KC 135 Beauty of Flight

The Accurate Reloading Forums

This topic can be found at:
https://forums.accuratereloading.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/558107455/m/9111015702

18 January 2015, 17:48

Grenadier

KC 135 Beauty of Flight

"The beauty of the KC-135, the worlds greatest aerial refueler. Still in operation after 56 years and still going strong."

19 January 2015, 03:00

richj

Looking Glass.

Saw these all the time on Offutt in the 80's I thought the KC10 was gonna replace them?

19 January 2015, 04:15

Grenadier

The ~60 KC-10s were more of a plus-up to the ~500 KC-135s. The forthcoming KC-46 will be the replacement.

25 January 2015, 18:40

Bill/Oregon

Great ships. Lame music for the video. The best job on the plane has to be the guy flying the boom.
This doesn't always go as planned.

http://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.c...ard-to-do-1559495801

There is hope, even when your brain tells you there isn’t.
– John Green, author

27 January 2015, 01:04

usps

brings back great memories the only difference was we had the KB29 I guess I dated myself.

27 January 2015, 03:16

PSmith

quote:
Originally posted by Bill/Oregon:
Great ships. Lame music for the video. The best job on the plane has to be the guy flying the boom.
This doesn't always go as planned.

I had a skydiving instructor once. His father got killed while trying to refuel his B-47, he said the boom smashed into the cockpit somehow. I guess that was the bad old days of aerial refueling.

Paul Smith
SCI Life Member
NRA Life Member
DSC Member
Life Member of the "I Can't Wait to Get Back to Africa" Club
DRSS
I had the privilege to fire E. Hemingway's WR .577NE, E. Keith's WR .470NE, & F. Jamieson's WJJ .500 Jeffery
I strongly recommend avoidance of "The Zambezi Safari & Travel Co., Ltd." and "Pisces Sportfishing-Cabo San Lucas"

"A failed policy of national defense is its own punishment" Otto von Bismarck

27 January 2015, 18:56

usps

back in the day when the B47 came out they only had the KB29 and KC97 as platforms for aerial refueling both refuelers at best flew close to the stall speed of the B47 causing all kinds of problems add to the fact the R3350 cyclone engine in the 29 was not to reliable. there where many misshaps that the public was never let known about. the KB29 was perfect for the B50 at the time.

28 January 2015, 03:16

PSmith

Very interesting thanks for the information. So is it true that the B-52s had to lower flaps and landing gear for refueling from the KC97? Yikes. This thread lead me to reading again about the 1966 B-52 accident in Spain where the nukes were dropped after the mid-air collision of a B-52 and a tanker.

28 January 2015, 09:44

rbrbrb6

Thank you for that link! My son is an A/C on the KC-135 and he just got back a couple of weeks ago from his 8th deployment flying this plane. 200,000 pounds of "gas to pass" when they go out full on a mission. He says even as big as that jet is, it is still an assume ride, especially with the retrofit larger hp engines.

28 January 2015, 20:19

usps

all a KC97 was was a B29 that was modified to be a cargo plane the KC97 had the R4360 engine and beefed up airframe and flew a few knots faster than the B29. note: the B50 was the modified B29 with these modifications.

09 February 2015, 02:41

AnotherAZWriter

One of my employees is a pilot with an ANG unit; he takes off every Tuesday afternoon to fly KC135s.