KC-46 first flight, with audio

Yesterday at 1324 local the first KC-46 lifted off on its first flight. They immediately went into refueling tests after doing systems checks. They were supposed to meet up with a KC-135 but he didn't get airborne it appears.

One of the twitter feeds that follows the flights caught audio of the flight. It's pretty interesting. The chase F-16 sounded surprised at how smooth it was behind the aircraft.

The players:

KC-46 Boeing 004 Heavy Experimental
F-16 out of Lewis-McChord, Zoom02
Boeing T-33 chase 38 Fox
KC-135 that didn't make it Earl52

Take off audio:
paineairport.com...

Testing audio:
paineairport.com...

Tests included moving into contact position, emergency breakaway, and WARP testing (wingtip drogue pods).

how neat....something besides 777-200's nowadays coming outta there....scary runway heading north....

a reply to: Zaphod58

I went to Boeing field today to try to get some pictures of her on the ground.
They must have known I was coming, they had her parked, next to one of the other pre KC-46's, at the north end of the airport. Where I couldn't get close enough to get pics.

Hers a pic I got when it was still the 767-2C:

a reply to: Sammamishman

Damn. They're onto us. We need another patsy, I mean sucker volunteer, yeah that's it, too go for us.

Thats a lovely looking plane

Just hope it doesn't get killed by the DoD and congress.

Testing continues with EMD-2. On October 8th, the WARP and CDS drogues were deployed successfully. On the 9th, the boom was extended for the first time.