Announcements

The latter part of WWII and beyond saw a significant development in weapons technology. Among them, long range missile development. The Germans proved to the world that they could use the V-1 and V-2 rockets to strike targets from a long distance. After the war, the United States put forth a great effort to develop a similar technology. Using…

Published Dec. 14, 2023
By Dennis R. Jenkins
Air Force Materiel Command History Office

For two weeks beginning on Jan. 16, 1975, three Air Force pilots and a modified McDonnell Douglas Aircraft Division (McAir) F-15A-6-MC (72-119) made an assault on the world class time-to-climb for aircraft powered by jet engines.

The three pilots, Maj. Roger Smith, Maj. W. R. 'Mac' Macfarlane, and Maj. Dave Peterson were all members of…

by R. Ray Ortensie, Deputy Director
First released: 15 April 2020

On 6 April 1924, eight Airmen departed in their Douglas World Cruisers, specially built by the Douglas Company in California and tested at McCook Field, Dayton, Ohio, from Lake Washington in Seattle, Washington heading westward for Asia via Alaska for one of the most sensational aviation events of the 1920s. 

This around-the-world flight was the first globe…

Headquarters Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC) History Office has a strong history of documenting and protecting the institutional memory of the acquisition, test, development, and sustainment of the United States Air Force. The History Office works diligently in uniting the AFMC History and Museums Program to become indispensable to our leadership in order to empower the most important command by operationalizing our…

Attached is a 1976 study, "Flight to Israel: A Historical Documentary of Strategic Airlift to Israel, 14 October - 14 November 1973," that Military Airlift Command (MAC) wrote with the intent to present in one comprehensive document to account for all the significant actions and events relating to the Military Airlift Command's strategic airlift to Israel. It begins with the indecisive days just prior to the first mission…

The Vietnam War presented those tasked with fighting it numerous challenges. The United States was fighting a “limited war,” restricting itself to military actions without formally declaring war in the country. It was unwilling to use nuclear weapons, which had been the benchmark of military innovation after World War II as a part of the Cold War against the USSR.  Modern weaponry was built to fight in this…

Our newest book by Tony Landis takes a look at the General Dynamics F-16XL Dual Role Fighter through 248pages of over 900 color & 35 black & white photographs, and 125 illustrations.

by Tony Landis, Writer/Editor
31 July 2023

On April 11, 1941, the Army Air Corps issued a specification calling for industry to produce a bomber capable of carrying 10,000 pounds of bombs to targets 5,000 miles away and return without refueling. The Army Air Corps initially sent invitations to submit preliminary designs to Consolidated Aircraft Corporation and Boeing Aircraft Company with Northrop and Douglas Aircraft…

by Tony Landis, Writer/Editor
2 May 2023

In 1946, The Department of Defense (DoD) initiated a joint project between the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) and the Air Force known as the Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion (ANP) Program. Based on requirements established by the DoD, the ANP program, known also as the Manned Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion Program, was to develop a nuclear-powered airplane for military purposes. The reactor…

Air Force Materiel Command traces its heritage to 1917 at McCook Field, a World War I-era, experimental engineering facility in Dayton, Ohio. With the creation of the U.S. Air Service in 1918, the organization became known as the Engineering Division and was expanded to include responsibility for the Air Corps' logistics system. It was redesignated the Air Corps Materiel Division in 1926. As the largest branch of the…