Japanese aviator to save his life by parachute when he bails out of one of two Mitsubishi 1MF2 Hayabusa-type fighter prototypes when it disintegrates during a diving test during official Army trials at Tokorozawa. Pilot uninjured. Because of the accident, further flight evaluations of the type are suspended and the other airframe is statically tested to destruction. 1 May Curtiss O-1B Falcon, 27-279, assigned at Middletown Air Depot, Pennsylvania, crashes at Whitney Point, New York, this date. Pilot Lt. Bushrod Hoppin is uninjured, but his passenger, Congressman Thaddeus Campbell Sweet is killed. Sweet becomes the first sitting member of the U.S. Congress to die in a plane crash. He and the pilot had departed Bolling Field shortly after breakfast "in a new Army observation plane" to fly to Oswego, New York, where he was to make a speech. Lt. Hoppin, known as a careful pilot, flew into a storm between Binghamton, New York and Cortland, New York. He thought it best to land and selected a field on a stock farm near Whitney Point. The field was knobbly, and the airplane bounced and turned a somersault. Sweet, having unbuckled his safety belt, was pitched against the cockpit wall, and killed by a head injury. Lt. Hoppin, belted in his seat, was unbruised. Sweet was buried at the Rural Cemetery at Phoenix, New York. 28 May U.S. Army Air Corps Fokker CO-4A, 23-1206, based at Langley Field, Virginia, piloted by Major George H. Brett, is damaged in a take off accident at Quantico, Virginia. 6 July Douglas C-1C, 26-427, c/n 372, assigned at Bolling Field, Washington, D.C., piloted by 1st Lt. Myron Ray Wood, suffers engine failure and ditches in the Potomac River near the west shoreline, Washington, D.C. Brig. Gen. Wood (4 December 1892 – 29 October 1946) will head the 9th AAF Service Command in Europe in 1944. 9 September During events held during the National Air Races at Mines Field, Los Angeles, the program "was marred by the crash of Lieut. George E. Hasselman, U.S.Navy, of the VB-2B Squadron, who crashed 50 feet to the ground in a side slip and was seriously injured." VB-2B operated Boeing F2B-1s in 1928. 10 September While performing aerobatics at the air races held at Mines Field, Los Angeles, Lt. John J. "Johnny" Williams, leader of the Three Musketeers Air Corps stunt trio, crashes in Boeing PW-9D, 28-29, c/n 1013, of the