Just look at those Navy freeloaders!
A KC-135 Stratotanker stands by to refuel a pair of F/A-18 Hornets from the Navy’s Blue Angels on their way from an air show at Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska, on Aug. 14. The KC-135 is with the 168th Air Refueling Wing at Eielson AFB, Alaska.
Photo Courtesy of the US Air Force
I’m just glad that the hardware actually matches.
Purty, shiny Blue jets and free gas!
Got to be one of the best jobs in the fleet.
(Somehow, I don’t see the T-Birds on a blue-water hook-up with an S-3)
Unless the S-3 suddenly sprouts a flying boom, you never will. F-16s, like all Air Force fixed wing aircraft, don’t have the fittings for probe and drogue refuelling. Kind of hard to connect when the plumbing doesn’t match.
Do the Blues have flying boom receptacles, or does the angle of the picture hide a hose and basket behind the wings on the boom?
Hm I seem to remember that USAF tankers have both booms and hose/baskets, but last picture I saw, the hose/baskets came out of the wings of the aircraft and not the tail. It may be that I’m thinking of a different tanker aircraft.
I’m assuming the reason the US Navy uses the probe-and-drogue system is that it’s much easier to fit to smaller aircraft, whereas the USAF uses the boom system because it can pump fuel much faster, and AF runways are large enough to fit bigger tankers which can reasonably fit a boom type arrangement.
The KC-135, if I recall correctly, has to fit a probe and drogue adapter over the boom end to fuel Navy/Marne aircraft. I think the KC-10 has a separate probe and drogue capability. And the various 767 tankers have several options for boom and probe and drogue refueling. The few non-US forces with tankers operate a mixed bag of boom and probe-and-drogue depending on the configuration of their receivers.
Wow. My weak attempt at a little inter-service snark got smacked aside by the vast storehouse of knowledge among the Op-for readership.
I still think those shiny Blue jets are purty, though. (And the T-Birds do put on one heckuva show as well.)
Do a Google search for KC-135 and follow the link to images (at top of the).
They have both capabilities
Fox2!
You are right. The KC-135 must have the probe/drogue assembly attached to the boom before takeoff. It is then limited to probe/drogue refueling. The KC-10 has a boom, but it also has a retractable probe/drogue hose on the right side of the rear fuselage. That is really stretching my memory. Almost 20 years since last flying F-4′s.
I have had a few drinks (too many), but I believe the correct answer is…..the Navy is always right.
“Swabbies Stealing Air Force Gas”!!! You crack me up, what a headline! Too funny!
The only fixed-to-wing “basket for fries” is on the KC-130 … she has the baskets for choppers, and others … missions like this for the Navy or SOS choppers.
Never seen a set permanently on any of the KC-135s I worked on, in the 80′s. It’s a “Burger King” outfit for the baskets to get installed – ie, have it your way for the mission.
The only “special” tanker is the KC-135Q. She ONLY refuels the SR-71 … special gas and bladders for the Blackbird.
Hmmm … to be back at Beale AFB … but, no more Blackbird. Just the Dragon Lady.
Hey, what am I saying!!! :)
Hey guys, there’s another English person about, :)
I’m a new on op-for.com
looking forward to speaking to you guys soon
Only cause the Navy got rid of the A-6E/KA-6D. Just check with Pinch on this one. In 80-81 IO/Arabian Sea, Attack Squadron One Four Five passed over 4 million pounds of fuel to VF-1 and VF-2 alone. This was done from the Good Ship Ranger.
Not to mess the Air Force’s vanity or anything.
Yeah, I was there as a young Second Class Petty Officer.