The Princeton Review has named the US Air Force Academy one of the nation’s top 50 public colleges for 2009 in terms of value, based on surveys of administrators and students at hundreds of schools. “The Air Force Academy is honored to earn this distinction,” said academy dean Brig. Gen. Dana Born in a USAFA release Jan. 8. She continued, “It is further recognition of the great effort we are making in providing cadets not just with a world-class education, but a full spectrum of learning experiences.” (Link to list; requires free registration.) The Princeton Review has also crowned the academy the nation’s No. 1 college for professor availability for the past four years and has highlighted its academic strengths, such as a student-faculty ratio of 8:1.
The Air Force and Boeing agreed to a nearly $2.4 billion contract for a new lot of KC-46 aerial tankers on Nov. 21. The deal, announced by the Pentagon, is for 15 new aircraft in Lot 11 at a cost of $2.389 billion—some $159 million per tail.