Five state governors joined forces to send a letter last week to President Bush urging him to consider the beneficial affect a KC-30 tanker production facility in Mobile, Ala., would have on a region hard hit by recent natural disasters. George Talbot of the Press-Register reports that governors of Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia sent Bush a two-page letter asking him to ensure the Air Force is “unbiased, fair, and open” in its award of the KC-X tanker replacement program contract. They also noted the “breadth, depth, and significance of the aerospace industry of the Pacific Northwest” and wrote, “This tanker aircraft procurement provides our Southern region with a rare opportunity to create a new, integrated and sweeping aerospace center of excellence with a broad economic impact.”
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.