jem3@pyuxf.cc.bellcore.com (John E McKillop) (06/20/91)
From: jem3@pyuxf.cc.bellcore.com (John E McKillop) I posted a message last week identifying some aviation anniversaries and have received several comments pertaining to two items. The two items are: June 18, 1911: H. Clyde Balsey of the Lafayette Escadrille is shot down near Verdun, France, the first American-born aviator shot down in World War I. June 28, 1946: The first V-2 rocket is launched from White Sands Proving Grounds, New Mexico. It rises to an altitude of 67 miles. As I have posted it, I killed poor Clyde 3 years before WWI began. Clyde was really killed in 1916 not 1911. Some have interpreted the second item as saying that the very first V-2 was launched in 1946. We all know that Germany was much further advanced in rocketry that we were and they launched the first V-2 in 1943/44. This item identifies the date when the first AMERICAN launched V-2 was fired at White Sands; not when the first GERMAN launched V-2 was fired.