The Lockheed NF-104A was an American mixed power, high-performance, supersonic aerospace trainer that served as a low-cost astronaut training vehicle for the X-15 and projected X-20 Dyna-Soar programs.
The third NF-104A (USAF 56-0762) was delivered to the USAF on 1 November 1963, and was destroyed in a crash while being...
The 357th Fighter Group shipped out for Europe in winter of 1943-44, and began operations in February, 1944. Assigned to the first P-51 equipped unit in the Eighth Air Force, Yeager shot down his first aircraft, a MesserschmittME-109 on his seventh mission (one of the early Mustang missions over...
On October 14, 1947, US Air Force Capt. Chuck Yeager flew a Bell X-1 experimental plane at Mach 1 some 40,000 feet over the Mojave Desert, becoming the first human to travel faster than the speed of sound.
The journey to that flight started in...
American originals don't come more original than Chuck Yeager.
Even for those whose parents weren't born when he was rewriting the aviation record books, the name rings a bell. Wasn't he the guy who first smashed the sound barrier – something to do with Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff?
He was...
A remarkable reunion occurred recently at Edwards AFB, California when the two key veterans involved in the breaking of the sound barrier in 1947 returned to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the achievement. Meeting on stage on October 13, the day before the anniversary, were 94-year-old Brig. Gen (Ret.) Chuck...
The first American to orbit the earth, and later a four-term U.S. senator from Ohio, died Thursday.
John Glenn died at the age of 95. One of the Mercury 7, he left the space race to pursue his political passions and became a U.S. senator. He finally returned to space...
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A segment from a U.S. Air Force film follows a single flight by then-Major Charles “Chuck” Yeager. Before Yeager and Air Force test pilots Albert Boyd and H.E. “Tom” Collins put the MiG-15 through its paces, technicians inspected it for signs of sabotage and determined it was safe. The...
13 December 2016 • 1:27am
A veteran pilot who helped to sink the Bismarck during the Second World War has died at the age of 97.
Lt Cdr John "Jock" Moffat was credited with launching the torpedo that crippled the German warship in 1941.
The death of the Scottish veteran...
Since its inception in 1947, the Air Force has consistently broken barriers as an element of the finest joint warfighting team on the planet, and its Airmen have refined its mission through innovation and teamwork.
This video is one of 10 videos for the Air Force's 70th Anniversary. The theme...
Slide inside the cockpit with this gallery of the famous "Glamorous Glennis" Bell X-1 rocket plane that first broke the sound barrier.
Most of us are familiar with the bright orange, bullet-shaped Bell X-1 rocketship that legendary test pilot Chuck...