Lt. Col. Drew English, test director for the 59th Test and Evaluation Squadron at Nellis AFB, Nev., reached his 3,000th flight hour in an A-10 cockpit on March 26 during a force development mission to the Nevada Test and Training Range. “I consider it a privilege that I’ve been able to fly this airplane non-stop for over 15 years,” said English, a career operational test and instructor pilot, who flew his first A-10 sortie in June 1993. Maj. Neal Sheeran, 59th TES project manager for the A-10, said of English, “His complete dedication to making the A-10 the best possible [close air support] platform, both for the A-10 community and the Air Force as a whole, is unmatched.” (Nellis report by Minty Knighton)
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.