replenishment.
     February 15, 1928. President Coolidge signs a bill authorizing
 acceptance of a new site near San Antonio, Tex., to become the Army
 Air Corps training center. This center is now Randolph AFB.
     March 1-9, 1928. USAAC Lt. Burnie R. Dallas and Beckwith Havens
 make the first transcontinental flight in an amphibious airplane.
 Total flight time in the Loening Amphibian is thirty-two hours,
 forty-five minutes.
     March 30, 1928. Italian Maj. Mario de Bernardi pushes the recog-
 nized absolute speed record past 300 mph, as he hits 318.624 mph in
 the Macchi M.52R at Venice, Italy.
     April 15-21, 1928. Sir George Hubert Wilkins and Lt. Carl B.
 Eielson fly from Point Barrow, Alaska, across the Arctic Ocean to
 Spitsbergen, Norway, in a Lockheed Vega. This first west-to-east
 trip over the top of the world takes only twenty-one hours of
 flying, but the duo is delayed by weather.
     May 12, 1928. Lt. Julian S. Dexter of the Air Corps Reserve com-
 pletes a 3,000-square-mile aerial mapping assignment over the
 Florida Everglades. The project takes sixty-five hours of flying,
 spread over two months.
     June 9, 1928. For the third consecutive year, Army Air Corps Lt.
 Earle E. Partridge wins the distinguished gunnery badge at the Air
 Corps Machine Gunning Matches at Langley Field, Va.
     June 15, 1928. Lts. Karl S. Axtater and Edward H. White, flying
 in an Air Corps blimp directly over an Illinois Central train, dip
 down and hand a mailbag to the postal clerk on the train, thus
 completing the first airplane-to-train transfer.
     August 1, 1928. Airmail rates rise to five cents for the first
 ounce and ten cents for each additional ounce.
     September 22, 1928. The number of people whose lives have been
 saved by parachutes exceeds 100 when Lt. Roger V. Williams bails out
 over San Diego, Calif.
     October 11-15, 1928. The German Graf Zeppelin (LZ-127) makes the
 first transoceanic voyage by an airship carrying paying passengers.
 Graf Zeppelin travels from Friedrichshafen, Germany, to NAF Lake-
 hurst, N.J., in nearly 112 hours, with twenty passengers and a crew
 of thirty-seven.
     November 11, 1928. In a Lockheed Vega, Sir George Hubert Wilkins
 and Lt. Carl B. Eielson make the first flight over Antarctica.
     January 1-7, 1929. Question Mark, a Fokker C-2 commanded by Maj.
 Carl A. "Tooey" Spaatz, sets an endurance record for a refueled
 aircraft of 150 hours, forty minutes, fourteen seconds. The crew
 includes Capt. Ira C. Eaker, Lieutenants Elwood R. Quesada and Harry
 Halverson, and Sgt. Roy Hooe,
     January 23-27, 1929. The aircraft carriers USS Lexington (CV-2)
 and USS Saratoga (CV-3) participate in fleet exercises for the first
 time.
     February 10-11, 1929. Evelyn Trout sets a women's solo flight
 endurance record of seventeen hours, twenty-one minutes, thirty-seven
 seconds in the monoplane Golden Eagle.
     April 24, 1929. Elinor Smith, seventeen years old, sets a women's
 solo endurance record of twenty-six hours, twenty-one minutes,
 thirty-two seconds in a Bellanca CH monoplane at Roosevelt Field,
 Long Island, N.Y.
     May 16, 1929. At the first Academy Award ceremonies in Los
 Angeles, Calif., the Paramount movie "Wings" wins the Oscar for
 Best Picture for 1927-28. The World War I flying epic stars Richard
 Arlen, Buddy Rogers, and Clara Bow. A young Gary Cooper has a minor
 role.
     September 24, 1929. Lt. James H. Doolittle makes the first blind,
 all-instrument flight at Mitchel Field, N.Y. ,in a completely covered
 cockpit (accompanied by check pilot). He takes off, flies a short
 distance, and lands.
 End of Part 6
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