#kb-50

[usafphantom2]

Everybody loved the KB-50 yesterday... so here's another... refueling a Douglas RB-66B Destroyer... never saw one of those myself, I'm might be older, but I'm not that old.

@tcamp202 via X

[kgyst]

Micsoda eklektika, RF-101 Voodoo-t tankol (csillagmotoros) KB-50.

via Keneth Farley

[usafphantom2]

The KB-50 flew operationally from 1955 to 1963. They were operated by Tactical Air Command (TAC) and served with USAFE and PACAF (including Vietnam) regularily. TAC had these because SAC was stingy with the KC-135s.

This one is a KB-50J, created by adding the air refueling equipment to a B-50D. They flew until a crash in 1963 in Vietnam where it was discovered they had extensive hidden corrosion.

@tcamp202 via X

[usafphantom2]

Composite Air Strike Force (CASF) was developed by Tactical Air Command (TAC) in 1955.

A small, mobile, nuclear-armed force, capable of responding to any prospective trouble spot in the world, able to operate unsupported operations for as long as thirty day. Air Refueling was performed by KB-29s, later KB-50s, utilizing the Probe and Drogue method of refueling.

First usage of this concept was July 1958 responding to the Lebanon Crisis, where the Lebanese goverment, under threat of a possible coup, requested United States military assistance.

Within sixty hours of the initial alert, four F-100s were operational at Incerlik, Turkey with a 1,000 man fighting team.

@ron_eisele via X

[usafphantom2]

29 July 1952. USAF North American RB-45C Tornado completed the first non-stop transpacific flight by jet, from Alaska to Japan in 9hrs 50mins, twice refuelled by KB-29s. Major Lou Carrington and his crew of the 91st Reconnaissance Wing flew from Alaska to Japan.

@ron_eisele via X