The Boomer's View

摘要

THE AIR FORCE HAS NEVER LEARNED the friendly skies routine. The interior of the KC-135 was like the inside of a long pipe-gray, poorly lit, utilitarian, lined with the girders and rivets that held it together. A few passenger seats were installed up near the cockpit. You could talk over the engine noise, if you screamed. We were waiting for our B-52. The boom operator paced, wearing a radio headset and trailing a long cord. When the bomber arrived, the operator would guide its pilot to our tanker to begin the refueling operation. We all wore shoulder bags with masks and small bottles of oxygen in case of decompression. Beneath us were many, many gallons of jet fuel. The airplane can carry 190,000 pounds of it, a major told me. The thought of all that combustible liquid beneath the floor will definitely concentrate your mind if you have to land with hot brakes. I did it once in Thailand when we had bases there, and the Air Force met us with most of the world's fire trucks. The KC-135, which, after more than 60 years of service, is gradually being replaced by newer tankers, is not a dangerous aircraft. It is nonetheless a winged gas tank.