In this rare news photograph, Babe Ruth  has just caught a baseball dropped
from an airplane at Mitchel Field (an early New York airport) in Garden City,
Long Island. The New York Times reports Ruth donned an army uniform to
drum up publicity for the Citizens Military Training Camps.

According to the Times account, Six times, baseballs were dropped from the
airplane and Ruth was sweating up a storm, running all over the field trying to
catch one. On the seventh attempt, Ruth caught a baseball from 300 feet up.

 
Ross Simpson

Mike Gracia

Sandy Kozel

James "Jimmy" Maitland Stewart (May 20, 1908 – July 2, 1997)

The unpainted XF6F-1 prior to its first flight

On June 26th, 1942, a prototype of the Grumman F6F Hellcat took to the skies
for the first time. Initially conceived of as an improved version of the Grumman
F4F Wildcat which had been in service since the 1930s. The plane was designed
with its greatest opponent, the Japanese Mitsubishi A6M Zero, in mind. 

The Hellcats were credited with destroying 5,223 aircraft while in service with the
U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps and the Royal Navy‘s Fleet Air Arm. They remained
in service as late as 1954 as a night fighter.

The F6F-3 as introduced in 1943