The National Aviation Hall of Fame in Dayton, Ohio, announced the names of the four individuals elected for enshrinement in 2012. They are: Geraldyn Cobb, record-setting pilot and the first and only woman to pass all of the Mercury astronaut selection tests; Keith Ferris, founder of the American Society of Aviation Artists and an expert and inventor of aircraft paint systems for military camouflage and high-visibility purposes; the late retired Lt. Gen. Elwood R. Quesada who helped develop and successfully demonstrate air-to-air refueling in 1929 and was the first commander of Tactical Air Command; and the late Richard T. Whitcomb, acclaimed as the most influential aeronautical researcher of his time for innovations, like winglets, that enable aircraft to fly faster, farther, and with less fuel. The formal enshrinement ceremony will take place in the fall of 2012. (NAHF website) (See also our entry on 2011 class.) (See also Airpower on Canvas for more on Ferris as well as Quesada the Conqueror, and Richard Whitcomb’s Triple Play from Air Force Magazine’s archives.)
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.