On This Day in History

2004: MACKAY TROPHY. Near Kharbut, Iraq, in near-zero visibility, two USAF HH-60Gs assigned to Moody AFB rescue a U.S. Army CH-47 Chinook helicopter crew that had crashed in a sandstorm. All five Army crash survivors […]

  1945: First flight of the XP-82 (Twin Mustang).

1986: Operation EL DORADO CANYON. The US retaliates against Libya for its involvement in terrorism with an airstrike using 24 F-111s from RAF Lakenheath, five EF-111s from RAF Upper Heyford and Navy aircraft from the

1925: Henry Ford starts airplane freight operations between Detroit and Chicago. This is the first regularly scheduled commercial freight operation in the US.

  1931:        Lt Wilfred J. Paul demonstrates the airship subcloud observation car at Langley Field. (Car shown here in Scientific American 12-23-1916)

  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

1916: Mexican mounted Rurales fire on Lt Herbert A. Dargue at Chihauhau City, Mexico, where he had landed with dispatches from the US Consul. Capt Benjamin D. Foulois, who had left the plane before the

1924: KEY EVENT–FIRST 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

  1915:     President Wilson appoints the first members to the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). In 1958, NACA becomes NASA.