![]() SAC’s Boeing EC-135 Airborne Command Post begins operations. Ballistic Missile Early Warning System radar post at Thule, Greenland, begins regular operations, part of chain of three planned installations to warn of air or missile attacks on North America over an Arctic route.įeb. The aircraft will not officially enter service until the following year, when deliveries to Seymour Johnson AFB, N.C., begin. Tactical Air Command formally accepts the first Republic F-105D Thunderchief all- weather fighter in ceremonies at Nellis AFB, Nev. Warren AFB, Wyo., becomes the first fully operational ICBM squadron. With six Atlas missiles ready to launch, the 564th Strategic Missile Squadron at F. The crew uses two wire hooks trailing from the aircraft’s cargo hold to snag the parachute of the Discoverer XIV imagery capsule over the Pacific.Īug. A USAF crew flying a specially modified Fairchild C-119J Flying Boxcar makes the first successful mid-air retrieval of a then-classified Corona program satellite imagery capsule re-entering the atmosphere. ![]() This the highest jump and longest free fall ever recorded.Īug. Kittinger lands unharmed 13 minutes, 45 seconds after jumping. In the 4.5 minutes between stepping out of the balloon’s open gondola and opening his parachute, he free falls 84,700 feet, reaching a speed of 614 mph. Kittinger Jr., makes the ultimate leap of faith. At an altitude of 102,800 feet over Tularosa, N.M., Air Force Capt. The first US supersonic bomber, the delta-wing aircraft could fly at twice the speed of sound and could be refueled in flight.Īug. The 43rd Bombardment Wing at Carswell AFB, Tex., accepts the first operational B-58 Hustler medium bomber. The first underwater launch of a Lockheed UGM-27 Polaris ballistic missile is successfully carried out from USS George Washington (SSBN-598) off Cape Canaveral Missile Test Annex, Fla.Īug. The last World War II–era B-25 Mitchell medium bomber, a VB-25 staff transport, retires from active Air Force service at Eglin AFB, Fla. This is the greatest distance ever flown by a US ICBM. The Air Force launches from Cape Canaveral Missile Test Annex, Fla., a Convair HGM-16 Atlas ICBM that carries a 1.5-ton payload 9,040 miles to the Indian Ocean. 10, 1962, Powers will be exchanged for Soviet KGB agent Rudolf Abel. The incident creates an international furor, and a superpower summit scheduled for later in the month is canceled. He is captured and later put on trial for espionage. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) pilot Francis Gary Powers, flying a Lockheed U-2 reconnaissance aircraft, is shot down over the Soviet Union near Sverdlovsk. A federal court of appeals upholds a Federal Aviation Administration order that automatically grounds pilots over 60 years old. More than 680 Intruders are built and the type remains in service until 1996.Īpril 22, 1960. It also sees action in Operation Desert Storm in 1991. Later designated the A-6 Intruder, it would carry the brunt of the Navy’s bombing effort in Vietnam. The Grumman A2F-1 attack aircraft prototype makes its first flight at the company’s Calverton, Long Island, NY facility. Project Ozma is initiated at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory at Green Bank, W.Va., to listen for possible signal patterns from outer space other than “natural” noise.Īpril 19, 1960. The RCA-built TIROS 1 (Television Infrared Observation Satellite), the world’s first meteorological satellite, is successfully launched from Cape Canaveral Missile Test Annex, Fla., atop a Thor launch vehicle.Īpril 4, 1960. It will provide a final assembly capability for UGM-27 Polaris sea-launched ballistic missiles and also a capability for loading them on submarines.Īpril 1, 1960. ![]() The Naval Weapons Station Annex at Charleston, S.C., opens. The unit is based at Presque Isle AFB, Maine. The 702nd Strategic Missile Wing, and the first and only USAF unit equipped with the Northrop SM-62 Snark air breathing intercontinental cruise missile, puts its first missile on nuclear alert. ![]() In what is billed as the first known shootdown of a ballistic missile, an Army MIM-23 HAWK anti-aircraft missile downs an unarmed MGR-1 Honest John surface-to-surface unguided rocket. ![]()
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