![]() (More than 400 KC-135s were retrofitted with quieter CFM56 engines in the 1980s.) Either the runway had slight swells in it or the weight of the tanker makes it indecisive when taking off. The airplane is a heavy brute-maximum gross takeoff weight is about 300,000 pounds, although we were well below that for this practice flight-with four awful, smoky turbojets that are so noisy they are not allowed at civilian airports. I had sat in the cockpit for the takeoff, which proved more interesting than I had expected. The KC-135, which, after more than 60 years of service, is gradually being replaced by newer tankers, is not a dangerous aircraft. I did it once in Thailand when we had bases there, and the Air Force met us with most of the world’s fire trucks. The thought of all that combustible liquid beneath the floor will definitely concentrate your mind if you have to land with hot brakes. The airplane can carry 190,000 pounds of it, a major told me. We all wore shoulder bags with masks and small bottles of oxygen in case of decompression.īeneath us were many, many gallons of jet fuel. When the bomber arrived, the operator would guide its pilot to our tanker to begin the refueling operation. The boom operator paced, wearing a radio headset and trailing a long cord. ![]() You could talk over the engine noise, if you screamed. A few passenger seats were installed up near the cockpit. The interior of the KC-135 was like the inside of a long pipe-gray, poorly lit, utilitarian, lined with the girders and rivets that held it together. The Air Force has never learned the friendly skies routine.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |