The Delaware Air National Guard’s 166th Airlift Wing has just passed 44 years without having a flying mishap. TSgt. Mike Smith with the National Guard Bureau reports that the wing has flown 166,000 accident-free flying hours, while operating the C-97 and now the C-130. Current operations keep the unit’s eight Hercules cargo haulers flying about one million miles a year.
With the Air Force in the midst of its biggest testing boom in decades, the Maintenance Operational Test (MxOT) Division at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., is making sure those tests include an often-overlooked perspective: that of maintainers.