Dec. 24, 1941: The 30th Bombardment Group arrived at Muroc to conduct antisubmarine patrols and train bomber crews for other units. The 2nd Reconnaissance Squadron arrived at Muroc that same evening to patrol the coastal zone. These groups flew the YB-17 Flying Fortress, like the one pictured here, B-18 Bolo and LB-30 (an export version of the B-24 Liberator) bombers.
Dec. 24, 1955: NORAD tracks Santa for the first time. This began when a Colorado-based Sears store had published a number for children to be able to call Santa Claus. A typo was made, and the number instead led to the hotline for the Director of Operations at Continental Air Defense Command. Realizing the mistake, the director told his team to give the position of Santa to whoever had called in.
Dec. 24, 1968: The three astronauts of the Apollo 8 mission — Frank Borman, James Lovell and William Anders – made a Christmas Eve television broadcast in which they read the first 10 verses from the Book of Genesis. At the time, the broadcast was the most watched TV program ever.
Dec. 25, 1914: Legendary “Christmas Truce” takes place on the battlefields of World War I between British and German troops. Instead of fighting, soldiers exchange gifts and play soccer.
Dec. 25, 1968: The crew of the Apollo 8, during their 10th orbit of the Moon, fired the Command Service Module’s service propulsion system. The trans-Earth injection maneuver would send them home to Earth. Apollo 8 was the first crewed spacecraft to leave low Earth orbit, and the first human spaceflight to reach another astronomical body – the Moon. The three astronauts – Frank Borman, James Lovell and William Anders – were the first humans to witness, and photograph, an Earthrise. Apollo 8 launched Dec. 21, 1968.
The crew orbited the Moon 10 times over the course of 20 hours. Apollo 8’s successful mission paved the way for Apollo 11 to fulfill U.S. president John F. Kennedy’s goal of landing a man on the Moon before the end of the 1960s. The Apollo 8 astronauts returned to Earth on Dec. 27, 1968, when their spacecraft splashed down in the northern Pacific Ocean. The crewmembers were named Time magazine’s “Men of the Year” for 1968 upon their return.
Dec. 25, 1999: Space Shuttle Discovery’s astronauts finished their repair job on the Hubble Space Telescope and released it back into orbit.
Dec. 26, 1956: The Convair YF-106A Delta Dart made its first flight. Convair’s chief test pilot, Richard L. “Dick” Johnson, took the delta-winged interceptor to Mach 1.9 at 57,000 feet. The 20-minute flight had to be aborted because of mechanical problems. The YF-106A was built at the Convair Division of General Dynamics in San Diego, Calif. It was trucked to Edwards on Dec. 14, and prepared for its maiden flight. The F-106A was the primary all-weather interceptor of the U.S. Air Force from 1959 to 1988, when it was withdrawn from service with the Air National Guard. The airplane was a development of the earlier F-102A Delta Dagger, and was initially designated F-102B. However, so many changes were made that it was considered to be a new aircraft.
Dec. 27, 1919: The Boeing B-1 (company designation Model 6) made its first flight. The aircraft was a small biplane flying boat designed by William Boeing shortly after World War I. The Model 6 was the first commercial design for Boeing (as opposed to military or experimental designs), hence the B-1 designation. Its layout was conventional for its day, with a Hall-Scott engine driving a pusher propeller mounted amongst the cabane struts. The pilot sat in an open cockpit at the bow, and up to two passengers could be carried in a second open cockpit behind the first. The design was reminiscent of the Curtiss HS-2L that Boeing had been building under license during the war. Only a single aircraft was built, as Boeing had trouble selling it in a market flooded with war-surplus aircraft. In 1920, Edward Hubbard, who used it to carry airmail between Seattle, Wash., and Victoria, British Columbia, purchased it. The plane flew until 1930 before being preserved and put on display at Seattle’s Museum of History and Industry in 1954.
Dec. 27, 1950: The Douglas XF4D-1 Skyray arrived at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., for evaluation of the stability and control of the Navy’s first delta-winged fighter. The Skyray (later re-designated F-6 Skyray) was an American carrier-based fighter/interceptor. Although it was in service for a relatively short time (1956–1964) and never entered combat, it was the first carrier-launched aircraft to hold the world’s absolute speed record, at 752.943 mph, and was the first U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps fighter that could exceed Mach 1 in level flight. It was the last fighter produced by the Douglas Aircraft Company before it merged with McDonnell Aircraft and became McDonnell Douglas. The F5D Skylancer was an advanced development of the F4D Skyray that did not go into service.
Dec. 27, 1951: The North American Aviation XFJ-2B Fury, with test pilot Bob Hoover in the cockpit, made its first flight at Los Angeles International Airport. The XFJ-2B was a prototype aircraft carrier-based fighter for the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps. It was modified from a standard production U.S. Air Force F-86E-10-NA Sabre day fighter. The primary difference was the substitution of four 20 mm Colt Mark 12 auto cannon for the six .50-caliber Browning M-3 machine guns of the F-86E. 150 rounds per gun were carried. The aircraft was flown to the Naval Ordnance Test Station, Armitage Field, China Lake, Calif., for armament testing. The second and third prototypes were unarmed but fitted with an arrestor hook, catapult points, folding wings and a lengthened nose gear strut to increase the fighter’s static angle of attack for takeoff and landings. These two prototypes were used for aircraft carrier trials.
Dec. 27, 1968: Apollo 8 splashes down in the Pacific Ocean, south of Hawaii, and within 5,000 yards of the USS Yorktown. The spacecraft arrived before sunrise, landing in 10-foot swells. The parachutes dragged the capsule and left it floating upside down. The inflatable pontoons righted it after about six minutes. The three astronauts, Frank F. Borman II, James A. Lovell, Jr., and William A. Anders, were hoisted aboard a Sikorsky SH-3D Sea King helicopter and flown to the aircraft carrier.
Dec. 28, 1965: CIA pilot Mele Vojvodich, Jr. takes Lockheed A-12, 60-6929, Article 126, for a functional check flight after a period of deep maintenance, but seconds after take-off from Groom Dry Lake, Nev., the aircraft yaws uncontrollably, pilot ejecting at 100 feet after six seconds of flight, escaping serious injury. Investigation finds that the pitch stability augmentation system had been connected to the yaw SAS actuators, and vice versa. SAS connectors are changed to make such wiring mistake impossible. Said Kelly Johnson in a history of the Oxcart program; “It was perfectly evident from movies taken of the takeoff, and from the pilot’s description, that there were some miswired gyros in the aircraft. This turned out to be exactly what happened. In spite of color coding and every other normal precaution, the pitch and yaw gyro connections were interchanged in rigging.”
Dec. 29, 1931: The Grumman FF made its first flight. The Grumman FF “Fifi” (company designation G-5) was an American biplane fighter aircraft operated by the U.S. Navy during the 1930s. It was the first carrier aircraft with retractable landing gear. It was produced under licence in Canada and known as the Goblin in Canadian service and Delfín in Spanish service. The FF-1 was Grumman’s first complete aircraft design for the Navy. The Navy had asked Grumman if their retractable landing gear made for the O2U-1 Scout planes could be retrofitted to the Navy’s Boeing F4B-1 fighters; instead Grumman proposed a new fighter design. FF-1s were delivered to Fighter Squadron VF-5B of the USS Lexington beginning in June 1933. In service the FF-1 became familiarly known as the “Fifi.” Delivery of SF-1s started on March 30, 1934, and they also served aboard the Lexington, with Scout Squadron VS-3B. Both the FF-1 and SF-1 were withdrawn from first-line U.S. Navy squadrons by the end of 1936 and reallocated to reserve units, most of the FF-1s still being in service late in 1940. Later, 22 surviving FF-1s were modified with dual controls, re-designated FF-2 and used for instructional duties.
Dec. 29, 1939: Taking off from Lindbergh Field, the San Diego Municipal Airport, with chief test pilot William “Bill” Wheatley at the controls, the Consolidated Aircraft Corporation’s XB-24 made its first flight. The flight crew included George Newman, co-pilot, and flight engineers Jack Kline and Bob Keith. The flight lasted 17 minutes. The XB-24 was the prototype of the B24 Liberator bomber. The U.S. Army Air Corps had approached Consolidated to set up a second production line for Boeing’s B-17 Flying Fortress four-engine heavy bomber. After looking at Boeing’s Seattle operation, Consolidated’s chief executive, Reuben H. Fleet, told the Air Corps that they could build a better, more modern bomber. During World War II, 18,482 B-24 Liberators — more than any other Allied aircraft type — were built by Consolidated at San Diego, and Fort Worth, Texas; by North American Aviation at Dallas, Texas; and by Douglas Aircraft at Tulsa, Okla. The Ford Motor Company at Willow Run built more than half of the total production. During World War II, the B-24 served in every combat theater. In U.S. Navy service, it was designated PB4Y-1 Privateer. It was faster, had a longer range, and could carry a heavier bomb load than the Boeing B-17, but was thought to be less survivable to combat damage. As the war came to an end, hundreds of brand new B-24s were accepted by the Air Corps, but sent immediately to be scrapped rather than placed in service.
Dec. 29, 1949: U.S. Air Force Reserve Lt. Col. Jackie Cochran flew her North American Aviation P-51C Mustang, Thunderbird, to two Fédération Aéronautique Internationale Class C-1 world speed records of 437.06 mph, and a U.S. National record of 436.995 mph over the 500 kilometer (310.7 mile) Desert Center–Mt. Wilson course in the Colorado Desert of southern California. She would later be awarded the first of three Distinguished Flying Crosses for this series of flight records.
Thunderbird was Jackie Cochran’s third P-51 Mustang. She had purchased it from Academy Award-winning actor and World War II B-24 wing commander James M. Stewart just 10 days earlier, Dec. 19, 1949.
According to Civil Aviation Administration records, the airplane had been “assembled from components of other aircraft of the same type.” It has no U.S. Army Air Corps serial number or North American Aviation manufacturer’s serial number. The C.A.A. designated it as a P-51C and assigned 2925 as its serial number. It was certificated in the Experimental category and registered N5528N.
Thunderbird had won the 1949 Bendix Trophy Race with pilot Joe De Bona, after he had dropped out of the 1948 race. Its engine had been upgraded from a Packard V-1650-3 Merlin to a V-1650-7 for the 1949 race.
Jackie Cochran set three world speed records with Thunderbird. In 1953, she sold it back to Jimmy Stewart. After changing ownership twice more, the P-51 crashed near Scott’s Bluff, Neb., on June 22, 1955.
Dec. 29, 1986: The Scaled Composites Model 133-4.62 ATTT, or Advanced Technology Tactical Transport was a technology demonstration project built by Burt Rutan’s Scaled Composites in 1986 under contract to DARPA. In the mid-1980s, DARPA developed a concept for a tandem wing STOL transport, intended to act as a technology demonstrator and to meet a requirement for a long-range high-speed transport for U.S. Special Forces, intended to fill the gap between helicopters and larger transport aircraft such as the C-130 Hercules. In 1986, DARPA placed a contract with Scaled Composites, a company set up by Burt Rutan to build prototypes for advanced aircraft, for a 62 percent scale proof-of-concept demonstrator for the concept, called the Advanced Technology Tactical Transport. The ATTT had high-aspect ratio tandem wings, which were joined by long nacelles, which carried the aircraft’s engines, tractor configuration turboprops, large fuel tanks and the as well as the main undercarriage units for the aircraft’s retractable tricycle landing gear. As first built, it had a conventional, cruciform tail. A novel arrangement of eight fast acting fowler flaps was fitted, inboard and outboard of the engines on each of the wings. These would be extended rearwards in a low-drag configuration prior to commencing the take-off run then quickly lowered to increase lift at the point of take-off. The aircraft was of composite construction, mainly glass fiber and carbon fiber. Two Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-135 turboprops powered it. The ATTT demonstrator made its maiden flight from Mojave Airport, base of Scaled Composites. It completed its initial test program of 51 test flights, with a total of 112 flying hours, on Nov. 8, 1988. It was then rebuilt with a revised tail, with a twin-boom configuration replacing the original single cruciform tail unit, with the fuselage shortened and a rear-loading ramp fitted. The revised layout improved handling, lowering minimum single-engine safety speed (which was previously significantly higher than the stall speed). A further 13 test flights were flown to evaluate the revised layout. The aircraft has been de-registered and is currently in storage at the Air Force Flight Test Center Museum at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.
Dec. 30, 1934: The Martin M-130 made its first flight. The Martin M-130 was a commercial flying boat designed and built in 1935 by the Glenn L. Martin Company in Baltimore, Md., for Pan American Airways. Three were built: the China Clipper, the Philippine Clipper and the Hawaii Clipper. All three had crashed by 1945. A similar flying boat, (the Martin 156), named Russian Clipper, built for the Soviet Union, had a larger wing (giving it greater range) and twin vertical stabilizers. Martin named them the Martin Ocean Transports, but to the public they were the “China Clippers,” a name that became a generic term for Pan Am’s large flying boats: the Martin M-130, Sikorsky S-42 and Boeing 314.
Dec. 30, 1941: Nine Martin B-26 Marauder bombers of the 33rd Bombardment Squadron, 22nd Bombardment Group, depart Muroc Army Air Field for March Field, Calif., but only eight arrive. In bad weather, B-26, 40-1475, snags a pine tree and crashes on Keller Peak in the San Bernardino Mountains, killing nine. Wreckage was not found until Jan. 14, 1942. Late the next day, a recovery team of sheriff officers and members of the 33rd Squadron reaches the site after a four-mile trek with toboggans from Snow Valley. All of the crew had been thrown from the plane except for one, whose body was trapped beneath the fuselage. A plaque was installed on a rock near the crash site in August 1995 commemorating the lost crew.
