Air Force Celebrates 60 Years Of The KC-135 | Aero-News Network
Aero-News Network
RSS icon RSS feed
podcast icon MP3 podcast
Subscribe Aero-News e-mail Newsletter Subscribe

Airborne Unlimited -- Most Recent Daily Episodes

Episode Date

Airborne-Monday

Airborne-Tuesday

Airborne-Wednesday Airborne-Thursday

Airborne-Friday

Airborne On YouTube

Airborne-Unlimited-04.22.24

Airborne-Unlimited-04.16.24

Airborne-FlightTraining-04.17.24 Airborne-AffordableFlyers-04.18.24

Airborne-Unlimited-04.19.24

Join Us At 0900ET, Friday, 4/10, for the LIVE Morning Brief.
Watch It LIVE at
www.airborne-live.net

Sun, Sep 04, 2016

Air Force Celebrates 60 Years Of The KC-135

Airplane First Flew In 1956

The Air Force celebrated the 60th birthday of the KC-135 Stratotanker Aug. 31. The first Stratotanker flew in August of 1956 and was later delivered to the Air Force in June 1957.

The first KC-135 was delivered to the 93rd Air Refueling Squadron, which was assigned at Castle Air Force Base, California, at the time, but has since been relocated to Fairchild AFB.

The aircraft was originally used to support bombers of the Strategic Air Command. The midair refueling capabilities allowed fighter missions to spend hours on the front lines, rather than a few minutes, which was usually due to the limited size of fuel tanks in the fighters.

“In short order, KC-135s became the backbone of SAC, enabling our bomber force to maintain the peace because of its deterrence capability,” said Jim O’Connell, a 92nd Air Refueling Wing historian.

SAC had the KC-135 in service from 1957 to 1992. Following the inactivation the command in 1992, most KC-135s were reassigned to the newly created Air Mobility Command.

“Despite being called the ‘B-52s Flying Fuel Station,’ the KC-135 has made an impact locally as well as on the world stage,” O’Connell said. “The first KC-135 to be assigned to Fairchild (AFB) arrived on Feb. 21, 1958, and went on to make its mark on the world by establishing eight world records in September of that year.”

A few of the records broken include: most distance covered in a closed-circuit without refueling, highest speed for 1,080 nautical miles and highest speed for 1,677 nautical miles.

In 2001 the first KC-135 with the new Multi-Point Refueling System, which included refueling pods on each wingtip, along with the boom, allowed refueling of any type of aircraft on any mission.

Fourteen years later, another upgrade to the aircraft was made, and Fairchild AFB received its first aircraft modified with the Block 45 communications, navigation and surveillance and air traffic management upgrade.

Since 1958, the tankers of the 92nd and 141st ARWs have supported everything from aeromedical evacuations, command and control, airlift missions, treaty enforcement and overseas contingency fighter and bomber missions.

“The KC-135 and its air refueling mission has been the cornerstone in nearly every contingency and humanitarian operation around the world,” O’Connell said. “As a testament to the incredible maintenance and support teams, it will likely continue to do so for many years to come.”

(Image provided with USAF news release)

FMI: www.af.mil

Advertisement

More News

ANN's Daily Aero-Term (04.24.24): Runway Lead-in Light System

Runway Lead-in Light System Runway Lead-in Light System Consists of one or more series of flashing lights installed at or near ground level that provides positive visual guidance a>[...]

ANN's Daily Aero-Linx (04.24.24)

Aero Linx: Aviation Without Borders Aviation Without Borders uses its aviation expertise, contacts and partnerships to enable support for children and their families – at hom>[...]

Aero-FAQ: Dave Juwel's Aviation Marketing Stories -- ITBOA BNITBOB

Dave Juwel's Aviation Marketing Stories ITBOA BNITBOB ... what does that mean? It's not gibberish, it's a lengthy acronym for "In The Business Of Aviation ... But Not In The Busine>[...]

Classic Aero-TV: Best Seat in The House -- 'Inside' The AeroShell Aerobatic Team

From 2010 (YouTube Version): Yeah.... This IS A Really Cool Job When ANN's Nathan Cremisino took over the lead of our Aero-TV teams, he knew he was in for some extra work and a lot>[...]

Airborne Affordable Flyers 04.18.24: CarbonCub UL, Fisher, Affordable Flyer Expo

Also: Junkers A50 Heritage, Montaer Grows, Dynon-Advance Flight Systems, Vans' Latest Officially, the Carbon Cub UL and Rotax 916 iS is now in its 'market survey development phase'>[...]

blog comments powered by Disqus



Advertisement

Advertisement

Podcasts

Advertisement

© 2007 - 2024 Web Development & Design by Pauli Systems, LC