On This Day in History

1997:  Lockheed-Martin and Boeing roll out their F-22 air superiority fighter at the LM Marietta plant.

1942: Using aircraft acquired from Pan American Airlines, the Army begins the largest airlift in World War II. Two DC-3s airlift gasoline and lubricating oil over the Himalaya Mountains from Dinjan in eastern India to

1955: The first production-model Lockheed C-130A Hercules (53-3129), shown here in assembly, flies at the company’s facility in Marietta GA.

1924: 1ST AROUND-THE-WORLD FLIGHT/MACKAY TROPHY. Four Army Douglas Biplanes take off from Seattle on the first global flight. Only two crews complete the 26,345-mile flight after 363 hours flying time in an elapsed time of

1991: Operation PROVIDE COMFORT. To 15 July, MAC units fly more than 7,000 tons of sup­plies to Northern Iraq, Southeastern Turkey, and Western Iran to help more than 1,000,000 Kur­dish rebels fleeing from Iraq after

1915:     President Wilson appoints the first members to the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). In 1958, NACA becomes NASA.

1952:     KOREAN WAR. Fifth Air Force Sabre pilots destroy ten MiGs while losing one F-86. In the battle, Col Francis S. Gabreski, the 51st Fighter-Interceptor Wing Commander, destroys a MiG to become the eighth jet

1979:     THREE-MILE ISLAND DISASTER. Thru 15 Apr MAC flies 15 support missions, delivering a 40,000-pound rawindsonde station (a radiosonde is tracked by a radio direction-finding device to determine the velocity of winds aloft), lead bricks

1944: Army Air Forces reaches its WW II high total of 2, 411, 294 persons assigned.

  2003: By this date, to support the Global War on Terrorism, the ANG had flown 72 % of the fighter sorties, 52 % of the tanker sorties, and 35 % of the airlift sorties