convair880mfan wrote:Was flying the KC-135 a real blast? I know some had turbojets, some turbofans and some those CFM engines. If it isn't too personal a question, which kind did you pilot?
I flew the original A-model - like I tell people, "
We were gods, we made water burn..."
I always enjoyed flying the -135, a good, solid airplane, I don't think she ever did anything that surprised me. A few nail biters along the way, but always got us home at the end of the day. Back then, in the SAC days, we sat a lot of alert, flew a lot of sorties that involved giving some gas to a B-52, flying a nav leg using the sextant to figure out where we were, then beating up the pattern back home. Did get to fly some neat refueling missions - West German Tornados over the "buffer zone" along the boarder with East Germany, the Looking Glass EC-135, plenty of fighters, and the final B-1A on its last flight, being retired to the Air Force Museum at Wright-Patt. I was fortunate to be at Grissom AFB, as we flew all of the odd-ball tankers, including the only KC-135s equipped for receiver air refueling - pulling up behind a KC-10 at night and having it blot out the sky is memorable.
Bob Hopkins and I were young co-pilots together at Grissom and we reconnected here on A.net about 10 years ago. Great guy, knows about all there is to know about the -135. Definitely check out his book if you want to learn more about this old bird.