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Originally posted by luxordelphi
Initial witness reports included statements like 'no boom' and '148" diameter fuselage' and 'I didn't know refueling was contracted out.'
This part of my post is pure conjecture because I haven't personally talked to any witnesses who were there but here's what I think...I think that some people thought this was a K135 because that's what has done the refueling and that's why there was surprise about the fuselage and the boom and because, apparently, private contract refueling for the military is not really out on the boulevard.
Originally posted by luxordelphi
I think witnesses were surprised to see the mirage of a 42 year old plane miraculously resurrected from the graveyard, reborn as a refueling tanker and fitted with not one but TWO drogue baskets and allegedly glutted to the point of mania with fuel. I'm done here.
Like its sibling, the commercial Boeing 707 jet airliner, the KC-135 was derived from the Boeing 367-80 jet transport "proof of concept" demonstrator, which was commonly called the "Dash-80". As such the KC-135 is similar, but has a narrower fuselage and is shorter than the 707. Boeing gave the future KC-135 tanker the initial designation Model 717.
The initial production Stratotanker was delivered to Castle Air Force Base, California, in June 1957. The last KC-135 was delivered to the Air Force in 1965.
The United States Air Force operated 449 KC-135s (192 active duty, 64 reserve, and 173 guard) as of September 2009.