418th Flight Test Squadron

Established as a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress reconnaissance squadron in January 1942; redesignated as a heavy bomber squadron in April and activated in June. Trained initially under Third Air Force in the southeast; transferring to Second Air Force in the Pacific Northwest. Operated as an Operational Training Unit in the Midwest until being deployed to the European Theater of Operations, being assigned to VIII Bomber Command in England in June 1942.

Engaged in strategic bombardment operations over Occupied Europe and Germany, sustaining very heavy losses of personnel and aircraft while conducting many unescorted missions over enemy territory attacking airfields, industries, naval facilities and transportation hubs. During the summer of 1944, aircrews bombed enemy positions at Saint-Lô, followed by similar campaigns at Brest, France in August and September. In October 1944, the squadron attacked enemy and ground defenses in the allied drive on the Siegfried Line, then bombed marshaling yards, German occupied villages, and communication targets in the Ardennes during the Battle of the Bulge from December 1944 to January 1945. Attacked enemy targets in Germany during the spring of 1945, ending combat operations with the German Capitulation in May 1945.

Remained in Europe as part of the United States Air Forces in Europe occupation forces, dropping food to the people in the west of the Netherlands, and in June transported French Allied former prisoners of war from Austria to France. Demobilizing in England, in December 1945 the squadron inactivated as a paper unit.

The squadron was again activated in the reserve at Miami Army Air Field, Florida and assigned to the 100th Group on 29 May 1947. There, its training was supervised by the 473d AAF Base Unit (later the 2585th Air Force Reserve Training Center) of Air Defense Command (ADC).[2] It does not appear the squadron was fully staffed or equipped with operational aircraft. [3] In 1948 Continental Air Command (ConAC) assumed responsibility for managing reserve and Air National Guard units from ADC.[4] The 418th was inactivated when ConAC reorganized its reserve units under the wing base organization system in June 1949.[1] The squadron's personnel and equipment, along with other reserve units at Miami were transferred to elements of the 435th Troop Carrier Wing.[2]

From 1958, the Boeing B-47 Stratojet wings of Strategic Air Command (SAC) began to assume an alert posture at their home bases, reducing the amount of time spent on alert at overseas bases. The SAC alert cycle divided itself into four parts: planning, flying, alert and rest to meet General Thomas S. Power's initial goal of maintaining one third of SAC’s planes on fifteen minute ground alert, fully fueled and ready for combat to reduce vulnerability to a Soviet missile strike.[5] To implement this new system B-47 wings reorganized from three to four squadrons.[5][6] The 418th was activated at Pease Air Force Base as the fourth squadron of the 100th Bombardment Wing. The alert commitment was increased to half the squadron's aircraft in 1962 and the four squadron pattern no longer met the alert cycle commitment, so the squadron was inactivated on 1 January 1962.[6]

Squadron YC-17A Globemaster III[lower-alpha 4]

Squadron KC-135R Stratotanker[lower-alpha 5]

Reactivated as a flight testing squadron at Edwards Air Force Base, California. It has conducted flight testing of the MC-130H Combat Talon II and AC-130U Spooky aircraft since 1989.[1]

Supported test programs for miscellaneous large aircraft (other than the Edwards-owned Boeing C-135 Stratolifter and Boeing C-137 Stratoliner fleets). Also managed small test programs including the Slingsby T-3 Firefly, Beechcraft T-6 Texan II, and Lockheed Martin C-130J Super Hercules. Gained the Boeing C-17A Globemaster III program from the inactivating 417th Flight Test Squadron in 1995. Added EC-18 and Boeing NKC-135 types from the 452d Flight Test Squadron in a realignment of Edwards flight test squadrons on 1 October 2000. Ceased operating the EC-18s on 24 August 2001 when they were retired.[7]

• 100th Bombardment Group, 1 June 1942 – 19 December 1945
• 100th Bombardment Group, 29 May 1947 – 27 June 1949
• 100th Bombardment Wing, 1 March 1959 – 1 January 1962
• 6510th Test Wing (later 412th Test Wing), 10 March 1989
• 412th Operations Group, 1 October 1993 – present[1]

• Orlando Army Air Base, Florida 1 June 1942
• Barksdale Field, Louisiana, c. 18 June 1942
• Pendleton Field, Oregon c. 26 June 1942
• Gowen Field, Idaho, 28 August 1942
• Walla Walla Army Air Field, Washington, c. 1 November 1942
• Wendover Field, Utah, c. 30 November 1942
• Sioux City Army Air Base, Iowa, c. 28 December 1942
• Kearney Army Air Field, Nebraska, c. 30 January – May 1943
• RAF Thorpe Abbotts (USAAF Station 139),[8] England, 9 June 1943 – December 1945
• Camp Kilmer, New Jersey, c. 20–21 December 1945
• Miami Army Air Field (later Miami International Airport), Florida, 29 May 1947 – 27 June 1949
• Pease Air Force Base, New Hampshire, 1 March 1959 – 30 April 1966
• Edwards Air Force Base, California, 10 Mar 1989–Present[1]

Explanatory notes

Citations

 This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency.

• Maurer, Maurer, ed. (1983) [1961]. Air Force Combat Units of World War II (PDF) (reprint ed.). Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History. ISBN 0-912799-02-1. LCCN 61060979.
• Maurer, Maurer, ed. (1982) [1969]. Combat Squadrons of the Air Force, World War II (PDF) (reprint ed.). Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History. ISBN 0-405-12194-6. LCCN 70605402. OCLC 72556.
• Ravenstein, Charles A. (1984). Air Force Combat Wings, Lineage & Honors Histories 1947–1977. Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History. ISBN 0-912799-12-9. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
• Rogers, Brian. (2005). United States Air Force Unit Designations Since 1978. Hinkley, UK: Midland Publications. ISBN 1-85780-197-0.
• Schake, Col Kurt W. (1998). Strategic Frontier: American Bomber Bases Overseas, 1950–1960 (PDF). Trondheim, Norway: Norwegian University of Science and Technology. ISBN 978-8277650241. Retrieved 27 July 2015.