The Senate passes legislation to bestow a Congressional Gold Medal upon the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs), the group of women who served as instructor, transport, and ferrying pilots during World War II. The House would pass a companion bill on June 16, 2009. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Tex.) and Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) sponsored the respective Senate and House measures.
The Air Force awarded a $13.08 billion contract to the Sierra Nevada Corporation on April 26 for its Survivable Airborne Operations Center aircraft, the successor to the service’s E-4B “Doomsday” plane. Like the E-4B, officially called the National Airborne Operations Center, the SAOC will be meant to withstand a nuclear attack and keep…