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.
October 1, 1965
1965: When the USAF Aeronautical Station inactivates at Yokota, a 30-year era of Morse code in the USAF comes to an end. Begun in 1935 with the creation of the Aeronautical (Airways) Station –
September 30, 1949
1949: Operation VITTLES. The last flight took place to end the Berlin Airlift. Results show 2,343,301.5 tons of supplies carried on 277,262 Allied flights. US planes carried 1,783,826 tons.
September 30, 1949 Read More »
September 27, 1991
1991: President George H. W. Bush terminates SAC’s alert force operation, which started in October 1957. This action heralds an end to the Cold War.
September 27, 1991 Read More »