On This Day in History

1942: BEGINNING OF THE “HUMP” AIRLIFT. Air Transport Command activates its India-China Division to provide airlift support to the Chunking government and American airmen fighting in China. The airlift from bases in India over an […]

1907: At Hammondsport, NY, the Curtiss Motor Vehicle Company becomes the first airplane compa­ny formed in the US.

1933: The Army accepts Martin’s first production-model B-10 bomber. It was the first all-metal monoplane bomber with an internal bomb bay, retractable gear, rotating gun turret, and enclosed cockpit. It flew faster than pursuit aircraft

1968: MEDAL OF HONOR. While flying a UH-1F helicopter, 1Lt James P. Fleming twice exposes his aircraft to intense hostile fire while rescuing a special forces reconnaissance patrol near Due Co, Vietnam, receiving the Medal

1940: First flight of the Martin B-26 Marauder.

1974: President Gerald R. Ford and General Secretary Leonid I. Brezhnev sign the Strategic Arms Limitation accord. This agreement limited the deployment of strategic delivery vehicles and Multiple Independently Targetable Reentry Vehicles (MIRVs).

1947: The XC-99, the world’s largest land plane at that time, makes its first flight at San Diego. https://video.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?fr=yhs-iry-fullyhosted_003&hsimp=yhs-fullyhosted_003&hspart=iry&p=xc-99+first+flight#id=1&vid=444cc882b30714afc233e585ff303b7f&action=click    

1962: CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS. President John F. Kennedy announces the end of the Cuban Missile Crisis after the Soviets remove all IRBMs from Cuba. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rfjnfbw4rI4

  2007: WAR ON TERROR. Air Mobility Command passes a major milestone when one of its aircraft flies the command’s one millionth sortie since 11 September 2001. A C-17 from McChord AFB flies the landmark

1966: Lockheed delivers the first HC–130P to the Air Rescue and Recovery Service. The HC-130P included a drogue system to permit aerial refueling of helicopters. (1968 photo in SEA) https://video.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?fr=yhs-iry-fullyhosted_003&hsimp=yhs-fullyhosted_003&hspart=iry&p=hc-130P#id=6&vid=3382d9bcaacabf82b62fb96b09cbab6d&action=view