Retired Maj. Gen. Richard C. Catledge, the first commander of the Air Force’s Thunderbirds aerial demonstration team, died Aug. 12 from complications related to pneumonia. He began his 32-year Air Force career in 1942 as an aviation cadet and flew the P-38 during World War II, after which he served in various operational and command positions before taking charge, as a major, of the newly formed Thunderbirds. In subsequent years, Catledge commanded several fighter units around the world, served on the Air Staff and at Tactical Air Command, before his final assignment in 1970 as commander of the Air Force Tactical Air Warfare Center. He retired in 1973.
RTX’s Raytheon unit was able to “significantly” extend the range of the AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile using mostly software changes in experimental tests last year, expanding the reach and lethality of the standard U.S. dogfighting weapon, company officials said Sept. 15.
