Tag Archives: dc-10

International, Technology

Vehicle I-D: KDC-10 Koninklijke Luchtmacht

Video

Photo by Staff Sergeant Dana Cable.

In September 2019, A Royal Netherlands Air Force KDC-10 paid a visit to Fairchild Air Force Base, Washington, for Exercise Mobility Guardian.

Fairchild AFB, Washington, 2019. Photo by First Lieutenant Jessica Cicchetto.

2019: Texas airborne fueler company buys Dutch KDC-10s

Photos by Maartje Roos.

Photos from NATO’s Trident Juncture 2018, in Norway.

NATO video, taxi-takeoff, heading to Trident Juncture 2018 in Norway:

Photo by Chris Okula.

They flew all the way to Edwards Air Force Base, in California, to refuel one of their own F-35s!   According to the press info, at the end of March 2016, the Royal Netherlands Air Force (Koninklijke Luchtmacht) was used to prove the viability of refueling F-35s with KC-10s.

Halloween 2020:  HOW TO MUMMIFY YOUR KC-10, OR, LAST FLIGHT OF 86-0036

Operation CoViD-19:  PROJECT AIR BRIDGE, 747S, MD-11S, BREAKING AIRLIFT RECORDS!

Wildfires 2019:  DC-10, IDAHO’S 911

Bare Metal:  NASA’S MD-11 EXPERIMENTAL

Technology

How to mummify your KC-10, or, Last flight of 86-0036

Video

Photo by Staff Sergeant Sean Evans.

The day before Halloween, the first of three retired KC-10 Extenders began its mummification by AMARG (Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group) at Davis-Monthan Air
Force Base, Arizona.

Photo by Master Sergeant Joseph Vigil.

On 13JUL2020, a KC-10 (tail #86-0036) based at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey, became the first KC-10 in the U.S. Air Force inventory to be officially retired.  Congress approved the retirement of three KC-10s in anticipation of eventual replacement of 59 KC-10s by the new KC-46A Pegasus.

Photo by Staff Sergeant Sean Evans.

Tail #86-0036 takes off on its last flight, Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst from to the graveyard at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, 13JUL2020.

Photo by Airman First Class Sean Hetz.

Final flight video by Master Sergeant Joseph Vigil (edited by me):

Time lapse video by Staff Sergeant Giovanni Sims, KC-10 mummification on 30OCT2020:

 

From 2017:  908th EARS KC-10 refueling Bengal F/A-18D Hornet and 355th FW A-10C Thunderbolt-2

Kit Bashing, Technology

Bare Metal: NASA’s MD-11 experimental, your taxes saving the ‘private sector’ airline industry

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29AUG1995

Between August and November 1995, an experimental McDonnell Douglas MD-11 conducted landings under engine power only.

It happened at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards Air Force Base, California, and it was the first time a transport aircraft landed with normal controls switched off.

It was part of a NASA project to develop a computer-assisted engine control system that enables a pilot to land a plane safely when its normal control surfaces fail.

The Propulsion-Controlled Aircraft (PCA) system uses standard autopilot controls already present in the cockpit, together with the new programming in the aircraft’s flight control computers.

The first PCA tests by NASA were carried out with a modified twin-engine F-15 Eagle research aircraft.  The F-15A was the second U.S. Air Force Eagle (71-0281), sent to work with NASA in 1976.

04FEB1976

BARE METAL: C-17 STRIPPED (with video)

 C-130 PAINT PREP, OR THE EMPEROR GETS SOME NEW CLOTHES

 B-1B & B-52H

Idaho, Technology

Idaho Wild Fires 2019: MD-87 water bomber, new King Air FAC

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23 July 2019-23:43 UTC-07 Tango 06 (02 Mordad 1398/21 Dhu l-Qa’da 1440/22 Xin-Wei 4717)

The fires keep burning in eastern Idaho.  Things got so hot today that evacuations of ‘non-essential personnel’ were ordered near the Idaho National Laboratory’s nuclear jet engine and EBR-1 nuclear-disaster-reactor,  due to the rapid expansion of the ‘Sheep Fire’ (about 85-thousand acres, 34398 hectares).

MD-87 (foreground) and DC-10 (background) tankers rolling in from their latest east Idaho mission. Photo by AAron B. Hutchins.

The Sheep Fire is just one of dozens of wild fires in Idaho right now so, once again, the little used Pocatello Airport was put to good use by water bombers from 10 Tanker Air Carrier and Erickson Aero Tanker.

Photo by AAron B. Hutchins.

Photo by AAron B. Hutchins.

Photo by AAron B. Hutchins.

A little bird water bomber heads out. Photo by AAron B. Hutchins.

Photo by AAron B. Hutchins.

A new U.S. Forest Service King Air 250 FAC (Forward Air Controller) taking off. Photo by AAron B. Hutchins.

King Air ‘FAC’: Forest Service buys its first lead plane in almost 40 years

The King Air passes by the incoming DC-10. Photo by AAron B. Hutchins.

A familiar sight ever since the big fires of 2012. Photo by AAron B. Hutchins.

Home for the night. Photo by AAron B. Hutchins.

WILD FIRES 2019: DC-10, IDAHO’S 911

Idaho, Technology

Wild Fires 2019: DC-10, Idaho’s 911

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15 July 2019-21:32 UTC-07 Tango 06 (25 Tir 1398/13 Dhu l-Qa’da 1440/14 Xin-Wei 4717)

Photo by AAron B. Hutchins.

Another year, another round of wild fires, and Pocatello Airport is temporary home (once again) to DC-10 water bombers.  Two were spotted, numbers 911 and 912.

Click the pics (by AAron B. Hutchins) to make them bigger:

SMOKE ’EM IF YOU GOT ’EM, 2017!: POCATELLO AIRPORT FIRE BOMBERS ARE BACK!

U.S. WILDFIRES 2016: DC-10 POCATELLO AIRPORT

IDAHO WILDFIRES 2015: POKEY AIRPORT DC-10 WATER BOMBER

Idaho, Technology, U.S.

Smoke ’em if you got ’em!: Pocatello Airport Fire Bombers are Back!

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06 AUG 2017 (03:39 UTC-07 Tango 06)  15 Mordad 1396/13 Dhu l-Qa’da 1438/15 Wu-Shen 4715

The sky around eastern Idaho is socked in with smoke as the 2017-18 wildfire season roars up (I don’t think I’ve ever seen it so smokey around here, and I’ve been here 20 years).  The water bombing aircraft based at Pocatello Airport were busy during daylight; non-stop landings, reloading, take-offs, for hours on-end until dark.

Photos by AAron B. Hutchins. Click pics to make bigger:

April 2017: MAFFS BOMBS IDAHO!

At the end of  2016 U.S. Forest Service and the Department of Defense warning: WILDFIRE SEASON 2018 GOING TO BE A HOT ONE!

BOISE FIRE UPDATE: CHUBBUCK ALLSTATE ALREADY HIT WITH FIRE CLAIMS!

U.S. WILDFIRES 2016: DC-10 POCATELLO AIRPORT

2015: IDAHO WILDFIRES KILL WOMAN

IDAHO’S 13+ YEARS OF DROUGHT ADD UP TO BIG ASS WILDFIRE SEASON FOR 2014!  (didn’t happen)

2013: POCATELLO, IDAHO, CHARLOTTE FIRE 2?

POCATELLO AIRPORT, 2012 IDAHO WILDFIRES: CANADAIR CL 215

IDAHO WILDFIRE UPDATE, 20 SEPTEMBER 2012: ANOTHER SMOKEY DAY, STILL LEADING THE NATION WITH MOST FIRES

IDAHO WILDFIRES, POCATELLO TANKER BASE: 13 SEPTEMBER 2012, SIKORSKY & USMC IN TOWN

EAST IDAHO WILDFIRE 2012: BUSY 30 MINUTES AT POCATELLO AIRPORT, AS FIRE FIGHTING AIRCRAFT FLY INTO ACTION

POCATELLO CHARLOTTE FIRE UPDATE: 100% CONTAINED, FIREWORKS FOR 4TH OF JULY, SEED FOR REBUILDING COMMUNITY!

June 2012: POCATELLO BURNING! EVACUATIONS!

Technology

Vehicle I-D: Tiger Striped F/A-18D & A-10C get fuel from KC-10

Video

U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sergeant Michael Battles, 27SEP2017.

USMC’s VMFA-224 Bengals now providing air-to-ground support, along with USAF’s 355th FW A-10Cs, as part of Operation Inherent Resolve.

Video of 908th EARS KC-10 refueling Bengal F/A-18D Hornet and 355th FW A-10C Thunderbolt-2 in support of Operation Inherent Resolve, kit-bashers note the tiger stripe camo on the F/A-18D:

U.S. WILDFIRES 2016: DC-10 POCATELLO AIRPORT

WORLD WAR 3: OBAMA DEPLOYS A-10 THUNDERBOLT TO TURKEY! SIGNS ‘SECRET’ DEAL WITH RUSSIA!

PROOF THE A-10 THUNDERBOLT WAS TO REMAIN A USAF MAINSTAY UNTIL 2040: TAXPAYERS SPENT MORE THAN $2-BILLION ON UPGRADES!

2012 POCATELLO AIRPORT: IDAHO NATIONAL GUARD A-10C THUNDERBOLT-2 (before Obama took them all away)

Idaho, Technology

Idaho Wildfires 2015: Pokey Airport DC-10 Water Bomber

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15 August 2015 (10:37 UTC-07 Tango 01)/24 Mordad 1394/29 Shawwal 1436/02 Jia-Shen (7th month) 4713

Fast winds have pushed the smoke from the dozens of wildfires burning across drought stricken Idaho into the eastern part of The Gem State.  Just in time for the arrival of 10 Tanker number 910, dispatched to Pocatello Regional Airport on 11 August 2015.

Click the pics (by AAron B. Hutchins) to make bigger:

2012 Idaho Wildfires: Canadair CL 215

Pocatello Tanker Base: 13 September 2012

Idaho Wildfires 16 August 2012: MAFFS C-130s return

Idaho Wildfires 2012: Sikorsky Skycrane

S-70 Firehawk