The Journey of Flight.pdf - Valkyrie Cadet

As technology got better, systems got smaller. This allowed the developers to put the technology
they used in the Snark drone, into a smaller missile. Whereas the Snark was a pilotless airplane, the
next system, the GAM 63 Rascal, was a small, rocket-propelled, supersonic winged bomb. In 1957,
B-47 bomber squadrons carried it and launched it 100 miles away from the target. Once launched, the
bomber crew guided it by radar to the target.
These changes in technology were significant. These new rocket systems allowed the bomber
aircrews to stay farther and farther away from the target. By keeping their distance from the target,
enemy fire would be less effective. In the long run, these new weapons would save lives.
The B-58 Hustler was Americas’s first operational supersonic bomber.
The The V VVietnam
V ietnam Conflict
Conflict
While all these advances were happening in the world of aviation, the United States became more
and more involved in Vietnam. America’s involvement in Vietnam can be broken down into four fairly
distinct phases that cover a period of about 25 years.
Phase I, July 1950 - July 1954
In February 1950, France requested military and economic aid from the United States for its war
with communist separatists in Vietnam. At the time, Vietnam was a French colony. President Truman
responded by granting $15 million in assistance in July 1950. He did so because he wanted to help the
French stop the spread of communism in Vietnam.
To do this he established a US Military Assistance Advisor Group (MAAG). This unit initially
consisted of 342 military advisors who advised the French Expeditionary Corps in its war against the
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