November 12, 1921
1921: FIRST AIR-TO-AIR REFUELING. Wesley May, with a 5-gallon can of gasoline strapped to his back, steps from the wing of a Lincoln Standard to the wing skid of a JN-4 and climbs […]
November 8, 1942
1942: MEDAL OF HONOR. Col Demas T. Craw and Maj Pierpont M. Hamilton receive the Medal for valorous service in the invasion of Africa. Craw Citation: http://www.cmohs.org/recipient-detail/2694/craw-demas-t.php Hamilton Citation: http://www.cmohs.org/recipient-detail/2772/hamilton-pierpont-m.php
November 7, 1917
1917: Eugene J. Bullard, US pilot in French service, shoots down an enemy fighter, becoming the 1st African American fighter pilot with an aerial victory in WW I.
November 6, 1909
1909: The French government awards Orville and Wilbur Wright the Legion of Honor at its New York consulate.
November 5, 1943
1943: The 56th Fighter Group (P-47s) become the first Eighth Air Force fighter group credited with 100 enemy aircraft destroyed.
November 4, 1927
1927: Capt Hawthorne C. Gray, an early stratospheric explorer, dies in his third attempt to break the balloon record of 40,820 feet. While descending from 42,470 feet, he dies from oxygen starvation. This tragedy shows
November 1, 1964
1964: Viet Cong attack Bien Hoa AB with mortars, killing 4 and wounding 30 Americans; they also destroy 7 aircraft and damage 18.
October 4, 1909
1909: Wilbur Wright flies from Governor’s Island out past the Statue of Liberty, up the Hudson to Grant’s Tomb, and back to the island during New York’s Hudson-Fulton celebration.
October 3, 1993
1993: PJ TSgt Timothy A. Wilkinson receives the Air Force Cross for saving five wounded Army Rangers after enemy forces shoot down their helicopter at Mogadishu, Somalia. This event was made famous in the book
October 2, 1918
1918: The Army’s pilotless aircraft, the Kettering “Bug,” with preset controls, begins flights at Dayton. It is called a guided missile in later years.