page_title: List of accidents and incidents involving military aircraft (1935–1939)
section_title: 1935
hierarchical_section_title: List of accidents and incidents involving military aircraft (1935–1939) / 1935
caption_attribution_description: English: A Curtiss F9C-2 Sparrowhawk (BuNo 9058) in flight over Moffett Field, California in 1934, flown by Lt. 'Min' Miller. This aircraft was lost with the USS Macon (ZRS-5).
context_page_description: This is a list of notable accidents and incidents involving military aircraft grouped by the year in which the accident or incident occurred. Not all of the aircraft were in operation at the time. Combat losses are not included except for a very few cases denoted by singular circumstances.
context_section_description: 19 January
  Chief Warrant Gunner and Naval Aviation Pilot (CWO-GUN; NAP) Charles T. Thrun, USCG, Coast Guard Aviator Number 3, is killed when his Grumman JF-2 Duck, 162, c/n 189, crashes into the Delaware Bay at Cape May, New Jersey. CWO Thrun was the first Coast Guard aviator to die in the line of duty. Second crewman on board survives. Joe Baugher states that the airframe was reserialled as V136, even though it was no longer on inventory.
  12 February
  The US Navy's last rigid airship, the USS Macon, loses its upper fin off Point Sur, California, sinks to the surface of the Pacific Ocean in a controlled crash, and is lost, although the inclusion of lifevests on board allows the saving of 81 of 83 crew. It takes with it the four Curtiss F9C-2 Sparrowhawks, BuNos. A-9058/9061 carried aboard for fleet scouting. The airship's remains lie unfound until 1990 when a fisherman brings up a girder. Wreck is subsequently found by manned Navy submersible Sea Cliff.
  15 February
  Short Singapore flying boat K3595 crashes in the Peloritani mountain range near Messina, Sicily in poor visibility. All on board are killed - eight RAF personnel and a civilian Senior Technical Officer of the Royal Aircraft Establishment. The aircraft was one of four that departed from the United Kingdom four weeks earlier for delivery to No. 205 Squadron RAF, based in Singapore. One of the victims of the crash is Flight Lieutenant Henry Longfield Beatty, the half-brother of The First Sea Lord David Beatty, 1st Earl Beatty. They were buried at Capuccini Naval Cemetery, Malta.
  25 February
  A Curtiss Y1O-40B Raven, 32-416, of the 1st Observation Squadron, 9th Observation Group, Mitchel Field, Long Island, New York, piloted by Don W. Smith, suffers major damage when it force lands due to engine failure at Floyd Bennett Field, New York City, New York. Repaired.
  22 March
  Prototype Grumman XF3F-1, BuNo 9727 (1st), c/n 257, company model G-11, first flown 20 March 1935, disintegrates when pulled sharply out of a terminal velocity dive, the tenth and final such test in six flights, killing pilot Jimmy Collins. G-forces in this dive estimated at 12–13, wrenching wings off, engine torn from mount. The airframe impacted in Pinelawn Cemetery, Farmingdale, Long Island. 9727 serial applied to three Grumman prototypes, two of which crashed. The Navy immediately orders a replacement which will be completed in two months and fly on 9 May.
  April
  Yugoslavian Air Force Ikarus IK-1, high-wing monoplane fighter, first prototype crashes on third flight at Zemun airfield when it fails to recover from power dive, pilot Capt. Leonid Bajdak, parachuting to safety. Examination of wreck revealed that fabric covering of the port wing had failed due to negligence in sewing the seams. Second prototype ordered as Ikarus IK-2, wings metal-skinned.
  16 April
  Flying Officer Clive Newton Edgerton takes off from Laverton in RAAF Westland Wapiti, A5-31, but after entering a steep dive from 15,000 feet is unable to recover. "The structure of the aircraft failed during the test flight and the aircraft crashed at Werribee." Witnesses reported that the wings failed and folded back along the fuselage. The lower starboard wing landed in a paddock 1½ miles from the fuselage. The Aircraft Accident Investigation Committee (AAIC) reported that "The tailplane actuating gear was in full forward position...the aircraft had five ballast weights in the tail...when there should have been six, and in addition another four in the passenger's cockpit, so that the aircraft was obviously tail light and nose heavy. Apparently the pilot had his tail actuating gear into the full forward, giving maximum lift to the tail to enable him to go into a dive." The speed of Edgerton's dive was so great that the blades of the airscrew were pulled from the boss by the centrifugal force.
  17 May
  Second of three Grumman XF3F-1 prototypes, BuNo 9727 (2nd), first flown 9 May, crashes on the first day it arrives at NAS Anacostia. Pilot Lee Gelbach is unable to recover from a flat spin which develops during a ten-turn right-hand spin demonstr
caption: F9C Sparrowhawk BuNo 9058 in flight over Moffett Field, California in 1934. This aircraft was lost with the USS Macon. Pilot in this photo is Lt. Harold B. Miller, commander of the Heavier-Than-Air Unit.[3]
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