The Air Force may have to take a sizable bite out of flying hours in the months to come, due to budget cuts and funding uncertainties, but these actions may not affect F-35 pilots as much as others, said Secretary Michael Donley. The F-35 simulator “is the most sophisticated simulator that we have in the fighter world now, so it provides a great opportunity to look more carefully at how we divide actual flying hours from sim time,” he told reporters during a briefing in the Pentagon on Jan. 11 with Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh. Donley said the F-35 simulator offers “advantages we’ll need to take advantage of.” With other aircraft, using sim hours in lieu of real flight time “can be more challenging if the simulators have not kept up, or the ranges have not kept up, with modern technologies,” he said. (Donley-Welsh transcript)
B-21 Bomber Shelter May Reveal Size of Secret Jet
March 3, 2021
The Air Force may have inadvertently revealed the size of the secret B-21 bomber with the release of an image of a temporary shelter for the airplane. The service is evaluating several designs for temporary shelters for everyday use and deployment to temporary operating locations. If the B-21 fully fits…