On This Day in History

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.

1918: Raoul G. Lufbery, who posted 17 aerial victories with Lafayette Escadrille before joining American forces, dies in aerial combat.

1947:  Over New York, 101 B-29s “theoretically” drop bombs in SAC’s first Maximum Effort mission.            

LAST MERCURY FLIGHT. After 22-orbits around earth, Maj L. Gordon Cooper ends a 34-hour, 20-minute flight in Mercury capsule Faith 7 before landing in the Pacific, 80 miles southeast of Midway Island. He was the

  1949: BERLIN AIRLIFT ENDS. The Soviet Union ends the blockade after delivery of 2,325,510 tons on 277,569 missions.

1964: Jackie Cochran becomes 1st woman to fly more than Mach 2, 1,429 MPH in an F-104G at Edwards AFB.

1942:  The carrier USS Ranger, off the African Gold Coast, launches 60 USAAF P-40s to Accra.