On This Day In Aviation History

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On this day in 1954 the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter flew for the first time.

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On this date in 1937 the first Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses entered service with the US Army Air Corps 2nd Bombardment Group.

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On this date in 1945 a Boeing B-29 Superfortress, low on fuel after a raid on Japan, landed on still-embattled Iwo Jima for the first time.

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On this day in 1935 the Supermarine Spitfire flew for the first time.

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On this day in 1943 the Gloster Meteor flew for the first time.

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On this day in 1958 the Yakovlev Yak-28 flew for the first time.

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On this date in 1958 Convair B-58 (serial no. 59-2458) of the 43rd Bombardment Wing set several time and speed records flying between Los Angels and New York. In their heyday Hustlers seemed to set new records every time they took off.

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On this day in 1964 the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25 (NATO reporting name: Foxbat) flew for the first time.

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On this date in 1927 Gordon “Gordo” Cooper was born in Shawnee, Oklahoma. Gordo was one of the original Mercury Seven. He was launched into space on 15 May 1963 aboard the Mercury-Atlas 9 (Faith 7) spacecraft, the last Mercury mission. He orbited the earth 22 times and logged more time in space than all five previous Mercury astronauts combined. Higher, farther, faster, more Gs, and the first American astronaut to sleep not only in orbit but on the launch pad during a countdown. That was Gordo Cooper.

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𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐡 𝐀𝐢𝐫 𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐜𝐞 𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐬 𝟏𝟎𝟒
On this day 104 years ago the Ilmavoimat - Flygvapnet - Finnish Air Force is founded.
The Finnish Air Force is one of the oldest air forces of the world, pre-dates the British RAF (founded as an independent entity on 1 April 1918) and the Swedish Flygvapnet (founded on 1 July 1926). The first steps in the history of Finnish aviation involved Russian aircraft. The Russian military had a number of early designs stationed in the Grand Duchy of Finland, which until the Russian Revolution of 1917 formed part of the Russian Empire. Soon after the Finnish declaration of independence of 6 December 1917, the Finnish Civil War of January to May 1918 broke out, in which the Soviets sided with the Reds – the socialist rebels with ties to Lenin's Bolshevik Party. Finland's White Guard, the Whites, managed to seize a few aircraft from the Soviets but were forced to rely on foreign pilots and aircraft. Sweden refused to send men and materiel, but individual Swedish citizens came to the aid of the Whites. The editor of the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet, Valdemar Langlet, bought a N.A.B. Albatros aircraft from the Nordiska Aviatik A.B. factory with funds gathered by the Finlands vänner (Swedish for 'Friends of Finland') organization. This aircraft, the first to arrive from Sweden, was flown via Haparanda on 25 February 1918 by Swedish pilot John-Allan Hygerth (who on 10 March became the first commander of the Finnish Air Force) and Per Svanbäck. The aircraft made a stop at Kokkola and had to make a forced landing in Jakobstad when its engine broke down. It was later given the Finnish Air Force designation F.2 ("F" coming from the Swedish word "Flygmaskin", meaning "aircraft").