Air Educ
ation and Training Command will graduate the last of the Air Force’s new T-37 Tweet instructor pilots on March 23 at Randolph AFB, Tex. Randolph will retire its last Tweet in an April 6 ceremony, capping 42 years of service for the undergraduate pilot training aircraft at the base. The T-37 and its new class of IPs will live on for another couple of years at Columbus AFB, Miss., and Sheppard AFB, Tex. Capt. Joe Rucker, one of the last IPs, told journalist SSgt. Lindsey Maurice: “It’s very cool to think we’re a part of aviation history. … To finish out the career of an aircraft that has been serving the Air Force for 50 years is pretty significant.”
Fixing the Air Force’s chronic combat pilot shortage will require more aircraft in the fleet, more flying hours to squadron operations, and retaining more pilots within Reserve components, according to a new paper from AFA’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.