On This Day in History

  1975: Dr. John L. McLucas, Secretary of the Air Force, selects the General Dynamics’ YF-16 Fight­ing Falcon over Northrop’s YF-17 as the USAF’s lightweight air combat fighter. The U. S. Navy later develops the […]

  1939: President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Congress to expand the Army Air Corps to a force of 5,500 planes, 3,203 officers, and 45,000 men in response to world political conditions.

1944: MEDAL OF HONOR. In a bombing mission to Oschersleben, Germany, Lt Col James H. Howard was leading a P-51 fighter escort group when numerous German fighters attacked. Not waiting for his group to reassemble,

1994: MACKAY TROPHY. An HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopter from the 56th Rescue Squadron at Keflavik, Iceland, rescues six sailors from a damaged tugboat off the Icelandic coast. For this effort, the crew earns the 1994

2005:   Colonel Joseph Lanni, the 412th Test Wing Commander at Edwards AFB, delivers an F/A-22 Raptor to Langley AFB, VA. That Raptor, the fifth built, forms the nucleus of the first operational F-22 squadron. (Stock

1965: The General Dynamics F-111A demonstrates the ability to fly with its wings swept back in an early test flight.

1972: President Richard M. Nixon announces his decision to develop a Space Shuttle system.

1994: Operation PROVIDE PROMISE. USAF forms a C-130 “Delta Squadron” under the 435th Airlift Wing at Rhein-Main Air Base, Germany, with Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard assets. The squadron joins the effort to

1966:  The No. 2 XB-70 flies for 3 minutes at 70,000 feet over Edwards AFB, CA for the first time. (Photo date unknown)

    1963: President Johnson approves the U-2 flights over SEA. The first Strategic Air Command U-2s arrive in the Far East in early February 1964.