A retired F-15 housed at JB Langley-Eustis, Va., is scheduled to leave the base next month on a transcontinental road trip to its new home at the Chico Air Museum in northern California. “This is the longest movement of a military aircraft of this size on a truck ever attempted,” said museum founder Noel Wheeler, reported the Chico Enterprise-Record. Early last year, the Air Force approved the museum’s request for the F-15 with the stipulation that the museum move the aircraft from Langley to Chico at its own expense. Disassembled at Langley, the F-15 will traverse 10 states on two tractor trailers, just clearing the height required to safely pass under several overpasses along the way, said museum officials. Langley’s last operational F-15s departed the base last September as part of the Air Force’s drawdown of some 250 legacy fighters.
Every year, Congress and the military debate which combat assets should head to the boneyard and which have more life left in them. Lawmakers often opt to keep Air Force systems that bring jobs to their districts, which complicates matters as the service looks to modernize and ditch certain platforms.…