1938 in aviation
overview of aviation-related events during the year of 1938
This is a list of aviation-related events from 1938:
Events
Imperial Airways inaugurates scheduled service from London to Montreal. Pan American World Airways is banned from British airports out of fears that more advanced U.S. aircraft will drive Imperial out of the transatlantic market.
The National Trophy, the Harmon Trophy presented to the outstanding aviator for the year in each of the 21 member countries of the International League of Aviators, is awarded for the last time, although the annual award of the Harmon Trophy to the world's outstanding aviator, aviatrix (female aviator), and aeronaut (balloon or dirigible aviator or aviatrix) continues.
The Imperial Japanese Navy's air arm conducts a six-month bombing campaign against Hankou and other centers of Chinese resistance in central China.
The Civil Aeronautics Authority is established in the United States and takes over operation of the air traffic control system.
The Spanish Republicans attempt to develop an aircraft manufacturing industry. They build 169 copies of the Soviet Polikarpov I-15 fighter during 1938, but never use any of them in combat in the Spanish Civil War.
Late 1938 – Under Japanese supervision, the Manshū Aircraft Company is formed in Harbin, Manchukuo.
January
Early January – Nationalist aircraft conduct a heavy bombing campaign against Barcelona, Spain.
January 6 – Spanish Republican Minister of Defense Indalecio Prieto y Tuero proposes to the Nationalists that both sides in the Spanish Civil War ban air attacks on cities and towns in rear areas.
The public source identifies “1938 in aviation” as overview of aviation-related events during the year of 1938. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around aviation, overview and aviation-related.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2811716. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1938.
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This entry incorporates text from “1938 in aviation” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.