An F-15C that took off from Nellis AFB, Nev., crashed in a remote area roughly 115 miles north of Las Vegas, according to base officials. The piloted ejected and sustained no injuries in the Oct. 24 mishap, they said. A helicopter rescued the pilot, who was hiking away from the aircraft wreckage, about 30 minutes after the crash, reported the Associated Press (via the Las Vegas Review-Journal). The pilot was flown to a local hospital for evaluation. Lincoln County Sheriff Kerry Lee told AP that the crash site—on federal land northwest of Alamo—was “out in the desert” and “really hard to get to.” Lee said it didn’t appear that the airplane slammed into the ground since there was “a lot of the plane left,” but “burned up.” The Air Force is investigating the accident. (Includes Nellis release)
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.