There was another F-15C crackup in midair (see above), but instead of the pilot walking away with a busted shoulder, this one—Maj. James Duricy—was killed. Editor in Chief Robert Dudney recalls that 2002 fatal accident in his January editorial. In the 2002 event, part of the tail section broke off, forcing Duricy to eject at 900 mph. As Dudney reports, the Air Force has warned about aging aircraft for years, but, “evidently, the warnings haven’t registered.” In Dudney’s view: “Washington’s apathy toward USAF’s geriatric fleet comes close to outright negligence.” (Read more in “Catastrophic Failure.”)
New approaches to testing Space Force equipment are speeding up delivery to operators, but the service needs more testers and perhaps its own space-focused test center, officials said April 1. Those are key pieces of the fledgling force’s testing methods and future moves that will keep new technology flowing into…