The Joint Chiefs of Staff, in a statement of basic roles and missions, give the Air Force formal and exclusive responsibility for strategic guided missiles.Īpril 21, 1950. The top scoring North Vietnamese ace, Colonel Toon (which some sources list as “Tomb”), records thirteen aerial victories while flying MiG-17s. It is an aerodynamically refined version of the MiG-15 and fitted with an.

The prototype of the MiG-17 (NATO reporting name “Fresco”) fighter makes its first flight at the Soviet flight test center at Zhukovsky. President Truman announces that he has directed the Atomic Energy Commission “to continue its work on all forms of atomic-energy weapons, including the so-called hydrogen or super bomb.” This is the first confirmation of US H-bomb work.įeb. In 1961 ARDC will be redesignated Air Force Systems Command. USAF establishes Research and Development Command, eight months later it was redesignated Air Research and Development Command. “Hap” Arnold dies of a heart ailment at Sonoma, Calif.

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