August 17
What happened on August 17 in aviation and space history.
- August 17, 1942
Eighth Air Force's first heavy bomber mission over Europe
Milestone — On 17 August 1942, twelve B-17Es of the 97th Bomb Group — lead aircraft flown by Major Paul Tibbets, with Brigadier General Ira Eaker aboard as observer — attacked the Rouen-Sotteville railway marshalling yards escorted by RAF Spitfires. It was the Eighth Air Force's first heavy bomber mission over occupied Europe, just three months after the group had arrived in England.
- August 17, 1943
Schweinfurt–Regensburg mission
Milestone — On 17 August 1943 the Eighth Air Force launched a double strike against the Schweinfurt ball-bearing works and the Regensburg fighter plant. Of the 230 B-17s that attacked Schweinfurt, roughly 300 Luftwaffe fighters shot down 36, without inflicting decisive damage on the factories — an early demonstration of the cost of deep raids into Germany without long-range fighter escort.
- August 17, 1978
F-16 enters USAF service
Milestone — The F-16 entered service with the U.S. Air Force, becoming a mainstay of its tactical airpower from that point on.
- August 17, 2011
Public debut of the T-50 at MAKS 2011
Milestone — The T-50 made its first public flight demonstration on 17 August 2011 at the MAKS air show in Zhukovsky, near Moscow, in front of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and other attendees. The pilots performed no aerobatics since the aircraft was still undergoing flight testing, and during the show one of the two prototypes present suffered a starboard engine compressor stall during its takeoff roll.