On This Day in History

  1972: MACKAY TROPHY. F-4 weapon system officer Capt Jeffrey S. Feinstein shoots down his fifth MiG-21 to become the third and final USAF ace of the Vietnam War.

1998: The 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, 403rd Wing (AFRC), at Keesler AFB receives the USAF’s first WC-130J Hercules aircraft.

2001: Operation EAGLE ASSIST. NATO deploys AWACS aircraft to the US to help patrol American airspace, a first deployment of NATO forces to the US in a real contingency.

  1940: The Royal Air Force forms 71 (Eagle) Squadron, the first of three Fighter Command squadrons composed principally of volunteer US pilots flying with the RAF. On 29 September 1942, pilots in this unit

  1964: The SYNCOM III communications link from Tokyo to Point Mugu, generally regarded as the first geostationary satellite, begins transmitting to US televi­sion stations.

1918: MEDALS OF HONOR. Near Binarvelle, France, 1Lt Harold E. Goettler with the 50th Aero Squadron and 2Lt Erwin P. Bleckley (Kansas National Guard), flying as an observer, try to drop supplies to a surrounded

1984: FIRST SPACEWALK BY AN AMERICAN WOMAN. During the sixth Challenger Space Shuttle mission, astronauts record several firsts, including the first walk in space by an American woman (Kathryn D. Sullivan, Mission Specialist).

  1918: The Army’s pilotless aircraft, the Kettering “Bug,” with preset controls, begins flights at Dayton. In later years it is called a guided missile.

(Stock photo) 1947: The first flight of North American’s prototype F-86 Sabre (XP-86) at Muroc Dry Lake. See video of first flight: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M68-Y9dGQcs

1949: Operation VITTLES. The last flight took place to end the Berlin Airlift; the main effort ended earlier. Tonnage and passenger reports vary but show that over 2,343,301.5 tons of supplies were carried on 277,000+Allied