Fairchild's KC-135 fleet through the years

For more than 50 years the KC-135 Stratotanker has been the Air Force's primary tanker aircraft, and since 1966 the tanker has had a home at Fairchild Air Force Base.

Section:Gallery

Mon., June 5, 2017

A KC-135 tanker from Fairchild Air Force Base circles the Spokane Valley with its tail boom extended Saturday May 20, 2006. The tanker was circling prior to making a low-level pass over downtown Spokane to open the Lilac Festival Armed Forces Torchlight Parade.

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High above the towering clouds in the Vietnam war zone, thirsty F-4C Phantom jets line up by a KC-135 jet tanker for additional fuel. The tanker is like the ones that have been going from Fairchild Air Force Base to the war zone for temporary duty. While one jet is refueled by the long, steerable fuel boom, three others stand by. The fourth Phantom is partially obscured in the upper right foreground.
The flight line at Fairchild AFB holds KC-135 tankers from the 92nd Air Refueling Wing and the Washington Air National Guard.

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Senior Airman Bryan Carpintero ( left ) and Airman First Class Ron Austin fit an engine cover on a KC-135 tanker from Grand Forks after it arrives at Fairchild Air Force Base in Spokane on Wednesday, April 20, 2005.

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A KC-135 refueling tanker lifts off into the wild blue yonder from Fairchild Air Force Base on Friday, March 18, 2005.

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KC-135 refueling tankers sit on the flight line at Fairchild Air Force Base on Friday, March 18, 2005.

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The tail of a KC-135 refueling tanker juts from a hangar at Fairchild Air Force Base on Friday, March 18, 2005. Overhead a Navy Orion and in the distance another KC-135 tanker do touch-and-go landings.

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A KC-135 tanker takes off from Fairchild AFB on September 19, 2001, as the military nationwide is on heightened alert.

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As the first KC-135 refueling tanker lifts off the runway at Fairchild, another taxies into position. Units of the 92nd Air Refueling Wing deployed to Spain on November 14, 1996.

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Family members and ground crew wave goodbye as Air National Guard on board a KC-135 tanker leave Fairchild May 18, 1999, bound for Europe. Sarah Mattausca, 10, far right, and Megan Gazda-Deffinbaugh, 9, climbed up on a pickup truck to get a better view.

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Ten KC-135 Stratotankers such as this one will be transferred from Texas to Fairchild Air Force Base by July 1, 1966. The aircraft will be included in the move of the 909th Air Refueling Squadron and 368 men from Amarillo Air Force Base, Tex., to the Spokane installation. After arriving here, the squadron will add five tankers from the present 92nd Air Refueling Squadron to bring it to its full strength. (December 1965 archive photo)
The first KC-135 tanker of the 43rd Air Refueling Squadron is shown, left, shortly after it arrived Friday from Larson Air Force Base, near Moses Lake, Wash., April 2, 1966. The squadron will be part of the 92nd Strategic Aerospace Wing at Fairchild Air Force Base. In the picture on the right, Lt Col JW Bryson, chief, Operations and Training, signals the plane.