This Day in Air and Space History

1906:  The U.S. government issues the Wright Brothers the first patent on their flying machine (after turning down two earlier submissions from them).

1956:    Operation REDWING (Cherokee test). On Bikini Atoll in the Pacific, Maj David Crichlow flies the B-52 Barbara Grace to nearly 50,000 feet and drops  an H-bomb, the first US H-Bomb air drop.

  1927:  Charles A. Lindbergh, a Captain in the Missouri National Guard’s 110th Observation Squadron, lands his Ryan Monoplane, the “Spirit of St. Louis,” in Paris on 21 May after the first nonstop solo flight

  1919:    The Director of the Air Service orders the use of the national star insignia on all service planes; This order is implemented in August, and continued until World War II.

  1947:    Over New York, 101 B-29s “theoretically” drop bombs in SAC’s first Maximum Effort mission.

1975:    MAYAGUEZ INCIDENT. US military forces initiate combat actions to recover the SS Mayaguez and crew who had been seized by Khmer communist forces. This incident ends official American combat action in Southeast Asia.  

  1979:    The last ANG C-121 type aircraft, an EC-121 “Coronet Solo” operated by the 193d Tactical Electronic Warfare Squadron (Pennsylvania), retires from service and is flown to the Military Aircraft Storage and Disposition Center

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.