Very nice pictures, but even that couldn’t get me to drive down to Wichita! No sign of the Italian KC-767 that is undergoing conversion down there at Boeing?

That Kalitta 747 has been there a long time. It was being overhauled a number of years ago, then the work just stopped.

And Google, that is a B-17G. Note the chin turret.

I completely disagree. The role that the MD-11 would fill would be for a large tanker, as it is larger than even the KC-10. The initial requirement is for 100 aircraft, so that the USAF can have 100 booms in 100 different places. Eventually all 500 or so KC-135s nee to be replaced. With only 196 MD-11s in existence, and after boeing destroying the tooling for the line no more in the future, the MD-11 is a wholly inadequate tanker. Remember there are less than 40 MD-11s in storage currently, with more being snapped up by cargo operators by the day.

The MD-11 also takes up substantially more ramp space than a 767, or even an A-330. This affects how many tankers you can base at any one location, and how many aircraft you can send in strike packages, as USAF planes get gas one at a time.

he interesting thing is the USAF (as quoted in the JSF thread) requesting a refuelling PROBE on their F-35As. This is highly unusual, but it does enable more than one aircraft to get fuel from a tanker if it is equipped with wingtip hosereel units. The only downfall of this is that the hosereels deliver far fewer gallons per minute to the reciever than the probe method, but that should only be an issue when gassing larger aircraft anyway (B-52, E-4, etc.)

USAF going for a fighter mounted probe instead of using a boom+recepticle configuration? Has this been done since the F-100?

Hello? did anyone read my last post. Here’s a link:
http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/history/q0012.shtml

3) Modified mission (optional; indicates that a type originally designed for the mission indicated by its “basic mission” code has been modified for a different mission); includes the A, C, E, F, O, P, R, S, T, and U mission codes, plus:

D = Drone control
H = Search and rescue
K = Tanker (K for Kerosene)
L = Cold weather
M = Multi-mission
Q = Drone
V = VIP or staff transport
W = Weather observation

Actually the “K” makes some sense. Supposedly, the “K” designation was assigned to the tanker, because of the makeup of what it carried. It is rumored to be short for “Kerosene” which is supposed to be pretty close to jet fuel in composition.

I thought the Herk turned 50 this year. Or am I on crack again?

Ah OK it’s 30 years in Canadian service. Very nice article with very nice photos! 😀