If Congressman Sam Graves has his way, the Missouri Air National Guard’s 139th Airlift Wing which operates the city-owned air control tower at Rosecrans Airport in St. Joseph, Mo., will get a new tower to train its controllers. The airport is dual-use—civilian and military—which Graves, according to KMBZ radio in Kansas City, hopes will make getting funding easier. The radio station reports that the city tried and failed to enlist FAA support for a new tower. The 139th AW is still a viable entity even though it does have to give up two of its 12 C-130 aircraft under BRAC 2005 cuts.
A new think tank analysis finds a hypothetical blended-wing body tanker could offer twice as much refueling performance as the KC-46A Pegasus and recommends the Air Force buy scores of them, as the service prepares to evaluate a BWB demonstrator next year and must juggle its future tanker plans with…