After 65 years, Barrie Davis, a World War II fighter ace, later this month is set to meet the Romanian air force pilot who, flying a German-made Messerschmidt Bf-109G fighter, tore up his P-51 Mustang during an encounter over the skies of Romania and nearly shot him down. The Charlotte Observer reported Monday that Davis, now 86, and one of his sons will travel to Bucharest to meet Ion Dobran, now 90, his wartime nemesis, in a meeting arranged by a magazine writer. Neither fighter pilot harbors hard feelings. In fact, during the visit, they will stop at the graves of some of the American aviators who died in the war, according to the newspaper. “I’m just eager to see him,” Davis said of Dobran, adding, “I never saw him or his airplane the day he shot me up.”
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.