2004 – The AIM-54 Phoenix missile, the F-14 Tomcat’s long-range air-to-air missile system, is retired from service, about two years before the F-14 itself. It is replaced with the medium-range AIM-120 AMRAAM used on F/A-18 Hornets.
1982 – H. Ross Perot, Jr. and Jay Coburn land their Bell 206 L-1 Long Ranger II in Fort Worth, Tex., completing the first ever round-the-world helicopter flight 29 days, 3 hours, and 8 minutes after they had taken off.
1975 – Hughes Helicopters takes the AH-64 Apache attack helicopter on its first flight.
1968 – The Boeing 747 rolled out for the first time at the Boeing Everett Factory in Washington. Seeing its first commercial usage in 1970, it is still flying strong as one of the world’s most recognizable aircraft.
1965 – The first Lockheed L-100, the civilian variant of their C-130 Hercules military transport aircraft, is delivered to Continental Airlines subsidiary Continental Air Services.
1949 – The Berlin Airlift comes to an end after completing 277,000 flights.
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