Retired Lt. Col. Claude R. Kinsey, who became an ace flying the P-38 during World War II, died Feb. 4, of cancer, the Washington Post reported Thursday. He was 86. Kinsey, who is credited with shooting down seven enemy aircraft over North Africa, enlisted in the Army Air Forces in 1940, becoming a sergeant after completing flying training. After Pearl Harbor, he was trained in the P-38 and commissioned. After the war, he flew B-47s in Strategic Air Command, retiring in 1965.
Bell Textron has won DARPA's contest for a no-runway, high-speed drone that will prove out technologies useful for special operations forces and possibly the Air Force's Agile Combat Employment concept. Bell's design converts a tiltrotor to a jet-powered aircraft able to fly at up to 450 knots.