She Lives!!!!
63-8017 arrived at RAF Mildenhall this afternoon as REACH 564 from Tel Aviv Ben Gurion Airport.
This airframe was involved in a mid-air collision back in March with ZEUS 95, which was sadly lost along with the crew. 63-8017 limped back to Tel Aviv with the top half of it's tail broken off.
Today, making it's first flight since the incident, REACH 564 arrived at RAF Mildenhall with the vertical stabiliser from 63-8002, another KC-135 which was retired to the boneyard at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in March.
This is quite a unique aircraft at the moment, sporting the tail numbers of two airframes.
@usairforce@boeing@MATA_osint@DefenceGeek@ArmchairAdml@Osinttechnical@sentdefender@TheIntelFrog@TallGlenn85@Andyyyyrrrr@TheAviationist
#usaf #kc135 #mildenhall #canon
From "Non-Airworthy" to battle-ready. 🛠️✈️
The bond between #TeamTinker’s 76th AMXG maintainers and 10th FLTS pilots is built on trust. With zero margin for error, they work in tandem testing and returning rebuilt bombers and tankers to the warfighter.
https://t.co/THKlPGpSVY
U.S. Air Force maintainers work on a KC-135 Stratotanker refueling aircraft. Refueling aircraft extend the operational reach of U.S. military assets employed across the Middle East.
Shrapnel damaged KC-135 arriving in to RAF Mildenhall a short time ago.
A U.S. Air Force KC-135R Stratotanker tanker aircraft, covered in patch repairs, was damaged by shrapnel following an Iranian ballistic missile strike on Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia in mid-March.
The aircraft was able to conduct a self-deployment flight to RAF Mildenhall in the United Kingdom, from where it will later proceed to the United States for repairs. Evidently, the damage was not critical.
Via Mark Lynham Instagram.
The NC-135 is back, but looking different!
62-4133 " The Badger " as BADGR33 sporting an old tail code " MF " which refers to Majors Field. 61-2666 used to have it, but it was removed.
KC-135T 58-0077 from the 171st Air Refueling Wing of the Pennsylvania Air National Guard landed at KIWA this afternoon.
Really cool nose art on this jet.