On This Day in History

  1946:   First flight of the Convair XB-36 Peacemaker prototype 42-13570 at Fort Worth.

1916:   The Wright Company and the Glenn L. Martin Company merge into the Wright Martin Aircraft Corporation.

Flying his “Enola Gay” B-29 from Tinian Island, Lt Col Paul W. Tibbets, Jr. and his crew drop the atomic bomb “Little Boy” on Hiroshima. This photo shows the officers on the mission, with Tibbitts

  1981:   Directed by President Reagan, USAF air traffic controllers man civilian airport facilities in the US to replace striking civilian controllers.

1987:   The 552d Airborne Warning and Control Wing from Tinker AFB completes its 5,000th mission for the Elf One deployment to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Elf One began on 1 October 1980, shortly after the war

1943:   Operation TIDAL WAVE-Ploesti Raid. Five Medals of Honor were received for Ploesti, three posthumously, more than for any other mission in WW II: Baker, Hughes, Jerstad, Johnson, and Kane.

1952:   PROJECT HOP-A-LONG. Two Military Air Transport Service Sikorsky UH-19b helicopters complete the first trans-Atlantic helicopter flight. They touch down five times en route between Westover Field and Prestwick, Scotland.

1971: The last F-100 leaves Vietnam for the CONUS. Its departure ends a combat employment which began in 1964 and produced 360,283 combat sorties with 243 aircraft losses.

1909:   At Ft. Myer, Orville Wright, with Lt Frank P. Lahm as passenger, flies Army’s first airplane in an initial 1:12:40 test flight, fulfilling a contract requirement.

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. Lt Gen Hoyt S. Vandenberg, Chief of the Air