Aircraft recovery personnel from Moody AFB, Ga., removed an F-86L Sabre from a pedestal in downtown Valdosta for display in the base air park. Working through the night from April 24 to April 25, airmen unbolted the aircraft, lifted it from its plinth, and placed the fighter on a flatbed trailer for the 13-mile haul to Moody, said officials with the base’s 23rd Wing. “The main challenge was weaving in and out of the road signs that couldn’t be removed in the median and on the right side of the road,” said 23rd Logistics Readiness Squadron driver TSgt. John Turner. Rededicated in honor of local airman Maj. Lyn McIntosh—killed in the failed 1980 hostage rescue in Iran—the F-86 graced downtown Valdosta since 1961. Now at Moody, airmen will restore the aircraft. Once complete, the F-86 will again honor McIntosh. (Moody report by MSgt. Sonny Cohrs)
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.