One Hundred Years of Flight USAF Chronology ... - The Air University

1971–72
nonstop flight, at times attaining speeds in excess of Mach 3. For this
flight, the crew received the Mackay Trophy.
June 16–July 18: In Operation BONNY JACK, USAF transports airlifted
some 23,000 refugees from Tripura province in India, to which they
had fled from civil war in East Pakistan, to resettlement areas in
Gauhati province in another part of India. The C–130s and C–141s
also delivered more than 2,000 tons of food, medical supplies, and
other relief cargo to the refugees.
July 16: Jeanne M. Holm, director of Women of the Air Force, was promoted
to brigadier general, becoming the first woman general in the Air Force.
July 23: Hughes Aircraft Company was awarded a $70 million contract to
build 2,000 Maverick (AGM–65A) air-to-surface missiles for use on
F–4E and A–7D aircraft.
July 26: With an all-USAF crew composed of Col. David R. Scott, Lt. Col.
James B. Irwin, and Maj. Alfred M. Worden, Apollo 15 blasted off from
Cape Kennedy, Florida. The mission was the first to use a vehicle called
a lunar rover on the surface of the Moon.
July 29: The Air Force completed its flight tests of the experimental X–24A
lifting body. Data from these tests contributed to the development of
the National Aeronautics and Space Administration space shuttle.
1972
February 17: Air Force One, a VC–137 Stratoliner aircraft belonging to the
89th Military Airlift Wing, departed Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland,
carrying President Richard M. Nixon and his wife on their historic
trip to China to meet with Mao Tse-tung and Chinese premier
Chou En-lai. This was the first time a U.S. president had visited China,
and it marked a new relationship between two countries that had been
Cold War enemies since 1949.
April 7–May 13: In Operation CONSTANT GUARD, the Air Force deployed
12 squadrons and 200 aircraft from the United States to Southeast Asia
to blunt a full-scale North Vietnamese invasion of South Vietnam.
April 27: Four USAF fighter crews, releasing Paveway I laser-guided “smart”
bombs, knocked down the Thanh Hoa bridge in North Vietnam. Previously,
871 conventional sorties had resulted in only superficial damage
to the bridge.
May 5: The Air Force’s sea-launched ballistic-missile detection and warning
system—Pave Phased Array Warning System (PAWS)—achieved initial
operational capability.
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