Col. William Wignall, the head of the accident investigation board reviewing the mid-air break up of a Missouri Air National Guard F-15C on Nov. 2, 2007, believes the message radioed by the training sortie’s flight lead “was probably the most chilling call that I’d ever heard.” The flight lead delivered his message in a calmer voice than when he frantically urged Maj. Stephen Stilwell to eject. His words to the other two fighters on the training sortie were, “Mick 2’s airplane just broke in half.” (Read more in Adam Hebert’s report)
The long-standing method for communicating data down from space via radio frequencies has the potential to create deadly data bottlenecks that could slow and stymie future operations, according to a new report from AFA’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. The report makes the case for combining RF with optical communications…