Boeing recently completed the first depot level maintenance of an E-4B National Airborne Operations Center aircraft at its San Antonio, Texas, facility, the company announced. “Boeing’s ability to return this aircraft to service, ahead of schedule, benefits the men and women who serve on them as well as the citizens they protect,” Air Force E-4B section chief Joseph Stupic said in a May 20 company release. Boeing overhauled both the Air Force’s 747-based E-4B and VC-25 platforms in Wichita, Kan., from 1974 until the company closed its facility there last year. The Air Force’s four NAOC aircraft are cycled through refit every two years. Boeing also reworks Air Force C-17 and KC-135s, as well as commercial aircraft on the San Antonio line, according to the release.
Air Force Gen. Jacqueline D. Van Ovost—a trailblazer and one of the first 10 women to reach a four-star rank across the U.S. military—retired and passed control of U.S. Transportation Command to Air Force Gen. Randall Reed on Oct. 4, finishing an eventful tenure at TRANSCOM.
