The Nati
onal Aviation Hall of Fame on July 18 enshrined three USAF airmen among the four names selected for its class of 2009. The USAF inductees are: the late Brig. Gen. Jimmy Stewart, World War II bomber pilot and one of the early officers of the Air Force Association, as well as Academy Award winning actor; ret. Col. Eileen Collins, USAF test pilot and the first woman to command a space shuttle; and the late Lt. Col. Edward White III, who died in the 1967 Apollo I fire on the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center, Fla. NAHF also inducted Russell Meyer Jr., former chairman and CEO of Cessna Aircraft Company. (NAHF release)
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.