This week in AFLCMC history - February 28 - March 5, 2022 Published Feb. 28, 2022 By AFLCMC History Office In this edition of Heritage Hangar, you'll learn about old and new airplanes and tidbits of what happened this week many years ago. 28 Feb 1973 (Presidential & Exec Airlift Dir./Hanscom) The USAF and the Electronic Systems Division at Hanscom announced the award of a $59 million firm-fixed-price contract to Boeing (signed on Feb 23) for two 747B aircraft for modification to interim E-4A Air-borne Command Post aircraft under the Advanced Airborne Command Post (AABNCP) program (481B). The contract included an option for a third plane. The acquisition program was structured in 3 phases: these first three interim E-4As; the procurement of 3-4 subsequent 747s for conversion as production E-4Bs AABNCPs; and the eventual retrofit of the original E-4A aircraft to the final, more capable E-4B AABNCP configuration. 01 Mar 1994 (AFLCMC/Mobility & Training Aircraft Dir.) The Aeronautical Systems Center (ASC) established two new System Program Offices (SPOs). ASC was in the process of breaking up “basket SPOs” that contained multiple Program Executive Officers (PEOs). Instead, now PEOs were in separate program offices, while Product Support Offices and Development Support Offices supplied the cross-program functions. On 1 March, the former EF-111 System Improvement Program separated from the Electronic Systems SPO to become ASC/EF and the Non-Developmental Airlift Aircraft SPO (ASC/YN) was established out of the Aircraft SPO. 02 Mar 1968 (Mobility & Training Aircraft Dir.) President Lyndon B. Johnson attended the rollout ceremony of the first Lockheed C-5A Galaxy (tail number 66-8303) at the company’s Marietta, Georgia, plant. He remarked: “Today it takes 88 cargo planes to move an infantry brigade from Hawaii to Vietnam. Their heaviest equipment would have to go by sea. That entire operation could be handled by 20 of these aircraft.” On 17 October 1970, an accidental fire during fuel cell repairs destroyed this aircraft at that same facility. One Lockheed employee was killed and another injured in the fire. 03 Mar 1993 (WPAFB/Presidential & Executive Airlift Dir.) Headquarters Air Force approved an Air Combat Command request to locate a National Airborne Operations Center (NAOC) forward operating base at Wright-Patterson AFB. This supports the E-4B program that provides highly survivable command, control, and communications for national defense leadership and the president. One of the four “Nightwatch” E- 4Bs is always on alert. They are assigned to Offut AFB but continue to use WPAFB for this function. 04 Mar 1957 (Hill AFB) Construction on the new 13,500-foot-long, 200-foot-wide runway at Hill Air Force Base was completed. Hill’s original runways were only half as long because they were built during World War II to accommodate propeller-driven bombers. Cold War jet-propelled strategic bombers required the additional length. However, the $3.5 million project ran into conflict with planned housing expansion as early as 1950, which delayed the start of construction until 1955. The runway was available for limited use in June 1956, with a dedication ceremony on 30 September. 05 Mar 1976 (Fighters & Advanced Aircraft Dir.) Initial Operational Test and Evaluation (IOT&E) of Fairchild A-10 Thunder-bolt II (though it was not formally named yet) ended. By this time, Fairchild had increased production from its initial low rate to a standard 15 airframes per month. Two weeks after IOT&E ended, Air Force Systems Command formally turned over the A-10 from its development portfolio to Tactical Air Command (TAC) as the using command. The first squadron was declared operational in July 1977. 06 Mar 1964 (Digital Dir./Hanscom AFB) Air Force Systems Command tasked Electronic Systems Division (ESD) with conducting a “detailed cost-effectiveness study” for the Vice Chief of Staff on the mission impact if ESD moved from Hanscom AFB to Griffiss AFB, NY, home to the Rome Air Development Center (RADC). This move would co-locate ESD’s electronics systems acquisition with RADC’s electronics research. They concluded the move would not be cost effective and did not proceed. RADC’s mission continues as the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Information Directorate in Rome, while AFLCMC’s directorates at Hanscom continue the ESD mission This Week in AFLCMC History Highlight: 02 March 1949 An Air Force crew in the Boeing B-50 Lucky Lady II completed the first-ever non-stop flight around the world. This flight was by no means a publicity stunt. In the early days of the Cold War, America relied almost exclusively on intercontinental-range strategic bombers equipped with nascent atomic weapons to deter Soviet expansion. World War II had demonstrated the utility of strategic bombing, but also its limitations. The Boeing B-29 epitomized that approach. While it could fly thousands of miles, that range still limited it to overseas bases if it were to strike the Soviet Union. A series of late-WWII improvements to the B-29, primarily a more powerful engine and structural enhancements, warrant a new designation as the B-50. It had added speed and payload, but little additional combat radius. Clearly a new technology was needed: aerial refueling. The first attempts at refueling an airplane in flight, around 1921, were little more than stunts: literally passing gas tanks from one biplane to another by hand. The Army Air Service demonstrated a more practical hose method on 27 July 1923 but the impetus to develop an operational system came from the need to support the long-ranger bombers during WWII. The British led the world by introducing the first such equipment. Their “looped hose” mechanism had a tanker lower a hose to the receiving aircraft, which extended a hook to catch and reel in the hose. Once connected, gravity did the rest. In urgent need of such capability, the US Air Force received a contingent of British experts at Wright-Patterson AFB in March 1948, who sold the Americans two sets of the looped hose system off the shelf. By June, the first squadron of KB-29 tankers became operational: the world’s first aerial refueling units. The Lucky Lady II flight was to demonstrate the capabilities of this new combination of strategic bombers and tankers. Tinker AFB began equipping the plane for this mission in January by adding the refueling gear and a bomb bay fuel tank. Lucky Lady II took off from Carswell AFB on 26 Feb and refueled 4 times during its 23,452 miles that ended back at Carswell 94 hours later.