1942 in Aviation - Events - September

September

• Italy begins conversion of the passenger liner MS Augustus into its second aircraft carrier, originally named Falco ("Falcon") and later renamed Sparviero ("Sparrow"). The conversion will halt when Italy surrenders to the Allies in September 1943 will never be completed.
• The U.S. Navy and Pan American World Airways sign a contract under which the Naval Air Transportation Service takes control of Pan American's Martin M-130 and Boeing 314 flying boats for Navy use in service between California and the Territory of Hawaii for the duration of World War II. Pan American employees become Navy personnel until the end of the war.
• September 1–2 (overnight) – Due to heavy German jamming of Gee, Royal Air Force Bomber Command Pathfinder aircraft go astray, marking the wrong city, and the force of 231 British bombers that sets out to attack Saarbrücken instead bombs Saarlouis 15 km (9.3 mi) to the northwest.
• September 2 – The only test flight of the Soviet Antonov A-40 winged tank is partially successful. Although A-40's aerodynamic drag forces the Tupolev TB-3 towing it to detach it early to avoid crashing, the A-40 glides to a successful landing and drives back to base as a conventional T-60 tank. The A-40 project nonetheless is abandoned due to the lack of aircraft powerful enough to tow it.
• September 4–5 (overnight) – 251 British bombers attack Bremen, Germany. For the first time, Bomber Command uses three waves of Pathfinders – "illuminators" dropping flares followed by "visual markers" who drop colored target indicators followed by "backers-up" who drop incendiary bombs – to mark the target. Bremen suffers serious damage.
• September 9 – An Imperial Japanese Navy Yokosuka E14Y floatplane (Allied reporting name "Glen") launched by the submarine I-25 makes two attacks against the coast of Oregon in the United States, dropping four 76-kg (167.5-lb) phosphorus bombs in an attempt to start forest fires. They become known as the Lookout Air Raids. It is the only time that an enemy aircraft bombs the continental United States during World War II.
• September 9 – The British escort aircraft carrier HMS Avenger joins Convoy PQ 18, bound from Loch Ewe, Scotland, to Archangel in the Soviet Union, as an escort. She is the first aircraft carrier to escort an Arctic convoy;
• September 10 – The United States Army Air Forces Air Transport Command establishes the Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS), an organization of civilian women pilots who ferry military aircraft from factories to airfields to free male pilots for combat duty.
• September 10–11 (overnight) – Royal Air Force Bomber Command employs "Pink Pansy" – a target indicator that creates an instantaneous pink flash – for the first time during a raid by 479 bombers on Düsseldorf, Germany. It is the most successful Pathfinder-led raid yet, but 33 bombers (6.9 percent) are lost.
• September 13 – U.S. Army Air Forces bombers fly a 1,200-mile (1,900 km) round-trip raid against Japanese forces at Kiska in the Aleutian Islands from Umnak for the last time. They will begin flying raids from Adak, 400 miles (640 km) closer to Kiska, the following day.
• September 12 – After German Bv 138 flying boat snoopers draw away Hawker Sea Hurricane fighters from HMS Avenger, German Heinkel He 111 bombers attack Convoy PQ 18, sinking eight merchant ships. with torpedoes.
• September 13–14 – German Heinkel He 111s and Junkers Ju 88s attack Convoy PQ-18. Sea Hurricanes from HMS Avenger remain with the convoy and put up a more ffective defense, and no merchant ships are lost. During the three days of German air attacks, the Sea Hurricanes defending PQ 18 shoot down five German aircraft and damage 21 others.
• September 14 – Chief of Staff of the United States Army General George C. Marshall informs Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Ernest J. King that he is directing the establishment of the Army Air Forces Antisubmarine Command.
• September 14 – In the first U.S. strike from Adak, the U.S. Army Air Forces fly the first combined zero-altitude strike by fighters and bombers of World War II. Twelve B-24 Liberators, 14 P-38 Lightnings, and 14 P-39 Airacobras attack Japanese forces at Kiska. Flying 240 miles (390 km) at wave-top level and attacking at an altitude of 50 feet (15 meters), they sink two Japanese ships and set three on fire and destroy three midget submarines, several buildings, and 12 Japanese floatplane fighters, and kill over 200 Japanese soldiers.
• September 15 – The Japanese submarine I-19 torpedoes and sinks the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Wasp (CV-7) southeast of the Solomon Islands.
• September 15 – German Luftwaffe ace Hans-Joachim Marseille shoots down seven British Curtiss Kittyhawk fighters on a single mission over North Africa. Among them is his 150th aerial victory.
• September 15 – The United States Army Air Forces Air Transport Command establishes the 319th Women's Flying Training Detachment (WFTD), a second organization of civilian women ferry pilots and rival of the Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS) established five days earlier. Neither the WAFS nor the WFTD acknowledges the existence of the other.
• Mid-September – The British aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious supports a British amphibious landing during a week of attacks on the southern coast of Vichy French-controlled Madagascar during the British occupation of the island.
• September 16–17 (overnight) – 369 British bombers attack Germany, losing 39 of their number, a very high 10.6 percent loss rate. One German night fighter pilot, Hauptmann Reinhold Knacke, shoots down five bombers during the night.
• September 21 - Convoy PQ 18 arrives at Archangel in the Soviet Union. During its voyage, aircraft from the British aircraft carrier HMS Avenger have attacked 16 German submarines and contributed to the sinking of one, and Avenger's fighters and the convoy's antiarcraft guns have shot down 41 German aircraft. Because of these high losses, German aircraft rarely attack Arctic convoys again.
• September 30 – German ace Hans-Joachim Marseille is killed when his plane catches fire. He has 158 victories at the time.
• September 30 – Since June 1, German night fighters defending Germany have shot down 435 British bombers.
• September 30 – The pilot of an Imperial Japanese Navy Nakajima A6M2-N (Allied reporting name "Rufe") floatplane fighter discovers the American base on Adak in the Aleutian Islands, a month after it was established. Japanese aircraft from Kiska bomb Adak daily for the next five days, but their biggest raid, on October 4, consists of only three planes. The rest of the raids consist of one plane each, and Adak suffers almost no damage.