TINKER TANKER
Boeing says its new tanker has achieved another certification
Boeing hasn’t completely cleared the KC-46A Pegasus to operate as a next-generation aerial refueling tanker for the U.S. Air Force, yet.
But the aircraft maker announced Wednesday it has reached another significant point in that effort by earning a second certification for the aircraft from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration.
Boeing stated the FAA granted a Supplemental Type Certificate to the Pegasus variant of the 767-200 extended range aircraft, which verifies that its refueling and mission avionics systems meet airworthiness requirements.
The supplemental certification follows the issuance of an Amended Type Certificate the FAA awarded to Boeing in December, which validated the aircraft’s core configuration.
The KC-46A’s addition to the Air Force’s fleet is important to Oklahomans. Pegasus aircrews will train at Altus Air Force Base, while the Air Logistics Center at Tinker Air Force Base will take care of the planes at a still-being-built maintenance center on the base’s south side.
Construction of that center is well underway.
“Our Boeing and U.S. Air Force test team did an outstanding job successfully leading us through all the requirements (to obtain the Supplemental Type Certificate), and we appreciate the FAA’s collaboration as well,” Mike Gibbons, Boeing’s KC-46A tanker vice president and program manager, stated in a news release announcing the award.
“This milestone is important, in that it is one of the last major hurdles in advance of first delivery to the U.S. Air Force.”
To receive the supplemental certificate, the aircraft maker said a team composed of Air Force personnel and Boeing employees had to complete a series of lab, ground and flight tests that started in 2015 and included operations involving its boom and drogue aerial refueling systems.
Together with the amended certification, the aircraft has cleared needed FAA regulatory approvals. However, not all of its military functions and equipment can be certified by the agency.
The U.S. Air Force also must grant Boeing a Military Type Certificate, and related flight tests for that further evaluated the aircraft’s aerial refueling system as well as others that were defensive and military-specific in nature.
Those tests were completed earlier this summer and Boeing officials said they hope that certificate will be awarded soon.
Six KC-46A aircraft supported various segments of testing for both the supplemental and military certifications.
So far, they have completed 3,500 flight hours and offloaded more than 3 million pounds of fuel during refueling flights with F-16, F/A18, AV-8B, C-17, A-10, KC-10, KC-135 and other KC-46A aircraft.
Both the manufacturer and the Air Force still intend for the first Pegasus to be delivered in late October. The schedule also calls for an additional 17 aircraft to be delivered to the Air Force by April 2019.
The company is under contract to deliver 34 to the Air Force, which ultimately plans to spend $44 billion to buy 179 KC-46As to upgrade its aged aerial refueling fleet of KC-135 and KC-10 aircraft.
Maintenance update
The Air Force plans to maintain the KC-46A at a new maintenance center being built at Tinker Air Force Base.
The maintenance center is being built on land between the base’s southern end and the old General Motors production plant that was acquired from Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway in a $44 million deal involving Oklahoma City, Oklahoma County and the Air Force.
Economic development officials expect the project will create 1,350 jobs on the base and will support another 1,500 off-base jobs generating personal income in excess of $511 million.
On Wednesday, Jeff Seymour, executive vice president for economic development for the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber, was pleased to learn the aircraft had obtained the supplemental type certificate.
“We are excited about it making all this progress. This is what we told the community we were positioning ourselves for, to have this platform, and hopefully others, here for the longterm,”
Seymour said.
Specifics about progress contractors are making to build the complex couldn’t be obtained Wednesday. But Seymour said he had learned in a recent briefing with a Tinker officer that work is progressing well.
Upgraded ability
The Pegasus will be a welcome addition to the Air Force’s refueling fleet because it carries both centerline boom and centerline drogue refueling systems as part of its basic configuration when it goes aloft. That means it can refuel Air Force, Navy, Marine and allied aircraft any time.
It also will be capable of carrying a drogue refueling system that can be deployed from a wingmounted pod.
Completing required testing took some effort, especially because of concerns raised earlier this year related to the remote vision system, considered a centerpiece upgrade compared to the KC-135 and KC-10 tankers the Air Force uses
now.
On current tankers, fueling system operators are required to work in aircraft tails to operate a boom or a drogue system connecting a tanker with an aircraft receiving fuel, viewing an evolution through a window.
On the Pegasus, however, the operator sits at a rear-facing, multiple screen console just behind the cockpit and uses a joystick and keyboard to control its boom and drogue systems using a remote vision system.
The system of seven cameras was designed to be capable of both day and night operations, using technology contractors previously developed for spacebased operations.
Concerns centered on its ability to provide operators with a clear picture of the process in some specific lighting conditions, and considerable attention was directed toward addressing those issues.
The KC-46A is built at Boeing’s Everett, Wash., facility.