This Day in Air and Space History

1947:    President Truman signs the National Security Act, which establishes the Department of Defense, the National Security Council, the CIA, and the US Air Force.

1962:    Maj Robert White flies X-15 No. 3 with the XLR-99 rocket engine on the first space flight by a manned aircraft: Altitude 58.7 miles (314,750 ft.), speed in excess of Mach 6 (3,784 mph).

  1971 – Brig Gen Jeanne Holm becomes 1st female general officer in the US Air Force. She is pinned by Secretary of the Air Force Robert C. Seamans, Jr. and Lt Gen Robert J.

  1958:    Operation BLUE BAT. After the Iraqi government falls, tensions increase in Lebanon. This strain leads Lebanon’s President to seek US security assistance. TAC dispatches its Composite Air Strike Force BRAVO to the Middle

  1990:    The USAF receives the 59th and last F-117A Stealth Fighter from Lockheed.

1935:    Larry Bell founds Bell Aircraft, producer among other aircraft of the P-39 Airacobra and the X-1.

1944:    MEDAL OF HONOR. During an attack on the Ploesti oil refineries, Lt Donald D. Pucket’s B-24 receives heavy and direct hits and crashes. For his courage and supreme sacrifice in attempting to save the

1944:   Lt Col Clifford Heflin flies his C-47 on the first landing mission into France to rescue airmen who had parachuted behind enemy lines. (Here shown in a c. 1960 photo)

1912:    Capt Charles DeForest Chandler, Lt Thomas DeWitt Milling, and Lt Henry H. Arnold became the first qualified “Military Aviators.” They receive their badges on 6 October.