On This Day in History

1944:  Operation OVERLORD. Through 6 June, the IX Troop Carrier Command uses 1,400 C-47s, C-53s, and gliders to drop 13,000 Allied paratroopers on Normandy.

1934:  Army Air Corps airmail operations end after 57 crashes and 12 fatalities.

  1912: Wilbur Wright dies of typhoid fever at the age of 45 at Dayton.

  1966: The ARRS observes its 20th anniversary. In this period, the ARRS rescued more than 12,000 people throughout the world.

  1956: First flight of Republic’s production model YF-105B, later named the Thunderchief.

1927: Lt James H. Doolittle performs the first known successful outside loop.

1960: Midas II launches on an Atlas-Agena A rocket into an orbit expected to last 40 months. On 26 May, its telemetry system fails.

  1968:     433 TFS Satan’s Angels use a Paveway Laser Guided Bomb (LGB) in combat for the first time. Modified F-4Ds fitted with laser illuminators, designate the target.

McDonnell Douglas pilot Larry Walker and Maj Erwin Jenschke land the NF-15B STOL Maneuvering Technology Demonstrator in 1,650 feet at Edwards AFB. The Pratt and Whitney two-dimensional, thrust-reversing engine nozzles were used to stop the aircraft.