Company pilots Sam Shannon and Russell R. Rogers make the first flight of the Convair 240 airliner prototype at San Diego. Versions of the 240 would be used by the Air Force as the T-29 navigator trainer and as the C-131 Samaritan medical evacuation/transport aircraft. One aircraft, the NC- 131 variable stability test-bed, was still flying into the 1990s.
The U.S. military is maintaining a beefed-up presence in the Middle East, including fighters and air defense assets, following the U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities June 22 and subsequent retaliation by the Iranians against Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar.
