KC 135 Iowa ANG to Boneyard AMARG March 2022
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- Опубліковано 28 лип 2024
- An Iowa Air National Guard KC-135 with a giant bat tail flash is being retired after 65 years of service. Tail number 57-2606 nicknamed “Free Bird” took off in March 2022 for a one-way trip to the Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group (AMARG) storage area at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. Arizona. And it did so minus its characteristic refueling boom -- evidently an economical way to keep spare parts in Iowa for the remainder of the unit's KC-135s.
When 2606 first arrived in Sioux City, Air Guard crew chiefs named it “Free Bird” from the 1970’s rock ballad by Lynyrd Skynyrd. Last year as the 185th Wing celebrated its 75th anniversary, 2606 was chosen to be decorated with a retro gothic bat tail flash similar to what was on the unit’s F-16 fighters in the 1990s.
The ripple effect of the new KC-46 tanker coming on line has units around the Air Force shuffling legacy KC-135s around while others are being mothballed. The main contributing factor to retiring a particular aircraft is projected cost of maintenance. Due to its age and flight hours this KC-135 was selected to be the first of 15 Stratotankers to be pulled from the Air Force inventory during the current round of decommissioning.
The old aircraft was initially assigned to the 72nd Bomb Wing during 1950s and 60s at the former Ramey AFB in Puerto Rico. During the decade of the 70s this Statotanker was part of the 449th Bomb Wing at Kincheloe AFB in Michigan where it stood ready with the unit’s B-52s. The globetrotting tanker had been captured by tail spotters around the world during its 15-year stint in Sioux City. When 2606 retires it will have flown more than 25,000 hours and landed almost 10,000 times. Parts of 2606 will continue to live on as they are dispersed from the boneyard where they will help keep a shrinking KC-135 fleet operational for years to come. (Video by Senior Master Sgt. Vincent De Groot, 185th Air Refueling Wing, Iowa Air National Guard)
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The aircraft looks in better shape than most commercial craft I have been on.
65 year of service is a rather remarkable run. Thank you to "Free Bird", all those who built her and servicemen/women who kept her flying all these years.
Always sad to see an old faithful being retired. She still looks absolutely immaculate
Yep, just one careful owner 👍
I’d say we’ve gotten our money’s worth out of the KC-135s!
It hurts to see this beauty go! I watched many A and E models go to the boneyard… and saw the R models arrive to Grand Forks AFB in 1987. Never thought I would live long enough to watch this… Godspeed and Thanks for you Service!
Thanks for another wonderful post. That KC135 still looks good today. May she rest in peace! As always God bless you and yours and thanks again Mr. Johnsen for all you do! 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
You are very welcome. Yes, the KC-135's looks are timeless.
Thank you for your years of service!
Great video (as always)
When we wanted a boom for exhibit at the AMC Museum we had to arrange a donation from a contractor who had bought one from the government while working on a conversion project for the Navy. It did not have ruddervators because they were critical items so we installed ruddervators from a KC-97 boom. No one ever noticed.
Perseverence and creativity pay off!
I was part of the crew that delivered the first operational KC-135R, 61-0312, to AMARG back in Feb 2013. These old warriors have done well for us and I'm proud to have been part.
Always good to hear from veterans in the comments section. Thanks for that, and for watching!
Sad to see such a majestic lady off on her last flight :-( thank you for your service.
65 years is a pretty good run! Thanks for the post.
Thanks for watching!
Like most everything in life a plane’s due date comes it’s sad because she looks in pretty good shape considering
This was sad to see, but all aircraft will eventually live past their use by date. Thanks for the short history in the description of this video.
Glad you enjoyed it
Love the bat on the tail. I wish all the 185ths planes were like this.
That plane does not look like it needs retiring. In the mid 1980s my dad took me and my brother to the Boneyard on the all day tour they had, it was great and sad at the same time. So many great planes were there at the time including many from combat in Vietnam. If your ever in the Tuscon area I highly recommend checking it out it was one of the coolest places I've been on the subject of aviation next to the Paul E Garbor facility were they store/restore planes for the Smithsonian museums.
I wouldn't be surprised if the boom is hanging on the wall of the NCO Club.
KC-135 crew at AARG: "Boom. What boom? Crap! That must've been the noise we heard over Utah."
Hey Fred, according to my research, this aircraft began life as a Block-10 KC-135A, but then it was subsequently re-enigned twice in her long career: First, she was re-enigned with TF33PW-100s, redesignated as a KC-135E, the second time she was re-enigned with F108CF-100s, and further redesignated as a KC-135R.
Yup -- that's a lot of use out of one airframe.
I remember it as an E model
I wonder how many hours, total time, is on the airframe. I guess the determining factor is cycles with pressurized a/c.
I used to be a fuel cell technician on the J-Stars aircraft. Same bird same fuel cells. Miss that job.
Actually the E-8C JSTARS is a 707-320 airframe, so it's longer, and wider than the KC-135, plus, the wingspan is longer too. Also, the Boeing Model Number for the KC-135, is: 717.
@@johnosbourn4312 didn't know that.
@@glennlandry7714 That is because several people think the KC-135, and 707, are the same aircraft, without doing the research to see the differences between the two different aircraft.
Damn shame Boeing cannot build this same quality anymore.
Back then they didn’t have Bean Counters running everything. They had Engineers that cared about quality and functionality in upper management. Wall Streets influence corrupts everything.
@@fw1421 Both of my parents worked for Boeing in the early 60’s. Things have definitely changed.
@@michaelbooher339 Boeing was a great company at one time. I breaks my heart to see what Wall Street has turned it into. I worked on Boeing airliners for 17 years. They built great aircraft at one time.
The taxi out to the runway was kinda sad, not only going to it's final destination, but likely to be plucked and eventually chopped.
Stay safe in the boneyard from 100 ARW England
sad but honorific
Boom already removed I see.. Good call keeping for a spare?
No boom
that's a rotten thing to do to any aircraft.