From earlier this month at Pease/Portsmouth. NATION 13 landing runway 16
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Topeka was about to suffer from some severe T-Storms just before Halloween, so they sent 5 of their tankers to March to sit out the wx for a day. This is WYLIE 37 on approach during Halloween Eve…is that a thing?
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Great to see more of these ANG tanker units applying special markings.
Here’s 57-1437 a taken at Mildenhall in the 90s when it was with the 100th ARW.
(Correction, the oldest aircraft in the USAF is KC-135R 57-1419, now with the AZ ANG)
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“Great to see more of these ANG tanker units applying special markings.”
Agreed. I don’t mind losing serial numbers if this is what we get in trade!
Nice pic, Dan.
Here’s a French KC-135 flying a bit too high over Eindhoven Air Base during the EART tanker exercise in 2019.
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Taken at Dyess AFB when the 96th BW also operated KC-135As in addition to B-1Bs, I loved that period when tankers all had tailcodes.
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Old school cool. Shame the Strategic Air Command markings are gone. What was the nose art on it?
Shot that jet back in September 91’ and looks to have the same nose art. “TOP OFF” then with the 379BW at Wurtsmith seen taxiing out at March as HURON 31
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With SAC markings!
The Dyess visit was only a year later, look how much the markings changed with the start of Air Combat Command! I never knew what those black lines on the tails meant?
KC-135A smokey take-off by 58-0128 at Mildenhall during Desert Storm in 1991 when the base was full of tankers!
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For me the RC-135S and RC-135X were the strats to get, with their black wings and specialised mission monitoring ballistic missile launches they just felt more special.
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Wow, Kev, those are some special jets. Amazing!
A couple of shots of NC-135W 61-2666 a few decades apart. First shot she was a WC-135 configured as a atmospheric test aircraft. In 1999 she began operations with the 645th Aeronautical Systems Squadron in Greenville, Texas, with the aircraft serving as a Big Safari testbed for the USAF’s fleet of RC-135V/W Rivet Joint intelligence-gathering aircraft. The last TF-33 powered Stratolifter in USAF service, I shot her leaving Mildenhall for home on one of her last visits here. Retired in 2023 she was replaced by TC-135 62-4133.
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