Today in World War II History—November 1, 1939 & 1944
Heinkel He 178, 1939 (US Air Force photo: 050602-F-1234P-002)
85 Years Ago—Nov. 1, 1939: Aircraft designer Ernst Heinkel demonstrates the first jet aircraft, the He 178, to German military leaders, but they’re not impressed.
John Rockefeller installs ceremonial final rivet in US Rubber Company Building, the last building in Rockefeller Center in New York City.
Flight nurse Lt. Aleda Lutz of 802nd Medical Air Evacuation Transport Squadron in a C-47 in North Africa, 1943. Lt. Lutz was killed in a plane crash in France Nov. 1, 1944, one of 16 flight nurses killed in service. (US Army Medical Department, Office of Medical History)
80 Years Ago—Nov. 1, 1944: US C-47 medical air evacuation flight crashes in southern France—the crew, 15 patients, and flight nurse Aleda Lutz are killed. (Read more about flight nurses: “Medical Air Evacuation in World War II: The Flight Nurse”).
F-13 reconnaissance plane flies over Tokyo, the first US aircraft over the city since the Doolittle Raid of April 1942.
At Caltech, America’s first rocket research and development center is renamed Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
