Air Force

Better than fireworks; Happy anniversary, C-130

By David Larter on August 23, 2011 Air Force, Air Mobility Command, Photos

Who needs the 4th of July fireworks show when you can get these kind of pyrotechnics on a regular basis if you join the U.S. Air Force? On this day in 1954, the C-130 Hercules flew for the first time and more than 50 years later, the bird still flies every day in support of the Air Force mission. It goes to show that just because something is old, doesn’t mean it can’t still get the job done. The current iteration of Lockheed Martin’s C-130 is 112 feet long and has a 132-foot wingspan. It can fly in excess of…

God save the Queen, eh?

By David Larter on August 17, 2011 Air Force, Royal Air Force

From Edmonton to Winnipeg, Canadians are weighing in on a potentially contentious decision to change the Canadian Air Force back to the Royal Canadian Air Force. According to reports, the conservative government wanted to highlight historic and traditional ties with the British crown and bring a bit of history back to the Canadian military. The Navy will also go back to being the Royal Canadian Navy. Reuters report that the Canadians dropped the “royal” from their name in 1968 when they combined into The Canadian Forces. General Walter Natynczyk, chief of the defense staff, said in the story: “The initiative…

Swagger, pistols and cockpit experience

By Scott Fontaine on August 17, 2011 Air Force, Obama Administration, Politics, Uncategorized

One* of the men who wants to be your next commander-in-chief is touting his Air Force experience. Texas Gov. Rick Perry has been stumping across Iowa lately. He proudly presents his conservative bona fides: He loves guns (and packs heat while jogging). He really doesn’t like same-sex marriage. He likes pardoning death-row criminals even less. He also likes to tell voters about his military service: He earned a commission in the Air Force, became a C-130 pilot and left four years later as a captain.** That experience provides one reason why Perry wants to unseat President Barack Obama next November.…

Mullen reins in rumors on retirement changes

By David Larter on August 16, 2011 Air Force, Leadership

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Adm. Mike Mullen told service members in Afghanistan that the Defense Department had no immediate plans to change retirement benefits for service members. He did say that DoD is looking for ways to tighten the belt and left open the possibility for future changes. According to a DoD release: “There’s no immediate plan to affect retirement,” Navy Adm. Mike Mullen told service members at Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan, July 31. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said any changes to military retirement should be studied carefully and should be “grandfathered” so the military doesn’t…

Alaskan sunrise

By David Larter on August 16, 2011 Air Force, Photos, Uncategorized

Click on the photo to download the high-res version.

Rest in peace, manned aircraft

By David Larter on August 16, 2011 Air Force, UAV, Uncategorized

It’s been a good 97-year run but it’s time to dismantle the the fighter fleet and start pumping money into Predators and Global Hawks. This according to Michael O’Hanlon, a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution. It’s game over. In an fascinating article previewing the inevitable downturn in the defense industry as the government cuts spending, AP’s Jonathan Fahey writes an obituary for the gangbusters military spending spree we’ve been on since 9/11. In it, O’Hanlon says the industry is just waiting for the hammer to drop on Joint Strike Fighter and all future manned aircraft. During wartime, when dollars…

Saving the world, one turtle at a time

By David Larter on August 15, 2011 Air Force, Conservation, Uncategorized

Airmen from Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla., either have a soft spot for baby sea turtles or just like interfering with Darwinism. Loggerhead turtles, native to the Tyndall area, don’t stand much of a chance of reaching adulthood and only the strongest of the little cryptodira make it to adulthood. The loggerhead is a “threatened” species being thinned out by fishing trawlers, ocean polluting and electric shore lighting that interferes with their nesting habits near the shore. Well the airmen of Tyndall’s 325th Civil Engineer Squadron Natural Resources have taken it upon themselves to help the critters out by giving them…

Retreat

By David Larter on August 15, 2011 Afghanistan, Air Force, Photos

The airmen pictured here are Airman 1st Class Arron Fairfax (left) and Senior Airman Ryan Adkins, Detachment 1, 73rd Expeditionary Air Control Squadron. Click on the photo to download the high-res version.

Hypersonic flight a work in progress

By David Larter on August 11, 2011 Air Force, DARPA, Uncategorized

The test flight of a hypersonic unmanned aerial vehicle over the Pacific Ocean did not go as planned. For the second time, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency lost control of the experiment before it was over, tweeting nine minutes into the flight that scientists had lost telemetry with the fastest aircraft ever built. Here’s how DARPA explains it: “Here’s what we know,” said Air Force Maj. Chris Schulz, DARPA HTV-2 program manager and PhD in aerospace engineering. “We know how to boost the aircraft to near space. We know how to insert the aircraft into atmospheric hypersonic flight. We…

Rocking out, while still wearing reflective belts

By Brian Everstine on August 9, 2011 Air Force

This video of airmen jamming has started to make the rounds of social media. To steal from the top comment on Youtube, “you guys should go on tour. oh wait …” If they can’t tour, at least the Air Force still has Max Impact.

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