On This Day in History

2003:    AFFTC accelerates dual-door separation testing of the F-117A; results are sent immediately to the OAR and are employed in onset of Op Iraqi Freedom.

2007:    The first MQ-9 Reaper, a newer, larger and stronger version of the MQ-1 Predator Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, arrives at Creech AFB, NV.

1908:    Lt Thomas E. Selfridge’s Red Wing, the first Aerial Experiment Association airplane, makes its first flight at Lake Keuka, Hammondsport, N. Y., with Frederick W. “Casey” Baldwin at the controls.

1956:   Hollywood films “Toward the Unknown” at Edwards AFB. (Lloyd Nolan and William Holden)

1955:   At Great Falls AFB, MT USAF uses the 91 Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron to perform a unique mission: launch and recover aircraft from B-36 bombers.

2003:   President George W. Bush issues an ultimatum giving Saddam Hussein and his sons 48 hours to leave Iraq.

  1942:   The US Army Air School at Tuskegee, AL for black aviators graduates its first class. The five military pilots include Capt Benjamin O. Davis.

1944:   Operation THURSDAY. Through 11 March, allied aircraft and gliders airlift British Army Brig Gen Orde C. Wingate’s Special Force (Chindits) with 9,000 personnel and 1,400 mules and horses from India at night to a

1965:   North Vietnam shoots down Lt Hayden J. Lockhart’s F-100; a week later, he became the first USAF pilot POW in the Vietnam conflict. He is released 12 Feb 73.

  1991:   Thru 30 June, C-5s and C-141s move fire-fighting men and equipment to Kuwait to battle more than 500 burning oil wells set by retreating Iraqi forces.