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USAF FORMALLY NAMES ITS NEW TRAINING AIRCRAFT
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THE BOEING/SAAB T-X advanced jet trainer has been formally designated as the T-7A and named Red Hawk. The news was announced by the acting secretary of the US Air Force on September 16. The name is intended to honor the legacy of the ‘Tuskegee Airmen’, who were the first African-American aviators in the US Army Air Corps. Assigned to the 99th Fighter Squadron, the aviators initially saw combat over North Africa flying Curtiss P-40s, but later operated Republic P-47s and North American P-51s that featured red tails. Trained at Tuskegee Army Air Field in Alabama, the airmen were later assigned to the 332nd Fighter Group and its 99th, 100th, 301st and 302nd Fighter Squadrons. They flew more than 15,500 individual sorties in Europe and North Africa and claimed over 100 aerial victories against German aircraft — plus destroying or damaging more than 270 on the ground along with 1,000 locomotives, rail cars and transport vehicles.
The naming came a week after Boeing and the USAF completed …
