1945 in aviation

yearbox
in?=in aviation
cp=19th Century
c=20th century
cf=21st century
yp1=1942
yp2=1943
yp3=1944
year=1945
ya1=1946
ya2=1947
ya3=1948
dp3=1910s
dp2=1920s
dp1=1930s
d=1940s
dn1=1950s
dn2=1960s
dn3=1970s

This is a list of aviation-related events from 1945:

Events

January

* January 1 - the Luftwaffe begins targeting Allied airfields in Europe as "Operation Bodenplatte"

February

* February 13-15 - Allied bombers attack Dresden with incendiary weapons, destroying most of the city and killing some 50,000 people.
* February 21 - aircraft carrier USS "Saratoga" is badly damaged by a kamikaze attack

March

* March 13-14 - an Avro Lancaster of No. 617 Squadron RAF drops the first 22,000 lb (9,980 kg) Grand Slam bomb
* March 21 - the Ohka dedicated kamikaze weapon is used operationally for the first time but with no success.
* March 24 - Allied forces began large-scale crossings of the Rhine as Operation Varsity, the operation involved 2,000 transport aircraft and gliders.
* March 27 - the final V-2 missile to hit England falls in Kent

April

* April 1 - Ohkas score hits on the USS "West Virginia" and three of her escorts.
* April 10 - the Luftwaffe flies its final sortie over England (with an Arado Ar 234 on a reconnaissance mission from Norway)
* April 12 - USS "Mannert L. Abele" is sunk by an Ohka
* April 23 - the US Navy puts its first radar-guided bomb into use, the SWOD-9 "Bat", dropped from Consolidated PB4Ys on Japanese shipping in Balikpapan Harbour.
* April 25 - 275 B-17s escorted by four groups of P-51 Mustangs attacked the Pilzen-Škoda armament factory in Czechoslovakia - the last heavy bomber mission by the United States 8th Air Force against an industrial target.

May

* May 3 - the Royal Air Force sinks Cap Arcona, Thielbek, and Deutschland
* World's top-scoring fighter ace German pilot Erich Hartmann surrenders to Allied forces
* May 7 - the Royal Air Force sinks its last German submarine
* May 8 - VE Day - Germany surrenders, ending the War in Europe

July

* July 5 – American Airlines acquires American Export Airlines and forms American Overseas Airlines
* July 12 – An Eastern Air Lines flight en route from Boston, Massachusetts to Miami with stops in Washington, DC and Columbia, SC collided with a US Army B-25 Mitchell bomber about 3,000 feet above Syracuse, SC (about 20 miles from Florence, SC). The commercial pilot, G. D. Davis, landed his craft in a cornfield nearby. One passenger, an infant, was killed. The bomber exploded; two died and one was able to parachute safely.
* July 28 - a B-25 Mitchell bomber crashed into the Empire State Building

August

* August 1 - Toyama is the subject of an incendiary attack by the USAAF that destroys almost the entire city
* August 6 - B-29 Superfortress "Enola Gay" drops "Little Boy" the first nuclear weapon used in warfare over the Japanese city of Hiroshima
* August 9 - B-29 "Bockscar" drops a plutonium-239 nuclear weapon, "Fat Man", on Nagasaki.
* August 14 - VJ Day - Japan surrenders, ending the War in the Pacific, and World War II.
* August 15 - seven Imperial Japanese Navy aircraft make the last kamikaze attack of the war.
* August 19 - two Mitsubishi G4Ms carry Japan's surrender delegation to Ie Shima

eptember

* a captured Focke Achgelis Fa 223 makes the first helicopter crossing of the English Channel
* September 20, an experimental Gloster Meteor with Rolls-Royce Trent engines makes the first turboprop-powered flight.

October

* 1 October - 1st annual general meeting of the International Air Transport Association begins in Montreal, Canada.
* 24 October - American Overseas Airlines operates the first scheduled commercial trans-atlantic flight by a landplane (Douglas C-54 Skymaster), between New York and Hurn, England.

November

* November 7 – Gp Cpt H. J. Wilson sets a new official airspeed record of 606 mph (976 km/h) in a Gloster Meteor. Unofficial German speed records by the rocket-powered Messerschmitt Me 163 during the war had already exceeded 625 mph (1,000 km/h)

December

*December 3 - A Mk5 Sea Vampire became the first jet aircraft to take off and land from an aircraft carrier, HMS "Ocean".

First flights

January
* January 26 - McDonnell XFD-1 Phantom, the first jet aircraft to operate from a US Navy aircraft carrierFebruary
* February 1 - Kawasaki Ki-100
* February 7 - Consolidated-Vultee XP-81
* February 21 - Hawker Sea Fury prototype "SR661"
* February 25 - Bell XP-83

March
* March 1 - Bachem Ba 349
* March 3 - Mikoyan-Gurevich I-250 (N), first Soviet thermojet.
* March 18 - Douglas XB2D-1, prototype of the AD Skyraider

April
* April 19 - de Havilland Sea Hornet prototype "PX212"
* April 27 - Pilatus P-2

May
* May 17 - Lockheed Neptune "Bu48237"

June
* June 10 - Ilyushin Il-16
* June 14 - Avro Tudor 1 "G-AGPF"
* June 22 - Vickers Viking prototype "G-AGOK"

August
* August 3 - Kyūshū J7W "Shinden"
* August 7 - Nakajima Kikka, first Japanese jet

September
* September 5 - C-74 Globemaster

October
* October 27 - Bristol Buckmaster
* October 28 - LWD Szpak

November
* November 10 - Yakovlev Yak-11
* November 15 - PZL S-1
* November 20 - Saab 91 Safir

December
* December 2 - Bristol 170 "G-AGPV"
* December 8 - Bell 47 prototype "NC1H"
* December 19- Grumman Guardian prototype "Bu90504"
* December 22 - Beechcraft Bonanza

Unknown Date
* Thorp T-211

Entered service

January

*Ilyushin Il-10 in the Soviet Air Force

August

*Avro Lincoln with No. 57 Squadron RAF

November

*Hawker Tempest II with No. 54 Squadron RAF