Audio of this article is brought to you by the Air & Space Forces Association, honoring and supporting our Airmen, Guardians, and their families. Find out more at afa.org
In September, the Air Force celebrates its 70th year as an independent armed service, having previously been a branch of the Army. After a history arguably dating back to the American Civil War, the Air Force in 1947 began a new story of development and achievement under its own banner.
In the story available through link at the top right button on this page, we have selected 70 photographs representing the Air Force’s history and evolution, one for each year. They comprise leaders, acts of heroism, aircraft, missiles, tragedies, victories, and successes of many kinds.
It would be impossible to select the most important Air Force mission, person, or feat in any given year, nor is it feasible to represent in 70 pictures the more than 300 USAF career specialties or the hundreds of types of aircraft and other weapon systems it has operated. Rather, these images, taken collectively, are meant to illustrate and illuminate 70 years of progress, struggle, and accomplishment.
Audio of this article is brought to you by the Air & Space Forces Association, honoring and supporting our Airmen, Guardians, and their families. Find out more at afa.org
More than 40 years after the original YF-117 operational prototype flew test runs from a Lockheed Martin Skunk Works facility, an F-117 returned for a $1 million refurbishment to look its best when it assumes its place in history alongside other iconic aircraft on permanent exhibit at the National Air…
A Golden Dome task force established under U.S. Northern Command earlier this year has a broad remit, which includes fielding the capability to defend the U.S. against missile and drone attacks, its leaders said this week. Some of the primary focuses right now are ensuring Golden Dome can defend itself…
A U.S. Air Force F-22 pilot controlled a YFQ-44A Fury Collaborative Combat Aircraft this month while both aircraft were in flight, according to an Oct. 16 release, another milestone in the service’s ambitious CCA efforts.
Almost a decade ago, the Air Force created Kessel Run in 2017 as a military-commercial partnership and Airmen-led “software factory” in response to the service’s troubled rollout of the Air Operations Center 10.2. New leader Col. Brian Viola sat down recently with Air & Space Forces Magazine to talk about…
The Army has long been dependent on space capabilities to navigate terrain, communicate in hard-to-reach areas, and identify and strike targets. Now, the service wants to deepen its space operations expertise and is making plans to expand its own cadre of operators in the coming years.
The U.S. Air Force Academy’s Board of Visitors wants the service academy to partially reopen its iconic chapel ahead of schedule next year when it sheds the “big white box” that has enclosed it through years of renovations.
The Marine Corps recently conducted its first-ever “ripple” release of eight Small Diameter Bomb IIs from an F-35B, a key early step in proving out the capability for all F-35 variants.
Air Combat Command is looking for defense firms capable of providing a private counter-drone service, complete with the personnel to operate it, for defending air bases across the Air Force.
The Air Force may wind up buying land to build 120 new intercontinental ballistic missile silos as part of its revamped infrastructure approach for the new Sentinel ICBM.
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