On This Day in History

  1943:   Lockheed receives a contract to produce the XP-80 Shooting Star, the first true American jet-propelled fighter.

1970:   TROPIC MOON. From Ubon Royal Thai AFB, the 13th Bomb Squadron flies its first night interdiction combat mission in Vietnam with the B-57G. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fu7bIYOJOlY

1944:   Lt Chuck Yeager earns “ace-in-a-day” recognition as he is credited with five aerial victories in a single engagement.

1910:   Former President Theodore Roosevelt becomes the first President to fly in an aircraft, as a passenger with Archibald Hoxsey in a Wright biplane at St. Louis.

1972:   Competitive flight tests between the YA-9 and YA-10 begin.

1918:   More than 250 bombers and 100 pursuit planes drop 32 tons of bombs in the cantonment district between La Wavrille and Damvillers.

1940:   The Royal Air Force forms 71 (Eagle) Squadron, the first of three Fighter Command squadrons composed principally of volunteer US pilots flying with the RAF. On 29 September 1942, pilots in this unit form

1918:   1st sustained aerial resupply attempt: 50th Aero Squadron begins effort to drop supplies and help locate the “Lost Battalion,” elements of the 77th Division cut off from the allies.

  1989:   A 96th Bomb Wing B-1B lands successfully at Edwards despite a retracted nose gear; the crew receives the Mackay Trophy.

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 action was made famous in the book