This Day in Air and Space History

1996: At Hill AFB an F-16 Fighting Falcon logs the five millionth hour of flying time for the F-16 fleet. Captain Kurt Gallegos of the West Coast F-16 Demonstration Team flies the Falcon. Major Mike

1965: Dr. Hugh L. Dryden, the first Deputy Administrator of the National Air and Space Administra­tion, dies at the age of 67. He was an internationally renowned scientist-engineer, whose career began with the airplane. He

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