Joanna Crews
A testing team comprised of Boeing and the U.S. Air Force has completed a refueling exercise between two KC-46A Pegasus tankers during a four-hour flight that saw a total of 38,100 pounds of fuel exchanged.
The company said Wednesday the aircraft took off and landed at Boeing Field in Seattle for the exercise, which moves the program toward certification and specification compliance tests.
The aerial tankers achieved a maximum fuel offload rate of 1,200 gallons per minute in accordance with the design of the aircraft’s boom, Boeing added.
KC-46, which also features hose and drogue systems designed to refuel smaller aircraft with up to 400 gallons per minute, will work to refuel U.S., allied and coalition military aircraft.
The program’s test aircraft have previously completed refueling flights with F-16, F/A-18, AV-8B, C-17, A-10 and KC-10 aircraft, logging a total of 2,000 flight hours and over 1,300 contacts.
