This Day in Air and Space History

1999: Operation ALLIED FORCE. US Army General Wesley Clark, the Supreme Allied Commander Europe, asks for 300 more U.S. aircraft in addition to the 82 aircraft he requested on 9 April. His request brought the

  1966: SAC B-52s hit targets in North Vietnam for the first time when they attack a supply route in the Mu Gia Pass, 85 miles north of the border.

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