Despite their displacement from Katrina-devastated Keesler AFB, Miss., the airmen of the Hurricane Hunters—Air Force Reserve Command’s 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron—are back in action and flying in to Hurricane Wilma. The hunters flew their WC-130J into the 175-mile-per-hour winds of Wilma early on Oct. 19, when the storm registered a record low reading of 882 millibars. The data collected by the hunters enabled National Hurricane Center meteorologists in Miami to determine that Wilma was briefly the strongest Atlantic storm on record—beating out even Katrina’s strength.
The KC-Z4, a blended wing body tanker concept being developed by startup JetZero, could fuel larger groups of aircraft at longer range to hold more targets at risk, company officials say.