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On September 26, a farewell ceremony was held at the American Travis Air Base for the last McDonnell Douglas KC-10 Extender military tanker aircraft. That day, the only vehicle still in service took off for the last time to fly to Davis-Monthan Base to the famous 309th AMARG storage facility. This ended the 43-year career of the KC-10, which was adopted by the US Air Force in 1981.
The KC-10 Extender is a heavy refueling transport aircraft based on the DC-10-30CF commercial passenger liner. The machine was developed to complement the large fleet of Boeing KC-135 stratotankers, so by American standards, relatively few were produced, only 62 copies. Of these, 60 vehicles were transferred to the US Air Force, and the remaining two were purchased by the Netherlands. The Dutch decided to withdraw them earlier, in October 2021.
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Overall, the KC-10 Extender proved to be a valuable asset and was well suited for its primary mission of supporting long-range air operations. Its main advantage was that it could carry almost twice as much fuel as a Stratotanker. In addition, it could be refueled in flight from another KS-135 or KS-10, since it had a fuel intake. Another interesting feature of the KS-10 was that it was equipped with a flexible refueling system, which increased compatibility with US allies.
The extender also had great capabilities for transporting goods and passengers. It was capable of carrying 75 people or 77 tons of cargo on board over a distance of 7,100 km. During Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm in 1991, the KC-10 fleet refueled U.S. and coalition aircraft in flight. In the early stages of Operation Desert Shield, air refueling was the key to quickly transporting equipment and personnel by air. To support the concentration of troops in the Persian Gulf region, KC-10 transported thousands of tons of cargo and thousands of troops. Together, the KC-10 and KC-135 completed about 51,700 refueling operations without missing a single scheduled meeting.
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The place of the Extender has already been taken by the new Boeing KC-46 Pegasus tanker aircraft. As of September 2024, since the start of deliveries in 2019, the US Air Force has already received 88 KS-46 out of 128 ordered.
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