AZFlyer

This boom was being supported by cables attached to the underside of the fuselage. Any ideas why? The boom was resting in a position approximately horizontal to the ground. The boom on the KC-135 however was fully retracted.

Dubes

I'm going to guess its modified for spraying forest fires.

UAL T38 Phlyer

Dubes:

Looks like a normal KC-10 boom to me...the "plug" in the middle of the boom moves out of the way when you get locked-onto the boom.

AZ:

The KC-135 has these cables as well. I never knew it until the first time I went to a tanker.

The cables are there for leverage, pure and simple. It would take a huge hydraulic cylinder and VERY strong boom to be hydraulicly-lifted the way a landing gear does. I believe there is a hydraulic cylinder as well, but the cables are far enough out on the boom to winch it up and get it locked.

I don't know why they would leave the boom halfway down on the -135, unless it was done to take off a Navy-style basket (KC-135s have to have them installed to the center-boom if they have planned drogue-equipped receivers, although many -135s now have drogue-pods on the wingtips). They typically take them off when the mission is over.

HoursHore

They have cables to help hoist them back into position. They probably put it halfway down just show you what it kind of looks like in the refueling position and so you could take the pic of the stuff inside the boom.

AZFlyer

Thanks for the insight UAL and Hours. That makes more sense.

Here are a few more shots. This one you can clearly see the cables suspending the boom on the KC-10. Interestingly, they were letting people walk under and around the boom during the day, however at the end of the show, the KC-10 crew was out there preventing people from doing so...perhaps they were going to be raising it, and just didn't want to risk an accident and bopping someone on the noggin.

AZFlyer

Dubes

Ok, that makes a lot more sense now. I was so sure that boom was part of the fuselage .

Skyone

Ok, for all you AF tanker pukes. Here in the M.E. I hear the call sign "Python" all the time. I am assuming it's a tanker, nice VHF non O2 mask transmissions. Anyway, the other day one had an emergency....said something about the inability to transfer fuel or something. Said it had eight hours of fuel onboard and 3 sob's. My question is, I would think that maybe a KC10 would have a couple of more folks on board and the KC135 definitely? No state secrets, just curious about the number of crew. Man, how long would it take to dumb eight hours of fuel, or would lack of any major ZFW other than gas make it a quick dump to get under MLW?

UAL T38 Phlyer

The KC-135 is now (I believe) a 2-man cockpit, plus the boom-operator. It used to have an Engineer (let me know if I'm wrong on this, Tanker-guys).

KC-10 I think is 4: 2 Pilots, F/E, and Boomer.

As to dumping: Drop the boom and let it fly!! I think they can dump 6000 lbs a minute out of the boom (the 747-400 had two dump-masts and we could dump 6000/minute).

If you have a fuel-transfer problem, though, you may not have the pumps to dump with, either.

KC135guy

Yes the 135 is now a three person crew, two in the cockpit and the boomer/loadmaster/FE. Been that way since they added GPS. The sextant mount is still in the ceiling of the cockpit but I don't think it's used for the GPS antenna anymore. When I worked in the phase docks on the 135's at Fairchild, we would drop the boom down for maintenance but wouldn't let it just hang on the boom hoist cable. We used another cable specifically made to hold the boom while it was down so we could inspect the cable, pulleys etc.

We started to get the MPIR's, multi-point inflight refueling, pods installed on the wings just before I left Fairchild in 03. They were drogue pods so we could refuel Navy and other NATO aircraft without having to reconfigure the boom, which increased the 135's mission capability. I miss working on the 135's