June 8, 1953. Officially activated just a week before, USAF's
 3600th Air Demonstration Flight, the Thunderbirds, perform their
 first aerial demonstration. Flying Republic F-84G Thunderjets, the
 team flies the show at their home, Luke AFB, Ariz.
     June 16, 1953. North American delivers the 1,000th T-28 Trojan
 tandem-seat trainer to the Air Force.
     June 30, 1953. Gen. Nathan F. Twining becomes Air Force Chief
 of Staff.
     July 16, 1953. Lt. Col. William Barnes pushes the recognized
 absolute speed record past 700 mph, as he hits 715.751 mph in a
 North American F-86D over the Salton Sea in California.
     July 27, 1953. Capt. Ralph S. Parr, a member of the 335th
 Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, flying a North American F-86, records
 the last aerial victory in the Korean War when he shoots down an
 Il-2 near Hoha-dong shortly after midnight. It was his tenth aerial
 victory.
     July 27, 1953. The Korean Armistice goes into effect. (It was
 actually signed the day before.)
     July 29, 1953. Two days after the armistice ending the Korean
 War, the Air Forces announces that the Far East Air Force shot down
 839 MiG-15 jet fighters, probably destroyed 154 more, and damaged
 919 others during the thirty-seven months of war. United Nations
 air forces lost 110 aircraft in air-to-air combat, 677 to enemy
 ground fire, and 213 airplanes to "other causes."
     August 21, 1953. Flying the Douglas D-558-II Skyrocket, Marine
 Lt. Col. Marion Carl sets an altitude record of 83,235 feet after
 being dropped from a Boeing P2B (B-29) flying at 34,000 feet over
 Edwards AFB, Calif.
     September 1, 1953. The first jet-to-jet air refueling takes place
 between a Boeing KB-47 and a "standard" B-47.
     September 11, 1953. A Grumman F6F-5K Hellcat drone is destroyed
 in the first successful interception test of the N-7 (AIM-9) Side-
 winder air-to-air missile at China Lake, Calif. The Naval Ordnance
 Test Station, which had fashioned the missile basically out of spare
 parts, conducts the test. More than 150,000 Sidewinders have been
 produced since.
     September 21, 1953. North Korean pilot Lt. Noh Kum Suk defects
 and flies his MiG-15 to Kimpo AB, South Korea. He is granted asylum
 and given $100,000.
     October 3, 1953. Navy Lt. Cmdr. James B. Verdin establishes a
 world speed record of 752.94 mph in the Douglas XF4D-1 Skyray over
 the Salton Sea in California. This is the first time a jet-powered
 carrier plane has set the speed record.
     October 19, 1953. Assistant Secretary of the Air Force Roger
 Lewis reveals that Boeing B-52 bombers will cost approximately $3.6
 million each in production, but the first four aircraft will cost
 about $20 million each to amortize the design, development, and
 tooling costs.
     October 24, 1953. Company pilot Richard L. Johnson makes the
 first flight of the Convair XF-102 prototype at Edwards AFB, Calif.
 Performance of this aircraft is found to be lacking, and the greatly
 redesigned YF-102A will fly in early 1954. The supersonic Delta
 Dagger is the USAF's first production delta-winged aircraft, and it
 will be the first interceptor to become operational armed only with
 missiles and unguided rockets.
     October 29, 1953. Lt. Col. Frank K. "Pete" Everest, Jr., sets a
 new world speed record of 755.149 mph in the North American YF-100
 prototype over the Salton Sea in California. He breaks the record
 set just a few weeks earlier by Navy Lt. Cmdr. James B. Verdin.
     November 1, 1953. The Air Reserve Personnel Center is established
 at Lowry AFB, Colo.
     November 6, 1953. A Boeing B-47 Stratojet is flown from Limestone
 (later Loring) AFB, Me., to RAF Brize Norton, England, in four hours,
 fifty-three minutes to establish a new transatlantic speed record
 from the continental US.
     November 20, 1953. NACA test pilot Scott Crossfield becomes the
 first pilot to exceed Mach 2. His Douglas D-588-II Skyrocket research
 plane is dropped from a Navy P2B-1S (B-29) at an altitude of 32,000
 feet over Edwards AFB, Calif.
     December 12, 1953. Maj. Charles E. Yeager pilots the rocket-
 powered Bell X-1A to a speed of Mach 2.435 (approximately 1,650 mph)
 over Edwards AFB.
     February 15, 1954. President Dwight D. Eisenhower nominates
 Charles A. Lindbergh to be a brigadier general in the Air Force
 Reserve.
     February 24, 1954. President Eisenhower approves the National
 Security Council's recommendation for construction of the Distant
 Early Warning (DEW) Line. Operational control of the DEW Line will
 be transferred from the Air Force to the Royal Canadian Air Force
 on February 1, 1959.
     March 1, 1954. In the Marshall Islands, the US successfully
 explodes its first deliverable hydrogen bomb.
     March 7, 1954. Company test pilot Tony LeVier makes the first
 flight of the Lockheed XF-104 Starfighter at Edwards AFB, Calif. A
 first attempt on February 28 was cut short after the aircraft exper-
 ienced gear retraction problems. Designed as a supersonic air-
 superiority fighter, the F-104 will set a number of records for the
 US, but it will find greater utility for a number of other countries
 than it will for USAF.
     March 18, 1954. Boeing rolls out the first production B-52A
 Stratofortress at its plant in Seattle, Wash. Production will con-
 tinue until 1962.
     April 1, 1954. President Eisenhower signs into law a bill creat-
 ing the US Air Force Academy.
     May 25, 1954. A Navy ZPG-2 airship lands at NAS Key West, Fla.,
 after staying aloft for 200.1 hours. Cmdr. M.H. Eppes, the airship
 captain, is later awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.
 End of Part-18
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