On This Day in History

1955:    The Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker flies its maiden flight.

1942:    The VIII Bomber Command loses its first aircraft in combat when two B-17s fail to return from a strike on the Avions Potez aircraft plant at Meaulte, France.

1958:    Operation X-RAY TANGO. For rapid deployment of the Composite Air Strike Force in the Quemoy/Matsu Crisis, TAC receives a Mackay Trophy.

1952:   KOREAN WAR/SORTIE RECORD. Far East Air Forces fighter-bombers set a new 24-hour record by sending 854 Fifth Air Force sorties against Pyongyang, N. Korea.

1942:    The War Department directs the Air Transport Command to provide aircraft and equipment to evacuate sick and wounded American servicemen and women throughout the world.

1987:       Col (Dr.) Thomas J. Tredici retires at Brooks AFB, the last remaining B-17 pilot from World War II to leave active duty.

1970:      Two HH-53s complete 1st nonstop transpacific helicopter flight as they land at Da Nang AB, South Vietnam, after a 9,000-mile flight from Eglin AFB, FL.

1954:    Lockheed pilots Stanley Beltz and Roy Wimmer fly the Hercules YC-130 transport on its first flight.

1923:    Lt Harold R. Harris (pilot) and Lt Muir Fairchild (copilot) fly the XNBL-1 Barling Bomber, the Army’s first long-range night bomber, in its first flight at Wright Field.

1923: The first airways lighting occurs when 18- and 36-inch electric arc beacons are used to light 42 landing fields between Chicago and Cheyenne. They were visible for 50 miles.