The Air Force Recruiting Service is sponsoring the No. 43 car for a new NASCAR Sprint Cup team that Gillett Evernham Motorsports and famed driver Richard Petty of Petty Holdings are forming for the 2009 racing season. The Air Force will use the car as a recruiting tool, hoping to capitalize on the racing sport’s strong, patriotic fan base and the allure of the sport’s speed, teamwork, and technology to inspire young Americans to consider the Air Force as a career choice. Reed Sorenson, a 22-year-old, three-time winner in NASCAR’s Nationwide Series, will drive the No. 43 car, which will feature an Air Force paint scheme in four of 38 races this season. Last fall, the Air Force sponsored a dragster driven by Kenny Bernstein at four National Hot Rod Association events on a test basis to gauge its recruiting power. (AFRS report by Daniel Elkins)
Anduril and General Atomics will develop their Collaborative Combat Aircraft for the Air Force, beating out Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman, the service announced on April 24. But any of the non-selected companies can compete to actually manufacture the eventual design, the Air Force said.