On This Day in History

1926:    Dr. Robert H. Goddard test flies the world’s first liquid-fueled rocket at Auburn, MA.

1983:    Thru 28 March  SAC successfully demonstrates sea interdiction capability with three AGM-84 Harpoon missile launches from a B-52.

2003:    AFFTC accelerates dual-door separation testing of the F-117A; results are sent immediately to the OAR and are employed in onset of Op Iraqi Freedom.

2007:    The first MQ-9 Reaper, a newer, larger and stronger version of the MQ-1 Predator Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, arrives at Creech AFB, NV.

1908:    Lt Thomas E. Selfridge’s Red Wing, the first Aerial Experiment Association airplane, makes its first flight at Lake Keuka, Hammondsport, N. Y., with Frederick W. “Casey” Baldwin at the controls.

1956:   Hollywood films “Toward the Unknown” at Edwards AFB. (Lloyd Nolan and William Holden)

1955:   At Great Falls AFB, MT USAF uses the 91 Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron to perform a unique mission: launch and recover aircraft from B-36 bombers.

2003:   President George W. Bush issues an ultimatum giving Saddam Hussein and his sons 48 hours to leave Iraq.

  1942:   The US Army Air School at Tuskegee, AL for black aviators graduates its first class. The five military pilots include Capt Benjamin O. Davis.

1944:   Operation THURSDAY. Through 11 March, allied aircraft and gliders airlift British Army Brig Gen Orde C. Wingate’s Special Force (Chindits) with 9,000 personnel and 1,400 mules and horses from India at night to a