Boeing Kc-135 Stratotanker: More Than Just a Tanker

When "Dix" Loesch and "Tex" Johnston took the KC-135A up for its maiden flight on the 31st August 1956, few would have imagined that it would still be in active front-line service some 60 years later. What began as a jet-powered replacement for the lumbering KC-97 tanker soon evolved into America’s first military heavy jet transport, an airborne command post capable of surviving and then commanding America's nuclear war plan and a testbed that enabled scientists to study the Earth and send men to the Moon. Other variants include reconnaissance and intelligence gathering airframes operated by Great Britain and the United States and of course the tanker versions of the KC-135, which remain in service with Chile, France, Singapore, Turkey, and the United States.

The KC-135's success is based on its simplicity, a tanker with few frills. Designed to fly only 10,000 hours before retirement, after 60 years, high-time KC-135s have accrued 36,000 hours while RC-135s have passed 56,000 hours. Scheduled to fly for another 20 years before retiring in 2040, the KC-135 and its many variants are testimony to the efficiency of the basic airframe which was adapted for use as a transport, testbed, airborne command post, and reconnaissance platform. Indeed, the KC-135 has proved to be more than a tanker.

Drawing on newly declassified materials, Hopkins presents the history of the tankers, transports, testbeds, airborne command posts and reconnaissance platforms. Combat operations in the Middle East, changes to crew composition and the glass cockpit, acquisition by Chile and Singapore, and ongoing efforts to preserve the aircraft for another two decades are also described to produce the most comprehensive account yet of this versatile and long-lived aircraft, making it a "must have" for any serious military student, aviation enthusiast, historian or modeler.