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  • Air Force Association Lifetime Achievement Award

    The Lifetime Achievement Award, presented by the Air Force Association, recognizes not a single achievement, but a lifetime of work in the advancement of aerospace. In September 2009, the AFA presented this award to the Doolittle Tokyo Raiders.Click here to return to the Doolittle Raid Overview. 

  • 14th Air Force in China: From Volunteers to Regulars

    The great value of the American Volunteer Group (AVG or Flying Tigers) was psychological and diplomatic: Americans and Chinese hailed them as heroes during the early period of World War II when Japan had the upper hand. The Flying Tigers raised public hopes for eventual victory while Allied forces,

  • Aleutian Campaign

    As a diversionary move in conjunction with their strike against Midway, the Japanese in June 1942 bombed Dutch Harbor in the Aleutian Island chain and landed troops on Kiska and Attu islands. Here the Japanese remained, primarily in a defensive situation, to prevent any movement by American forces

  • Combat Pacific

    For six months following the Pearl Harbor disaster, the outnumbered and ill-supplied Allied forces in the Pacific could do little more than attempt to delay the Japanese advance. Australia was a key stronghold for the buildup of Allied forces, but in early 1942 the last Allied outpost north of

  • Papua

    In July 1942 enemy troops on the Papuan peninsula on the northeast coast of New Guinea began an advance across the Owen Stanley Mountains against Port Moresby. Exhausted Australian ground forces, reinforced by troops flown to the scene, halted the enemy less than 30 miles from Port Moresby and then

  • Day of Infamy: The Pearl Harbor Attack

    At 7:55 a.m. on Sunday, Dec. 7, 1941, a Japanese force of 183 airplanes attacked U.S. military and naval facilities on Oahu in the Hawaiian Islands without warning. For 30 minutes, dive bombers, level bombers and torpedo planes struck airfields and naval vessels.After a 15-minute lull, a second wave

  • Flak 36 88mm Multipurpose Gun

    The versatile 88mm cannon was Germany’s main heavy antiaircraft—or “flak”—gun during World War II.  When an 88mm projectile exploded at altitude, it sent out jagged metal fragments that tore through nearby aircraft.  It also left a characteristic black cloud hanging in the sky.  The 88mm cannon’s

  • Stearman PT-13D Kaydet

    The United States and several Allied nations used the Kaydet as a standard primary trainer from the late 1930s to the end of World War II. Originally designed in 1933 by Lloyd Stearman for the civilian market, it received the designation PT-13 Kaydet when the U.S. Army Air Corps adopted it in 1936.

  • Vultee L-1A Vigilant

    The L-1 liaison aircraft, originally designated O-49, was the military version of the civilian Stinson Model 74. It marked the transition between heavier and larger observation aircraft used by the Air Corps in the 1930s and the lighter liaison "grasshopper" type aircraft represented by the L-series

  • WWII Era Gliders

    WWII Era GlidersPublished November 4, 2022Note:  These aircraft were offered for exchange as part of NMUSAF Solicitation 22-003 (Closed).WWII Era Gliders, owned by the National Museum of the United States Air Force (NMUSAF) and determined excess to collection needs.  Gliders are not airworthy or