The first presidential plane to be designated Air Force One was saved from the boneyard and is airworthy again, reported Warbirds News. Dynamic Aviation bought former President Dwight Eisenhower’s presidential aircraft, the Lockheed VC-121A Constellation Columbine II, and spent a year rehabbing the historic prop-liner in Marana, Ariz., before ferrying it to the company’s headquarters in Bridgewater, Va., on March 23. The cross-country trip ended with a four-hour flight from Mount Pleasant, Texas. Dynamic Aviation founder Karl Stoltzfus expects the aircraft will need three more years of extensive interior and exterior restoration before returning to the air show circuit. (See video of the landing in Bridgewater here.)
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.
