TSgt. R
ailer Cantrell, a KC-135 boom operator with the 351st Air Refueling Squadron at RAF Mildenhall, Britain, surpassed 6,000 flying hours during a mission Aug. 18 refueling F-15s over Newcastle, England. Cantrell has been a boomer for 18 of his nearly 22 years in the Air Force. He is the only boom operator currently at Mildenhall who has reached this milestone and is the last original member of the squadron that was established there in 1992. Cantrell likely would have reached the milestone earlier, but a serious vehicle accident left him with injuries that kept him out of flying for three years. Racking up the 6,000 flying hours has taken Cantrell to 48 states and more than 65 countries. (Mildenhall report by Karen Abeyasekere)
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.