The Air Force has released the report of the Accident Investigation Board (AIB) for the May 2009 fatal crash of a T-38 at Edwards Air Force Base. The crash killed the front seat pilot, Capt Mark P. “Dash” Graziano, and severely injured the rear seat engineer, Maj Lee V. Jones. Both were students at the USAF Test Pilot School.
The publicly-releasable AIB report indicates that the T-38 crashed because Read more
Urban legends abound in the Air Force about doing unusual things in aircraft that the manufacturer (and the Air Force) never intended. No, this doesn’t refer to things like rolling inverted in a tanker. It’s like the ability to suck hard boiled eggs out of the sextant port in the C-135. Seriously, who figured that out?
Another example is the zippo, a product of the F-111, a photo of which is below:
Photo credit Capt. Christy Stravolo
At some point, an F-111 aircrew member discovered Read more
In a scene right out of Star Trek (which is based on the Navy construct, by the way), a C-130 equipped with a laser recently engaged a vehicle on the ground with fascinating results. The laser sparked and burned the hood of a parked car, and Boeing, the commercial contractor, said that it “killed” the vehicle.
The C-130 carried a belly-mounted turret from which it fired its Airborne Tactical Laser (ATL). The ATL has been under development Read more
A previous post noted that the Air Force graduated UAV pilots who had no prior flight experience. More recently, the Air Force announced [updated link] that those pilots will wear the following wings, designed by public affairs Staff Sergeant Austin May in the UK:
(By comparison, you can see traditional Air Force pilot wings in the ChristianFighterPilot logo.) The wings were awarded to the first class that just graduated. This is not an insignificant step for the Air Force, which is characterized by a culture that closely guards those who it permits to wear wings. The Air Force also announced that the UAS pilots Read more
Gen. Stephen Lorenz, commander of Air Education and Training Command (AETC), which is the major command under which pilot training falls, recently indicated the potential for changes in Air Force pilot training.
His proposals included delaying the “specialization” of pilot training students until they were closer to, or already had earned, their wings. Currently, pilot training students “track” into specifically-geared training programs six months into their 12-month program. Read more
Over the years, the military services have tried a variety of public relations campaigns and recruiting slogans to draw attention and volunteers. Some have withstood the test of time (“Be all you can be.”), and others were barely acknowledged (“Be part of the action,” which, ironically enough, was a recruiting slogan for the Coast Guard).
The person at the Pentagon responsible for hitting send on a service’s new slogan is almost deserving of pity; he will never please everyone, and there will always be staunch and cynical critics. Even the most recent Air Force slogan change (“Above all.”) was vilified by some for its similarity to the German Uber Alles.
With that background, the US Navy is no longer “Accelerate your life.” It is now Read more
In an apparent reversal of popular stereotype, the Air Force Times analysis of Air Force marriage statistics claims that fighter pilots actually have a divorce rate lower than the rest of the force:
Airmen in career fields with the highest deployment tempos don’t get divorced more than those who spend most of their time at home station. Fighter jocks, supposed playboys, actually get divorced less than the force as a whole.
The Air Force has graduated its first class of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) pilots that included officers who had never attended Undergraduate Pilot Training (UPT). That is, they are the first UAV pilots who were not formerly a pilot of some other military aircraft. The class was composed of 10 pilots and 9 sensor operators. Eight of the pilots were non-aviators; there is a second similar class in training behind them.
The increasing demand for UAVs in Iraq and Afghanistan–as well as the desire to keep military pilots in cockpits–led to the “experiment” Read more