Maintainers 
with the New York Air National Guard’s 174th Maintenance Group at Hancock Field in Syracuse are becoming well versed in the intricacies of keeping their parent wing’s MQ-9 Reaper remotely piloted aircraft performing optimally. They are also playing an important role as subject matter experts in “helping to decide the proper and safest procedures for maintaining the MQ-9” across the Air Force, said Maj. Tim Martin, 174th Fighter Wing Aircraft Maintenance Squadron commander. He noted, “Our maintenance personnel have contributed to the creating and/or validation of approximately 80 percent of all maintenance technical data for the US Air Force in regards to maintenance for the MQ-9.” The maintainers work out of both Hancock Field and the Wheeler-Sack Army Air Field in Fort Drum, N.Y., where the wing conducts training flights. They perform the more in-depth maintenance at Hancock Field, which has hosted the Air Force’s MQ-9 maintenance schoolhouse since fall 2009. (Hancock Field report by Capt. Anthony L. Bucci)
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.