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

1955–56
78
tle Air Force Base, California. The B–52 became—and continues to be—
an important part of the Air Force’s strategic bomber inventory.
The Boeing B–52 eight-engine bomber, designed to drop nuclear weapons from high
altitude, was used as a conventional bomber in Vietnam in the 1960s and 1970s
and in Southwest Asia in 1991, 2001, and 2002.
July 11: The Air Force Academy admitted its first class, 306 cadets, at Lowry
Air Force Base, Colorado—a temporary location until it could move to
Colorado Springs.
August 4: Captured on January 13, 1953, crew members of a special operations
B–29 called Stardust 40 were released by China. They were held
longer than any other prisoners of war during the Korean conflict.
August 20: Col. Horace A. Hanes, USAF, flying an F–100 Super Sabre over
the Mojave Desert, established a new speed record of 822.135 miles
per hour. Colonel Hanes, director of flight testing, Air Force Flight
Test Center, Edwards Air Force Base, California, received the Mackay
Trophy for this record-breaking flight.
1956
January 17: The Defense Department revealed the existence of SAGE (semiautomatic
ground environment)—an automated, electronic airdefense
system. Its radar transmitted data rapidly via telephone lines
to direction/combat centers, where large computers processed the
information for interception aircraft.
May 21: At an altitude of 50,000 feet, a B–52 Stratofortress bomber piloted
by Maj. David Crichlow, USAF, dropped the first airborne hydrogen
bomb, which exploded on Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean during
Operation REDWING.