First flight

On March 13, Senior Airman John Wilson, 552nd Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, and other crew chiefs of E-3 Sentry tail #0007 prepare the jet at Tinker for its first flight since the plane was upgraded with the Block 40/45 modification. The $2.9 billion fleet-wide change is the biggest upgrade in AWACS history, replacing bulky 1970s computer and ground systems and infrastructure with modern, user-friendly, advanced computing, even reducing the weight by 4,000 pounds. Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center personnel transformed the jet and delivered it to the 552nd Air Control Wing. In a November 2011 Tinker Take Off article about the upgrade commencement ceremony, 552nd Air Control Wing Commander Col. John Rauch said, “We are very excited … Basically for us performing the current mission, everything will be much easier as many of our current manual tasks are automated making it quicker to train people on and easier, much easier, to process information to pass from that jet. You (maintenance personnel) are delivering us increased capability on the same airplane,” Colonel Rauch said. “For that, we’re really excited.” (Air Force photo by Margo Wright)