One Hundred Years of Flight USAF Chronology ... - The Air University
One Hundred Years of Flight USAF Chronology ... - The Air University
One Hundred Years of Flight USAF Chronology ... - The Air University
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1968–69<br />
December 31: <strong>The</strong> Tupolev Tu–144 flew for the first time in the Soviet<br />
Union, marking the first flight <strong>of</strong> an airliner designed to operate at<br />
sustained supersonic speed.<br />
1969<br />
January 1: <strong>The</strong> 71st Special Operations Squadron <strong>of</strong> the <strong>Air</strong> Force Reserve<br />
flew the first AC–119 Shadow gunship combat mission in Vietnam.<br />
<strong>The</strong> AC–119’s multiple machine guns could strafe the ground even<br />
more effectively than those <strong>of</strong> its predecessor, the AC–47.<br />
February 9: <strong>The</strong> Boeing Corporation flew its 747 “jumbo jet” aircraft for the<br />
first time. <strong>The</strong> huge airliner could hold 347 passengers.<br />
February 9: <strong>The</strong> free world’s first tactical communications satellite, the<br />
1,600-pound TACSAT 1, blasted into geostationary orbit from the <strong>Air</strong><br />
Force Eastern Test Range, Florida, atop a Titan IIIC launch vehicle.<br />
TACSAT was designed to relay communications among small landmobile,<br />
airborne, or shipborne tactical stations.<br />
February 24: An enemy mortar shell struck an AC–47 gunship on which<br />
A1C John L. Levitow served as loadmaster during a night mission in<br />
support <strong>of</strong> a South Vietnamese army post. Although seriously<br />
wounded and stunned, <strong>Air</strong>man Levitow flung himself on a smoking<br />
magnesium flare that was rolling in the cargo compartment, dragged<br />
it to an open cargo door, and threw it out <strong>of</strong> the aircraft. Almost immediately<br />
the flare ignited. For this selfless heroism, Levitow became the<br />
fourth enlisted airman to win the Medal <strong>of</strong> Honor and the only<br />
enlisted airman to win the nation’s highest military honor in Vietnam.<br />
March 2: <strong>The</strong> Anglo-French Concorde—the first Western airliner designed<br />
to fly at supersonic speed—flew for the first time from Toulouse,<br />
France.<br />
April 4–10: <strong>The</strong> 49th Tactical Fighter Wing redeployed its 72 F–4D aircraft<br />
from Spangdahlem <strong>Air</strong> Base, Germany, to Holloman <strong>Air</strong> Force Base,<br />
New Mexico, conducting 504 successful aerial refuelings. For this feat,<br />
the wing received the Mackay Trophy.<br />
May 14: Operation COMBAT MOSQUITO began. During the operation,<br />
two C–141 flights airlifted 50 tons <strong>of</strong> insecticide to Ecuador to combat<br />
an encephalitis epidemic there, and two UC–123s sprayed the insecticide<br />
over that country’s coastal marshes. By the end <strong>of</strong> May, the operation<br />
had exterminated up to 95 percent <strong>of</strong> the area’s mosquitoes.<br />
June 10: <strong>Air</strong> Force Systems Command presented its number-one X–15 hypersonic,<br />
rocket-powered manned research aircraft to the Smithsonian Institution,<br />
Washington, D.C., for display with other historic aircraft.<br />
106