On This Day in History

1947:  President Truman signs the National Security Act, which establishes the Department of Defense, the National Security Council, the CIA, and the US Air Force.

1946: Operation CROSSROADS.  USAAF Task Group 1.5 conducts 2nd phase this test grouping, Test Baker, bursting A-bomb underwater off Bikini Island.

1950:  The first missile launches from the Joint Long Range Proving Grounds at Cape Canaveral down the Atlantic Missile Range. It had a German V-2 as its first stage and a WAC Corporal as a

1994: The last F-16 leaves the 86th Fighter Wing at Ramstein AB for Aviano AB, Italy, ending USAFE fighter operations at Ramstein.

1969: APOLLO XI. Astronauts Neil A. Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, Jr., fly lunar module Eagle to the Sea of Tranquility.

  1941: Capt Benjamin O. Davis reports to the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama with 12 African-American aviation cadets to begin flight training.

1950:   The 19th Bomb Group begins modifying a few B-29s to use radio-guided (Razon) bombs, to bomb bridges more accurately.

1962: Maj Robert White flies X-15 No. 3 with the XLR-99 rocket engine on the first spaceflight by a manned aircraft: Altitude 58.7 miles (314,750 ft.), speed in excess of Mach 6 (3,784 mph).

   1974: Gen Carl “Tooey” Spaatz, the first Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force, dies at Walter Reed General Hospital at age 83.

1921: During July Brig Gen Billy Mitchell’s bombers sink several capital ships off Virginia to prove this capability of un-apposed aircraft.