On This Day in History

  1950:    KOREAN WAR. The USN aircraft carrier USS Boxer arrives in Japan with 145 USAF F-51s on board. Photo here shows loading of the P-51s at Alameda.

1969:    APOLLO 11. Astronauts Neil A. Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, Jr., fly lunar module Eagle to the Sea of Tranquility.

2002:    At McConnell AFB, the Airborne Laser (ABL), a highly modified Boeing 747-400F, makes its first flight.

1947:    President Truman signs the National Security Act, which establishes the Department of Defense, the National Security Council, the CIA, and the US Air Force.

1962:    Maj Robert White flies X-15 No. 3 with the XLR-99 rocket engine on the first space flight by a manned aircraft: Altitude 58.7 miles (314,750 ft.), speed in excess of Mach 6 (3,784 mph).

  1971 – Brig Gen Jeanne Holm becomes 1st female general officer in the US Air Force. She is pinned by Secretary of the Air Force Robert C. Seamans, Jr. and Lt Gen Robert J.

  1958:    Operation BLUE BAT. After the Iraqi government falls, tensions increase in Lebanon. This strain leads Lebanon’s President to seek US security assistance. TAC dispatches its Composite Air Strike Force BRAVO to the Middle

  1990:    The USAF receives the 59th and last F-117A Stealth Fighter from Lockheed.

1935:    Larry Bell founds Bell Aircraft, producer among other aircraft of the P-39 Airacobra and the X-1.