squadron set off from R.A.F. St Eval, Cornwall in the early morning just after midnight. It was transporting one of the first radar for aircraft. It ran out of fuel during the night and crashed outside Maillé, France. Crew, including 755779 Sgt. R. E. Griffiths, survived the crash and found shelter with a family in the town but were later captured. Pilot name was Bob Milton. Co-pilot name was Sgt. Houghton. 16 April Sole Martin XB-26D Marauder, 40-1380, assigned to the 18th Reconnaissance Squadron, 22d Bomb Group, Langley Field, Virginia, modified to test hot air de-icing equipment, is written off in a landing accident at Langley Field. Pilot was Dwight Divine II. 16 April Lt. j.g. Yasushi Nikaido, fighter squadron leader of the Imperial Japanese Navy carrier Kaga, survives close call when Mitsubishi A6M, number 140, loses both port and starboard ailerons as well as part of the upper wing surface while performing dive of 550 km/h at 2,300 rpm, but pilot makes skilful emergency landing at Kisarazu Air Field. Accident is reported to Naval Aeronautical Headquarters, the Naval Aeronautical Technical Establishment, and the Yokosuka Air Corps.Horikoshi, Jiro, translated by Shindo, Shojiro, and Wantiez, Harold N., Eagles of Mitsubishi: The Story of the Zero Fighter, University of Washington Press, Seattle, 1981, , , pp. 110–112. 17 April During dive tests to determine why wrinkles are appearing on the surface plates of the wings, Lt. Manbei Shimokawa, squadron leader at Yokosuka Naval Air Corps, is killed in Mitsubishi A6M Model 21, number 135, equipped with balance tabs, when, during pull-out at from dive from , parts are seen by ground observers to depart from the port wing, fighter drops nose, plunges into ten fathoms of water off Natsu Island. The popular pilot is found in the wreckage with "his head entirely crushed into the instrument panel". Aeronautical Technical Establishment investigation reveals that flutter and vibration tests had not simulated the stiffness distribution of actual airframes and that the ailerons and horizontal stabilizers had been torn out. Fighter had previously been assigned to the carrier Akagi. Shimokawa is posthumously promoted to Lieutenant Commander. 5 May Major George Putnam Moody (13 March 1908 – 5 May 1941), an early Air Force pioneer, is killed while flight-testing the first of what will be the Beechcraft AT-10-BH Wichita advanced two-engine training aircraft, Beechcraft Model 25 prototype, at Wichita Army Airfield, Kansas, when it stalls/spins shortly