Wing Segues To All-UAV Unit After 50 Years Of Flying Fighters And Transport Aircraft

The 119th wing of the Air National Guard based in Fargo, North Dakota saw the last departure of a traditionally-piloted airplane Tuesday, ending a mission of manned flying that lasted more than 65 years.

The "Happy Hooligans" are now an all-unmanned system unit, and according to the Associated Press, North Dakota has become the only state without a manned Air National Guard mission.

The unit's last airplane, a C-21 Learjet, departed Tuesday for its new home at the National Museum of the Air Force. Retire General Alexander Macdonald, a former commander of the 119th, called the development "sad and incomprehensible." He said a manned unit could accomplish its goals "cheaper and more importantly, as good, if not better" than the UAVs.

Col Kent Olson, the unit's current commander, said "it's our goal to return a manned flying mission to the North Dakota Air National Guard."

Olsen then flew the C-21 ... the oldest aircraft of its type in the Air Force ... along with Col. Brad Derring to the museum at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio.

(C-21 pictured in file photo)

FMI: http://www.119wg.ang.af.mil/