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NEWS | June 7, 2011

This week in Air Force History

By Joint Base Charleston Public Affairs

June 5, 1948 - The YB-49 Flying Wing crashed northwest of Muroc Air Force Base, Calif. Capt. Glenn Edwards, the copilot, died in the crash; a year and a half later the base was renamed Edwards AFB.

June 6, 1970 - Lockheed delivered the first C-5 Galaxy to an operational wing. Gen. Jack Catton, Military Airlift Command commander, flew the aircraft from Marietta, Ga. to Charleston AFB, where Brig. Gen. Clare Ireland, the 437th Military Airlift Wing commander, accepted it.

June 7, 1989 - A C-5 set a world record by airdropping four Sheridan armed reconnaissance vehicles, weighing 42,000 pounds each, and 73 fully combat-equipped paratroopers. The total weight reached 190,346 pounds.

June 8, 1953 - The Thunderbirds, officially known as the 3600th Air Demonstration Flight, gave their first performance at Luke AFB.

June 9, 1961 - Delivery of the first C-135 Stratolifter jet cargo aircraft marked the beginning of modernization of Military Air Transport Service's former all-propeller-driven fleet.

June 10, 1989 - Capt. Jacqueline Parker became the first female pilot to graduate from the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School.

June 11, 1972 - B-52s, using laser-guided bombs, destroyed a major hydroelectric plant near Hanoi, North Vietnam.