Page 73 - Fighter Group News Today

Community honors San Antonio Tuskegee Airmans 100th birthday with parade FacebookTwitterEmail 1of5 James Bynum, one of the last Tuskegee Airmen, is delighted Saturday as he’s surprised by a parade celebrating his 100th birthday.Courtesy San Antonio Chapter - Tuskegee Airman Inc.Show MoreShow Less 2of5 3of5 Rick Sinkfield and James Bynum present the Tuskeegee Airmen wreath during the Martin Luther King Jr. wreath laying ceremony Sunday afternoon. Hundreds attended the event at the corner of E....

Esteemed Tuskegee Airmen Theodore Lumpkin Dies From COVID-19 Theodore Lumpkin, Jr., of the distinguished Tuskegee Airmen, has succumbed to complications of COVID-19. According to a press release from Los Angeles City College (LACC), the beloved airman and alumnus of the institution died on Dec.26– days before his 101st birthday.  News of his death shook the college. “The LACC community is saddened by the loss of Theodore Lumpkin Jr., “said Dr. Mary Gallagher, President, Los Angeles Cit...

Lumpkin died at a hospital in his hometown of Los Angeles.

Ted Lumpkin, original Tuskegee Airman, dies from COVID-19 at 100 Updated Jan 09, 2021; Posted Jan 09, 2021 FILE - In this Aug. 3, 2011, file photo, Harry E. Johnson Sr., left, president & CEO of the Martin Luther King Jr. Foundation, takes Tuskegee Airmen, including Theodore Lumpkin Jr., center, and Dabney Montgomery, right, on a tour of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington. Lumpkin has died from complications of the coronavirus, it was announced Friday, Jan. 8, 2021. (AP Photo/J...

In 1954, Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., became the first African American general in the U.S. Air Force.

By Ryan Shepard In 1954, Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., became the first African American general in the U.S. Air Force. His father, Benjamin Sr. became in 1940 the first African-American brigadier general in the Army. A West Point graduate, Davis Jr. was among the first group of African-Americans admitted to pilot training in the Army Air Corps. At West Point, Davis felt fierce racism from the other cadets. At the time he got his commission in 1936, he was just the fourth Black West Point graduate...

This nifty little plane did its part to defeat the Axis. Key point: This plane served in its own rightly role. Here is its forgotten history. If there is an American combat airplane that has achieved an ill-deserved reputation, no doubt it would be the much-maligned Bell P-39 Airacobra, a tricycle landing gear single-engine fighter whose reputation was greatly overshadowed by the more famous, and of more recent design, Lockheed P-38 Lightning, Curtiss P-40 Tomahawk, Republic P-47 Thunderbolt, ...

The wonder weapon was indeed wonderous, but it was not enough to save Hitler. Key point: The bomber was the fastest plane in the world when it debuted. But it also arrived very late in the war when the end was clearly nigh. When the Arado Ar-234 Blitz jet bomber first appeared in the skies of Europe, most Allied airmen did not know what it was. Many had never heard of jet engines, let alone a jet bomber. Fewer still knew that the Ar-234 was a shining star in Adolf Hitler’s constellation of w...

The P-38 joined the war late, but it quickly became a famous workhorse. Key point: The P-38 was one heck of a rugged airplane and it actually receded the vaunted P-51. Here is the Lightnings legacy. Due largely to their use in the postwar U.S. Army Air Forces and present proliferation among the air show community, the North American P-51 Mustang is thought of by many as the most important American fighter of World War II. In reality, however, the P-51 was a relative latecomer to the war, and e...

American Pilots Hated the P-39 Airacobra - But Russia Loved It The designers at Bell created a fighter that poorly fit the operational needs of the U.S. military, but that worked just fine for the low-level tactical air war waged by the Soviet Union. Heres What You Need To Remember: The anecdote shows that fighter planes must be relevant to the purpose they are employed for. In the case of the P-39, a plane that didnt work for the United States turned out to be just what the Red Army needed. T...