KC-135 Stratotanker Poster - Aerial Refueling Tanker

The Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker entered service in 1957 and remains in active operation today, one of the longest-serving aircraft in any military's inventory. Based on the prototype that became the Boeing 707 commercial airliner, the KC-135 was acquired to give Strategic Air Command's bombers truly intercontinental range by refueling them in flight, freeing nuclear strike missions from dependence on forward bases that might be destroyed in a first strike. The Boeing flying boom system it introduced, a rigid telescoping tube flown by a dedicated boom operator lying prone in the aircraft's tail, became the standard aerial refueling method for US Air Force aircraft. Over nearly seven decades, the KC-135 has been continuously upgraded. The current KC-135R fleet was re-engined with CFM56 turbofan engines that dramatically improved fuel efficiency and reduced the characteristic black smoke trail of the original J57 turbojets, and the aircraft received modern avionics and communications syste