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The ubiquitous Boeing KC-135 is the numerically most significant tanker/transport in service today. This aircraft has acquitted itself very well in every major US military operation since the early sixties, reliably carrying up to 200,000lb of fuel. The KC-135 force is today being refitted with CFM56 and TF33 turbofans, the CFM56 powerplants increasing available fuel offload by an impressive 50%. (Paul Merritt)
Technology Explained — Tankers as Force Multipliers
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Tankers as Force Multipliers
Air-to-air refuelling is a technique which first achieved prominence in the 1950s, when the US began its massive buildup of Strategic Air Command (SAC) in response to the then current global nuclear warfare strategy of massive retaliation.
At the time SAC needed the means of extending the range of its first generation of turbojet powered strategic bombers which were very thirsty in comparison with the preceding generation of piston engined bombers.
The emergence of the massive 8-52 in the mid fifties and the demand for global reach clearly rendered the existing piston engined KB-50 and KC-97 tankers inadequate and the USAF sought a jet powered replacement. This aircraft was to be a derivative of the Boeing 367-80, the forerunner of the civil 707 family, and differed primarily from the 707 in size. The aircraft was designated the KC-135A, was powered by 13,500lb J57- P59W engines and equipped with the SAC flying boom refuelling hardware. The flying boom was by then a well established technique, designed to allow relatively painless hookups between large and unmanoeuvrable aircraft, and had the advantage of allowing high fuel transfer rates of the order of 6,000lb/min. A boom operator in the rear of the aircraft would steer the winged nozzle into a receptacle in the upper fuselage of the receiver aircraft. SAC was more than satisfied with the performance of the KC-135 and eventually purchased over 600 airframes, thus creating the world’s largest tanker fleet.
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