World Aviation in 1934

30 January
Soviet balloon 'Osoaviakhim' ascends 20 kilometres (13 miles) into the stratosphere.

3 February
The first scheduled trans-ocean airmail service is established between Europe and South America by Deutche Lufthansa. Flying from Stuttgart to Buenos Aires via Seville, Bathurst and Natal. The delivery time is four days.

19 February
All existing air mail contracts are cancelled and the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) begins flying internal mail services.

25 February - 25 April
American airwoman Laura Ingalls undertakes a solo flight round South America, a distance of 27,359 kilometres (17,000 miles).

March
A Tupolev ANT-4, piloted by A.V. Lyapidevsky, makes the first landing on ice in the Arctic, while on a rescue mission.

10 March
After nine fatalities the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) internal mail services are stopped.

19 March
United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) resume internal mail services.

11 April
Commander R. Donati, flying a modified Caproni 113, establishes a new altitude record of 14,433 metres (47,352 feet) at Rome.

13 May
United States airmail pilot Jack Frye sets a new United States coast-to-coast record, carrying mail from Los Angeles to Newark. The journey is completed in 11 hours 31 minutes.

1 June
United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) internal mail services end. The service has carried 347 tons of mail and flown about 2.6 million kilometres (1.6 million miles).

1 September
American Colonel Roscoe Turner sets a new United States coast-to-coast record of 10 hours 2 minutes.

28 September
Deutche Lufthansa carries its 1,000,000th passenger.

October
A demonstration of Dr Rudolph Kühnold's apparatus, to high ranking naval staff at Pelzerhaken near Lübeck, picks up echoes of a ship 7 miles away, but at the same time accidentally picks up a German seaplane. This is the first detection of an aircraft by radio location.

22 October - 4 November
Sir Charles Kingsford Smith and Captain Taylor make the first aeroplane flight between Australia and the United States in a Lockheed Altair.

23 October
Italian Francesco Agello, flying a Macchi MC72 seaplane, establishes a new world speed record of 709kph (440mph).

5 December
A clash occurs between Ethiopian and Italian forces in a disputed zone of the Italian Somaliland border.

31 December
Helen Richey becomes first woman in the United States to pilot an airmail transport on a regular schedule. She flies a Ford Tri-motor aircraft on a route from Washington DC to Detroit in Michigan.