This Day in Air and Space History

  1970:    MACKAY TROPHY. An AC-119K gunship attacks a heavily defended road section in SEA. Despite losing 15 feet of the aircraft’s right wing and an aileron, the crew destroys three enemy supply trucks and

  1945:    The German High Command surrenders unconditionally at Reims, effective 9 May. Air Transport Command begins Projects Green and White, for personnel and aircraft, respectively, to move c. 250,000 people and 5,900 aircraft from

2006:   The last operational C-141 Starlifter (Tail No. 66-0177) lands at Wright Field for donation to the National Museum of the USAF. The landing ends 42 years of C-141 ops in the active-duty USAF, ANG,

  1965:    The Early Bird satellite goes into operation as a public communications facility by shuttling TV programs across the North Atlantic.

    1960:    Soviet air defenses shoot down a U-2 flying from Pakistan to Norway, capturing CIA pilot Francis Gary Powers.

  1917:    In World War I, Maj William “Billy” Mitchell becomes the first American officer to fly over the German lines, as an observer in a French aircraft.

Operation FREQUENT WIND. Through 30 April, USAF, Marine, and Navy helicopters airlift 6,000-plus people in the final evacuation of Saigon. This was the first major operation involving flights of USAF helicopters from an aircraft carrier,

  1966:    F-4C crew Major Paul Gilmore and 1Lt William Smith shoot down a MiG-21 over North Vietnam, the first to be destroyed in combat.

  1967:    Maj Gen Benjamin D. Foulois dies at Andrews AFB at the age of 87. He was the first person to fly an Army dirigible; first military observer on a cross-country flight, with Orville