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

July 15: The Boeing 707, the first U.S. jet-powered airliner, made its first
flight near Seattle, Washington, with Boeing pilot A. M. “Tex” Johnston
at the controls. This aircraft revolutionized commercial aviation,
replacing slower propeller-driven airliners, and became the prototype
of the C–135 transport and KC–135 tanker, the latter designed to
refuel the new B–47 and B–52 jet bombers.
July 26: Lt. Gen. Hubert R. Harmon was appointed the first superintendent
of the Air Force Academy.
August 6–7: Two B–47 Stratojets assigned to the 308th Bombardment Wing
flew a 10,000-mile nonstop flight from Hunter Air Force Base, Georgia,
to French Morocco and back. The 308th Bombardment Wing won
the Mackay Trophy for this flight. During the same period, two B–47
Stratojet wings assigned to the 38th Air Division departed Hunter Air
Force Base, flew a simulated bombing mission, and recovered in
French Morocco, demonstrating the capability of strategic bombers to
operate from forward bases.
October 27: Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., became the first black general officer in
the Air Force. He had served as commander of the 332d Fighter
Group, the “Tuskegee Airmen”—the first fighter group that included
black pilots.
November 1: The B–29 Superfortress, the aircraft famed for having
dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, was withdrawn
from the inventory after fewer than 12 years of service.
December 10: In a rocket-propelled sled run, Col. John P. Stapp, USAF,
attained a speed of 632 miles per hour and sustained greater G forces
than humans had ever endured in recorded deceleration tests—the
equivalent of Mach 1.7 at 35,000 feet. The test determined that
humans could survive ejection from aircraft at supersonic speeds.
1955
1954–55
February 26: George Smith, a North American Aviation test pilot, ejected
from an F–100 Super Sabre traveling at Mach 1.05, becoming the first
person to survive ejection from an aircraft flying at supersonic speed.
April 6: The Air Force launched an air-to-air guided missile with an atomic
warhead from a B–36 Peacemaker bomber to produce a nuclear explosion
some six miles above Yucca Flat, Nevada—the highest known altitude
of any nuclear blast.
June 29: The Boeing Aircraft Company delivered the first B–52 Stratofortress
to enter USAF operational service to the 93d Bombardment Wing at Cas-
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