On This Day in History

1952: 5AF F-86s destroy 5 MiG-15s in aerial combat. In the morning 12 F-86s attack targets Sinuiju Airfield and Uiju Airfield in NW Korea. In early afternoon, Sabres hit the marshaling yards at Kunu-ri, and, […]

  1972:    LINEBACKER I: 8th Tactical Fighter Wing F-4s drop precision-guided munitions on the Paul Doumer Bridge in Hanoi, finally closing it to traffic.

  1961:    The 379th Bomb Wing at Wurtsmith AFB, MI receives SAC’s first B-52H (number 60-0001, shown here later at Barksdale AFB). It was known as Memphis Belle IV.

  1970:    MACKAY TROPHY. An AC-119K gunship attacks a heavily defended road section in SEA. Despite losing 15 feet of the aircraft’s right wing and an aileron, the crew destroys three enemy supply trucks and

  1945:    The German High Command surrenders unconditionally at Reims, effective 9 May. Air Transport Command begins Projects Green and White, for personnel and aircraft, respectively, to move c. 250,000 people and 5,900 aircraft from

2006:   The last operational C-141 Starlifter (Tail No. 66-0177) lands at Wright Field for donation to the National Museum of the USAF. The landing ends 42 years of C-141 ops in the active-duty USAF, ANG,

  1965:    The Early Bird satellite goes into operation as a public communications facility by shuttling TV programs across the North Atlantic.

    1960:    Soviet air defenses shoot down a U-2 flying from Pakistan to Norway, capturing CIA pilot Francis Gary Powers.

  1917:    In World War I, Maj William “Billy” Mitchell becomes the first American officer to fly over the German lines, as an observer in a French aircraft.