October 28, 2007:
With the
price of jet fuel soaring, and demand for air freight services to Iraq and
Afghanistan up as well, the U.S. Air Force sought efficiency advice from
American airlines and parcel delivery companies. As a result, the air force has
reduced fuel consumptions (airline pilots have been developing new "fuel
efficient" flying techniques for decades.) Maintenance has been streamlined,
and air cargo is moving faster to the combat zone. This is not the first time
the air force has adopted civil aviation techniques. It's been done in the
past. But this time around, thousands of air force reservists, who work in the
airline and parcel delivery industries, have been mobilized, and began noting
that the "air force way," of doing lots of things, had fallen way behind more
recent, and more efficient, civilian methods. So the air force generals
eventually got the word, and ordered the civilian practices to be observed, and
adopted by the air force, whenever that was possible.