This Day in Air and Space History

  1980:    Operation EAGLE CLAW. The attempt to rescue American hostages in Iran fails. A Navy RH-53 hovers into an Air Force EC-130 in a sandstorm, killing eight.

  1991:    Secretary of the Air Force Donald B. Rice announces the winner of the Advanced Tactical Fighter competition. He selects the Lockheed/Boeing/General Dynamics F-22 with the Pratt and Whitney F-119 engine.

  1981:    The 81st Tactical Fighter Wing, an A-10 Wing at RAF Bentwaters, UK,  sets a USAF record by generating 533 sorties in a single day.

1995:    OKLAHOMA CITY BOMBING. A powerful car bomb levels a federal building in Oklahoma City, killing 169 and wounding 400 people. USAF airlifts firefighters, search and rescue teams, investigators, and medical personnel to Oklahoma. Units

1942:    From the carrier USS Hornet, located 668 miles off Tokyo, Lt Col James H. Doolittle leads 16 B-25s in the first raid on Japan. The range of the mission causes most of the raiders

  1998:    The 20th Special Operations Squadron at Hurlburt Field, FL receives the Air Force’s first production-modified MH-53J Pave Low III helicopter from Lockheed Martin.

  1949:    BERLIN AIRLIFT’S BIGGEST DAY. Military aircraft deliver a record 12,940 tons of supplies to Berlin in 1,398 flights within 24 hours.

  1941:    Igor Sikorsky flies a Vought-Sikorsky in the first officially recorded rotor helicopter flight in the western hemisphere, flying for 1 hour 5 minutes 14.5 seconds at Stratford, CT.

  1981: SPACE SHUTTLE’S MAIDEN VOYAGE. The Space Shuttle Columbia launches on the first flight of a reusable spacecraft.

1944: MEDAL OF HONOR. Lt Edward Michael receives medal for saving himself, crew member, and B-17 with successful crash landing. Citation: http://www.cmohs.org/recipient-detail/2890/michael-edward-s.php 1966: MEDAL OF HONOR. Pararescueman A1C William H. Pitsenbarger hoists nine soldiers to