September 2, 1945. V-J Day. On board USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay,
 Japanese Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu and Chief of Staff Gen.
 Yoshijiro Umezu sign instruments of surrender. [NOTE: Alternatively,
 V-J Day is regarded by some to be August 15, the date upon which
 Emperor Hirohito broadcast his radio message, the Imperial Rescript
 of Surrender, touching off the celebrations
 normally associated with V-J Day in allied nations.]
     November 6, 1945. The first landing of a jet-powered aircraft on
 a carrier is made by Ens. Jake C. West in the Ryan FR-1 Fireball, a
 fighter propelled by both a turbojet and a reciprocating engine. The
 landing on USS Wake Island (CVE-65) is inadvertent; the plane's
 piston engine fails, and Ensign West comes in powered only by the
 turbojet.
     November 7, 1945. Royal Air Force Group Capt. Hugh Wilson sets
 the first post-war recognized absolute speed record and breaks the
 600 mph barrier at the same time, as he flies a Gloster Meteor F.4
 to a speed of 606.26 mph at Herne Bay, England. Group Captain Wilson
 was our senior Allied officer in the North Compound of Stalag Luft
 III.  Jim
     February 4, 1946. The Air Force Association is incorporated.
     February 9, 1946. Gen. Carl A. Spaatz is designated Commanding
 General, Army Air Forces, succeeding Gen. H.H. Arnold.
     February 15, 1946. Thirty-five movie stars, studio executives,
 and reporters board a Lockheed Constellation piloted by Howard Hughes
 for the inauguration of TWA daily nonstop service between Los Angles,
 Calif., and New York, N.Y.  Among the stars are Paulette Goddard,
 Veronica Lake, and Edward G. Robinson.
     February 28, 1946. Maj. William Lien makes the first flight of
 the Republic XP-84 at Muroc Dry Lake, Calif. The Thunderjet is the
 Air Force's first post-war fighter and will be used extensively for
 ground attack missions in the Korean War. Later designated F-84, the
 Thunderjet is the first fighter to carry a tactical nuclear weapon.
     March 12, 1946. The Army Air Force School is redesignated as Air
 University with headquarters at Maxwell Field, Ala.
     March 21, 1946. Strategic Air Command, Tactical Air Command, and
 Air Defense Command are activated.
     April 24, 1946. The first flights of the Soviet-designed and
 built Yak-15 and MiG-9 prototypes are made.
     May 4-16, 1946. Five separate recognized class records for alti-
 tude with payload in piston engined aircraft are set by five dif-
 ferent USAAF crews flying Boeing B-29A Superfortresses at Harmon
 Field, Guam. Col. J. B. Warren also sets a separate record for great-
 est load carried to 2,000 meters. These records are still standing.
     May 17 and 19, 1946. Eight separate recognized class records for
 speed over a closed course (1,000 and 2,000 kilometers) with payload
 in piston engined aircraft are set by two different USAAF crews fly-
 ing Boeing B-29A Superfortresses at Dayton, Ohio. These records are
 still standing.
     June 21 and 28, 1946. Six separate recognized class records for
 speed over a closed course (5,000 kilometers) with payload in piston
 engined aircraft are set by two different USAAF crews flying Boeing
 B-29A Superfortresses at Dayton, Ohio. These records are still
 standing.
     June 26, 1946. "Knot" and "nautical mile" are adopted by the
 Army Air Forces and the Navy as standard aeronautical units of speed
 and distance.
     July 21, 1946. Navy Lt. Cmdr. James Davidson makes the first
 successful takeoff and landing of a jet-powered aircraft from an
 aircraft carrier. He is flying a McDonnell FH-1 Phantom from the
 USS Franklin D. Roosevelt (CVB-42).
     July 1946. Air Force Magazine becomes the official journal of the
 Air Force Association.
     August 2, 1946. The National Air Museum is established under the
 Smithsonian Institution.
     August 8, 1946. Almost five years after the prototype was order-
 ed, company test pilots Beryl A. Erickson and G.S. "Gus" Green and a
 crew of seven make the first flight of the mammoth Convair XB-36
 prototype at Fort Worth, Tex.
     August 15, 1947. US Air Forces in Europe is established as a
 major command.
     August 31, 1946. Famed Hollywood stunt pilot Paul Mantz wins the
 first post-war Bendix Trophy transcontinental race from Los Angeles,
 Calif., to Cleveland, Ohio, in a North American P-51 Mustang with an
 average speed of 435.501 mph. Total flying time is four hours,
 forty-two minutes. Col. Leon Gray wins the first Bendix Trophy Jet
 Division race, flying a Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star over the same
 course with an average speed of 494.779 mph. Total flying time is
 four hours, eight minutes.
     September 18, 1946. Company pilot Sam Shannon makes the first
 official flight of the Convair XF-92 at Muroc Dry Lake, Calif. (A
 short "hop" had been made on June 9.) The first true delta-winged
 aircraft, the XF-92 will prove invaluable as a test-bed for delta-
 wing research.
     December 9, 1946. Company pilot Chalmers "Slick" Goodlin makes
 the first powered flight of the Bell X-1 supersonic research air-
 craft. He reaches Mach .75 and an altitude of 35,000 feet after
 being released from a Boeing B-29 "mother ship."
     March 16, 1947. Company pilots Sam Shannon and Russell R. Rogers
 make the first flight of the Convair 240 airliner prototype at San
 Diego, Calif. Versions of the 240 would be used by the Air Force as
 the T-29 navigator trainer and as the C-131 Samaritan medical evac-
 uation/transport aircraft. One aircraft, the NC-131 variable sta-
 bility test-bed, was still flying into the 1990s.
     June 19, 1947. Col. Albert Boyd sets the recognized absolute
 speed record, as he flies the Lockheed P-80R to a speed of 623.608
 mph at Muroc Dry Lake, Calif.
 End of Part-14
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