The C-141 transport tail No. 66-0177—called the “Hanoi Taxi” for flying the first 40 American POWs out of Vietnam in 1973—will be retired and turned over to the National Museum of the US Air Force on May 6. The historic Starlifter is the last operational C-141 in the Air Force and has been flown by Air Force Reserve Command’s 445th Airlift Wing, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, which has been transitioning to the C-5.
A three-month continuing resolution that ended in December inflicted less pain on the Department of the Air Force than it had expected, as procurement and construction continue in the new year. The federal government operated under a stopgap spending measure that stretched from the beginning of the fiscal year on…