A court order saved the job of Ernie Fitzgerald in 1969, after the Air Force analyst told Congress about $2 billion in overruns on the C-5 cargo aircraft and incurred the wrath of the Nixon White House. Now, the 79-year old analyst says he’s in danger again, according to Time Magazine. He claims the Bush Administration has ignored his reports and took away his last two procurement analysts in 2002. Air Force officials, who told Time the service offered Fitzgerald two new jobs, believe the current “problem” is one of Fitzgerald’s making, since no one in the Air Force now who even know about his work on the C-5. The judge agreed. He rescinded the job protection order, noting that USAF had met its obligations.
The Air Force is leaning toward a less-sophisticated autonomous aircraft in the second increment of the Collaborative Combat Aircraft, the services chief futurist said. He also suggested that the next increment of CCA may be air-launched, a la the "Rapid Dragon" experiments conducted by the service in recent years.