CHRONOLOGY AMERICAN AEROSPACE EVENTS HAROLD “PHIL” MYERS CHIEF HISTORIAN AIR FORCE INTELLIGENCE, SURVEILLANCE, AND RECONNAISSANCE AGENCY LACKLAND AFB, TEXAS 23 February 2009 EVOLUTION OF A CHRONOLOGY In 1981, as an Air Force enlisted historian, I worked for the Research Division of the Air Force Historical Research Agency (then Albert F. Simpson Historical Center) at Maxwell AFB, Al. For the next two years, I answered inquiries and conducted the Historian’s Development Course. While there I discovered a real “nugget,” A Chronology of American Aerospace Events from 1903-1974, gathering dust on an obscure shelf. I knew the draft document would be a handy reference for all enlisted field historians. In 1983, I took a copy of this chronology with me on my next assignment with the 39th Tactical Group in Turkey. The chronology proved to be an invaluable source in promoting Air Force history. It allowed me to prepare “Today in Aerospace History” slides for weekly staff meetings and write a weekly “Aerospace Highlights” column for the base newspaper. But at that time, the chronology was arranged by year and date, and it took considerable time to find events by specific dates. In 1985, I moved to the Ballistic Missile Office at Norton AFB, California, to write about the Peacekeeper and Small ICBM programs. The introduction of computers allowed me to convert the original chronology into a “By Date” product. I knew that the chronology was not an all inclusive listing, so I began to integrate events from other works—like the Development of Strategic Air Command, 1946-1986, The SAC Missile Chronology, and The Military Airlift Command Historical Handbook, 1941-1986—into an electronic product. This incorporation process has grown to include 32 different chronologies. I also began indexing all entries and began to add events selectively in categories of firsts, lasts, and other significant accomplishments. I kept adding to my aerospace chronology over the years. During my first civilian assignment as the historian for Eighth Air Force at Barksdale AFB, I started a third section for organizational and personnel events. E-mail allowed me to send daily history notes, which brought further attention to the chronology and Air Force History Program. This e-mail endeavor then led commanders to request daily highlights for their speeches and special presentations. Since my assignment to the Office of History in 2004, I have loaded my chronology on the Air Force History Office portal page to make it accessible to Air Force Historians and Air Force personnel in general. My chronology is now being used by the National Museum of the Air Force to present Today in Air and Space History to its many visitors and by several Air Force schools and ROTC programs to make their students aware of Air Force history. My chronology will remain a work in progress, as I continue to provide corrections and incorporate new events. Thank you, Phil Myers AMERICAN AEROSPACE EVENTS FIRSTS, LASTS, AND SIGNIFICANT ACCOMPLISHMENTS 1 January 1914: Tony Jannus, flying a Benoist Flying Boat, started America’s first regularly scheduled airline service with a flight between Tampa and St. Petersburg, Fla. This service lasted three months with two round trips a day. (5) (21) 1929: KEY EVENT--THE QUESTION MARK. Through 7 January, to test inflight refueling and crew and aircraft endurance, Maj Carl A. Spaatz flew the Question Mark, a modified Fokker C2-3 with a Wright 220 HP engine, to a world duration record of 150 hours and 40 minutes. The Question Mark-named for its unknown capacity to remain airborne-was an US Army Air Corps high-wing, trimotor monoplane with a large capacity fuel tank in the cabin, a large hopper in the cabin for receiving fuel, and lines and hand-operated pumps to transfer fuel to the wing tanks. The two modified Douglas C1 biplane tankers each had two 150-gallon cabin tanks and a 40-foot fueling hose. Flying between Santa Monica and San Diego in California, the tankers refueled the Question Mark 43 times, which allowed it to remain aloft until engine problems forced a landing. During the refueling, the tankers also passed 5,700 gallons of fuel plus oil, food, water, and other items (roughly 40 tons) to the Question Mark. All officers on the mission--Carl Spaatz, Ira Eaker, Harry Halverson, and Pete Quesada--became generals, as did two officers on the refueling aircraft: Ross G. Hoyt and Joseph G. Hopkins. MSgt Roy Hooe, the fifth crewman on the Question Mark, earned a reputation as the best crew chief in the Air Corps. The crewmembers of the Question Mark were each awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) for the mission, while the refuelers received letters of commendation. (18) 1943: Ground Controlled Approach (GCA) equipment used in an emergency for the first time, when a snowstorm closed down Naval Air Station (NAS) Quonset Point Airfield, R. I., 30 minutes be- fore a flight of PBY’s were to arrive. The GCA crew used search radar and the control tower as a relay to talk one PBY into position for a contact landing. Nine days earlier, the GCA had completed its first experimental demonstration. (5) 1944: Project ORDCIT. Cal Tech’s Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory began work on long- range missiles. This project later produced the Army's Private A and Corporal missiles. (6) 1945: Operation HERMANN. 700-800 German fighters surprised Ninth Air Force and 2d Tactical Air Force (RAF) airfields in Belgium and northern France. They destroyed 30 American and 120 RAF planes, but lost 200 planes in the attack. (4) BOMBING IWO JIMA. Through 19 February, Seventh Air Force bombers continued its at- tacks on Iwo Jima in preparation for amphibious landings. The aircraft destroyed buildings and planes and blasted holes in the runways of the island's airfields, but did not affect the 22,000 deeply entrenched troops of Maj Gen Tadamichi Kuribayashi. (17) 1951: KOREAN WAR. When nearly 500,000 Chinese Communist and N. Korean troops launched a new ground offensive, Fifth Air Force responded with an air raid on enemy columns. (28) 1954: At Jacksonville, Fla., the U. S. Navy set up the Air Weapon Systems School. (24) 1958: The USAF moved the 1st Missile Division and the 704th Strategic Missile Wing to Cooke AFB (Vandenberg), Calif. The 704th was the Strategic Air Command’s first ballistic missile wing. The 672d Strategic Missile Squadron also activated there with Thor intermediate range ballistic missiles. (6) 1962: First Titan II units, the 390th Strategic Missile Wing and 570th Strategic Missile Squadron, were activated at Davis-Monthan AFB, Ariz. (6) (12) The Strategic Air Command activated the first model “B” Minuteman I wing, the 44th Strategic Missile Wing, at Ellsworth AFB, S. Dak. (6) AMERICAN AEROSPACE EVENTS FIRSTS, LASTS, AND SIGNIFICANT ACCOMPLISHMENTS 1965: Operation of Synchronus Communications Satellite (SYNCOM) II and SYNCOM III trans- ferred from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to the Department of Defense. The Department of Defense furnished the communications ground stations used to relay trans- missions via the two SYNCOMS for the past two years. SYNCOM III later proved useful in providing communications for Vietnam. (5) The USAF activated the 4200th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing at Beale AFB, Calif., to fly the SR-71. (16) (26) 1966: Air National Guard airlift units started flying about 75 cargo flights a month to Southeast Asia. Additionally, the guard flew about 100-plus flights a month to augment the Military Airlift Command’s global airlift mission. (16) (26) At Tullahoma, Tenn., the Arnold Engineering Development Center established a large rocket facility to operate high-altitude test cells. (16) (26) 1967: The USAF received 140 CV-2 Caribou aircraft from the US Army. This event marked the first time that an entire inventory of an aircraft transferred from one service to another. The aircraft went to Seventh Air Force, which gave the NAF operational control over all fixed wing cargo aircraft in Vietnam. (5) (16) (17) 1969: The 71st Special Operations Squadron, Air Force Reserves, flew the first AC-119 gunship com- bat mission in Vietnam. (16) 1973: At Pease AFB, N. H., the 509th Bombardment Wing became the first FB-111 unit to use opera- tional Short-Range Attack Missiles. (6) 1983: The US Mission Control Center, International Search and Rescue Satellite System, collocated with the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center at Scott AFB, Ill., began 24-hour test operations. Thereafter, mission control recorded worldwide satellite data from emergency electronic trans- missions. (2) 1984: The Military Airlift Command assigned its 375th Aeromedical Airlift Wing to the Twenty-Third Air Force along with the aeromedical evacuation mission, C-9 aircraft, and the operation of Scott AFB, Ill. (2) Space Command assumed resource management responsibilities for the Global Positioning Sys- tem. (26) 1988: The Strategic Air Command its crew assignment policy to permit mixed male/female crews in Minuteman and Peacekeeper launch facilities. The male and females were segregated before. (16) (26) 1995: The Air Force Reserve activated its first KC-135 Stratotanker unit, the 931st Air Refueling Group. (16) 1997: After a seven-year retirement from active service, the SR-71 Blackbird returned to mission ready status. The aircraft and its personnel operated from Edwards AFB, Calif., as a detachment of the 9th Reconnaissance Wing from Beale AFB. (3) 2 January 1933: Orville Wright received the Institute of Aeronautical Sciences’ first honorary fellowship. (24) 1942: Gen Henry H. Arnold established a new Air Force, which later became Eighth Air Force. (4) AMERICAN AEROSPACE EVENTS FIRSTS, LASTS, AND SIGNIFICANT ACCOMPLISHMENTS 1948: In Japan, two USAF P-80 Shooting Stars attained 778 miles per hour with aid of tail winds.