It took some USAF NCOs reporting on their jobs on Face Book to get this noticed.
Oh, this also affects Rivet Joint aircraft.
50-year old 707s with very high flight-hours. What could go wrong?
They’re losing their asses
Tails might fall off? Reminds me of an old Jimmy Stewart movie in which an eccentric metallurgist (Stewart) is mocked when his predictions of catastrophic failures of airplane tails fails to materialize - until it does (fortunately, while the plane is still on the ground) and he is vindicated.
I was a crew chief on the 135. Many YEARS AGO, at Pease AFB and then Castle AFB. Great aircraft. Though I came to absolutely loathe the engine cowlings, when they were fitted with the J-57 engines.
No tail problems that I was aware of back then.
Hmm...that’s a very important part, isn’t it?
One time we flew from Elmendorf to Ramstein in a KC-135 and it was the most miserable flight I've ever been on. Hot above and bitter freezing cold below, as we were flying over the pole. Fortunately it was a one-time deal where there was a crew swapout while our own aircraft remained at Ramstein.
Thought the KC-135’s were being phased out by the C-17’s.
TCTO time - ugh.
Mid shift used to have some personnel (not me!) head over to a Phase Dock and sleep in the “hammock” netting in the 135. Always looked uncomfortable to me.
Details:
On Jan. 10, 1964, a B-52H flown by Boeing civilian test pilot Chuck Fisher and his three man crew lost its tail at about 14,000 ft over northern New Mexico’s Sangre de Christo Mountains.
Six hours later, with support from the ground, Fisher successfully performed the first and only Stratofortress‘s tailless landing!
I was on a Griffiss tanker at Offutt, taxiing for takeoff, when the left inboard caught fire. Couldn’t bring the pax stand out because of the fire so all 45 of us plus crew had to shimmy down the crew ladder in the cockpit and run 500 yards away in case she cooked off. Fun times.
Ping.
"Elvis has left the building."
That reminds me of this:
Clarke and Dawe-”The Front Fell Off”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3m5qxZm_JqM
Interesting, usually it’s the US Navy that has this problem
I work at a tanker squadron, and yes, this report is real. Many of our planes are being grounded except for a one way trip to Oklahoma to get the pins replaced.
By the end of talyObidens regime our military will be down to rocks and carrier pigeons with diahreah.
....also have a number of hours as a passenger in various KC-135s....the last one I flew in just a few years ago had a 1957 federal fiscal year tail number....now, that’s gettin’ on in years...!!!