Illinois and Missouri took new legal moves last Thursday to stop the BRAC actions that would divest each state of its Air National Guard fighter aircraft. Missouri filed a preliminary injunction to protect the 131st Fighter Wing’s F-15s at Lambert Field in St. Louis. Illinois officials requested a restraining order to prohibit the BRAC commission from delivering its final recommendations to President Bush. (They are due Sept. 8.) The commission voted to remove the 183rd Fighter Wing’s F-16s, stationed in Springfield, Ill. A hearing in the Missouri case was slated for Tuesday.
An Air Force F-16 pilot designed a collapsible ladder that weighs just six pounds and folds into the unused cockpit map case.