KC-135 You tube vid with some cool "stuff"

One of my buddies from Grissom AFB made this vid using some of my pics and videos and some of his as well. A couple things to note is the raptor refuelings. You can see them closing the A/R door about 1:45 into the video. Another shows the B-2 getting refueled, along with an E-4. He even got an A-10 to shoot off some flares behind the tanker before banking off crazy like. Needless to say he did a pretty good job putting it together.

reply to post by boomer135


I'm still surprised to see them refueling F-18s again. For a long time the Navy was only allowed to send KA-6s with buddy pods up to the tanker. The Hornet drivers kept dropping straight down instead of backing out, resulting in quite a few drogues that were then out of service for every other naval aircraft that needed fuel, and the tanker heading home early.

Great vid, no idea what half the aircraft are, got the A10 tank buster as I used to watch them fly over the Herefordshire country side, sometime below as they swept through the shallow vallies chasing rabbits.!

Also got the B2 "Bat Plane"!. I call it that after seeing one fly overhead, Shropshire this time, many thousands of feet above, silhouetted against the blue sky, another exciting memory.

Surprised by the 4 engined jobs, but I suppose AF1 etc must have refueling capabilities.

Couple of years ago I was at an air show in Lincolnshire, really to watch the Vulcan fly, but got chatting to a Dutch air refueling crew. Till then I just thought it was a long pipe out the back, now I know better and seeing the Vid, it is obvious the skills required.

Thanks Boomer.

reply to post by dowot


Your "usual suspects". You already got the B-2, and the A-10. The green colored one with two tails going vertically is the F-15E, if it's painted grey is the F-15C or D (C has one seat, D has two). The light grey with two outward canted tails refueling from the basket is the F-18. The darker grey one with outward canted tails is the F-22. The big scary beast with all the engines is the B-52, and the blue and white one is the E-4B.

Give me a hell give me a yaaaaaaaaaah!!!!!! America is bad ass nice vid

interesting note on the E-4B/VC-25 is it's almost never called Air Force One, even with POTUS on board, when flying anywhere other than the U.S. And then they fly two of them anyway, so when he goes on long flights and needs refueling, we don't use AF1 as the call sign. And you never know if that E-4B is the Prez's.

Another noted interest is the receptacle on the F-22, or rather the design. It folds out and lays flat against the fuselage, something the other stealths do not have. If you look at the b-2, they have a rolling receptacle which I can imagine is much more stealthy.

reply to post by boomer135


I always thought the E-4B was pretty interesting when they'd let me go on her. A few times we were turning them so fast I didn't have time to get to, but it's a neat plane. Nowhere near as nice as the VC-25 though. Now THAT is a gorgeous plane. The VC-137s before her were pretty damn nice too.

Originally posted by Zaphod58
reply to post by boomer135

 

I'm still surprised to see them refueling F-18s again. For a long time the Navy was only allowed to send KA-6s with buddy pods up to the tanker. The Hornet drivers kept dropping straight down instead of backing out, resulting in quite a few drogues that were then out of service for every other naval aircraft that needed fuel, and the tanker heading home early.

What time frame was this? During my time I did a lot of F-18's. With the inclusion of the MPRS wing pods on the KC-135, we could refuel three at once, although they wouldn't let us. Those had "soft" baskets that were more friendly to the hornet.

reply to post by boomer135


This was early 90s I think it was. We lost three or four drogues in one RIMPAC to F-18 pilots. They said for the rest of RIMPAC and some other exercises if the Navy wanted fuel, they had to send a KA-6 tanker, refuel that, and let that refuel the Hornet, because the buddy pods had the soft drogue.

Thank you...

That is a view not many people get to see...

And that deserves this....



And tell your buddy great choice in music for the video which you don't get very often.

That was sweet footage. Kudos for the share.

Loved that A-10 banking away

Great vid. Thanks for sharing

reply to post by boomer135


FAKE, CGI, BS


LOL j/k really cool shots, i'm actually pretty jealous he got to do that

Originally posted by WanderingThe3rd
reply to post by boomer135

 

FAKE, CGI, BS


LOL j/k really cool shots, i'm actually pretty jealous he got to do that

Well there's not many boom operators in the military these days. I know in the early 2000's there was a little over 600 active duty booms. Anyone trying to go Air Force shoot for 1A0X1. Best job in the service.

Really cool video Boomer!

Thanks for sharing that with us!!

I actually got to work on the last 10 or so KC-135's being built. It was funny how many times they sent the booms back to us for repair after they were damaged in refuels though.

Always had a couple of em that needed fixing.

reply to post by Spookycolt


There is one KC-135 that is allowed to have a combat mission sticker on it as a bomber. I don't know the tail number off the top of my head, but it actually bombed the enemy in Vietnam. They were up near North Vietnam waiting for their receivers to arrive, the boomer went back and unstowed the boom to test it, dropped it down, and it kept right on going. They left a KC-135, and landed a C-135.

Originally posted by Zaphod58
reply to post by Spookycolt

 

There is one KC-135 that is allowed to have a combat mission sticker on it as a bomber. I don't know the tail number off the top of my head, but it actually bombed the enemy in Vietnam. They were up near North Vietnam waiting for their receivers to arrive, the boomer went back and unstowed the boom to test it, dropped it down, and it kept right on going. They left a KC-135, and landed a C-135.

I heard that was an urban legend. Lol. However there has been one successful jump out of a Kc-135 and it was a nav that went first. Well after he popped the chute and parachuted down, they got the plane under control. However they tried to charge the nav with damages for the missing door. So he went out to where he popped the chute and found the door! Lol. Gave it back instead of paying for it

Awesome footage, especially liked the B-2 and F-22, 2 of my favourite aircraft.

reply to post by boomer135


My father was actually over there with the B-52s when it happened.

Yeah, we had a -135 crew do something similar up at Westover. They had all kinds of problems, the AC gave them the option to bail out, everyone but the AC and copilot jumped, they landed the plane just fine.