Tomorrow, Dec. 17, marks the 119th anniversary of the Wright Brothers’ first flight in 1903. Exactly 60 years from that date, at Marietta, Ga., in 1963, the Lockheed C-141 StarLifter, the world’s first turbofan-powered transport, was flown for the first time with company test pilot Leo Sullivan at the controls. A total of 285 C-141As were built and the StarLifter fleet would accumulate more than 10.6 million flight hours doing just about everything—airlift; airdrop of cargo and paratroopers; aeromedical evacuation; final flights for the honored war dead; Antarctic resupply; and much more. But the StarLifter’s most prominent missions were as “Freedom Birds,” to repatriate former U.S. POWs held by the North Vietnamese during Operation Homecoming in 1973. The C-141 contract was also the mechanism company officials used to integrate the Marietta plant in 1961. In the 1980s, 270 C-141As were significantly modified and redesignated C-141Bs. In the 1990s, the StarLifter received a digital cockpit and other upgrades. The C-141 closed out a 43-year career in 2006.
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.
