Countdown to Pegasus’ First Flight

? The first flight of the 767-2C provisional freighter that forms the basis of the Air Force’s KC-46A tanker has slipped from this summer to “mid-to-late November,” said Maj. Gen. John Thompson, program executive officer for tankers, on Tuesday. In addition, the first flight of the 767-2C converted to the KC-46 standard, which originally was scheduled for early 2015, has moved to April 2015, he said at AFA’s Air & Space Conference in National Harbor, Md. “These two movements of first flights begin to put pressure on milestone C [for the KC-46]. We’re obviously disappointed in that, but we’re not at the point where we have any great concerns,” he said. Milestone C must be met before the Pegasus can move into low-rate initial production, which is slated to begin in September 2015, said Thompson. “We’re not testing the whole envelope” for milestone C, “we just need to prove that we can do it,” he said. “We’ve got to get the aircraft in the air and prove it can do the basics, so we can … move forward,” said Thompson.