USAF completed its safest year on record in Fiscal 2006, Maj. Gen. Stanley Gorenc, chief of safety, said in a statement Tuesday. Numbers tell the story: 19 major aviation mishaps compared to 32 in 2005; eight destroyed aircraft vs. 11 in 2004 and 2005 and significantly more in prior years; and one aviation fatality vs. 14 last year. Looking at the graph here, one can see a dramatic drop in the Class A flight mishap rate. Read more about the drive “Toward Zero Mishaps” in the December issue of Air Force Magazine.
Bell Textron has won DARPA's contest for a no-runway, high-speed drone that will prove out technologies useful for special operations forces and possibly the Air Force's Agile Combat Employment concept. Bell's design converts a tiltrotor to a jet-powered aircraft able to fly at up to 450 knots.