Company test pilot Johnny Cable makes the first flight of the Douglas Model 7B, the prototype of what would become the A-20 Havoc, at El Segundo, Calif. The A-20 would eventually become the Army Air Force’s most produced attack aircraft and would be used in every theater of World War II.
Happy Birthday US Air Force: 78 Today
Sept. 18, 2025
Seventy-eight years ago today, on Sept. 18, 1947, Supreme Court Chief Justice Fred Vinson swore in Stuart Symington as the first ever Secretary of the Air Force, and the Air Force officially became the first new military service since the Revolutionary War.