Brian Everstine is the Pentagon Editor for Aviation Week, based in Washington, D.C. Before joining Aviation Week in August 2021, Brian covered the Pentagon for Air Force Magazine. Brian began covering defense aviation in 2011 as a reporter for Military Times. Over a decade as a defense journalist, he has reported from dozens of bases at home and abroad, including austere airstrips in Afghanistan, the cockpit of a B-52 over the South Pacific and the boom operator station of a KC-46. Before the military beat, Brian covered the Washington state legislature for the Associated Press.
The U.S. Air Force is the only one of three services to ground the Bell Boeing V-22, with the Marine Corps and Navy saying they will keep the tiltrotor flying with precautions.
The U.S. Air Force has grounded its Bell-Boeing CV-22 fleet due to issues with the tiltrotor’s gearbox causing multiple safety incidents, including one as recent as last weekend.
In the summer of 2021, the U.S. Air Force appeared to have a clear schedule for its refueling future: continued deliveries of Boeing’s KC-46 for the next several years, a “bridge tanker” KC-Y to follow starting in 2029 and then the next-generation KC-Z to follow beginning in the mid-2030s.
