1934 in aviation

This is a list of aviation-related events from 1934:

Events

January 10-11 - A flight of six US Navy Consolidated P2Y flying boats set a new distance record for formation flying, 2,400 miles (3,862 km) between San Francisco and Pearl Harbor, also setting a new speed record for this crossing of 24 hours 35 minutes.
January 30 - Soviet pilots Fedossenko, Wassenko and Usyskin take the stratosphere-balloon Ossoaviachim I to 22,000 m (72,160 ft). Thick ice covered the cabin, and it tore loose from the balloon during the descent, crashing to the ground and killing the crew.

February 3 - Lufthansa begins the first regular airmail service across the Atlantic Ocean, between Berlin and Rio de Janeiro.
February 7 - the first airmail flight between Australia and New Zealand is made by Charles Ulm in an Avro Ten, taking 14 hours 10 minutes.
February 19 - the United States Army Air Corps begins flying US airmail after the government cancels all existing airmail contracts due to alleged improprieties by the previous administration during the negotiations of those contracts.

April 11 - Renato Donati sets a new altitude record of 14,433 m (47,352 ft) in a Caproni Ca 113.

May 8-23 - Jean Batten sets a new women's speed record between England and Australia. She flies a de Havilland DH.60 and makes the trip in 14 days 22 hours.
May 29 - Highland Airways commences the first regular airmail service within the United Kingdom, between Inverness and Kirkwall

June 4 - the US Navy commissions its first purpose-built aircraft carrier, USS Ranger.
June 26 - Initial flight of the Focke-Wulf Fw 61, the first practical helicopter.
June 29-30 - Benjamin and Joseph Adamowicz brothers, amateur pilots, flew across the Atlantic

July 15 - Varney Speed Lines (later to be Continental Airlines) makes its first passenger-carrying flight.
July 19 - F9C Sparrowhawk parasite fighters from airship USS Macon successfully launch from the airship, scout out the cruiser USS Houston and return to the Macon.
July 19-August 20 - Gen Henry Arnold leads ten Martin B-10 bombers on an 8,000 mile (12,875 km) proving flight.

August 8-9 - James Ayling and Leonard Reid make the first non-stop flight from Canada to England, in a de Havilland DH84, taking 30 hours 50 minutes for the flight.
August 28 - September 16 - the fourth International Tourist Aircraft Contest Challenge 1934 in Warsaw, won by the Polish crew of Jerzy Bajan on the RWD-9 plane.

September 7 - 16 - 9,537 km race over Europe and North Africa and a speed trial of the Challenge 1934 contest.
September 22 - Sir Alan Cobham sets out in an Airspeed Courier in a failed attempt to fly non-stop from England to India.