Nov. 23, 2020 A Look Back… NAA B-70 Valkyrie Variants – A Future That Never Was… Like flying cars, human colonies on Mars and so many other futuristic ideas, the 1950’s vision of the tomorrow was filled with grand ideas that are just now coming to fruition.
Oct. 19, 2020 A Look Back…Peacemaker Personnel First flown in August 1946, just one year after the end of WWII, the XB-36 was the largest and heaviest air-craft ever flown at the time. The size, weight and complexity of the aircraft created many new problems to be overcome by the talented engineers and technicians working the program.
Sept. 25, 2020 A look back: Early Air Force Uniforms The following is a look back at the origins of the distinctive USAF uniforms, what organizations oversaw the design and manufacturing and the early transition period of Air Force uniforms worn.
Sept. 2, 2020 Looking Back: Winged Missiles, 1950-1975 The latter part of WWII and beyond saw a significant development in weapons technology. Among them, long range missile development. The Germans proved to the world that they could use the V-1 and V-2 rockets to strike targets from a long distance. After the war, the United States put forth a great
Aug. 10, 2020 No longer stealth: F-117A can be seen at Hill Aerospace Museum The Lockheed F-117A is possibly the rarest Air Force aircraft with only 64 ever produced and the Hill Aerospace Museum recently became the new home of one.
Aug. 6, 2020 Flashback: The 1924 International Air Races In Rheims, France, six years after the Wright Brothers’ first flight, the world’s first air meet took place where prizes were awarded for various events such as highest altitude reached, longest flight, most passengers carried, and the fastest one, two, and three laps over a set 10-kilometer course.
June 30, 2020 History in Two: Early Beginnings to Privatized Housing Prior to the Military Housing Privatization Initiative that took place in Fiscal Year 1996, several privatization efforts were undertaken by the DoD – Wherry and Capehart acts in the late 1940s through to the 1950s – to provide family housing for our military members. Following World War II,
May 18, 2020 Flashback: The Navaho Missile: Part 2 Note: This is part two of a series on the Navaho Missile. Part one can be viewed at The Navaho Missile: Part 1.As Phase 1 testing of the X-10 Program came to an end, the flight test portion for Phase 2 began to ramp up at the Air Force Missile Test Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida. From the
April 17, 2020 78th anniversary of the Doolittle Raid April 18 marks the 78th anniversary of the Doolittle Raid, in which Lt. Col. James H. Doolittle, U.S. Army Air Forces, and Vice Adm. William F. Halsey Jr., U.S. Navy, led a joint bombing operation on the Japanese mainland aimed to inflict both material and psychological damage upon the enemy
April 15, 2020 Looking Back to…the First Around the World Flight “A Look Back” is a product produced by the Headquarters, Air Force Materiel Command History Office that provides a photographic essay of a particular topic.