Finally delivered: the KC-46A Pegasus

摘要

The US Air Force accepted its first Boeing KC-46A Pegasus, 11-46009, c 41858, on January 10, 2019. The historic delivery comes after six test aircraft flew more than 3,800 flight hours and refuelled A-10C, B-52H, C-17A, KC-10A, KC-135R, KC-46A, F-15E, F-16, and F/A-18 aircraft in flight, delivering more than 4,000,000lb of fuel in the testing process. Four aircraft are scheduled to be delivered to the 22nd Air Refueling Wing at McConnell Air Force Base, Kansas in the coming weeks, the first by the end of January. The next four will go to Altus Air Force Base, Oklahoma for use by Air Education and Training Command's 97th Air Mobility Wing's 56th Air Refueling Squadron which stood up at the base in August 2016 in anticipation of taking the lead in KC-46A training. Boeing has contracts for 52 of the 179 Pegasus the US Air Force says it needs. As well as the first aircraft accepted on January 10, nine more are undergoing customer acceptance testing with many others nearly complete.