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

1959
June 3: The Air Force Academy graduated its first class. Of the 207 graduates,
205 were commissioned as regular USAF officers.
June 8: Scott Crossfield piloted an experimental X–15 rocket airplane on its
first flight, a nonpowered glide from a B–52. Designed for speeds up
to 4,000 miles per hour and altitudes up to 100 miles, the X–15 could
reach the edge of outer space.
The X–15’s 199 flights between 1960 and 1968 provided research data that influenced
the design of the space shuttle.
June 28: A Soviet Tu–114, then the largest passenger aircraft in the world,
completed the first nonstop flight from Moscow to New York, a distance
of 5,092 miles, in 11 hours, six minutes.
August 7: Explorer 6, a U.S. satellite, transmitted the first television pictures
from outer space. The first intercontinental relay of a voice message by
satellite also took place. The voice was that of Maj. Robert G. Mathis,
USAF.
September 9: A Strategic Air Command crew fired an Atlas intercontinental
ballistic missile from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California—the first
firing of the missile from the west coast. The missile traveled 4,300
miles at 16,000 miles per hour. After this shot, Gen. Thomas S. Power,
commander of Strategic Air Command, declared the Atlas system
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