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

1945–46
August 14: Twentieth Air Force launched the final B–29 missions against
Japan, mining waters around that country and bombing six cities with
conventional weapons. By midnight, the Japanese had agreed to surrender,
persuaded by a combination of the atomic bomb attacks, continued
incendiary bombing, mining operations, and a Soviet declaration
of war.
August 27: Twentieth Air Force B–29s completed their first supply-dropping
mission to Allied prisoners of war at Weihsien camp near Peiping,
China.
September 2: The Japanese officially surrendered to the Allied powers on
board the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay in a formal signing ceremony (V-J
day).
October 11: At White Sands Proving Ground in New Mexico, the Army
launched for the first time a U.S.-made ballistic missile—a Tiny Tim
booster with a WAC (without altitude control) Corporal rocket, which
reached an altitude of 43 miles.
October 24: An American Airlines aircraft completed a flight from New
York to Hurn Airfield, England—the first land-plane commercial
flight from North America to Europe.
November 29: The Army Air Forces School, formerly the Army Air Forces
School of Applied Tactics, moved from Orlando, Florida, to Maxwell
Field, Alabama, and was assigned directly to the Army Air Forces as a
major command. It later became Air University.
December 3: The 412th Fighter Group received its first P–80 aircraft at
March Field, California, becoming the first Army Air Forces fighter
unit equipped with jet-propelled aircraft.
1946
March 1: Gen. Carl A. Spaatz replaced General of the Army Henry H.
Arnold as commanding general, Army Air Forces. Spaatz had been acting
commander since February 9, while General Arnold prepared to
retire.
March 8: The Civil Aviation Authority granted the first commercial license
for a helicopter, the two-seat Bell Model 47.
March 12: The Army Air Forces School at Maxwell Field, Alabama, was
redesignated Air University, with jurisdiction over an Air Command
and Staff School, an Air War College, and four bases.
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