As B
oeing prepares to field Avionics Modernization Program-upgraded C-130 airlifters in 2010, the company is also training USAF flight crews and maintenance personnel. The flight crews get 50 hours in classroom instruction and 12 in a simulator-like engineering test device. Maintainers spend time on academic and lab work and get to work hands on with an AMP aircraft. The company’s former Air Force and Navy instructors already have trained more than 100 USAF personnel. According to a Boeing statement, the company will conduct C-130 AMP training over the next several years as the modification is integrated into each of the various models.
The Air Force has finished resurrecting a B-1B Lancer, completing a yearslong process to transform a bomber that had been stored for parts in the Arizona desert into the new flagship of the 7th Bomb Wing at Dyess Air Force Base, Texas.