Audio of this article is brought to you by the Air & Space Forces Association, honoring and supporting our Airmen, Guardians, and their families. Find out more at afa.org
In the beginning the US Army created the Aeronautical Information Branch’s Weekly News Letter. Our very first issue, for the week of Sept. 15-Sept. 21, 1918, began with a typo. The lead article’s headline read, “The WareDepartment Authorizes …” Things got better after that, and we reported on World War I, as it happened.
The first issue with our current (and final!) name, Air Force Magazine, left, arrived in December 1942. We reported on World War II, as it happened. June 1946, center, was the last issue published by the Army. The official service jo?urnal of the US Army Air Forces then transferred to the brand-new Air Force Association. July 1946, was the first issue published by AFA. Our association was five months old; the US Air Force did not yet exist.
Note: This collection of covers is best viewed in its original, printed form:
The Space Age was well-represented. 1958 was all about space and missiles, leading AFA to add Space Digest to the magazine’s branding that November. The co-branding lasted, in a variety of ways, until January 1971.
The Vietnam War, as it took place. Our coverage, beginning in 1969, of America’s forgotten prisoners of war helped focus national attention on the POWs and their plight.
August 1989. Logistics, for when you must have guns and butter. April 1991. The iconic image of the Gulf War, as it happened.
Audio of this article is brought to you by the Air & Space Forces Association, honoring and supporting our Airmen, Guardians, and their families. Find out more at afa.org
The program executive officers for some of the Air Force’s largest acquisition management organizations are struggling to deal with an exodus of senior talent and experienced civilian staff, three of them told an industry conference.
Congress set the legal floor for how many primary mission aircraft the Air Force had to have in its fighter force in 2018, requiring at least 1,145 fighters through Oct. 1, 2026. In each of the past past two legislative cycles, lawmakers agreed to reduce the number. But when the House passed…
The Space Force has delayed its next Tactically Responsive Space mission, Victus Haze, until 2026, as one of its launch providers continues to recover from a rocket anomaly that occurred earlier this year.
Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, who was wounded in an attack while serving in Washington, D.C., is making “extraordinary progress,” while being treated at MedStar Washington Hospital Center, the West Virginia National Guard recently announced.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth visited the site of U.S. Space Command’s future home Dec. 12 and endorsed the move to establish the headquarters in Alabama after years of political back and forth.
The U.S. sent Air Force F-16s over central Syria in a show of force following the Dec. 13 killing of two U.S. Army Soldiers and one American civilian interpreter by a gunman linked to the Islamic State group.
The Space Force has accepted its first Meadowlands satellite communications jammer from prime contractor L3Harris and is poised to start using the system in operations next year.
