June 22, 1954. The Douglas A4D (A-4) Skyhawk makes its first
 flight from Edwards AFB, Calif., with company pilot Robert Rahn at
 the controls. Some 2,960 aircraft later, "Scooters" would still be
 flying with the Navy as trainers and with several foreign countries
 as front-line equipment into the mid 1990s.
     July 15, 1954. The Boeing Model 367-80 makes its first flight,
 with company pilot A.M. "Tex" Johnston in command. The aircraft is
 the prototype for the Air Force's C/KC-135 series and the progenitor
 of the 707, which will become the first civilian jetliner to see
 wide use.
     August 23, 1954. Lockheed pilots Stanley Beltz and Roy Wimmer
 crew the first flight of the YC-130 Hercules at Burbank, Calif. More
 than 2,100 aircraft later, the C-130 will still be in production at
 Marietta, Ga., and is expected to be produced beyond the turn of the
 century.
     August 26, 1954. Maj. Arthur "Kit" Murray reaches a record height
 of 90,443 feet in the Bell X-1A, which was released from a B-29 over
 Edwards AFB.
     September 1, 1954. Continental Air Defense Command--a joint com-
 mand composed of Air Force, Army, Navy and Marine forces--is estab-
 lished at Colorado Springs, Colo.
     October 12, 1954. The Cessna XT-37 Tweet trainer is flown for
 the first time at Wichita, Kan. The T-37 will still be soldiering
 on, nearly forty years later, as the Air Force's primary trainer.
     October 27, 1954. Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., son of the first black
 general officer in the US Army, becomes the first black general
 officer in the US Air Force. He retires April 30, 1965, as a
 lieutenant general.
     November 2, 1954. Company test pilot J.F. Coleman, flying in the
 radical tail-sitting Convair XFY-1, makes a vertical takeoff,
 changes to horizontal flight, and then returns to vertical for a
 landing in San Diego, Calif.
     November 7, 1954. The Air Force announces plans to build a $15.5
 million research laboratory for atomic aircraft engines. To be built
 in Connecticut, the plant is to be run by Pratt & Whitney and will
 be finished in 1957.
     December 10, 1954. To determine if a pilot could eject from an
 airplane at supersonic speed and live, Lt. Col. John Paul Stapp, a
 flight surgeon, rides a rocket sled to 632 mph, decelerates to zero
 in 125 seconds, and survives more than thirty-five times the force
 of gravity.
     February 7, 1955. After 131 shows, the Thunderbirds, the Air
 Force's aerial demonstration team, perform their last show in the
 Republic F-84G Thunderjet at Webb AFB, Tex. In April, the team will
 convert to swept-wing F-84F Thunderstreaks.
     February 23, 1955. The Army picks Bell Helicopter from a list of
 twenty competing companies to build its first turbine-powered heli-
 copter. The winning design, designated XH-40, will become the HU-1
 (and later still, UH-1) Iroquois, the renowned "Huey."
     February 26, 1955. North American Aviation test pilot George
 Smith becomes the first person to survive ejection from an aircraft
 flying at supersonic speed. His F-100 Super Sabre is traveling at
 Mach 1.05 when the controls jam and he is forced to punch out.
     July 11, 1955. The first class (306 cadets) is sworn in at the
 Air Force Academy's temporary location at Lowry AFB, Colo.
     August 4, 1955. Company pilot Tony LeVier makes the first
 official flight of the Lockheed U-2 spy plane at Groom Lake, Nev.
 An inadvertant "hop" had been made on July 29.
     August 15, 1955. Donald A. Quarles becomes Secretary of the Air
 Force.
     October 22, 1955. Company test pilot "Rusty" Roth makes the first
 flight of the Republic YF-105 Thunderchief at Edwards AFB, Calif. The
 aircraft, commonly known as the "Thud" (among other things), is the
 largest single-engine, single-seat fighter ever built.
     November 26, 1955. Secretary of Defense Charles Wilson assigns
 responsibility for development and operations of landbased intercon-
 tinental ballistic missiles to the Air Force.
     January 17, 1956. Department of Defense reveals the existence of
 SAGE, an electronic air defense system.
     February 17, 1956. Company test pilot Tony LeVier inadvertently
 makes the first flight of the Lockheed F-104A Starfighter as the
 plane skips off the runway during high-speed taxi tests at Edwards
 AFB, Calif. The first official flight takes place March 4.
     March 10, 1956. The recognized absolute speed record passes the
 1,000 mph barrier, as company pilot Peter Twiss hits 1,132.13 mph in
 the Fairey Delta 2 research aircraft at Sussex, England.
     May 20, 1956. After ninety-one shows in a little more than a
 year, the Thunderbirds perform their last demonstration in the
 Republic F-84F Thunderstreak at Bolling AFB, D.C.
     May 21, 1956. An Air Force crew flying Boeing B-52B Stratofor-
 tress at 40,000 feet air-drops a live hydrogen bomb over Bikini
 Atoll in the Pacific. The bomb has a measured blast of 3.75
 megatons.
     May 28, 1956. Company pilot "Pete" Girard makes the first flight
 of the Ryan X-13 Vertijet VTOL research aircraft in hover mode at
 Edwards AFB, Calif. He had also made the type's first conventional
 flight on December 10, 1955.
     June 30, 1956. The Thunderbirds, the Air Force's aerial demon-
 stration squadron, fly their first show in the supersonic North
 American F-100 Super Sabre, the type the team would fly for most of
 the next thirteen years.
     August 1, 1956. President Eisenhower signs into law bill per-
 mitting Armed Forces to include flight instruction in ROTC programs.
     September 27, 1956. Capt. Milburn Apt, USAF, reaches Mach 3.196
 in the Bell X-2, becoming the first pilot to fly three times the
 speed of sound. Captain Apt is killed, however, when the aircraft
 tumbles out of control.
 End of Part 19
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