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dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, was withdrawn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