While it may have thrilled the crowd, it turns out that one of the four Vermont Air National Guard F-16 pilots from the 158th Fighter Wing who participated in the opening day flyover for the Boston Red Sox April 8 at Fenway Park conducted an improper maneuver. As a result, this pilot, whose name was not released, has been grounded and must undergo remedial training before being allowed to fly again, the Boston Globe reported April 11. The pilot was trailing in the four-ship formation behind the other three F-16s, when he caught up, flew under them and then looped up and over them to rejoin the formation in the right spot, the newspaper said. “I understand the crowd liked it, but you won’t see it again,” Lt. Col. Lloyd Goodrow, a Guard spokesman, told the newspaper. The pilot, Goodrow said, was flying at too low for such a maneuver: only about 1,100 feet, rather than the sanctioned 5,000 feet or higher.
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.