Hacker

It is literally an Executive Branch agency, and he's the Executive.

You asked "why". You don't have to agree with the answer. The Chevron Deference is gone.

Because Executive Branch agencies have been acting well out of the bounds of their purpose for decades...and it turns out the Executive can do something about that.

Then it would have been even more funny to show him in a fancy curated PowerPoint presentation that GA guys with 4 hours of training can figure out how to fly a taildragger safely. That isn't even a fraction as complicated or challenging of a skill to learn as formation flying or even hovering a helicopter. Even a rotorhead could do it.

It is about f'n time that service members be reminded of their duty to remain apolitical with respect to well and faithfully discharging the duties of their office.

The people with those concerns should have been laughed out of the room. Buy a couple of Super Cubs, Decathlons, or any number of GA airplanes, and teach people to fly taildraggers. It is done every day with low-time GA pilots in a couple hours.

According to the press releases, the aircraft in all the OKC photos is 22-0006, "Hobo 61". Here's a quote from the press release: The aircraft at Nellis was clearly serial 22-0007, and had "Hobo 71" on the instrument panel in both cockpits. So, it follows that this is the second USAF aircraft as mentioned in the press release...not a company demonstrator with an N reg for Foreign Military Sales.

It was out at the Nellis airshow this last weekend.

Have you never seen the DoD/FAA Letter of Authorization that waives the speed limits below 10K and in/under Class Bravo? The relevant CFR says: Sec. 91.117 - Aircraft speed. (a) Unless otherwise authorized by the Administrator, no person may operate an aircraft below 10,000 feet MSL at an indicated airspeed of more than 250 knots (288 m.p.h.). So...here's the authorization from the Administrator. This is an old version of the letter, but this gets re-authorized on a regular basis. Paragraphs F and G are the relevant portions for the T-38.

I can normally be found hunting ancient artifacts like Indiana Jones....or maybe hanging out with Lara Croft? I do use WeChat during my Shanghai and Guangzhou layovers, so maybe that makes me a CCP associate.

It means that, unlike with ATF and JSF and every previous fighter acquisition program of the last 50 years, the AF claims to have internally designed much of the basic capabilities, and then only brought in Boeing and LM (and Northrop?) after -- reportedly years after --- to fully flesh out what they've done internally into an actual production aircraft. So, the opposite of putting out an RFP and having manufacturers design their own attempts to meet the requirements in the RFP. To wit: https://www.defensenews.com/breaking-news/2020/09/15/the-us-air-force-has-built-and-flown-a-mysterious-full-scale-prototype-of-its-future-fighter-jet/

A former squadronmate who is on the USAF GS side of things said, "everything was going great until the corporate partners were introduced to the program."

Funny you should say that.... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christine_Fox

There's nothing better than watching an O-6 stand in front of a room of graduated TOPGUN crew and explain to them that they have to fly low on the ingress to stay below the radar of the SAMs, and that their Super Bugs are "no match" for the 5th Gen threat. On the other hand, Jennifer Connelly is a massive MILF.

News flash: that's the case for the majority of the background/experience check items that they're asking for you to report on your application. It is an integrity check (just to see if you'll self-report) just as much as it is a survey of your background. Almost everyone flying at the airlines has a black mark on their record of some sort, but we in the flying business don't generally share the skeletons in our closet with even our friends, so we tend to have a distorted view of who exactly our peers are. Plenty of high-performing pilots and officers have made mistakes that left a mark on their otherwise-excellent careers. A lot of guys have busted checkrides, but that also goes for even more significant issues like administrative punishments, Art 15s or LORs, and -gasp- even FEBs -- a lot of things that we consider the kiss of death inside the USAF fishbowl but don't carry the same perceptual value in the civilian flying world. Some of the black marks would make your eyes pop out: DUIs, crashed airplanes in which the cause was pilot error, even criminal records. Hell, at FedEx there was a dude who had been arrested and charged with murdering his wife. Just remember they're looking at the totality of your professional experience, and they don't expect that everyone walking through the door is going to have a perfectly clean history.