This is a list ofaviation-related events from 1917.

• During her 30 November 1916 – 24 February 1918 cruise, theImperial German Navycommerce raiderWolf carries aFriedrichshafen FF.33e seaplane nicknamedWölfchen ("Little Wolf" or "Wolf Cub"), which during 1917 singlehandedly captures at least four of the 37 enemy shipsWolf captures and sinks during her cruise.Wölfchen makes between 54 and 56 flights, the most by anyWorld War I shipboard aircraft.^[1]
• The Aircraft Committee of theRoyal Navy'sGrand Fleet decides to phaseballoon ships out of naval service. The balloon ships are returned to mercantile service, or converted into balloon depot ships (to inflate and maintain balloons for use by other ships) orseaplane carriers.^[2]
• TheImperial Russian Navy operates the world's second-most-powerfulseaplane carrier force, behind only that of the British Royal Navy.^[3]
• TheGallaudet Aircraft Company changes its name toGallaudet Aircraft Corporation.^[4]
• TheGroupe Latécoère aircraft company is founded inToulouse,France.
• TheFrench Army'sService Aeronautique experiments with the use of aBreguet 14 as anair ambulance for rapid casualty evacuation on theWestern Front.^[5]

• TheLuftstreitkrafte (German Air Force) disbands threeKampfgeschwader (bomber wings) and redesignates theirsquadrons asSchutzstaffeln (escort squadrons). Operating two-seatAlbatros L 1 DDK,Rumpler 4A 13,Gotha Taube, andFokker M.8 aircraft, the new "Schusta" squadrons are tasked with escorting two-seat observation planes of theFeldflieger Abteilungen (field flying detachments) andArtillerieflieger Abteilungen (artillery flying detachments) during their reconnaissance flights, and are based with them.^[6]
• TheThomas Brothers Aeroplane Company merges with theMorse Chain Works to form theThomas-Morse Aircraft Corporation inIthaca,New York.^[7]
• January 11 - The Royal Navyseaplane carrierBen-my-Chree is sunk byOttomanartillery while in harbor atCastelorizo Island, becoming the only aviation ship of any nationality sunk by enemy action duringWorld War I.^[8]
• January 12 –Manfred von Richthofen receives thePour le Mérite (the "Blue Max") for having shot down 16Allied aircraft since September 1916.^[9]
• January 27 - AFrench air raid onFreiburg,Germany takes place.

• TheRoyal Flying Corps'sNo. 100 Squadron, the first Britishnight fighter squadron, is formed.
• Germany beginsOperation Türkenkreuz ("Turk's Cross") bombing campaign against England,^[10] initially using airships.
• TheUnited States Army forms the7th Aero Squadron for service in thePanama Canal Zone.^[11]
• February 7 – Suffering progressive damage due to a series of crashes in bad visibility and poor weather, theImperial German NavyZeppelinL 36 finally crashes onto theAller river and is destroyed by high winds. Her crew survives.^[12]
• February 8 – Flying aSPAD VII, the French aceGeorges Guynemer becomes the firstAllied pilot to shoot down a German heavy bomber when he downs aGotha G.III.
• February 13 – Over theGulf of Mexico offPensacola, Florida,United States Marine Corps aviatorFrancis Thomas Evans, Sr., performs anaerobatic loop in aCurtiss N-9floatplane, becoming the first person to loop aseaplane – a feat previously believed impossible in an N-9 even by the N-9's manufacturer. He will receive aDistinguished Flying Cross for the achievement in 1936. However, the recovery techniques he discovers when the N-9stalls andspins – previously thought impossible to recover from in an N-9 – during some of the day's loop attempts prove of far greater importance and have been in use ever since.^[13]
• February 26 – In anticipation of a possible entry by theUnited States intoWorld War I, U.S. Marine Corps aviatorAlfred A. Cunningham receives orders to establish, equip, and command an aviationcompany for a Marine Corps advance base force at thePhiladelphia Navy Yard inPhiladelphia,Pennsylvania.^[13]
• Late February
  • The German Navy ZeppelinL 42 achieves an altitude of 19,700 feet (6,000 meters), a record for an airship.^[14]
  • The commander of the German Naval Airship Service,Peter Strasser, requests the authorization of a force of 30 naval Zeppelins, 24 for use over theNorth Sea and six for service over theBaltic Sea.^[15]

• Royal Naval Air ServiceHandley Page O/100bombers begin night attacks on Germannaval bases,railway stations andrailway junctions, and industrial targets.^[16]
• United States NavyLieutenantKenneth Whiting proposes toSecretary of the NavyJosephus Daniels that the Navy acquire a ship with anaircraft catapult and aflight deck. Although rejected on June 20, it is the first serious U.S. Navy consideration given to acquisition of an aviation ship since theAmerican Civil War (1861–1865).^[17]
• March 8 – CountFerdinand von Zeppelin, inventor of the practicaldirigible, dies.^[18]
• March 13 – TheUnited States Army's6th Aero Squadron is organized in theTerritory of Hawaii, operating threeCurtiss N-9seaplanes.^[11][19]
• March 16–17 (overnight) – The German Naval Airship Service attempts to bomb England for the first time in 1917, in the first use of new Zeppelins designed for high-altitude flight that the Service's commander,Peter Strasser, believes will be too high for British air defenses to reach. The five Zeppelins – at least three of which achieve altitudes of between 17,100 and 19,000 feet (5,200 and 5,800 meters) – mostly bomb open countryside and do only£79 in damage and kill no one. Disabled by mechanical failure,L 39 drifts overCompiègne, France, and is shot down by French antiaircraft guns with the loss of her entire crew, andL 35 is badly damaged while landing in Germany. The success of the Zeppelins in reaching high altitudes during a bombing raid encourages Strasser, who accompanies the raid aboardL 42, to plan a new bombing offensive.^[20]
• March 21 – The flight of the World's First Drone. At theRoyal Flying Corps Upavon base one of thede Havilland unmanned 22-foot span monoplane Aerial Target aircraft was launched off a pneumatically powered ramp and flew briefly under radio control from the ground.^[21] The ‘pilot’ (on the ground) wasHenry Segrave. This was witnessed by dozens of generals from all of the allied nations probably in England for theImperial War Conference.^[22] The inventor of the control system was Dr.Archibald Low, the officer commanding the RFC secret Experimental Works in Feltham, Middlesex.

• Known asBloody April. TheRoyal Flying Corps, while supporting theArras offensive, loses 245 aircraft—140 in the first two weeks—out of an initial strength of 365. Aircrew casualties are 211 killed or missing and 108captured. The opposing Germans lose only 66 aircraft.^[23]
• April 6
  • TheUnited States entersWorld War I, declaring war onGermany.
  • United States Marine Corps aviation has a total strength of sevenofficers and 43enlisted men.^[24]
• April 13 –Royal Naval Air Serviceflying boats begin flying "Spider Web" patrols over theNorth Sea in the vicinity of theNorth Hinderlight ship to detect German submarines in the area. The new patrol pattern, resembling aspider web, allows four aircraft to search a 4,000-square-mile (10,000-square-kilometer) area in about five hours, only half the time it takes a surfaced submarine to transit the area. The flying boats make 27 patrols in the next 18 days, sight eight German submarines, and make bombing attacks against three of them.^[25][26]
• April 20 – TheUnited States Navy's firstairship,DN-1 flies for the first time atPensacola,Florida. Tests of the highly unsuccessfulDN-1 come to an end only nine days later.^[27]
• April 24 – Flying aHalberstadt CL.II,Hauptmann Eduard W. Zorer, the commanding officer ofSchutzstaffel 7 – a German escort squadron charged with using its two-seater aircraft to escort two-seat reconnaissance aircraft – drops down to an altitude of 60 feet (18 meters) to usemachine-gun fire to support German troops counterattacking British trenches along theGavrelle-Rœux road nearArras during theBattle of Arras. Under fire from hundreds of British rifles and machine guns, he and his pilot spray the British trenches with 500 rounds of ammunition before a hit in their engine forces them to withdraw. The incident represents the birth ofclose air support as a mission of the world's air forces.^[28]
• April 26 – The Pacific Aero Products Company is renamed theBoeing Airplane Company.^[29]

• May 1 – The German Navy ZeppelinsL 43 andL 45 conduct reconnaissance patrols over theNorth Sea off the coast ofScotland, patrolling off theFirth of Forth andAberdeen, respectively.^[30]
• May 4 – The German Navy ZeppelinL 43 attacks a force of Britishlight cruisers anddestroyers in theNorth Sea near theDogger Bank with three 50-kg (110-lb) bombs, hitting the light cruiserHMS Dublin with bomb splinters. It one of the few cases of an airship attacking warships.^[31]
• May 7
  • Britishace MajorEdward Mannock claims his first kill.
  • British ace CaptainAlbert Ball (44 victories) is killed in a crash following a dogfight withLothar von Richthofen, who also crashes but survives.
• May 11 – German aceEdmund Nathanael (15 victories) flying anAlbatros D.V of PrussianJagdstaffel 5 is shot down in flames and killed as the 9th of 21 victories of Scottish ace CaptainWilliam Kennedy-Cochran-Patrick ofNo. 23 Squadron RFC at Bourlon Wood in Belgium.
• May 14 – Flying theCurtiss H.12 Large Americaflying boat8666, Royal Naval Air ServiceFlight CommanderRobert Leckie shoots down the GermanZeppelinL 22 18 nautical miles (33 kilometres) north-northwest ofTexel Island. It is the first time that a flying boat shoots down a Zeppelin.^[32][33]
• May 19 – The United States adopts anofficial national insignia forU.S. Army,U.S. Navy, andU.S. Marine Corps aircraft for the first time, a white star centered in a blue circle with a red disc centered within the star ; theU.S. Coast Guard does not adopt it.^[34] Except foran 18-month interruption in 1918-1919, the marking will remain in use until June 1942.
• May 23–24 (overnight) – Six German Navy Zeppelins attempt a high-altitude raid on London and the south of England and encounter bad weather. They drop most of their bombs onto open countryside, killing one man, injuring no one else, and inflicting£599 in damage, and all return safely to Germany, although the raid reveals many mechanical problems and physical difficulties for crewmen during sustained high-altitude flights. Informed of the results of the raid,KaiserWilhelm II of Germany says, "In spite of this success, I am of the opinion that the day of the airship is past for attacks on London. They should be used as scouts for theHigh Seas Fleet and strategic reconnaissance, not for bombing raids on London." The Chief of the Naval Staff argues that the bombing campaign is tying down many British personnel, guns, and aircraft on home air defense duties, and Wilhelm II agrees to allow raids to continue if conditions are favorable.^[35]
• May 24 – Turbulence throws the observer aboard a GermanAviatik C.V,First Lieutenant Otto Berla, from his cockpit without aparachute. As he falls, an updraft forces the tail of the aircraft upward, and he punches through theplywood of the Aviatak'sfuselage aft of his cockpit. The Aviatik's pilot returns him safely to base.^[36]
• May 25
  • TheImperial German Army'sLuftstreitkräfte begins Operation Türkenkreuz ("Turk's Cross"), aheavier-than-air bombing campaign targetingLondon. The first operation is a mass daylight air raid by 21Gotha G.IV bombers flying from nearGhent which divert from London due to clouds over the city and attack secondary targets inFolkestone and theShorncliffe Army Camp, killing 95 people and injuring 195. Seventy-four British aircraft take off to intercept, but the Germans lose only one Gotha, shot down by nineRoyal Naval Air ServiceSopwith Pups that engage the bombers as they fly over the coast ofBelgium on their way back to base. It is the first of 22 German heavier-than-air raids on the United Kingdom duringWorld War I.^{[37][38][39][40]}
  • French ace LieutenantRené Dorme is killed in action. His 23 victories will tie him with LieutenantGabriel Guérin for ninth-highest-scoring French ace of World War I.^[41]

• Birdseye B. Lewis andChance M. Vought found theLewis & Vought Corporation, which later will become theChance Vought Corporation.^[42]
• U.S. ArmyColonelRaynal Bolling leads the Bolling Mission to Europe to examine the practicality of constructing British and French fighters in the United States. It leads to the establishment of theEngineering Division of theU.S. Department of War'sBureau of Aircraft Production to test its recommendations and to the manufacturing of theAirco DH.9 bomber andBristol F.2B fighter in the United States.^[43]
• An attack prior to theBattle of Messines Ridge on a British supply train by German aircraft disrupts the supply of British ammunition, forcing Britishartillery to cease firing after three hours.^[44]
• AtNaval Air Station Pensacola inPensacola, Florida, the United States Navyarmored cruiserHuntington lofts akite balloon, the first U.S. Navy ship to do so.^[45]
• June 5
  • Royal Flying CorpsLieutenants Harold Satchell andThomas Lewis ofNo. 20 Squadron shoot down and kill German aceLeutnantKarl Emil Schäfer. His 30 victories will place him in a tie with five other pilots as the 28th-highest-scoring German ace of World War I.^[46]
  • TheImperial German Army'sLuftstreitkräfte conducts the second raid of Operation Türkenkreuz ("Turk's Cross"), aheavier-than-air bombing campaign targetingLondon. Unable to bomb London due to weather, the 22Gotha G.IV bombers divert to a secondary target, aRoyal Navy facility atSheerness, killing 13 people in exchange for the loss of one bomber. The raid takes place in daylight.^[40]
  • The United States Navy'sFirst Aeronautical Detachment disembarks from thecollierUSSJupiter inFrance under the command ofKenneth Whiting. It is the first U.S. military unit to arrive in Europe.^[17]
• June 6 – The world's first landplane designed for use as atorpedo bomber, aSopwith Cuckoo, is completed for the Royal Naval Air Service.^[47]
• June 13 – The third raid of Germany's Operation Türkenkreuz is the first to reach London. In daylight, 14 GermanGotha G.IV bombers bomb London, and seven others attack small towns inKent andEssex. It is the deadliest and most destructive air raid on the United Kingdom of World War I.Attacking in daylight, they drop 118 bombs,^[48] killing 162 people – including more than 18 children killed by a single bomb that hits aprimary school inPoplar – and injuring 432.^[40] The casualty total is greater than that inflicted by all the Germanairship attacks on the United Kingdom combined up to that time.^[49] Although 92 British aircraft take off to intercept the raid, all of the German bombers return safely to base.^[40]
• June 14
  • Royal Naval Air ServiceCurtiss H.12 Large Americaflying boat8677 shoots down the GermanZeppelinL.43 in flames over theNorth Sea, with the loss of the Zeppelin's entire crew.^[32][50]
  • The American aviator, aircraft manufacturer, and airline entrepreneurThomas W. Benoist dies in astreetcar accident inSandusky, Ohio. His company,Benoist Aircraft, soon ceases production and goes out of business.
• Mid-June – TheUnited States Marine Corps bases aircraft atMarine Barracks, Quantico,Virginia, for the first time, beginning a presence which eventually will lead to the establishment ofMarine Corps Air Station Quantico there.^[24]
• June 16–17 (overnight) – Five German Navy Zeppelins attempt a high-altitude raid on London and southern England. Only two arrive over England.L 42 bombsRamsgate and detonates a munitions dump, wrecking the naval base, inflicting£29,000 pounds in damage, killing three civilians, and injuring 14 civilians and two Royal Navy personnel, then returns safely to Germany.L 48 bombs open fields outsideHarwich before Royal Flying Corps Lieutenant L. P. Watkins ofNo. 37 Squadron shoots her down in flames killing 14 of the 17 men on board and fatally injuring one of the survivors. Among the dead isViktor Schütze, the deputy commander of the German Naval Airship Service.^[51]
• June 20 – The Britishwar cabinet decides to increase the size of the Royal Flying Corps from 108 to 200squadrons, with most of increase coming inbomber squadrons.^[49]
• June 24 – TheImperial German Army's air service, theLuftstreitkräfte, brings together fourJagdstaffeln (fightersquadrons) –Jagstaffeln ("Jastas") 4, 6, 10, and 11 – to form Germany's firstJagdgeschwader (fighterwing),Jagdgeschwader I.Manfred von Richthofen is promoted fromcommanding officer ofJasta 11 to commanding officer ofJagdgeshwader I.Jagdgeschwader I will become known as the "Flying Circus," thanks to the colorful paint schemes on its aircraft and possibly because it often moved from place to place for its operations in a manner similar to atraveling circus.
• June 27 – German aceLeutnantKarl Allmenröder is shot down and killed. His 30 victories will tie him with five other pilots as the 28th-highest-scoring German ace of World War I.^[46]
• June 28 – An aircraft takes off successfully from a flying-off platform mounted on a warship's gun turret for the first time when Royal Naval Air ServiceFlight CommanderF. J. Rutland takes off from a platform aboard the Britishlight cruiserHMSYarmouth in aSopwith Pup.^[47]

• The onlyHandley Page O/100 in theMediterranean theater bombsConstantinople in an attempt to begin a bombing campaign against theOttoman Empire'scapital city.^[10]
• July 7 – In daylight, 22 GermanGotha G.IV bombers make the fourth attack on the United Kingdom of Operation Türkenkreuz, killing 57 to 65 people and injuring 193 to 245 (sources differ on casualty totals). British aircraft fly 100 sorties to intercept the German bombers, shooting one down and damaging three others; the bombers shoot down two of the intercepting British aircraft.^{[39][40][52][53]}
• July 12 –Royal Naval Air ServiceFlight Lieutenant O. A. Butcher, manning akite balloon lofted by thedestroyerHMS Patriot off theShetland Islands, sights the German submarineU-69 at a range of 28 nautical miles (52 kilometres), allowingPatriot to interceptU-69 and sink her withdepth charges.^[54]
• July 17 –United States Secretary of the NavyJosephus Daniels approves construction of theUnited States Navy′sNaval Aircraft Factory, to be built atLeague Island Navy Yard inPhiladelphia,Pennsylvania.^[55]
• July 22 – In daylight, GermanGotha G.IV bombers make the fifth attack on the United Kingdom of Operation Türkenkreuz, bombingFelixstowe andHarwich.^[53]
• July 27
  • Flying aSPAD XII,Georges Guynemer shoots down a GermanDFW aircraft, becoming the first French ace with 50 victories.
  • TheNaval Aircraft Factory, the in-house aircraft production and research arm of the U.S. Navy, is established.^[56]

• TheImperial German Army's air service, theLuftstreitkrafte, perfectsclose air support tactics during theBattle of Passchendaele, with close-air-support aircraft escorted by fighters attacking British troops with machine guns andhand grenades. The Germans discover that groups of four to six aircraft work best and that the ideal altitude from which to attack trenches is 150 feet (46 meters), while 1,200 to 1,500 feet (370 to 460 meters) is best for attacking larger targets like artillery batteries and reserve infantry concentrations. They find that line-astern formations are best to reduce the effects of enemy ground fire and line-abreast formations are best for fending off enemy fighters.^[6]
• United States Secretary of WarNewton D. Baker announces the completion of the firstLiberty engine 28 days after its design began. Before the end ofWorld War I, 13,574 will be manufactured, and total will reach 20,478 by 1919.^[57]
• August 1 – The German Navy ZeppelinL 53 achieves an altitude of 20,700 feet (6,300 meters), a new record for an airship.^[14]
• August 2
  • ItalianacePier Ruggero Piccio scores his eighth victory by shooting downAustro-Hungarian aceFrank Linke-Crawford, who is flying a two-seat aircraft without a rear gunner on board. Linke-Crawford survives uninjured.
  • ASopwith Pup flown by Royal Naval Air ServiceSquadron CommanderEdwin Dunning becomes the first aircraft to land aboard a moving ship, the hybridaircraft carrier-battlecruiserHMS Furious.
• August 6 – Ground is broken on theUnited States Navy′sNaval Aircraft Factory atLeague Island Navy Yard inPhiladelphia,Pennsylvania.
• August 7 – Dunning is killed on his third landing when the Pup falls over the side ofFurious.
• August 12 – In daylight, GermanGotha G.IV bombers make the sixth attack on the United Kingdom of Operation Türkenkreuz, bombingShoeburyness andSouthend. In the fifth raid on July 22 and this raid, the Germans lose a combined five bombers, one of them shot down and the other four wrecked in crashes on landing as they return to their bases.^[53]
• August 17 – Tasked to study how the United Kingdom's air forces could be best organized for the war with Germany and to consider whether they should remain subordinate to theBritish Army andRoyal Navy,GeneralJan Smuts completes theSmuts Report. In it, he observes that an air service could be used as "an independent means of war operations," that "there is absolutely no limit to the scale of its future independent war service," that soon "aerial operations with their devastation of enemy lands and destruction of industrial and populous centres on a vast scale may be the principal operations of war, to which older forms of military and naval operations may become secondary and subordinate." He projects that by the summer of 1918 "the air battle front will be far behind the Rhine" while the ground front is still bogged down in Belgium and France and that air attacks on German industry andlines of communication could be an "important factor in bringing about peace." The report is the foundation of a new theory of warfare advocated by British bomber advocates and will inspire the creation of the independentRoyal Air Force in 1918.^[58]
• August 18 – TheLuftstreitkrafte attempts the largestheavier-than-air raid against theUnited Kingdom ofWorld War I, sending 28Gotha bombers from their bases inBelgium to attackEngland despite predictions of unfavorable winds. After two hours in the air, they have only reachedZeebrugge on the Belgian coast, and it takes them another hour to reach the coast of England, where they find themselves 64 kilometers (40 miles) off course. With too little fuel to go on, the strike commander orders the bombers to abort the raid and return to base; two of them come down in theNorth Sea, two others crash-land in the neutralNetherlands, and others are lost in crash-landings in Belgium.^[59]
• August 21 – Flying aSopwith Pup fighter launched from a flying-off platform mounted on a gun turret of the Royal Navy light cruiserHMS Yarmouth,Royal Naval Air ServiceFlight Sub-Lieutenant B. A. Smart shoots down the German Navy ZeppelinL 23 in flames over theNorth Sea with the loss of her entire crew. Smart is recovered safely along with his plane's engine and one of its machine guns after heditches his fighter in the sea.^[60]
• August 21–22 (overnight) – Eight German Navy Zeppelins commanded by German Naval Airship Service commanderPeter Strasser aboardL 46 attempt a high-altitude raid on England. OnlyL 41 crosses the British coastline; she bombs theKingston upon Hull area, destroying achapel and injuring one civilian.^[61]
• August 22 – TheLuftstreitkrafte sends 15 Gotha bombers to attack England in a daylight raid. Five turn back over the North Sea, and the remaining 10 encounter British fighter aircraft and heavyantiaircraft fire over theIsle of Thanet. Two Gothas are shot down immediately, and another is shot down overDover. The losses prompt to Germans to halt daylight raids over the United Kingdom and switch to night bombing.^[62]

• In a second bombing raid againstConstantinople, the soleHandley Page O/100 in theMediterranean is forced down in theGulf of Xeros by engine failure and its crew taken prisoner byOttoman forces.^[10]
• The Commander in Chief of theGrand Fleet,AdmiralDavid Beatty, proposes an aerialtorpedo attack by 120Sopwith Cuckootorpedo bombers launched from eight convertedmerchant ships against the GermanHigh Seas Fleet at its moorings in Germany. Training for the raid takes place in theFirth of Forth, but the war will end before it can be carried out.
• September 3 – TheUnited States Army's1st Aero Squadron arrives in France.
• September 3–4 (overnight) – After the losses suffered in the face of improving Britishair defences in the August 22 daylight raid againstEngland, theImperial German Army's air service, theLuftstreitkrafte, decides to experiment with night raids, sending fiveGotha bombers to attackChatham Dockyard inKent. The raid kills 152, including 130Royal Navy recruits who die in a direct hit on their barracks in the highest death toll inflicted by a single aerial bomb duringWorld War I. The German bombers find that British night defenses are weak.^[38][63]
• September 4–5 (overnight) – The Germans attempt a secondheavier-than-air night raid against the United Kingdom, sending 11 Gotha bombers to raidLondon. Nine of the planes reachEngland, but only five reach London. British aircraft fly 18 defensive sorties, but fail to make contact with the German aircraft; the British flights, however, demonstrate the feasibility of using theSopwith Camel as anight fighter. One Gotha fails to return, probably shot down byantiaircraft guns atFort Borstal inRochester.^[64]
• September 11 – FrenchaceCapitaineGeorges Guynemer goesmissing in action while flying aSPAD XIII during combat with German aircraft nearPoelkapelle,Belgium.Kurt Wisserman ofJasta 3 is credited with shooting him down, but Guynemer's body is never found. Guynemer has 54 kills at the time of his death.
• September 15 – Flying aFokker Dr.I, German aceOberleutnantKurt Wolff is shot down and killed in adogfight with Royal Flying CorpsSopwith Camels north ofWervicq, Belgium. His 33 kills will tie him withLeutnantOtto Koennecke andLeutnantHeinrich Bongartz as the 20th-highest-scoring German ace of World War I.^[46]
• September 17 – While onconvoy escort duty in theAtlantic Ocean, theUnited States Navyarmored cruiserHuntington has herkite balloon blown away in bad weather. For rescuing the balloonist, ashipfitter from her crew is awarded the3rd Medal of Honor ofWorld War I.^[45]
• September 22 – ARoyal Naval Air ServiceCurtiss H-12flying boat piloted byFlight Sub-Lieutenant N. Magor sinks the German submarineUB-32 in theNorth Sea. It is the only confirmed instance of a British aircraft sinking a German submarine without the assistance of surface ships during World War I.^[65][66]
• September 23 – During an epic 10-minutedogfight against six Royal Flying CorpsSE.5s ofNo. 56 Squadron, the GermanaceWerner Voss, flying aFokker Dr.Itriplane, is shot down and killed by the British aceArthur Rhys-Davids north ofFrezenberg,Belgium. At the time of his death, Voss has 48 victories and is the second-leading German ace behindManfred von Richthofen at the time; Voss will be the fourth-highest-scoring German ace of World War I.^[67]
• September 24–25 (overnight)
  • Nine German Navy Zeppelins set out to attack the middle and north of England. OnlyL 35 makes a deep penetration of England, dropping her bombs nearRotherham. Total damage inflicted by the raid is£2,210.^[68]
  • Sixteen German Gotha bombers set out to raid the United Kingdom. Thirteen reach England; five of them reach London, while the other eight bombDover and other targets inKent.^[69]
• September 25–26 (overnight) – Fifteen German Gotha bombers set out to bomb London, but only three reach the city. One of the bombers comes down in the North Sea, probably the victim of a BritishSopwith 1½ Strutter flown byDouglas Bell and George Williams of the Royal Flying Corps'sNo. 78 Squadron.^[70]
• September 28 – In accordance with an agreement betweenItaly and theUnited States for the United States to receive bomber aircraft from Italy andUnited States Army Air Service cadets to receive flight training from theRoyal Italian Army'sMilitary Aviation Corps in exchange for raw materials from the United States, the first 46 American cadets arrive atFoggia, Italy, for training. Another 250 soon join them, and almost 500 American aviators will receive training in Italy – primarily at Foggia – before the war ends inNovember 1918.^[71]
• September 28–29 (overnight) – Twenty-seven German bombers – 25 Gothas and twoZeppelin-Staaken R.VI bombers – attempt a raid on England, but most turn back due to bad weather. Those that do reach England drop bombs that injure three people and inflict£129 in damage. Three Gothas are lost, and six others are damaged while landing.^[70] It is the first time that the new giantRiesenflugzeuge, operated by the GermanRiesenflugzeug Abteilungen ("Giant Airplane Detachments") Rfa 500 and Rfa 501, take part in bombing operations against theUnited Kingdom; they are the largest bombers ever used in bombing Britain, including those used by Germany and Italy duringWorld War II.^[72]
• September 29–30 (overnight) – Seven Gothas and two Zeppelin-Staaken R.VIs set out to raid England. Their bombs kill 40 people and injure 87. One Gotha is lost. By this time, the population of London is so alarmed by the German night raids that up to 300,000 people seek shelter inLondon Underground stations at night, while others leave the city to seek overnight accommodation elsewhere or to sleep in open fields in the countryside.^[73]
• September 30-October 1 (overnight) – Eleven Gotha bombers raid England.^[74]

• AtOchey, France, the BritishRoyal Flying Corps forms its firstwing dedicated to long-range bombardment of targets in Germany. It will later becomeVIII Brigade.^[48]
• TheUnited States Marine Corps divides its Marine AeronauticalCompany into two units, the First AviationSquadron equipped with land planes and the First Aeronautical Squadron equipped withseaplanes. The latter unit is intended forantisubmarine patrols from theAzores.^[75]
• October 1
  • TheRoyal Navy tests anaircraft catapult for the first time, using acompressed-air catapult aboard the catapult trials shipSlinger to launch an unmannedShort 184 with itsfuselage fabric removed and engine replaced byballast.^[76]
  • The Royal Navy conducts the first launch of an aircraft from abattleship orbattlecruiser, whenRoyal Naval Air ServiceFlight CommanderFrederick Rutland takes off in aSopwith Pup fighter from a platform mounted on a 15-inch (381-mm) gun turret of the battlecruiserHMS Repulse.^[77]
• October 1–2 (overnight) – Eighteen Gotha bombers of theImperial German Army's air service, theLuftstreitkräfte, set out to raid theUnited Kingdom. Eleven of them reachEngland. Britishantiaircraft guns fire 14,000 rounds at them without scoring a single hit. The intensity of German air raids over the past week have created a shortage of antiaircraft shells and worn out thebarrels of many antiaircraft guns, and falling fragments from antiaircraft shells have killed eight people and injured 67 in England.^[78]
• October 7 –L 57, a German Navy Zeppelin modified to be able to make a long-distance flight fromYambol,Bulgaria, toMahenge,German East Africa, to deliver medical supplies and munitions to German ground forces there, and as such the largest airship ever built at the time at 743 feet (226 meters) and carrying 2,418,700cubic feet (68,490cubic meters) ofhydrogen gas, is wrecked and destroyed by fire while attempting to take off for a test flight in poor weather.^[79]
• October 19 – The U.S. Army opensLove Field inDallas,Texas as a flight training base. The airfield is later converted to civil use, becoming the primary commercial airport for theDallas–Fort Worth metroplex until 1974, and continues to serve as an important regional airport.
• October 19–20 (overnight) – The German Navy dispatches 13 Zeppelins on a high-altitude raid against the middle ofEngland, and they encounter an unexpectedgale. Two never leave their sheds; the other 11 set out for England and become lost in the storm. Most bomb open countryside, althoughL 41 damages theAustin Motor Works atLongbridge andL 45 bombsNorthampton and London, killing 24 and injuring nine people. The British use muzzled antiaircraft guns around London to avoid guiding Zeppelins to the city, and the attack becomes known as the "Silent Raid." Although 73 British planes take off to intercept the raid, none have the ability to reach the Zeppelins' operating altitude. The storm scatters the Zeppelins widely across Germany, theNetherlands,Belgium, and France during their return flights and only six reach Germany safely.L 55 sets an altitude record for airships of 24,000 feet (7,300 meters) during her homebound flight before being damaged beyond repair in a hard landing in Germany;L 44 is shot down in flames by French artillery over theWestern Front with the loss of all hands;L 49 lands in France and is captured along with her entire crew;L 45 lands in France and is destroyed by her crew, who are captured; andL 50 makes a hard landing in France, after which 15 of her crew manage to get off the airship and are captured and she drifts away and crosses France before disappearing over theMediterranean Sea with four men still aboard.^[80]
• October 29–30 (overnight) – Three GermanLuftstreitkräfte bombers set out for the firstheavier-than-air raid on England in four weeks. Two divert toCalais,France, due to bad weather; the third reaches England and bombs theEssex coast.^[81]
• October 30 – The German aceLeutnantHeinrich Gontermann is performing aerobatics when the upper wing of hisFokker Dr.I fighter breaks off. He is fatally injured in the subsequent crash. His 39 victories will tie him withLeutnantCarl Menckhoff as the 13th-highest-scoring German ace of World War I.^[46]
• October 30–31 (overnight) – Twenty-two German Gotha bombers set out to raid London, with the newly developed 4.5-kg (9.9-lb)incendiary bombs included in their bombloads. Fewer than half the bombers reach the London area; they bomb the city's eastern suburbs, but many of the incendiary bombs fail to ignite. The rest of the planes bombKent, where they destroy agasometer inRamsgate but achieve little else. Five of the bombers crash while attempting to land upon returning to their bases. Bad weather will prevent another raid against England untilDecember.^[81]

• November 19 – TheBattle of Caporetto ends. The 27-day battle has caught the ItalianCorpo Aeronautico Militare ("Military Aviation Corps") by surprise and it has lost a great deal of equipment, but it claims to have shot down 39 enemy aircraft in 70 air-to-air engagements during the battle.^[82]
• November 21–24 – In an attempt to deliver medical supplies and munitions to German ground forces inGerman East Africa, the German Navy ZeppelinL 59, specially modified for long-range flights, makes a 6,757-kilometer (4,196-statute mile) journey fromYambol,Bulgaria, overEuropean Turkey,Asia Minor, and theMediterranean Sea and intoAfrica to a point west ofKhartoum before being recalled to Yambol, which she reaches after 95 hours 5 minutes continuously in the air at an average speed of 71 km/h (44 mph). The flight sets a new aircraft endurance record. She returns to Yambol with enough fuel aboard to have remained in the air for another 64 hours.^[83]
• November 28 – TheUnited States Navy′sNaval Aircraft Factory is completed atLeague Island Navy Yard inPhiladelphia,Pennsylvania, 110 days after groundbreaking.

• TheImperial German Army's air service, theLuftstreitkräfte, begins to operate a radio-equippedRumpler C.IV off the coast ofEngland to report weather conditions and reduce the chance of adverse weather interfering withLuftstreitkräfte bomber raids against theUnited Kingdom.^[84]
• Imperial German Navy Zeppelins make daily reconnaissance patrols over theHeligoland Bight throughout the month.^[85]
• December 5–6 (overnight) – After weeks of unfavorable weather, theLuftstreitkräfte makes its firstheavier-than-air raid against the United Kingdom sinceOctober 1917. NineteenGotha and twoRiesenflugzeug bombers attack in several waves, causing£100,000 in damage, mostly inLondon, but inflicting few casualties. Britishantiaircraft guns shoot down two Gothas and their crews are captured; a third bomber and its crew go missing.^[86] It is the last German bombing raid against theUnited Kingdom untilJanuary 1918.
• December 6 –Chikuhei Nakajima andSeibi Kawanishi found theJapan Aeroplane Manufacturing Work Company Ltd.^[87] It is the first aircraft manufacturing company in Japan.
• December 7 – TheBattle of Cambrai comes to end, with 10 German ground-attack squadrons having providedclose air support to German ground forces during the 17-day battle. German ground-attack aircraft have played a key role in halting the British advance, convincing theLuftstreitkrafte of the need for a permanent ground-attack force.^[88]
• December 9 –Romania signs anarmistice with theCentral Powers, withdrawing from participation in World War I.

• Berkmans Speed Scout^[89]
• Nieuport 24
• Orenco A^[90]
• Phönix D.I
• Saunders T.1
• Standard M-Defense, prototype of theStandard E-1^[91]
• Voisin X
• Late 1917 –Siemens-Schuckert D.III

• Sopwith Camel flown byHarry Hawker
• January 5 –Sage Type 3
• January 15 –Siemens-Schuckert R.VII
• January 24 –Aviatik D.I, also known as Berg D.I and Berg Fighter
• January 28 –Junkers J.I

• Junkers J.4
• February 16 –Fairey Campania, first aircraft designed forseaplane carrier operations^[92]

• March 19 –Ansaldo SVA^[93]
• March 20 –Sturtevant B^[7]

• Avro 529
• April 4 –SPAD S.XIII
• April 11 –Marinens Flyvebaatfabrikk M.F.3
• April 20 – U.S. Navy blimpDN-1

• May 23 –Sopwith Dolphin
• May 24 –B-1, the first U.S. NavyB-class blimp

• Siemens-Schuckert D.II
• Sopwith Cuckoo^[94]
• Thomas-Morse S-4^[95]
• June 14 –Nieuport 28
• June 22 –Port Victoria P.V.7

• Airco DH.9
• Avro 530
• Siemens-Schuckert Dr.I
• July 5 –Fairey N.9

• Westland N.1B

• Bellanca CD
• Bellanca CE
• September 7 –Port Victoria P.V.8
• September 13 –Sopwith 3F.2 Hippo
• September 14 –Fairey III^[96]
• September 17 – Junkers J 7, prototype of theJunkers D.I

• October 15 –Alcock Scout

• Ansaldo A-1 Balilla^[93]
• November 9 –Siemens-Schuckert DDr.I
• November 30 –Vickers Vimy,^[97]

• December 9 –Schaefer & Sons R.S.^[98]
• December 10 – Junkers J 8, prototype of theJunkers CL.I

• Aviatik D.I, also known as Berg D.I and Berg Fighter, with theAustro-HungarianImperial and Royal Aviation Troops
• Siemens-Schuckert D.I with the GermanLuftstreitkräfte
• Spring 1917 –Nieuport 24
• Summer 1917 –Breguet 14 with theFrench Army'sService Aéronautique^[99]

• Airco DH.4 withNo. 55 SquadronRoyal Flying Corps^[100]

• Sopwith Triplane with No.1 (Naval) Squadron,Royal Naval Air Service^[101]
• February 26 –Siemens-Schuckert R.VII with the GermanLuftstreitkräfte

• Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5 withNo. 56 Squadron, Royal Flying Corps.^[102]

• Bristol F.2A withNo. 48 Squadron, Royal Flying Corps

• Airco DH.5 withNo. 24 andNo. 32 Squadrons, Royal Flying Corps.^[103]

• Sopwith Camel with the Royal Flying Corps

• Junkers J.I with theImperial German Army'sLuftstreitkräfte

• Airco DH.9 with theRoyal Flying Corps′sNo. 108 Squadron

• Phönix D.I with theAustro-HungarianImperial and Royal Aviation Troops

• Avro 528 by theRoyal Naval Air Service
• Gotha G.II by theImperial German Army′sLuftstreitkräfte

• Siemens-Schuckert R.VI by the Imperial German Army'sLuftstreitkräfte

• Bruce, J.M. "The S.E.5: Historic Military Aircraft No. 5".Flight, 17 July 1953. Pages 85–89, 93.
• Mason, Francis K.The British Bomber Since 1914. London: Putnam Aeronautical Books, 1994.ISBN 0-85177-861-5.
• Robertson, Bruce.Sopwith – The Man and His Aircraft. London: Harleyford, 1970.ISBN 0-900435-15-1.
• Taylor, H.A.Fairey Aircraft since 1915. London:Putnam, 1988.ISBN 0-370-00065-X.
• Thetford, Owen.British Naval Aircraft Since 1912. London: Putnam, 1994.ISBN 0-85177-861-5.