Instructor pilots at Sheppard AFB, Tex., recently took four T-37 Tweet training aircraft for a final four-ship formation flight to mark the end of the Tweet era at Sheppard. SSgt. Tonnette Thompson reports that the Texas base begins its transition to the new T-6 Texan II next year. The eight IPs in the four-ship have a total of more than 26,530 flying hours in the Tweet. The 141 T-37s at Sheppard are destined for the Boneyard at the Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Center at Davis-Monthan AFB, Ariz. Sheppard will get 75 Texans in their stead.
Facing competition from fast-growing startups, Lockheed Martin is speeding up production of an “affordable, scalable” hypersonic glide body, dubbed the Next Generation Glide Body, the firm said in a June 24 release.