July 29-30, 1947. Lt. Col. O. F. Lassiter sets a recognized class
 record for speed over a 10,000-kilometer closed circuit without pay-
 load (piston engined aircraft) of 273.194 mph in a Boeing B-29A
 Superfortress at Dayton, Ohio. The record still stands.
     August 25, 1947. Marine Maj. Marion Carl breaks the recognized
 absolute speed record set two months previously as he pilots the
 Douglas D-558-I Skystreak to a speed of 650.8 mph at Muroc Dry Lake,
 Calif.
     September 18, 1947. The US Air Force is established as a separate
 service, with W. Stuart Symington as its first Secretary. Gen. Carl
 A. Spaatz, Commanding General of the AAF, becomes the first Chief of
 Staff on September 26.
     September 26, 1947. Transfer of personnel, bases, and materiel
 from the Army to the new Department of the Air Force is ordered by
 Defense Secretary James W. Forrestal.
     October 1, 1947. Company test pilot George S. "Wheaties" Welch,
 who was one of the few AAF fighter pilots who was able to get air-
 borne during the Pearl Harbor attack, makes the first flight of the
 North American XP-86 Sabre at Muroc Dry Lake, Calif. The Sabre is
 the Air Force's first swept-wing fighter.
     October 14, 1947. The first supersonic flight is made by Capt.
 Charles E. Yeager in the rocket-powered Bell XS-l (later redesigned
 X-1) over Muroc Dry Lake.
     October 21, 1947. The first flight of the Northrop YB-49 flying
 wing jet bomber is made. The Air Force's Northrop B-2 stealth bomber
 will bear a family resemblance to this plane when it debuts in 1989.
     November 2, 1947. Howard Hughes's wooden H-4 Hercules (the
 "Spruce Goose") makes its first (and only) flight over Los Angeles
 Harbor, Calif. Distance traveled is about a mile.
     November 23, 1947. The world's largest landplane, the Convair
 XC-99, the cargo version of the B-36 bomber, makes its first flight
 at Lindbergh Field in San Diego, Calif., with company test pilots
 Russell R. Rogers and Beryl A. Erickson at the controls. This air-
 craft would lift a record 100,000-pound payload on April 15, 1949.
     December 17, 1947. The prototype Boeing XB-47 Stratojet bomber
 makes its first flight from Boeing Field in Seattle, Wash., with
 company pilots Bob Robbins and Scott Osler at the controls.
     December 30, 1947. The Soviet MiG-15 is flown for the first
 time.
     January 30, 1948. Orville Wright dies in his hometown of Dayton,
 Ohio, at age seventy-six.
     February 20, 1948. The first Boeing B-50 Superfortress is
 delivered to Strategic Air Command (SAC).
     April 21, 1948. Secretary of Defense James V. Forrestal assigns
 the primary responsibility for air defense of the United States to
 the Air Force.
     April 26, 1948. The Air Force announces a policy of racial
 integration -- the first service to do so -- well before President
 Truman's Executive Order on equal opportunity in July 1948.
     April 30, 1948. Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg is designated to succeed
 Gen. Carl A. Spaatz as Air Force Chief of Staff.
     June 1, 1948. Navy and Air Force air transport systems are con-
 solidated into Military Air Transport Service under USAF.
     June 26, 1948. Operation Vittles, the Berlin Airlift, begins
 with Douglas C-47 crews bringing eighty tons of supplies into the
 city on the first day. By the time it ends, on September 30, 1949,
 the Anglo-American airlift will have delivered a total of 2.3
 million tons of food, fuel, and supplies to the beleaguered city.
     August 6, 1948. First B-29s to circumnavigate the globe land
 near Tucson, Ariz., after leisurely 15-day trip.
     August 16, 1948. Company pilot Fred C. Brethcher makes the first
 flight of the Northrop XF-89 Scorpion all-weather interceptor at
 Muroc AFB, Calif.
     August 23, 1948. The prototype McDonnell XF-85 Goblin parasite
 fighter makes its first free flight. It is intended to be carried
 in the bomb bay of a B-36 for fighter support over a target, but the
 project will be abandoned a year later when air refueling of
 fighters proves eminently more practical.
     September 15, 1948. Air Force Maj. Richard L. Johnson, flying a
 North American F-86, recaptures the world speed record for the US,
 streaking over a three-kilometer course at Muroc AFB, Calif., at
 670.981 mph.
     October 15, 1948. Maj. Gen. William H. Tunner assumes command of
 the newly created Combined Airlift Task Force during the Berlin
 Airlift.
     December 7-8, 1948. On the seventh anniversary of the Japanese
 attack on Pearl Harbor, a 7th Bomb Wing crew flies a Convair B-36B
 "Peacemaker" on a 35.5-hour mission from Carswell AFB, Tex. to
 Hawaii and back to Fort worth without refueling. The B-36 was un-
 detected by local air defenses at Pearl Harbor.
     December 16, 1948. Company pilot Charles Tucker makes the first
 flight of the Northrop X-4 Bantam at Muroc AFB, Calif. The X-4 is
 designed to study flight characteristics of small, swept-wing semi-
 tailless aircraft at transonic speeds.
     December 17, 1948. The forty-fifth anniversary of the first
 powered flight is commemorated by the donation of the original
 Wright Flyer to the Smithsonian Institution. The Flyer was dis-
 played in Britain for many years because of a dispute between the
 Wrights and the Smithsonian.
     December 29, 1948. Defense Secretary Forrestal says the US is
 working on an "earth satellite vehicle program," a project to study
 the operation of guided rockets beyond Earth's pull of gravity.
     December 31, 1948. The 100,000th flight of the Berlin Airlift is
 made.
     January 25, 1949. The US Air Force adopts blue uniforms.
     February 4, 1949. The Civil Aeronautics Administration sanctions
 the use of the ground-controlled approach as a "primary aid" for
 commercial airline crews. End of Part 15
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