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21 August 1955. First flight of the photographic-reconnaissance version Grumman F9F-8P Cougar. US carrier-based fighter aircraft.
'On Laughter-Silvered Wings.' Art by Keith Ferris, depicting John Gillespie Magee’s Supermarine Spitfire.
7 August 1951. Douglas Aircraft Company test pilot William Barton Bridgeman flew the U.S. Navy/NACA/Douglas D-558-2 Skyrocket to a record speed of Mach 1.88 at Muroc Dry Lake (later Edwards Air Force Base) in the high desert of southern California.
19 July 1918. First attack in history made by aircraft flying from a carrier flight deck. Seven Sopwith Camels flew from HMS Furious and destroyed two German Zeppelins, L.54 and L.60 and a captive balloon during The Tondern raid. Art by Steve Anderson.
17 July 1975. 16.19.09 UTC/GMT. American Apollo and a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft docked in orbit. The first international space mission. Apollo–Soyuz was the last manned United States spaceflight for nearly six years until the first launch of the Space Shuttle in April 1981,
Lieutenant George Cox, 2 Squadron AFC dives his SE5a E5965 through Fokker DVII formation, 27 August 1918. Art by Mark Postlethwaite.
24 June 1784. Thirteen year old Edward Warren made the first, two hour two mile tethered balloon ascent in the United States, in Baltimore, Maryland. America’s first aviator volunteered when the craft proved too weak to lift its builder, Peter Carnes.