Air Force Historical Foundation on LinkedIn: 1943: The crew of the B-17F Flying Fortress Memphis Belle completes 25… (2024)

Armed Forces Day

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1969: Through 26 May Apollo 10, the first lunar orbital mission—including LEM operations—using a complete Apollo spacecraft, launched from Kennedy Space Center on a Saturn V with Col Thomas Stafford (USAF), Capt. John Young (USN), and Cmdr. Eugene Cernan (USN) aboard. They splashed down eight days later in the Pacific.Thomas Patten Stafford (September 17, 1930 – March 18, 2024) was an American Air Force officer, test pilot, and NASA astronaut, and one of 24 astronauts who flew to the Moon. He also served as Chief of the Astronaut Office from 1969 to 1971. After graduating from the United States Naval Academy, Stafford was commissioned in the United States Air Force, flying the F-86 Sabre before becoming a test pilot. He was selected to become an astronaut in 1962 and flew aboard Gemini 6A in 1965 and Gemini 9A in 1966. In 1969, he commanded Apollo 10, the second crewed mission to orbit the Moon. Here, he and Gene Cernan became the first to fly an Apollo Lunar Module in lunar orbit, descending to an altitude of nine miles.Thomas Stafford died 18 March this year at the age of 93.

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1958: Captain Walter Irwin sets a new absolute speed record piloting a Lockheed F-104A (#55-2969) Starfighter to an average speed of 1,404.012 miles per hour surpassing the previous F.A.I. record.

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1963: Launched into orbit this date, after 22-orbits around the earth, Maj L. Gordon Cooper, USAF, ended a 34-hour, 20-minute flight in Mercury capsule Faith 7 before landing in the Pacific, 80 miles southeast of Midway Island. He was the first American to orbit for more than one day and the last pilot in the Mercury series.

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1918: U.S. Army pilots establish a permanent airmail route between Washington, D.C., and New York City. It is the first such permanent airmail route sponsored by the government. The mail route is covered by a fleet of seven Curtiss JN-4H Jenny biplanes.

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1973: From Kennedy Space Center, a two-stage Saturn V launched Skylab 1 into orbit, where its two Solar Array System wings failed to deploy. The Skylab was America's first manned orbiting space station.

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1911: Lieutenants Henry H. Arnold (standing) and Thomas DeWitt Milling (seated) completed their training at Simms Station, Dayton, to become the first Army pilots to graduate from the Wright School.

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1961: Flying a Convair B-58 Hustler, Maj Elmer Murphy, Maj Eugene Moses, and 1Lt David Dickerson averaged 1302.07 mph for the prerequisite 30 minutes over a 669.4 miles course, guided by their AN/ASQ-42V system. This gave the USAF permanent possession of the Bleriot Cup given by the Aero Club of France. (USAF Art Program)

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1978: McDonnell Douglas delivered the 5,000th F-4 Phantom built to the Air Force.

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