2023 AIR FORCE ANNIVERSARY BALL

The “Evolution of Flight” corner had 33 models that started with the Wright Flyer on one end and worked chronologically through major aeronautical developments up to the Space Shuttle and a few “future Air Force” models as well. These included some U.S. WWI and WWII aircraft of note: Raoul Lufberry’s Nieuport 17c (Lafyette Escadrille) and Frank Luke’s SPAD XIII, and Dick Bong’s P-38J and George Preddy’s P-51D. These were followed by some “firsts” aircraft consisting of the Me-262, P-80A, XFY-1 Pogo VTOL aircraft, XF-85 Goblin, X-1 “Glamorous Glennis,” X-3, XF-92, X 15, a huge 1/48 scale SR 71 Blackbird (loved by all attendees), F-15 and F-16XL test birds, and the YF-22 and YF-23 test aircraft. In the NASA space program section, the models included the Mercury-Redstone “Friendship 7” flown by Alan Sheperd; Mercury-Atlas “Freedom 7” flown by John Glenn; Gemini Titan-3 “Unsinkable Molly Brown” flown by Gus Grissom and John Young; the Apollo-11 Command and Service Module “Columbia” and Lunar Module (LM) “Eagle” enroute to the Moon; and the LM “Eagle” landed on the Moon. Next were models of the Space Shuttles “Challenger” on the crawler launch pad and “Discovery” in the landed configuration. The “future US Air Force” models included an X-Wing Starfighter in Southeast Asia colors and an F-4X “X-Wing Starfighter,” which were also loved by the attendees. The left end of the table had a B 17F and B-24J and info on the Albuquerque Air Base Bombardier School during WWII; and a P 38H Lightning model and info on Capt Danny Roberts – New Mexico’s fighter ace. On display behind the NASA models was the USAF Missile Models collection, located here because we ran out of space on the “1947 to Present” tables. This collection included 14 models of USAF cruise missiles, IRBM and ICBMs, and the Bomarc SAM. I built those models for the 2022 AF Ball. One item that I brought with me but forgot to put next to the Wright Flyer was a white-colored wooden egg, as the initial “evolution of flight.”