Take a look inside an Air Force aerial tanker that kept fighter jets and bombers in the air

• KC-10A Extenders served with the U.S. Air Force as aerial refueling tankers from 1981 to 2024.

• The first KC-10A Extender ever produced is on display at the Air Mobility Command Museum in Delaware.

• Visitors have a rare glimpse of the aircraft’s refueling operator station.

Military planes don’t have time to stop and refuel sensitive, time critical missions. there aerial refueling tankers Enter.

KC-10A Extenders refueled bombers, fighters, cargo planes and other aircraft in the region with their ability to transfer up to 56,154 gallons of fuel to aircraft while airborne. US Air Force We have been increasing their range and mobility for over 40 years.

Air Mobility Command Museum Located at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, the exhibit offers visitors the chance to see the inside of the first KC-10A Extender ever built.

Business Insider visited the museum in May to tour the KC-10A Extender and get a rare glimpse of the refueling operator station. Take a look.

KC-10 Extenders were built primarily as aerial refueling aircraft, but they also carried cargo and performed aeromedical evacuations.

KC-10s entered service with the Air Force in 1981. They provided in-flight refueling during combat operations during the Gulf War and the Iraq War, and supported aircraft during Operation Allied Force in 1999.

They also helped carry out the largest non-combat evacuation operation in US history. Taliban attack in Afghanistan In 2021, 40% of the KC-10 fleet was deployed to evacuate more than 3,000 people and refuel other aircraft. air force.

The KC-10 was a military version of the DC-10 aircraft built by McDonnell Douglas and merged with Boeing in the late 1990s. The DC-10 was similarly retired by commercial airlines.

The last KC-10 will be retired in 2024.

Although KC-10 refueling jets have been retired, the Air Force still uses them KC-135 StratotankersIt put the KC-46A Pegasus into service in 2019 as part of its efforts to renew its aging tankers, which entered service in 1957.

US Air Force plans It will purchase more than 260 KC-46s from Boeing, costing about $200 million each. Stratotankers and Pegasus planes fell short In recent years, preparation standards have

With a fuel capacity of over 356,000 pounds, KC-10s can carry nearly twice as much fuel as the KC-135 Stratotanker. However, while the KC-10s are being phased out, the Air Force still operates KC-135s.

So why didn’t the KC-10s stay in service for so long?

“You can ask 10 different people and get 20 different answers,” Michael Hurlburt, Air Mobility Command Museum operations manager and Air Force veteran, told Business Insider.

Hurlburt thinks the KC-10’s third engine was partly to blame because its location above the fuselage on the vertical stabilizer required special dock platforms for inspection before each flight, which he called a “maintenance nightmare.”

The KC-10A Extender, on display at the Air Mobility Command Museum at Dover Air Force Base, was the first one ever built.

The museum’s KC-10A Extender was built as a prototype for a larger, longer-range alternative to the KC-135 Stratotankers. It accumulated over 32,560 flight hours before being removed to the Air Mobility Command Museum in 2022.

The KC-10A Extender is 181 feet and 7 inches long and has a wingspan of 165 feet and 4 ½ inches.

The plane is open for guided tours. Museum entrance is free.

A model of the KC-10A Extender helps orient visitors as they step inside the aircraft.

The flight deck and passenger compartment are located forward. The cargo hold takes up most of the remaining space, along with the refueling operator station at the rear of the aircraft.

The KC-10A Extender can carry up to 75 passengers.

The seats in the passenger compartment were similar to regular commercial airline seats.

The crew consisted of a pilot, co-pilot, flight engineer and boom operator.

A cargo manager would join the crew for cargo handling duties. Two flight nurses and three medical technicians were added for aeromedical evacuations.

The cargo hold can hold 170,000 pounds of cargo.

For refueling missions, extra fuel tanks were also kept in the cargo hold, totaling up to 356,000 pounds of transferable fuel.

There was a winged aerial refueling pod, or WARP, on display in the cargo hold.

WARPs can be mounted under the wings of the tanker to provide additional refueling points. WARPs are being tested on the KC-46, the successor to the KC-10, which will enable Pegasus to refuel two aircraft at the same time.

The refueling operator station was located down a narrow staircase at the rear of the aircraft.

Other aircraft positioned themselves behind and below the KC-10 to receive fuel during the flight.

The boom operator used a joystick to connect the boom (extended gas pump) to other aircraft to transfer fuel during in-flight refueling.

On KC-10s, boom operators sat upright. On KC-135s, boom operators lie prone to operate the controls.

The boom operator’s job is to guide a rigid tube into a hopper on the receiving aircraft.

Once the boom is attached, the operator turns on the pumps to begin transferring fuel at a maximum rate of 1,100 gallons per minute. An F-15 Eagle, for example, can carry over 5,000 gallons of jet fuel.

Refueling on the plane It’s a dangerous operation that requires tankers and the planes they refuel to fly at hundreds of miles per hour, 8 to 12 feet apart.

“You’re close enough to wave and say hello to the other pilot in the other plane,” Hurlburt said.

Mistakes can be disastrous. In July 2025, the boom of a KC-46A Pegasus refueling aircraft became wedged in the bay of an F-22A Raptor and broke; $10 million damage. one in march KC-135 tanker crashed in Iraqkilled all six crew members.

Museum visitors can take a closer look at the explosion outside the plane.

Boom tagged with signs The 305th Air Mobility Wing is based at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New JerseyThis is where the KC-10A Extender served from 1995 until its retirement in 2022.

Hurlburt called the boom operator’s window “a very rare sight.”

“Very few planes have anything like this, and very few people get to see areas like this,” he said. “We’re pretty proud to be able to show this off.”

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