Archives: Today in History

26 August 1959 – “The White House enters the jet age… pressure from Secretary of State John Dulles (after whom the Capitol’s airport is now named) described “the somewhat shoddy appearance of a US President arriving at international meetings aboard a prop” plane,  while Russian dignitaries flew in aboard jets…(1) “The first presidential jet plane, […]

25 August 1965 – The first Curtiss-Wright X-19A prototype, 62-12197, was destroyed in a crash at the FAA’s National Aviation Facilities Experimental Center, Caldwell, New Jersey, (formerly NAS Atlantic City), when the gearbox failed, followed by loss of propellers. The Curtiss-Wright X-19, company designation Model 200, was an American experimental VTOL tiltrotor quadcopter airplane of the early 1960s. Test pilot James V. Ryan

24 August 1954 – “The pilot of an F-84G-25-RE Thunderjet, 52-3236, dies at the Eglin AFB, Florida base hospital at ~1130 hrs. of injuries sustained earlier in the day when he was ejected from the cockpit of the fighter-bomber as it rolled to a stop after landing at Eglin Auxiliary Field 6, Biancur Field. The