On This Day in History

  1944: While escorting B-17s on a Ploesti raid, 52nd Fighter Group downs 12 enemy aircraft for 102 aerial victories in 30 days. This becomes a  US record never equaled in Europe.  

1944: After the second Operation FRANTIC raid, the Luftwaffe attacks B-17s at Poltava, destroying 47 and damaging 19 more.

1954:  USAF creates a Western Development Division under Brig Gen Bernard A. Schriever to accelerate the Atlas ICBM program.

1923:  The Army’s first all-metal airplane, the Gallaudet CO-1, Liberty 400, makes its first flight. The Air Service engineering division designed the aircraft.

  1944: BATTLE OF THE PHILIPPINE SEA. Through 20 June, American pilots shoot down 476 Japanese aircraft in “The Marianas Turkey Shoot.” The US loses 130 planes.

  1936: Seversky Aircraft receives a contract to build P-35s, the Army’s 1st single-seat fighter with a closed cockpit and retractable landing gear.

1970: A C-130 flies the final Blind Bat flare mission over the Barrel Roll area of Laos, then returns to Naha AB, Japan.

1965: Carl L. Norden, inventor of the Norden bombsight, dies. His device was widely used by American bombers in WW II.

1943: Eighth Air Force loses 26 of 60 bombers in a raid on Kiel, Germany, demonstrating the need for fighter escorts.

1918: The 96th Aero Squadron carries out the first American daylight-bombing mission in World War I from Amanty Airdrome.