Medal 
of Honor recipient retired Col. Bud Day took to the skies in an F-100F Super Sabre this week for the first time in 43 years. Day rode in the back seat of the newly restored F-100 during Tuesday’s commemorative flight from Ellington Field in Houston. The Collings Foundation sponsored the event. It restored the F-100 and painted it in the scheme of Day’s aircraft from the Vietnam War to honor him. The last time Day flew in a Super Sabre, he was shot down over North Vietnam and began a harrowing ordeal of nearly six years, including captivity in the Hanoi Hilton, that earned him the nation’s highest military honor. The foundation will now fly the F-100 as part of its Vietnam Memorial Flight, which also features an F-4D Phantom II, TA-4J Skyhawk, and UH-1E Huey. The foundation operates these aircraft to honor America’s Vietnam War veterans and help educate younger generations about US history. (Collings Foundation website) (For more, read The Strength of Bud Day from Air Force Magazine’s archives.)
Boeing received a $2.47 billion Air Force contract Nov. 25 for 15 more KC-46s, bringing to 183 the number of Pegasus tankers on contract to all customers, foreign and domestic. The new contract—for Lot 12 of the initially planned KC-46 buy—is to be completed by 2029.
