National Aviation Day falls on August 19, Orville Wright’s birthday. It was established in 1939 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to encourage interest in aviation in the United States. If you’re fascinated by aviation, particularly military aviation, Fold3 is a goldmine of images and documents that will expand your knowledge of the history of flight.
Check out the aviation-related images below from Fold3’s World War II and Vietnam photo collections, which you can access for free with registration. And if they spark your curiosity, try searching Fold3 for more photos like these. (Tip: try using search terms like “plane,” “airplane,” “pilot,” “flight,” and so on.)
World War II
- Search and rescue operations of the 1352nd AAF Base Unit, Air Transport Command, somewhere in India
- The first “Skyrocket” taking off over an Arab farm of French Morocco on the inaugural 4,800-mile run
- Three members of the original black Fighter Squadron
- Tons of bombs speckling the sky over Rangoon, Burma, as they fall from the bomb bays of 20th Bomber Command Superfortresses
- The last North American B-25 to come off the assembly line at the plant in Inglewood, California, covered with the names of the employees
- Flight nurse of the 7th Air Force
Vietnam
- Marines posing for a photo prior to flying into Saigon for evacuation exercises
- A captain of the Marine All Weather Attack Squadron-533 climbing into the pilot’s seat of an A-6 Intruder
- An A-4E Skyhawk aircraft heading for home at sunrise after a night raid over North Vietnam
- A pilot in survival gear used by First Marine Aircraft Wing
- A master gunnery sergeant at the controls of a C-117 passenger-cargo plane
Have you found any interesting aviation-related images or documents on Fold3? Share them with us! Or get started searching or browsing Fold3 for aviation topics.
Skymaster…..not Skyrocket
I’d like to see information on the 97th Bomb Group of the 8th Air Force under General Frank Armstrong. The movie “12 O’Cock high” was about this group…part of the group that was first to bomb Germany. Col. Paul Tibbetts was the lead pilot in that assault.
My uncle, Lt. Anthony M. Tuberose, was a command pilot in the 305th bomb group. He was shot down on his 24th mission and was a POW in Luftstalag One the last 14 months of the war. He later served on General Clay’s staff in Berlin and was the air officer for the Berlin Airlift. ANY information on him OR his group will be gratefully appreciated.
P.S. The command changed the “a” at the end of our name to an “e” because it sounded less “Italian” and, because we were at war with Italy, would have put him at serious risk if captured. He ALSO went by “MIKE” instead of Tony for the same reason.
Very interesting, thank your sharing.
My mother graduated from nursing school during WW II but was not accepted for the military for a heart murmur. She was part of a program which paid for nurses training, and those who did not enter the military were systematically stationed around the country to minimize shortages. In her case, she was assigned to Vanderbilt University Hospital in Nashville.
One of the more sobering pictures I have seen is of a flight nurse in Burma. By that time, the horrors of Japanese captivity were known, so unlike most medical personnel, she was packing a .45 in a shoulder holster.
i am looking for a comprehensive list of airforce vietnam veterans from connecticut.
do you have that list, and is it easily searchable? thanks, gary
Jim Tuberosa: General Clay kept a journal, from which he wrote a book entitled,
“Decision in Germany” Perhaps your uncle was mentioned in that. Otherwise, ii is a very good read on Post War Europe from the Governor General perspective. Good Luck on your hunt. My dad was assigned to the teaching cadre of the ROTC on the University of Washington, Seattle at the end of the war.
I think it’s a shame that this history only goes back to WWII. My father was a member of the Army Air Corps in the early 1920’s, stationed at Langley Field, VA. He was an aircraft mechanic who worked on the planes that flew in the “Around the World Air Race”. He loved flying, and later became the engineer & co-pilot on the first passenger plane to South America. Once there he flew betwee Trinidad & Rio de Janero, and Buenos Aires across the Andes to Chili.
Great family history to cherish, be sure to write it down. Keep your family history know for future generations.
My Mother, then: Marguerite Anna Jackson, (about 26), stationed somewhere in Texas, around 1920’s, to about 1929, with Her, Lt., or above, probably a Training-Pilot, either at Lackland, San Antonio, TX, (later Randolph Field, named for Capt. William Millican Randolph, who was killed taking-off at Gorman Field, during a Storm), in his Curtis AT-4, (at age 30)! Unable to learn anything about Randolph’s Friend: My Grandfather, Charles Jackson, U.S. Army Air Corp. Officer, Pilot at an unknown airfield, who was building a Dirigible, at time of His death, due to Malaria, (also at age 30)! So far, I’m unable to learn which Mosquito-infested Air Field where He & His Wife: Josie Madison Jackson,, My Mom & Her two Brothers, all of Savannah, GA, were Bivouac, (May be Kelly, or Gorman Field)? Please advise! (Mr. Dana Randolph Daffin, named for the Captain) [email protected] 1:53AM 8-6-17