AFMC Command News

  • A Look Back…Recoverable Rocket Boosters--A Future That Never Was

    The idea of making flight into space as routine as atmospheric flight has been around since the 1930’s when Eugen Sänger first published detailed information about his ideas for a suborbital, winged vehicle, capable of delivering a payload halfway around the world using a skip-glide technique that

  • A look back at...the War in Korea: A glimpse behind the scenes

    Barely five years had passed since the end of World War II, when war-weary America began sending troops and supplies to the Far East in order to defend the Korean peninsula from a Communist invasion.  On June 25, 1950, approximately 75,000 soldiers from the North Korean People’s Army crossed the

  • A Look Back....at the development of parachutes to 1945

    As aviation began to play an important role in military tactics and methods of aerial warfare changed rapidly, a “vital need for the development and availability of suitable parachutes” arose with major changes and developments between World War I and the end of World War II.

  • A Look Back…Peacemaker Personnel

    First flown in August 1946, just one year after the end of WWII, the XB-36 was the largest and heaviest air-craft ever flown at the time. The size, weight and complexity of the aircraft created many new problems to be overcome by the talented engineers and technicians working the program.

  • A look back: Early Air Force Uniforms

    The following is a look back at the origins of the distinctive USAF uniforms, what organizations oversaw the design and manufacturing and the early transition period of Air Force uniforms worn.

  • Looking Back: Winged Missiles, 1950-1975

    The latter part of WWII and beyond saw a significant development in weapons technology. Among them, long range missile development. The Germans proved to the world that they could use the V-1 and V-2 rockets to strike targets from a long distance. After the war, the United States put forth a great

  • Flashback: The 1924 International Air Races

    In Rheims, France, six years after the Wright Brothers’ first flight, the world’s first air meet took place where prizes were awarded for various events such as highest altitude reached, longest flight, most passengers carried, and the fastest one, two, and three laps over a set 10-kilometer course.

  • History in Two: Early Beginnings to Privatized Housing

    Prior to the Military Housing Privatization Initiative that took place in Fiscal Year 1996, several privatization efforts were undertaken by the DoD – Wherry and Capehart acts in the late 1940s through to the 1950s – to provide family housing for our military members. Following World War II,