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The End of an Era

Grnd93

Grnd93

The Dude
Joined
May 19, 2020
Member Number
236
Messages
738
Loc
Michigan
On Thursday , September 26 the last of 59 KC10A tanker aircraft will be retired from the USAF inventory and will take its final flight from Travis AFB, CA to the boneyard in Tucson, AZ.

I was fortunate enough the spend a few years as a boom operator on this airframe and she safely took me to many locations that I never would have dreamed of visiting.

There are many opinions as to why she is being put out to pasture. Officially it is because of high operating costs.
Regardless of what the truth is, the US military is going to be feeling the impact for years to come.

If you’re bored Thursday , you can see the retirement ceremony live streamed on YouTube in the link below


More information on the KC10 is available online at:
en.wikipedia.org

McDonnell Douglas KC-10 Extender - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

Photo below was taken during a pre strike AR in the opening days of OEF
IMG_0153.jpeg

Edited to correct the day of the week
 
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Slander said:
I always thought the kc10/dc10/md10/11 platform was a cool aircraft!

I remember the guys I worked with at United telling me that number 2 engine was a bitch to work on and change.
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Our maintainers felt the same way
 
Grnd93 said:
On wwdnesday, September 26 the last of 59 KC10A tanker aircraft will be retired from the USAF inventory and will take its final flight from Travis AFB, CA to the boneyard in Tucson, AZ.

I was fortunate enough the spend a few years as a boom operator on this airframe and she safely took me to many locations that I never would have dreamed of visiting.

There are many opinions as to why she is being put out to pasture. Officially it is because of high operating costs.
Regardless of what the truth is, the US military is going to be feeling the impact for years to come.

If you’re bored Wednesday, you can see the retirement ceremony live streamed on YouTube in the link below


More information on the KC10 is available online at:
en.wikipedia.org

McDonnell Douglas KC-10 Extender - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

Photo below was taken during a pre strike AR in the opening days of OEF
IMG_0153.jpeg
Click to expand...

“Buff” getting ready to go distribute some :flipoff2:

My favorite bomber after the B-17 :smokin:
 
Slander said:
I always thought the kc10/dc10/md10/11 platform was a cool aircraft!

I remember the guys I worked with at United telling me that number 2 engine was a bitch to work on and change.
Click to expand...


Can confirm.

Our guys love or hate wrenching on the MD-11. A tail engine change takes us about 3 days to change as compared to a wing engine at about a day. I know nothing of the state of the KC-10 fleet, but our MDs are very well used and parts are becoming/have been an issue.
 
Bacho said:
Can confirm.

Our guys love or hate wrenching on the MD-11. A tail engine change takes us about 3 days to change as compared to a wing engine at about a day. I know nothing of the state of the KC-10 fleet, but our MDs are very well used and parts are becoming/have been an issue.
Click to expand...
Parts have been an issue for awhile. Since it was originally a McDonnell Douglas airframe Boeing doesn’t have much interest in supporting it.
 
Bacho said:
Can confirm.

Our guys love or hate wrenching on the MD-11. A tail engine change takes us about 3 days to change as compared to a wing engine at about a day. I know nothing of the state of the KC-10 fleet, but our MDs are very well used and parts are becoming/have been an issue.
Click to expand...
I had a former coworker tell me MD-11 stood for: "minimum delay 11hrs":laughing:
 
I don’t know how the KC10 compares. But the MD 11 is actually a quite advanced aircraft for its day.

Its computer system is quite good at advanced troubleshooting and clearing faults from itself. Considerably more advanced than some of the jets that are 20 years newer, I’ve worked on.

Pretty much guaranteed you’re always gonna find something wrong with the tail engine when it gets opened up. Armchair engineers speculate the vertical stand is not stout enough. There’s an old video of YouTube on certification of the airplane that shows impressive shaking in that area.
 
Grnd93 said:
They will have 57 KC10s

1 will be on display at Wright Patterson and 1 at March AFB.
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They normally do a fly around the city before they land…seen some pretty interesting aircraft fly overhead as my shop is under the west approach
 
mongosd2 said:
They normally do a fly around the city before they land…seen some pretty interesting aircraft fly overhead as my shop is under the west approach
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I have a buddy who is a sim instructor at DM and know of a few people who will be there for the landing. Kinda kicking myself for not booking a flight down there.
 
rugger said:
I feel ya. I have over 70,000 nautical miles at sea on the Nimitz. She's being decommissioned next.
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Had around 2500 hours on the KC10.

I was watching a YouTube video a couple weeks ago about a B2 sortie in October 01 that flew nonstop from Whiteman, dropped ordinance on the taliban then landed in DG. I need to dig out my flight records, but I think I may have given them some gas on the way up.
 
smurfblue40 said:
Local news ran a story not too long ago about their retirement. And they mentioned that at the time, Travis had the first of the replacement birds on the tarmac, I forget the nomenclature.
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The replacement is the KC-46 Pegasus. It's supposed to carry more fuel and have better counter measures.
 
rugger said:
I feel ya. I have over 70,000 nautical miles at sea on the Nimitz. She's being decommissioned next.
Click to expand...
She's an old ship, almost 50 years old. That's old for an ocean going vessel. Her reactors are coming due for another refuel and to bring her up to current standards doesn't make sense. BTW, both carriers I served on have been decommissioned, the Ranger and the Kitty Hawk.
 
Sad to see the old Tri-jets dying off... there's still a few flying around me for certain smaller operations. My favorite tri is probably the B727. Thanks for posting this!
 
SanDiegoCJ said:
She's an old ship, almost 50 years old. That's old for an ocean going vessel. Her reactors are coming due for another refuel and to bring her up to current standards doesn't make sense. BTW, both carriers I served on have been decommissioned, the Ranger and the Kitty Hawk.
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I've been by both of them in San Diego on the pier. Crazy to see the subject of my memories being removed from service.
 
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