550th Guided Missiles Wing
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550th Guided Missiles Wing
The 550th Guided Missiles Wing is an inactive United States Air Force unit. It was last assigned to the Long Range Proving Ground Division at Patrick Air Force Base, Florida. It was inactivated on 30 December 1950. From 1949 through 1950 it was the Air Force's only experimental missile unit. History Established as an expansion of the 1st Experimental Guided Missiles Group, the 550th Guided Missiles Wing was a short-lived unit of the Air Proving Ground, activated at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. Its mission was the supervision and evaluation of guided missile service tests as opposed to pure experimentation of its predecessor unit.Mindling & Bolton As part of the 550th Wing, the former 1st Experimental Guided Missiles Squadron was inactivated; its personnel and equipment reorganized as follows: * 1st Guided Missiles Squadron. Assigned the air-to-surface missiles and guided bomb testing program * 2d Guided Missiles Squadron. Operated QB/DB-17 Flying Fortress drone/direct ...
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United States Air Force
The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal Corps, the USAF was established as a separate branch of the United States Armed Forces in 1947 with the enactment of the National Security Act of 1947. It is the second youngest branch of the United States Armed Forces and the fourth in order of precedence. The United States Air Force articulates its core missions as air supremacy, global integrated intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, rapid global mobility, global strike, and command and control. The United States Air Force is a military service branch organized within the Department of the Air Force, one of the three military departments of the Department of Defense. The Air Force through the Department of the Air Force is headed by the civilian Secretary of the Air Force ...
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Cape Canaveral
, image = cape canaveral.jpg , image_size = 300 , caption = View of Cape Canaveral from space in 1991 , map = Florida#USA , map_width = 300 , type =Cape , map_caption = Location in Florida , location = Florida, United States , water_bodies = Atlantic Ocean , coordinates = , relief = 1 , elevation = , area = , references = Cape Canaveral ( es, Cabo Cañaveral) is a cape in Brevard County, Florida, in the United States, near the center of the state's Atlantic coast. Officially Cape Kennedy from 1963 to 1973, it lies east of Merritt Island, separated from it by the Banana River. It is part of a region known as the Space Coast, and is the site of the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Since many U.S. spacecraft have been launched from both the station and the Kennedy Space Center on adjacent Merritt Island, the two are sometimes conflated with each other. Other features of the cape include Port Canavera ...
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Lockheed T-33 T-Bird
The Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star (or T-Bird) is an American subsonic jet trainer. It was produced by Lockheed and made its first flight in 1948. The T-33 was developed from the Lockheed P-80/F-80 starting as TP-80C/TF-80C in development, then designated T-33A. It was used by the U.S. Navy initially as TO-2, then TV-2, and after 1962, T-33B. The last operator of the T-33, the Bolivian Air Force, retired the type in July 2017, after 44 years of service. Design and development The T-33 was developed from the Lockheed P-80/F-80 by lengthening the fuselage by slightly more than 3 feet (1 m) and adding a second seat, instrumentation, and flight controls. It was initially designated as a variant of the P-80/F-80, the TP-80C/TF-80C. Design work on the Lockheed P-80 began in 1943, with the first flight on 8 January 1944. Following on the Bell P-59, the P-80 became the first jet fighter to enter full squadron service in the United States Army Air Forces. As more advanced jet ...
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Boeing B-29 Superfortress
The Boeing B-29 Superfortress is an American four-engined propeller-driven heavy bomber, designed by Boeing and flown primarily by the United States during World War II and the Korean War. Named in allusion to its predecessor, the B-17 Flying Fortress, the Superfortress was designed for high-altitude strategic bombing, but also excelled in low-altitude night incendiary bombing, and in dropping naval mines to blockade Japan. B-29s dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the only aircraft ever to drop nuclear weapons in combat. One of the largest aircraft of World War II, the B-29 was designed with state-of-the-art technology, which included a pressurized cabin, dual-wheeled tricycle landing gear, and an analog computer-controlled fire-control system that allowed one gunner and a fire-control officer to direct four remote machine gun turrets. The $3 billion cost of design and production (equivalent to $ billion today), far exceeding the $1.9 b ...
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3200th Drone Squadron
The 3205th Drone Squadron is a discontinued United States Air Force unit. It was last active with the Air Proving Ground Center based at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, where it was discontinued on 25 October 1963. The squadron operated various drones between 1950 and 1963 to provide targets to support development of weapons and for interceptor training. History The 3205th Drone Squadron was organized in April 1950, when it assumed the mission of operating QB-17L Flying Fortresses as drone aerial targets from the 550th Guided Missiles Wing. The squadron operated QB-17 drones and DB-17 controller aircraft, providing aerial targets for surface-to-air and air-to-air missile development programs at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. The unit also used QF-80 Shooting Star jets for aerial gunnery targets for Air Defense Command interceptor squadrons. The squadron deployed elements to the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) Nevada Test Site and Pacific Proving Grounds during the 19 ...
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3200th Proof Test Group
The 3200th Proof Test Group is an inactive United States Air Force unit. It was last active with the Air Armament Center, based at Eglin AFB, Florida. It was inactivated on 1 July 1953. History Established by the Air Armament Center at Eglin AFB in 1948, being formed from the 3200th Air Transport Test Squadron, and taking over the mission of the World War II 1st Proving Ground Group. During its existence, the units mission was heavily classified. Mission was service testing, training and demonstrations of weapons systems under development. Was equipped with B-50 Superfortress, F-80 Shooting Star, F-84 Thunderjet, F-86 Sabre, B-45 Tornado, Hughes XF-11, Republic XF-12 Rainbow, SA-16 Albatross, C-119 Flying Boxcar, Hughes XH-17 Helicopter and other systems. The group operated a climate-controlled hangar to test aircraft in arctic cold conditions to desert and subtropical humid heat. In the spring of 1949 launched Republic-Ford JB-2 missiles from underneath the wings ...
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303d Tactical Missile Wing
The 303rd Aeronautical Systems Wing (303 ASW) was a United States Air Force unit assigned to the Air Force Materiel Command Aeronautical Systems Center, 2005-2010. It was stationed at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio as a tenant unit. The wing was the successor organization to the World War II Eighth Air Force 303rd Bombardment Group. The group was one of the first VIII Bomber Command B-17 Flying Fortress units in England. The "Hell's Angels" were the first B-17 group to complete 25 combat missions in June 1943, going on to fly more than 300 combat missions, more than any other group. The 359th BS B-17F 41-24605 "Knock-out Dropper" was the first aircraft in Eighth Air Force to complete 50, then 75 missions. During the Cold War, the Strategic Air Command 303rd Bombardment Wing was a Boeing B-47 Stratojet medium bomber wing in the 1950s, and in the 1980s became a Tactical Missile Wing assigned to the United States Air Forces in Europe. Overview Wing responsibilities also i ...
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BGM-109G
The Ground Launched Cruise Missile, or GLCM, (officially designated BGM-109G Gryphon) was a ground-launched cruise missile developed by the United States Air Force in the last decade of the Cold War and disarmed under the INF Treaty. Overview The BGM-109G was developed as a counter to the mobile MRBM and IRBM nuclear missiles ( SS-20 Saber) deployed by the Soviet Union in Eastern Bloc European countries. The GLCM and the U.S. Army's Pershing II may have been the incentives that fostered Soviet willingness to sign the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF treaty), and thus possibly reduced the threat of nuclear wars in Europe. GLCM is also a generic term for any ground-launched cruise missile. Since the U.S. deployed only one modern cruise missile in the tactical role, the GLCM name stuck. The GLCM was built by General Dynamics. History Design and employment A conventionally configured cruise missile, the BGM-109 was essentially a small, pilotless flying machine, powere ...
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RAF Molesworth
Royal Air Force Molesworth or more simply RAF Molesworth is a Royal Air Force station located near Molesworth, Cambridgeshire, England with a history dating back to 1917. Its runway and flight line facilities were closed in 1973 and demolished. New facilities were constructed to support ground-launched cruise missile operations in the early 1980s. It was one of the two British bases to house cruise missiles and a focus for protests. It is now a non-flying facility under the control of the United States Air Force (USAF), and is one of two Royal Air Force (RAF) stations in Cambridgeshire currently used by the United States Air Forces in Europe (USAFE). Molesworth, RAF Alconbury and RAF Upwood were considered the "Tri-Base Area" due to their close geographic proximity and interdependency until RAF Upwood closed in late 2012. RAF Alconbury and RAF Molesworth were the last Second World War era Eighth Air Force airfields in the United Kingdom that were still actively in use and cont ...
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4803d Guided Missiles Squadron
48 may refer to: * 48 (number) * one of the years 48 BC, AD 48, 1948, 2048 * ''48'' (novel) * 48'' (magazine) * "48", a song by Tyler, the Creator from the album ''Wolf'' * 48, a phone network brand of Three Ireland * "Forty Eight", a song by Karma to Burn from the album '' V'', 2011 See also * A48 (other) A48 may refer to : * A48 motorway (France), a road connecting the A43 and Grenoble * A48 road (Great Britain), a road connecting Gloucester, England and Carmarthen, Wales * Autovía A-48, a motorway under construction connecting Cadiz and Algeciras, ...
{{number disambiguation ...
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4802d Guided Missiles Squadron
48 may refer to: * 48 (number) * one of the years 48 BC, AD 48, 1948, 2048 * ''48'' (novel) * 48'' (magazine) * "48", a song by Tyler, the Creator from the album ''Wolf'' * 48, a phone network brand of Three Ireland * "Forty Eight", a song by Karma to Burn from the album '' V'', 2011 See also * A48 (other) A48 may refer to : * A48 motorway (France), a road connecting the A43 and Grenoble * A48 road (Great Britain), a road connecting Gloucester, England and Carmarthen, Wales * Autovía A-48, a motorway under construction connecting Cadiz and Algeciras, ...
{{number disambiguation ...
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4800th Guided Missile Wing
The 6555th Aerospace Test Group is an inactive United States Air Force unit. It was last assigned to the Eastern Space and Missile Center and stationed at Patrick Air Force Base, Florida. It was inactivated on 1 October 1990. Prior to the activation of the Air Force Space Command, the unit was responsible for the development of USAF missiles, both tactical surface-to-surface; CIM-10 Bomarc Interceptor Missile; SM-62 Snark Intercontinental Cruise Missile; Intercontinental ballistic missile and heavy launch rockets used for military for satellite deployment. The unit played a key role in the civilian NASA Project Mercury, Project Gemini and Project Apollo manned space programs along with military Space Shuttle flights. The mission of the unit today is performed by the 45th Space Launch Delta (no direct lineage). History Activated in December 1950, replacing 550th Guided Missiles Wing. the 6555th had a distinguished career launching and/or managing ballistic missiles, space ...
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