A Douglas VC-9, which flew vice presidents and US dignitaries for 35 years, touched down at Dover AFB, Del., where it will remain on permanent display at the Air Mobility Command Museum on base. Assigned to the 89th Airlift Squadron at Andrews AFB, Md., serial number 73-1682 served as “Air Force Two” ferrying vice presidents from Walter Mondale to Dick Cheney, before passing to Air Force Reserve Command’s 932nd Airlift Wing at Scott AFB, Ill., in 2005. Adapted from the DC-9, the aircraft boasts secure communications and extended-range fuel tanks. The aircraft flew its final active duty mission shuttling officials to the Gulf Coast following Hurricane Katrina.”Having a presidential fleet airplane allows us to tell the fact that we not only haul beans and bacon and bombs and supplies, we haul passengers, and in this case, America’s leaders,” Museum Director Mike Leister, told Delaware Online.
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.