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

1989
1989
March 27: Military Airlift Command began transporting more than 1,000
tons of equipment and supplies to Alaska to help clean up a 10-million-gallon
oil spill from the tanker Exxon Valdez.
May 4–8: For the first time, a space-shuttle flight launched an interplanetary
spacecraft, the Magellan Venus Radar Mapper, which then ignited its
own boosters for the trip to Venus.
May 13–18: In Operation NIMROD DANCER, U.S. troops deployed with
USAF airlift support to the Canal Zone because of an increasing threat
to U.S. personnel in Panama.
June 10: Capt. Jacquelyn S. Parker, USAF, became the first woman to graduate
from the Air Force Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base,
California.
June 14: On its first launch, the Martin Marietta Titan IV heavy-lift booster,
nearly 20 stories tall, successfully lifted a Defense Department satellite
into orbit.
July 6: The last Pershing ballistic missile was destroyed according to terms of
the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.
August 24: The space probe Voyager 2 left the solar system after a 12-year
journey.
September 21–November 15: Scores of USAF aircraft transported 4,330 tons
of relief equipment and supplies to the victims of Hurricane Hugo in
the Caribbean Sea and South Carolina. The airplanes also airlifted
some 2,000 passengers, including evacuees and medical and engineering
personnel, during the emergency.
October 4: B–1B crew members of the 96th Bombardment Wing at Dyess
Air Force Base, Texas, landed their aircraft successfully despite a
retracted landing gear in the nose. No aircrew member was injured,
and the airplane suffered only minimal damage. For this feat, the crew
earned the Mackay Trophy for 1989.
October 4: A 60th Military Airlift Wing crew landed a C–5B Galaxy in
Antarctica for the first time. With a load of 72 passengers and 84 tons
of cargo, including two fully assembled Bell UH–1N helicopters, the
huge aircraft landed without skis at McMurdo Station.
December 14: For the first time, women assumed USAF combat-crew roles
as they began to serve on C–130 and C–141 airdrop missions.
December 17–February 14, 1990: In Operation JUST CAUSE, USAF aircraft
hit military targets, airlifted troops, and flew special operations to
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