Company test pilot Eddie Allen and crew make the first flight of the Boeing XB-29 Superfortress in Seattle, Wash. Designed as a replacement for the B-17 and B-24, the B-29 is considered the ultimate World War II bomber.
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.