Next month Air Force Space Command plans to induct retired Gen. Lew Allen Jr. and retired Maj. Gen. Joe Engle into the Air Force Space and Missile Pioneers Hall of Fame. Allen, who retired as Chief of Staff in 1982, started his Air Force career as a heavy bomber pilot, but after earning a doctorate in physics, he moved through various DOD and non-DOD government positions, where he worked on nuclear weapons experiments and space and intelligence programs. He also served as director of the National Security Agency and headed Air Force Systems Command. Engle served as a test pilot in the X-15 program, during which he exceeded 50 miles in altitude, qualifying him as an astronaut before NASA selected him to become an astronaut in 1966. He was one of the two astronauts to first fly the space shuttle in its orbital configuration and logged more than 225 hours in space. Engle retired from the Air Force as a colonel in 1986, but received an immediate appointment to the Air National Guard, where he retired as a major general.

The Air Education and Training Command’s 36th Rescue Flight at Fairchild AFB, Wash., recovered a woman who was bucked off a mule near Sherman Pass, Wash. The Fairchild crew flew their UH-1 helicopter directly to the Pass and, despite the...

Retired Gen. Howell M. Estes Jr., who headed Military Airlift Command before his retirement in 1969, died July 2 from a heart ailment. He was 92. Estes graduated from West Point in 1936, serving as a cavalry officer before entering...

The “Marine One” team of Lockheed Martin and Agusta Westland flew the first helicopter built specifically for the VH-71 Presidential helicopter program on July 3, “less than 30 months from the contract’s start,” according to a Team US101 release. Steven...

Air Force Reserve Command’s 419th Fighter Wing at Hill AFB, Utah, has sent off its last Block 30 F-16 fighters to other Reserve and Air National Guard units around the country. As we reported in April, the 419th is joining...

Crossing the border into Mexico and back netted a Cessna flown by three US citizens an F-16 Viper escort. The US Customs and Border Protection unit in Riverside tracked the aircraft as it crossed the border and back again, prompting...

The Defense Department Inspector General has cast a wary eye on the Air Force’s Network-Centric Solutions contract—with a potential ceiling of up to $9 billion—because the IG found it had incomplete information assurance requirements. A recent IG report says that...

According to Stars and Stripes, the Air Force has not granted Maj. Jill Metzger, who claims she was kidnapped during a deployment to Kyrgyzstan, an 18-month leave of absence. An Associated Press report last month said the service was going...

The innovative engineers and technicians at Arnold Engineering and Development Center in Tennessee developed a High Speed Fan Facility to verify the viability of the Towed Airborne Plume Simulator to test early warning sensors on military aircraft. TAPS will be...

July 2-3, 2007 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total ISR 32 20 52 CAS/Armed Recon 143 79 222 Airlift 317 317 Air refueling 50 50 Total 175 99 367 641 OIF=Operation Iraqi Freedom OEF=Operation Enduring Freedom ISR=Intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance Airlift includes Horn...