Rough translation according to “Bing”
During a drill simulated alert, the United States Air Force has deployed 15 of its Boeing KC-135 Stratotankers veterans. The 507th Air Refueling Wing aircraft took off almost simultaneously just minutes after receiving the alert.
The exercise conducted routinely provides the so-called elephant walk (March of the elephant, in free translation), in which the taxiam aircraft in sequence until takeoff. It aims to train crews, mechanics, ground crews and air force mission systems for the real job of a task force.
The KC-135 veterans have averaged 60 years of use. In the last two decades, the current fleet received a series of upgrades, including replacing the engines Pratt & Whitney J-57-P-59W by CFM56-2 (F180 on military designation), with more power and less fuel consumption. The u.s. military should start in the next few years to replace the KC-135 by modern Boeing KC-46 Pegasus, which are to enter service in mid-2018. Still, the retirement of the KC-135 should only occur in 2030, when will have completed almost 75 years of the first flight.
The KC-135 the basic design that the Boeing 707
G-ANPK
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