On This Day in History

1971: Mariner IX, launched on 30 May 1971, goes into an elliptical orbit around Mars, and its first photographs are broadcast live by national television.

1954: The Strategic Air Command retires its last B-29 bomber (number 42-94032) to the aircraft sto­rage facility at Davis Monthan AFB, AZ.

1989: McDonnell-Douglas delivers the last of 470 F-15C/Ds (no. 86-0166) to the Air Force. Col Rick Parsons, 33rd Tactical Fighter Wing Commander, flies the aircraft from St Louis to its new home at Eglin AFB,

  1944: MEDAL OF HONOR. While on a mission over Meresberg, Germany, a bomber sustains three hits from anti-aircraft shells. A severely wounded navigator, Lt Robert E. Femoyer, re­fuses morphine to keep his head clear

  1918: Known as the “Ace of Aces” for that conflict, Capt. Edward V. Rickenbacker shoots down his 26th and final enemy aircraft of World War I.

2004: NASA’s modified KC-135A aerospace vehicle trainer, the “Vomit Comet,” flies its final sortie. NASA used the “Comet” at Edwards AFB to provide zero gravity training to students at the Aerospace Vehicle Test Course. The

1925: The court-martial of Brigadier General William “Billy” Mitchell for insubordination begins. He is found guilty on 17 Dec and sentenced to five years’ suspension from active duty without pay or allowances. President Coolidge reduces

  1954: Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., becomes the USAF’s first African American general officer.

1956: Bell pilot Floyd Carlson flies the XH-40 helicopter for the first time at Fort Worth. Later, the XH-40 becomes the UH-1 Iroquois, or Huey, one of the most useful helicopters in the Vietnam war.

1983: Through 16 November, MAC flies 78 Americans injured in the terrorist bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut from Lebanon to medical facilities in the US and Europe on 8 C-141 and 12 C-9A