C
rews at the National Museum of the US Air Force in Dayton, Ohio, have finished restoring a Vietnam War-era Martin B-57B Canberra bomber and a De Havilland C-7A Caribou transport aircraft and returned them to the museum’s Southeast Asia War exhibit area. The restoration work began last fall. Museum staff converted the Canberra from an EB-57B electronic countermeasures platform back to its original bomber configuration by reinstalling the weapons bay, removing antennae, and repainting it. They are currently installing napalm canisters while the aircraft sits on display. Museum staff repainted the Caribou, which had been on display outdoors in recent years. It now appears as one of the C-7As flown by Maj. Hunter Hackney on Aug. 25, 1968, when he flew several aerial resupply missions through intense enemy fire, earning the Air Force Cross. (Wright-Patterson release) (Museum website) (B-57B fact sheet, with more photos) (C-7A fact sheet, with more photos)
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.