The Air Force Scientific Advisory Board is delving into three topics in 2011 as part of its mission to inform the USAF leadership. The Sensor Data Exploitation study will explore technologies that would help airmen turn increasingly copious amounts of intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance data into actionable knowledge. Munitions for the 2025+ Environment and Force Structure aims to identify new weapons concepts enabling the Air Force to engage targets that are becoming more difficult to strike, such as mobile and repositionable surface assets or fifth generation fighters with reduced signatures. Sustaining Air Force Aging Aircraft into the 21st Century will focus on addressing aircraft systems other than structures and engines where investments could be made to ensure the safety, availability, and effectiveness of legacy aircraft. Notional scheduling calls for AFSAB officials to brief the Air Force leadership on the three studies in June 2011, followed by publication of the corresponding reports in December 2011.

QinetiQ, the British advanced technology shop, announced that the latest version of its Zephyr ultra-lightweight unmanned aircraft has set three official world aviation records, including one for longest duration aircraft flight: two weeks. This variant (22.5 meter wingspan) of the...

Airmen with Air Force Reserve Command’s 514th Air Mobility Wing at JB McGuire, N.J., helped move 47,500 pounds of humanitarian supplies from Ohio to Santa Rita, Honduras, to help the residents there affected by flooding and mudslides. KC-10s assigned to...

Every organization in the Air Force has energy overhead, said officials who attended the first US Air Forces in Europe energy facility conference at Ramstein AB, Germany. That could mean eliminating excess lighting, controlling heating and cooling levels, or fixing...

The Air Force has received a patent for the Attenuating Custom Communications Earpiece System, which allows pilots to hear mission-critical communications despite hazardous noise generated by aircraft. Air Force Research Lab engineers with the 711th Human Performance Wing at Wright-Patterson...

Registration for the 2011 Air Force marathon will open Jan. 1, with special sale pricing for New Year’s Day. The 26.2 mile race will be held at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, on Sept. 17, 2011. Runners also can compete in a...

Air Force maintainers at Barksdale AFB, La., don’t have to wait in long lines for spare parts anymore thanks to the creative thinking of a fellow supply technician. SSgt. Justin Garcia, who is assigned to the 2nd Maintenance Squadron, pitched...

The Museum of Aviation at Robins AFB, Ga., has received an F-100D Super Sabre that, upon restoration, will go on display in its growing Vietnam War collection. This airframe, tail number 56-2995, has special ties to Robins. Retired Maj. Gen. Rick Goddard, a past commander of the Warner Robins Air Logistics Center, flew this very airplane on 180 combat missions during the war as a first lieutenant assigned to the 309th Tactical Fighter Squadron at Tuy Hoa AB, South Vietnam. This F-100D will replace an F-100C at the museum that had no record of combat in Vietnam. The F-100D arrived on Dec. 13, a museum official told the Daily Report. It had been in static display at Otis Air National Guard Base in Massachusetts. Workers will need about 18 months to restore and repaint it into its Vietnam color scheme, said the official. (Museum release) (Museum website)

Air Sorties in Southwest Asia, Dec. 16, 2010 Sortie Type OND OEF OND/OEF Total YTD ISR 24 70 94 27,259 CAS/Armed Recon 14 87 101 34,433 Airlift 186 186 60,724 Air refueling 45 45 16,952 Rescue 22 22 7,979 Total...