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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1957<br />
July 1: <strong>The</strong> first intercontinental ballistic missile wing, the 704th Strategic<br />
Missile Wing, activated at Cooke (later, Vandenberg) <strong>Air</strong> Force Base,<br />
California.<br />
July 31: <strong>The</strong> distant early warning line, a string <strong>of</strong> radar installations extending<br />
across the Canadian Arctic to warn <strong>of</strong> impending aircraft attacks,<br />
was declared fully operational.<br />
August 1: <strong>The</strong> North American <strong>Air</strong> Defense Command, a joint United<br />
States–Canadian command with an air-defense mission, was informally<br />
established. An agreement ratified on May 12, 1958, formalized its<br />
existence.<br />
August 15: Gen. Nathan F. Twining became the first <strong>USAF</strong> <strong>of</strong>ficer to serve as<br />
chairman <strong>of</strong> the Joint Chiefs <strong>of</strong> Staff.<br />
October 4: <strong>The</strong> Soviet Union used an intercontinental ballistic missile<br />
booster to launch Sputnik I, the world’s first artificial space satellite,<br />
into Earth orbit.<br />
October 16: <strong>The</strong> <strong>Air</strong> Force successfully launched an Aerobee rocket to a<br />
height <strong>of</strong> 35 miles, where its nose cone separated and traveled to a<br />
height <strong>of</strong> 54 miles. At this point, shaped charges blasted pellets into<br />
space at a speed <strong>of</strong> 33,000 miles per hour, surpassing by 8,000 miles<br />
per hour the speed necessary to escape from Earth’s gravity.<br />
October 22: In Operation FAR SIDE, a four-stage, 10-engine, solid-propellant<br />
rocket, fired from a balloon at 100,000 feet above Eniwetok, penetrated<br />
at least 2,700 miles into outer space, boosting a scientificresearch<br />
capsule.<br />
November 3: A dog named Laika became the first animal to be launched<br />
into Earth orbit, carried al<strong>of</strong>t in a Soviet spacecraft called Sputnik II.<br />
November 29: Gen. Thomas D. White, <strong>USAF</strong> chief <strong>of</strong> staff, announced the<br />
assignment <strong>of</strong> the intercontinental and intermediate-range ballistic<br />
missile programs to Strategic <strong>Air</strong> Command and transferred the 1st<br />
Missile Division to that command.<br />
December 6: <strong>The</strong> first U.S. attempt to launch a satellite into orbit failed<br />
when the Navy’s Vanguard rocket exploded on its launch platform.<br />
December 15: <strong>The</strong> 556th Strategic Missile Squadron, the first SM–62 Snark<br />
operational squadron, activated at Patrick <strong>Air</strong> Force Base, Florida. An<br />
air-breathing jet cruise missile equipped with two rockets for launch,<br />
the Snark was essentially a pilotless airplane with a warhead.<br />
December 17: <strong>The</strong> <strong>Air</strong> Force first test-launched an Atlas intercontinental<br />
ballistic missile. Its reentry vehicle landed in the target area after a<br />
flight <strong>of</strong> some 500 miles.<br />
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