Bryce Poe pilots an RF-80A on the first USAF combat jet reconnaissance sortie in Korea. USAF aircraft fly first strikes of the war, attacking tanks, trucks, and supply columns along the North Korean invasion route. Carl Fraser, destroys a Yak-11 near Seoul.

Flying a North American F-82 Twin Mustang, USAF Lt. President Truman announces he has ordered USAF and USN forces to aid South Korea, which has been invaded by North Korean Communist forces. The first Air Force aircraft destroyed in the conflict is a Douglas C-54 that is strafed on the ground at Kimpo AB, South Korea, by a pair of North Korean Yak fighter pilots. North Korea attacks South Korea to begin Korean War. The aircraft would later be christened Thunderstreak. “Bud” Haas makes the first flight of the Republic XF-96A, the swept wing variant of the F-84 Thunderjet, at Edwards AFB, Calif. Finletter becomes Secretary of the Air Force. The Neptune is flown off USS Coral Sea (CV-43).Īpril 24, 1950. Starkey, a Lockheed P2V-3C Neptune weighing 74,668 pounds becomes the heaviest aircraft ever launched from an aircraft carrier. The Joint Chiefs of Staff, in a statement of basic roles and missions, give the Air Force formal and exclusive responsibility for strategic guided missiles.Īpril 21, 1950. The top scoring North Vietnamese ace, Colonel Toon (which some sources list as “Tomb”), records thirteen aerial victories while flying MiG-17s. It is an aerodynamically refined version of the MiG-15 and fitted with an. The prototype of the MiG-17 (NATO reporting name “Fresco”) fighter makes its first flight at the Soviet flight test center at Zhukovsky. President Truman announces that he has directed the Atomic Energy Commission “to continue its work on all forms of atomic-energy weapons, including the so-called hydrogen or super bomb.” This is the first confirmation of US H-bomb work.įeb. In 1961 ARDC will be redesignated Air Force Systems Command. USAF establishes Research and Development Command, eight months later it was redesignated Air Research and Development Command. “Hap” Arnold dies of a heart ailment at Sonoma, Calif.

Canberra bomber crew positions