Archives: Today in History

8 April 1945: Wee Willie, a Flying Fortress heavy bomber, left its base at Air Force Station 121 (RAF Bassingbourne, Cambridgeshire, England), on its 129th combat mission over western Europe. The aircraft commander was 1st Lieutenant Robert E. Fuller, U.S. Army Air Forces. The 322nd Bombardment Squadron was part of an attack against the locomotive repair facilities […]

7 April 1961 –  The B-52B Ciudad Juarez (named in honor of El Paso’s sister city across the Rio Grande) took off on a practice mission to provide a target for two F-100A’s piloted by 1LT James van Scyoc and Cpt. Dale Dodd both from the 188th NMANG. The Huns started their run at the

6 April 1959: At Edwards Air Force Base, in the high desert of southern California, Colonel Edward Hamilton Taylor, United States Air Force, set a Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) World Record for Speed Over a 1000 Kilometer Course of 1,126.62 kilometers per hour (700.05 miles per hour),¹ flying a McDonnell RF-101C-75-MC Voodoo, serial number 56-0119.