DANTIBUS DAMUS
DANTIBUS DAMUS
"WE DELIVER SO YOU CAN DELIVER", or in more colorful vernacular 'No one kicks ass without tanker gas".
Depicted here as the central figure is a KC-135 'Stratotanker' as assigned to the 92nd Air Refueling Squadron from Fairchild AFB located outside of Spokane, Washington. The KC-135 was an aerial refueling aircraft that has served for over fifty years in the United States Air Force and is still in service as the re-engined 'R' model. Early refueling aircraft just couldn't fly fast enough for the ever increasing high performance fighters and so the KC-135 was developed by the Boeing Co. based off of the ever popular and revolutionary Boeing 707.
It is interesting to note that the KC-135 is not a Boeing 707, but an offshoot with a narrower fuselage. It is in fact the original Boeing 717, a designation used twice by the company for the modern airliner of the same designation.
What really makes this scene special for me however is that this aircraft on this actual mission was flown by my father who served in the USAF as a career pilot in the KC-135. Depicted here was a training sortie to refuel F-106 'Delta Darts' of the 84th Fighter Interceptor Squadron from the now closed Castle AFB.
