MIflyer
1st Lieutenant
Last flight on 26 Sep 2024 at Travis AFB. A way to feel old! I recall when I was at Tinker AFB we sent some people out to participate in the KC-10 prototype's test program.
Last USAF KC-10A Heads For The Boneyard
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The Stannum Liberator
Airman
Wow, I think it's funny how long lasting these aircraft can be. We have KC-135's fly over our house almost daily.
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- #3
MIflyer
1st Lieutenant
Yes, and A-7 was a replacement for the A-4 but the A-4 outlived it.
cammerjeff
Staff Sergeant
Hard to Believe that the design is 43 years old.
It looks like Omega Aerial Refueling Services are still operating Converted DC-10's and the 2 KDC-10's formally of the Royal Netherlands Air Force.
It looks like Omega Aerial Refueling Services are still operating Converted DC-10's and the 2 KDC-10's formally of the Royal Netherlands Air Force.
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I make it more like 54 years since first flight.
cammerjeff
Staff Sergeant
For the DC-10 yes I agree 53 years, but the 1st flight of the KC-10 was 1980, so 43-44 years. The original DC-10 design (DC-10-10) did not have the engine power, or structure to support the weight increases needed for the tanker design, until the DC-10-30 model 1st flew in late 1972, so depending on how you look at it 43-54 year old design. Still hard to believe.
special ed
2nd Lieutenant
- 5,654
- May 13, 2018
The DC-3 still flies while replacements not so much, Convair's 240-340 C-131, Martin's 404, and others world wide. I have seen the antiques working after hurricanes, some with WW2 insignia, since Katrina still bringing supplies.
Final KC-10 Extender Tanker Flies Into Retirement
The flight from Travis Air Force Base in California will bring down the curtain on a 43-year career for the trijet KC-10 Extender tanker-transport. The flight from Travis Air Force Base in California will bring down the curtain on a 43-year career for the trijet KC-10 Extender tanker-transport.
www.twz.com
Escuadrilla Azul
Tech Sergeant
- 1,818
- Feb 27, 2020
An interesting view of a KC-10 driver:
hushkit.net
I flew the Big Sexy KC-10 super-tanker and I will miss it
The KC-10 did not require modification to carry the SR-71’s special JP-7 fuel, as it had fuel tanks that could be isolated (if desired) and only delivered to the boom. Those tanks could also …
hushkit.net
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MIflyer
1st Lieutenant
Anyone think it odd that the KC-10's were not converted into drones like the F-80, F9F, F-86, F-102, F-104, F-4?
special ed
2nd Lieutenant
- 5,654
- May 13, 2018
Or mobile homes.
Thumpalumpacus
Major
They seem so much bigger than DC-10s on the inside because there's no seats installed normally. Seemed like you could play a healthy football game in there.
GreenKnight121
Senior Airman
- 734
- Mar 16, 2014
Not odd at all, as those you listed are all fighters - which, being much smaller and more maneuverable, made more effective targets to test weapon systems and pilot skill.
Very few drones made from converted aircraft were used for anything other than flying targets... and a KC-10 would be far too easy to hit.
The only converted fighter drones used as weapons by the US I'm aware of were F6F-5K Hellcats used as flying remote-controlled bombs during the Korea Conflict - they were flown by an operator in an AD Skyraider.
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MIflyer
1st Lieutenant
Well, in the first place I was joking. But in fact B-17's were converted into drones after WW2 for use as targets. The problem was how to shoot down large aircraft quickly, since they had to be assumed to be carrying nuclear bombs and of course this also involved the development of SAMs. In one famous incident a B-17 drone landed on the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Skid Strip and ran off the runway. It was not badly damaged, but a small fire had started on board, which could had been extinguished easily, but they let it burn up.
Of course in the USAAF WW2 Project Aphrodite B-17's were converted into missiles flown remotely to hit high value targets such as sub pens and V-weapons sites while the USN tried the same thing in a bit more sophisticated manner using B-24's, a scewed-up operation which resulted in the death of Joe Kennedy Jr.
I always thought the PQM-102A would make a hellava cruise missile, perhaps controlled by an operator in an F-111.
