The Key to America's Air Dominance: The KC-135 Stratotanker

what is the most decisive Advantage you can have in aerial Warfare perhaps it's a plane that could fly faster or higher than any other on the planet or a fighter jet that's the size of a small house but is functionally invisible to radar perhaps it's a long-range missile that never misses or a heavy bomber aircraft that's all but impervious to enemy fire maybe it's about the people behind the craft having the best and brightest in the world sitting in your nation's cockpit or perhaps as formidable as all of those advantages are it's actually not none of the above in order to answer the question we'll bow this down to a very simple reality planes fly and if my planes can fly longer than your planes and in fact fly long enough that all your planes have to go back to Bas and refuel then I suppose I've just conquered your airspace haven't I and across the entire world no nation is better at keeping its planes in the sky than the United States by a long shot the United States Fields hundreds upon hundreds of aerial refueling aircraft several times more than the aerial tankers of every other nation in the world combined and the backbone of that refueling Fleet well that would be the KC 135 Strat tanker serving Faithfully for the better part of a full seven decades and all but guaranteed to cross that 70-year Mark before retirement it's not a fighter it's not a bomber it's not a spy plane it's a gas station and it's the most effective tool of aerial Warfare that the United States has ever [Music] had now World War II was in many ways the war of Wonder Weapons from the V2 rocket the jet powered mmid me262 to a whole long list of rather crazy proposals from Nazi Germany as well as radar in the atom bomb from the Allied Powers but as staggeringly as effective as many of these weapons were we can only imagine how different the war might have been if a different wonder weapon had arrived just a bit earlier first entering service in 1950 the Boeing designed KC 97 strata Freer was just a tad too late to serve in Europe or the Pacific but nonetheless it was a major Innovation equipped with a flying boom and carrying massive amounts of jet fuel the KC 97 was the world's first aerial tanker and with over 800 produced it quickly became a major investment for the US military more important for our purposes today it was also the predecessor of the KC 135 but the KC 97 also came with a few problems most significantly it was a prop plane trying to operate in a world quickly giving itself over to jet aircraft that meant that when a jet wanted to refuel with it it would have to slow all the way down to the speed of a propeller aircraft which in the KC 97's case was about 230 mph the K97 also flew relatively low to the ground exposed cling its companion planes to anti-air fire and austere environments even though modifications during its service life made it a bit more compatible with aircraft that it was trying to support the tanker still had a rather hard time keeping up with the rest of the US Air Fleet just before we continue with today's episode I do want to talk to you about something that's becoming more Essential by the day online privacy and security look you see the internet can be a pretty W place of protecting your online activity is an absolute must and that's where surf shark VPN comes in so what's the deal well surf shark solves a big problem that we all face keeping our online activity private and secure it's like putting on a virtual mask for your internet life no more worrying about prying eyes hackers or nosy advertisers surf shark has your back now let's talk practicality surf Shar is ridiculously easy to use you just click you connect and Bam you're good to go your internet connection is private and secure it is a VPN for everyone from the tech ay to the really not Tech ay at all plus if had your location mess up your plans well with surf Shar your virtual location is where you wanted to be whether you're streaming shopping or working remotely you are in control say goodbye to location based restrictions with over 3200 servers in 100 countries GPS spoofing on Android and a kill switch for ultimate protection surf shark has it all plus they won't collect your data and their Serv are 100% Ram only ensuring your privacy it's budget friendly grants you location freedom and makes your travels even more exciting plus I've got a deal for you use the promo code Mega or visit surf shark. deals Mega for an incredible extra 3 months free thank you to Surf shark and remember protect your internet activity with surf shark and now back to today's episode So within just a few years after the KC 97 entered service the US Air Force had already decided that their relationship with the tanker just wasn't going to work out in 1954 the Air Force's Strategic Air Command announced a competition to produce a replacement with a fairly simple set of requirements it had to be a working aerial refuel plane and it had to have Jets on it done appropriately for the Air Force both then and of now it was the locki company that eventually received the heavy contract beating out Boeing Douglas conve and Fairchild the locked design expanded on a jet that locked was already planning to build for commercial Aviation purposes the l193 constellation 2 toose simply the plan's fuselage would have been modified into a fuel tanker rather than a compartment for passengers but the locky plane had one major drawback it was just a series of designs at a moment when a replacement for the Air Force's bumbling Strat Fator was already badly needed but the executives and the engineers at the Boeing Company watching this issue emerge from the sidelines must had some pretty substantial grins on their faces because they unlike locked were already prepared with a solution since 1952 Boeing had been working on a proof of concept demonstration plane that was supposed to show that jet transport and Commercial Aviation were compatible This Plane known as the Boeing 36780 was already flying prototype by the time the Air Force Came Calling and the folks over at Boeing had a sneaking suspicion that the Air Force's exact demands were coming it was no secret that their current tanker was a little bit outdated so Boeing had already made sure to build their jet airliner prototype with all the right bells and whistles to easily turn it into a tanker and once Boeing showed these capabilities to the Air Force the Strategic Air Command wasn't willing to look that sort of gift horse in the mouth by the end of 1954 bur received a production order of 29 of the planes as a temporary stop Gap in until the locked design became available but spoiler alert the locked planes never actually entered service not as a tanker and not as a jetliner either by the time they would have been ready it was more than clear that the Boeing model was going to do just fine the construction process for the prototypes required the use of massive amounts of aluminium and rubber over 14 1 half miles of electrical wiring and contributions from nearly 4,000 American small businesses in all 50 states by 1956 the first production line tanker dubbed the KC 135 strata tanker was already already in the sky and it was delivered to Castle Air Force Base in California less than a year later and with that the age of the stratotanker had begun and there was no going [Music] back now in order to discuss the specifications of the KC 135 we've got to pick a version of the aircraft to talk about between its many refits upgrades and variance the Baseline Strat tanker looks very different than the aircraft that are flying around today so in order to keep things consistent we're going to discuss the relatively modern KC 135r which should help explain why the things had such a long service life the Strat tanker has slightly smaller but generally similar outward specifications compared to the Boeing 737 a length of 136 ft that's 41 1/2 M and a wingspan of 131 ft or 40 m when it's empty the plane weighs just short of £1,000 that's 45,000 kilos but when it's fully loaded its engines can support more than 3 three times that weight including 200,000 in just fuel alone the KC 135r is powered by four turbofan engines with 21,600 lb Force to thrust each upgraded significantly from older models and it's typically flown with a crew of three including a pilot co-pilot and a boom operator on occasion a navigator will fly with the crew as well in terms of Maintenance it's designed to be modular and easily repaired in field conditions and though it requires a Runway of over a mile in order to take off and land its range is more than enough for it to fly from well established forward operating bases in friendly countries the KC 130 boasts a maximum speed of 580 mph that's 0.9 times the speed of sound its cruising speed isn't much lower at about 530 mph the plane features a range of 1500 mil meaning that it can hang out in the sky for multiple hours at a time conducting refueling missions and when it's using its Fair range it can travel up to 11,000 mil nearly half the distance required to circumnavigate the globe the plane can fly at up to 50,000 ft putting it well out of the range of enemy Ground Forces and establishing a safe buffer zone where friendly aircraft can refuel basically unimpeded when the KC 135r isn't loaded with fuel it could be refitted as a transport plane with the capacity to transport up to 80 passengers or as a medical evacuation plane with the addition of two flight nurses and three medical technicians the plane carries no weapons but recent efforts to add missile counter measures and early warning defense system and even armed drone ringmen are all underway and then there's the casy 135s most interesting feature and that of course is its refueling boom operated man from a dedicated boom pot the boom relies on fuel lines made up of over 15 pumps and 50 valves it's got the capacity to transfer multiple tons of fuel to planes in just a couple of minutes so much in fact that the fuel it transfers in just 60 seconds could operate a family SUV for over a year during refueling operations both the boom operator and the stratotanker pilot must operate with extreme finesse at a distance of about 20 ft from the aircraft they refueling a catastrophic Collision is always just a badly timed sneeze away but when a stratotanker operates at Peak efficiency it is an incredible site the plane can fully refuel 16 F-16 fighter jets including two external fuel tanks per jet with the load it carries on a single flight and of the 803 total Strat tankers that have been produced a number of unique variants have come about with time the KC 135b was initially intended to function as an Airborne command and control plane although they've later been refitted as other better planes came around to do that job the cuaran was built to carry the specialized fuel needed for the SR71 Blackbird and the arv variant became a reconnaissance plane of its own primarily used to check out above ground nuclear test sites lastly two lucky KC 135s were refitted to serve as target practice for the experimental Boeing ya one used as a test bed for later laser missile defense systems outside the US Strat tank has operated service to France turkey and Chile as well as by Singapore until June 2019 funly enough Italy hasn't procured any built to order KC 135s but they've taken some civilian Boe 707 and refitted them for tanker Duty meaning that they've got functionally the same basic [Music] aircraft so the Strat Tanger first entered service in the late 1950s meaning that its first major conflict was the Vietnam War before long they proved themselves invaluable to the American war effort not just refueling planes but also early helicopters whose range was massively improved as a result during the war Strat tankers started maintaining air refueling control points also known as acps where they would fly in long slow ovals of several hundred mil circumference often sharing the same oval between several or even dozens of the tankers in just 1966 alone over 50 planes were saved from crashing due to low fuel by stratotanker cruise and the list of combat missions they made possible is much longer than just 50 perhaps the Strat tanker's most notable moment during Vietnam was the so-called peanuts incident when four pilots flying f105 Fighters and heavy bombs were sent on a mission to bomb a railroad between North Vietnam and China caught up in a dog fight the f-105s used a good deal more fuel than they expected and although their mission had already included two planned refuelings they found themselves in need of Aid far sooner than they'd expected not only that but they couldn't even climb to a safe altitude in order to return in response KC 135 flew alone into enemy territory to attempt to refuel despite a complete lack of fighter protection or even onboard defenses flying low the KC 135 and the f105 fighters struggled to find each other but eventually did so with the flight leaders fuel gauge at zero and another plane carrying just 100 pound of fuel when the Strat tanker intercepted them all four planes were successfully refueled at the last possible second everyone involved got home safely another daring mission was flown in May 1967 by the 92nd air refueling Squadron led by Major Alvin Lewis on their second refueling flight that Day Lewis and EST Strat tanker crew were called upon by a pair of f 105s who had been trying to protect the airspace over the site where another f105 had crashed doing their best to keep the Zone safe until an evacuation could arrive however the Zone was located past Vietnam's demilitarized zone and the F 105s lingered so long that they no longer had adequate fuel to reach a friendly Air Base major Lewis and his crew were nearly out of fuel for the day but nonetheless they piloted their KC 135 close enough after make contact because of the Strat tanker's own low fuel major Lewis informed the pilots that they'd have to do an unorthodox refueling and that he could only supply enough fuel to get the F 105s away from the jungle in what must have been an absolutely wild sight Lewis and his Strat tanker kened into position just in time to help one of the F 105s which flamed out right as it was getting close enough to refuel but rather than bailing the pilot was able to guide his fighter into a coordinated downward Glide with a strat tanker both hurtling towards the ground in hope that the pilot could restart his engine mercifully the F 105's engine restarted just in time and the pilot pulled away to leave room for the other fighter whose own engine was on the verge of failing because of the dive the Strat tanker diverted its line to this jet filling it up as best they could and then went back to the first jet who' gotten just barely enough fuel to stay airborn in a situation where any number of slight panicked miscalculations might have led to a crash or either the the fighters or the tanker running out of fuel the stratotanker crew managed to get it just right and each of the aircraft was able to land safely the stratotanker crew would earn the distinguished flying cross for their work and all parties involved would escape with their lives across its range of missions in Vietnam the k135 would be instrumental in extending the mission range of f4 Fighters and B-52 bombers enabling them to strike deep within enemy territory or stay in the air over nearby hot zones for hours at a time rather than just a few minutes this turned them into a force multiply a way for the United States to do far more with their existing equipment and Personnel than might otherwise have been possible not only that but they were often able to escort damaged aircraft back to a landing Zone helping them to limp along even when their fuel tanks were punctured until the planes could land or the very least the pilot could eject over safe territory the story of the stratotanker in Vietnam was filled with these kind of highlights over the course of the war the casy 135 would complete 83,000 aerial refuelings outside of Vietnam the stratotanker was the Air Force's designated tanker to maintain Readiness for an outbreak of hostilities between the United States and the Soviet Union in keeping with this Mission dozens of Strat tankers were kept at the ready at a given time poised to take off and take part in strategic nuclear bombings at just a moment's notice and during the plan service life it's seen a number of critical updates that helped to keep Pace with the f-14s and f-15s of the post Vietnam years the B2 Spirit bombers of the turn of the 21st century and even the fifth generation fighter aircraft of today it's wings have been redesigned and reskinned to be sturdier and more durable its engines have continued to get better and better with time and it's received massive upgrades to its avionics including modern glass cockpit digital displays and a complete refit the plane was instrumental during the Gulf War completing tens of thousands more refuelings and they've been utilized extensively through US operations in the Middle East and Afghanistan almost 400 of the planes are still in service today and still receiving modifications just a few months ago in March of 2023 the Air Force announced that it was ready to add winglets to the planes which should improve fuel efficiency and save up to $65 million a year in operating costs of course the stratotanker service life has been anything but perfect with such a particular and Dangerous Mission and one that requires Precision from all parties involved the planes have been involved in a long long list of crashes and accidents as of 2020 52 of the planes have been lost to accidents at a rate of slightly less than one per year in those accidents 385 people have lost their lives one particularly catastrophic accident in 19 1965 a strat tanker crashed after a Rudder malfunction in Kansas hitting an intersection in the highway of witchar and killing 30 people a year later in 1966 a B-52 collided with a KC 135 while refueling causing the deaths of seven people between the crews of both planes and causing nuclear weapons to drop from the B52 into the sea and even land in Spain thankfully they were recovered and in March of 1982 a strat tanker exploded in midair at an altitude of 13,700 Ft with 27 people on board all of them were killed in the incident luckily the rate of accidents has gone down with time only five of the planes had accidents in the 1990s and only two since the year 2000s and that's included just three fatalities but even still the Strat tanker has had more accidents than most of the planes that the Air Force has flown this important to VI those numbers in context though the strata tanker has flown an ungodly number of missions over time often in auster conditions and the planes have been provided far better and more consistent maintenance in the past few decades they still have a difficult track record of Runway accidents and mid-flight incidents outside of fueling and the fact that those have gotten less frequent with time would indicate that these planes had quite a few fixable issues early in their service lives and with the Strat tanker ready to hit 70 years of service in 2027 there's one thing that we've got to discuss and that's of course their retirements which the KC 135 has done a fantastic job of dodging so far the strout tanker has been supplemented since 1981 by the heavier kc1 extender but with only 62 of the planes produced they've got no real hope of replacing the Strat tanker in America's missions around the world that task instead falls to the Boeing KC 46 Pegasus but well that's a bit of a long story introduced to service in 2019 with over 80 available today the Pegasus program started all the way back in 2016 and has been beset by a massive number of delays even upon delivery the Pegasus took years to be cleared for active operational use and cost cutting has led the newer plane to go from a potential complete replacement for the Strat tanker to a part replacement meaning that the KC 135 is likely to be flying for quite a while longer new programs to replace the KC 135 called the kyy and kcz programs have also been canceled within the last year those programs would have seen 175 KC white aners produced basically to tide the air force over for a few years until a dedicated kcz tanker was produced in the 2040s but according to Air Force assistant secretary Andrew hunter that replacement program no longer makes sense instead the new plan is for the Air Force to hold out with what it has until a next generation refueling platform can be developed according to Hunter this next Generation platform will be completely unlike any existing civilian aircraft meaning that'll have a lengthly design process that Hunter projects to be completed in the mid to late 2030s in all likelihood the introduction of this new system will be the moment that the stratotanker says goodbye but with no idea what such a design could be we really can't say much about that what we can say is that until that day comes the Strat tanker will be more than capable of filling in for the interim these days it's expensive to maintain it's outdated and the Air Force has made no bones about their desire to move on but even with that said the KC 135 seems able to compete a good while longer especially leaning on the other tankers in the US Air Fleet One Day the Air Force will be truly able to replace its iconic tanker and the KC 135 will finally give its farewell to active service until then it'll continue onward as an unsung American war hero and perhaps the most critically important plane that the US Air Force has ever [Music] [Music] flown

Channel: Megaprojects

Views: 254,428

Keywords: kc-135 stratotanker, boeing kc-135 stratotanker, a squadron of kc-135 stratotankers, boeing kc-135 stratotanker (aircraft model), air force kc-135 crash, stratotanker, kc-135 tanker, pilots kc-135 take off, u.s. air force boeing kc-135, boeing kc-135 crash, boeing kc-135, kc-135 takeoff, kc-135 water wagon, kc-135 documentary, kc-135 in action, kc-135 crash, center drogue, kc-135 aircrew readiness exercise b-roll ks, u.s. air force, engine startup, kc-135 refueling

Id: cwxtArbMvlc

Length: 20min 17sec (1217 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 18 2023