B-1B Flies With Synthetic Fuel Mix:

An Air Force B-1B bomber from the 9th Bomb Squadron at Dyess AFB, Tex., on March 19 became the first aircraft to fly at supersonic speeds burning the synthetic fuel blend that USAF wants its entire inventory cleared to use...

Losing the Provisional:

The formal standup of the Air Force Global Logistics Support Center is scheduled for March 28 at Scott AFB, Ill. The ceremony will come less than one year after USAF established the center on a provisional basis at Scott. The...

Massachusetts Lobbies for Cyber Command:

Joining the list of 14 other states that the Air Force acknowledges have come forward expressing their own interest, Massachusetts is vying to host the permanent headquarters for USAF’s Cyber Command. WickedLocal.com, web site of the Lincoln Journal, reported March...

Shining Virtually:

DOD presented the 2007 Modeling and Simulation Award March 11 to the Air Force’s Distributed Mission Operations Center at Kirtland AFB, N.M. The center won for Virtual Flag, the network-centric, distributed, joint virtual wargaming, and training exercises that it runs...

V-22 Multi Year Imminent, But Won’t Speed CV-22 Delivery:

The Bell-Boeing industry team and the Navy’s V-22 program office are on the verge of signing a multiyear procurement agreement for acquisition of 167 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft from Fiscal 2008 to Fiscal 2012, including 26 CV-22s for Air Force Special...

Inspired by Leaves and Human Skin:

Two Air Force Office of Scientific Research-funded scientists have been honored recently for their breakthrough research in self-healing plastics. Scientific American recognized Scott White and Nancy Sottos, both professors at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, in the magazine’s 2007...

Pilot Error Caused Two T-6As To Collide:

The student and instructor pilot in a T-6A Texan II trainer overshot a landing traffic entry pattern and failed to see a second T-6A with two onboard, thereby causing the midair collision of both airplanes last November, the Air Force...

F-136 Completes High-Altitude Tests:

The General Electric and Rolls-Royce Fighter Engine Team has completed high-altitude afterburner testing of the F136 powerplant at the Air Force’s Arnold Engineering Development Center in Tennessee. “All test objectives were reached as planned,” the team said in a March...

SBIRS Testing Advances:

Prime contractor Lockheed Martin expects to conclude baseline integrated system testing for the first Space-Based Infrared System early warning satellite in May and then move into environmental testing in preparation for launch in late 2009, the company announced March 19...

Air Sorties in War on Terrorism, Southwest Asia

March 19, 2008 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total YTD ISR 25 11 36 2,114 CAS/Armed Recon 70 44 114 6,424 Airlift 158 158 9,625 Air refueling 43 43 2,992 Total 351 21,155 OIF=Operation Iraqi Freedom OEF=Operation Enduring Freedom ISR=Intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance...