Scrapping USAF Boeing KC135 Tanker 

fr no way

I agree there are lots of inthusiest including myself that would pay hundreds of dollars for that stuff

5:00

Only some metal will be part of a plane the rest will be anything made of metal like soda cans

A 101st ARW Mainiac! World renowned stickers placed conspicuously (and not so conspicuously) literally around the globe! What a hoot!

@@NAMEUNAVAILABLE0 I like to think you may have seen a sticker I placed somewhere. LOL. Its funny, back when I was a crew chief in the late 80's and early 90's we would get our travel orders in an envelope and there may be 10 copies of our orders and about 30 stickers in the packet. We weren't allowed to bring any home and if we ran out the jets had them stocked up as well.

@@c32load Yup! Don't know if they're still doing that today but I hope so. Anyone who knows nothing about that green sticker or what a "Mainiac" is, has lead a sheltered life. Those stickers are everywhere tankers went. Were you still at the 101st when one of your jets returned after duty at the 190th (Kansas Coyotes) with the tail flash modified to show a coyote chopping down the pine tree in the logo? All in good fun however......

@@NAMEUNAVAILABLE0 I was! I remember that and thought it was hysterical! A few of my cohorts didn't see the same humor in it but I thought it was a riot! I think we kept a coyote too or something if I remember correctly. There was something going on between the two units in jest.

I boomed on that jet - SAD

If you think this is flimsy, think again! Remember, this was a first of it's kind large frame jet designed in a post WWII engineering environment by some great Boeing engineers with green eye shades, slide rules and BIG imaginations to do things in the future that they knew could not be anticipated at that time. The KC-135 has and will continue to set aviation historical milestones and programed now to fly into 2040! The last of this fleet to retire will (may) be around 80 years old! But the only way it may survive that long is because it was designed with lots of redundancy--including structural redundancy. Conversely, modern commercial jets are designed to be as light as possible because fuel conservation is so directly impacting to operating cost.

@@NAMEUNAVAILABLE0 And THAT proves that this current obsession with fuel conservation is DIRECTLY HARMING FLIGHT SAFETY by reducing structural redundancy!

Failed the skin waviness checks

It's a B model-too expensive to update-we had 2-both are now beer cans-

Yea there comes a time where the heavy inspections are no longer worth it. Cheaper to just scrap them

Yep if we keep updating this, we won't have room for the next gen. Too much money.

Give it to some kids to use as a club house. Or convert it into a restaurant and call it KC-I35 Diner.

@@socksumi 💀💀

Just put on a diagonal. We'll Cann the parts in the morning.

U Wanna follow me too on yt?

They are all disposable accessories. ASHES TO DUST.

Because they're old and worn out, and because you can then use the metal to make new planes (like maybe the brand-new KC-46 which is replacing these!)

@@agentorange153 i know i know just... its so sad still

They did! Perhaps you didn't notice that all the flight controls except for the rudder and rudder tab were removed? Also, the boom and all four TF-33's . This was an E model. The E model fleet engine struts were assessed to have accumulated corrosion and by engineering decision were placed on a two year/ 1800 hour "clock " that would lead to grounding if the corrosion wasn't repaired. My recollection is that 56-3623 happened to be at Sheppard when that clock expired and was grounded. If memory serves, OC-ALC wouldn't grant one time flight authority in order to get it to Davis Monthan for disposition which necessitated a contractor team to come in and cut the jet up.

I know this one had a cracked spar chord.

Every part that's usable and not worn out is stripped. The scrap pile is then sorted, and all the metal is treated and melted down into aerospace grade aluminum ingots, which can sometimes be used to make new planes.

It had a cracked spar chord, so it was used for maintenance training

This was an E model. The E model fleet engine struts were assessed to have accumulated corrosion and by engineering decision, were placed on a two year/ 1800 hour "clock " that would lead to grounding if the corrosion wasn't repaired. It also led the AF to retire some E models while moving forward to complete re-engining the remaining fleet of E models to R Models which would have occurred back in the '80's but for lack of funding. The Total Force Tanker fleet now has a common aircraft which has great advantages in operation, maintenance, sustainment and so on.

Yes! The APN-59 radar. The RT for that system was in the lower nose compartment and was not solid state circuitry. Even at that late date, It still used vacuum tubes like we once had in radios and behind the back of televisions.

Will never happen -- you can't have a tanker without pilots or a boom operator, in-flight refueling is far too complex an operation to trust to a machine!

TOO BAD BEEYOTCH!!!!!

I don't do that business anymore...I was done 10 years ago this month.

​@convairjet howd you get in? Whyd you get out?