Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker
tanker aircraft family by Boeing
The Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker is an American military aerial refueling tanker aircraft that was developed from the Boeing 367-80 prototype, alongside the Boeing 707 airliner. It has a narrower fuselage and is shorter than the 707. Boeing gave the aircraft the internal designation of Model 717, with the number later assigned to a different Boeing aircraft.
The KC-135 was the United States Air Force's (USAF) first jet-powered refueling tanker; it replaced the KC-97 Stratofreighter. The KC-135 was initially tasked with refueling strategic bombers and was used extensively in the Vietnam War and later conflicts such as Operation Desert Storm and the Iran war to extend the range and endurance of US tactical fighters and bombers.
The KC-135 entered service with the USAF in 1957. It is one of nine military fixed-wing aircraft (six American, three Russian) with over 60 years of continuous service with its original operator. The KC-135 was supplemented by the larger McDonnell Douglas KC-10 Extender. Studies have concluded that many of the aircraft could be flown until 2030, although maintenance costs have greatly increased. The KC-135 is to be partially replaced by the Boeing KC-46 Pegasus.
“Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker” enters the record as tanker aircraft family by Boeing. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Boeing, KC-135 and Stratotanker can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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This entry incorporates text from “Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.