USAF Tankers at Brisbane Airport 27/02/2021

On 25th February 2021 a quartet of venerable USAF Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker aircraft arrived into Brisbane International Airport (YBBN). The aircraft left their home base of Kadena AFB, Okinawa and were staging at Brisbane Airport to perform a tanking mission over the Coral Sea. On Saturday 27/02 I took the opportunity to get some photos of them leaving for this mission.

USAF Boeing KC-135T Stratotanker 59-1520 takes off from Brisbane (YBBN) on a mission to refuel a USAF B-52 over the Coral Sea.
USAF Boeing KC-135T Stratotanker 59-1520 takes off from Brisbane (YBBN) on a mission to refuel a USAF B-52 over the Coral Sea.

The aircraft were here to refuel a lone USAF Boeing B-52H Stratofortress aircraft, which was performing a flypast display at the Wings Over Wairarapa Air Festival on the New Zealand North island that weekend. The event organisers, working with the US Embassy managed to arrange for the B-52 to perform a few low passes as the highlight of their show. I understand that the B-52 then returned to its home base of Andersen Air Force Base, Guam – a continuous flight of around 14,000Km. Although the primary purpose of the mission was for the airshow demonstration, there is the hint that it may have also been a show of force projection from the USAF and valuable training for the aircrews.

The four Boeing B-52 aircraft assigned to the mission range in age from 60 to 63 years old. They are all assigned to the USAF 909th Air Refueling Squadron “the Young Tigers“, which is part of the 18th Wing based at Kadena AFB, Okinawa, Japan.

Aircraft in this article

  • USAF Boeing KC-135T 59-1520
  • USAF Boeing KC-135R 62-3562
  • USAF Boeing KC-135R 58-0093
  • USAF Boeing KC-135R 58-0030

To service the mission, three of the four KC-135s departed Brisbane at around 9am, leaving one spare aircraft on the ground. The three requested and were granted 30 second spacing takeoffs which was quite cool to see, although it made photography difficult as the next was taking off as the previous was still within photo range. As they would have been loaded up with fuel for the mission they all left at a low departure angle compared with the various airliners that departed before and after. The upgraded CFM56 turbofan engines seemed to me to be a lot quieter than the earlier JT3Ds that the KC-135s were previously powered with. The three tankers took off from runway 01R then turned eastward over Moreton Bay, which would have given a great view of them from the nearby Port of Brisbane.
One operational spare aircraft remained on ground, this being KC-135R 58-0030 (callsign “PEARL34”). The aircraft was not required during the mission and did not take off on this day.

First to depart was KC-135T 59-1520 operating with callsign “PEARL31”. This aircraft was built in 1959, making it 62 years old at time of this mission. The captain performed a small wing wave after takeoff to the watching spotters, banking briefly to port then to starboard as they turned out over Moreton Bay.

USAF Boeing KC-135T Stratotanker 59-1520 takes off from Brisbane (YBBN) on a mission to refuel a USAF B-52 over the Coral Sea.
USAF Boeing KC-135T Stratotanker 59-1520 takes off from Brisbane (YBBN) on a mission to refuel a USAF B-52 over the Coral Sea.

The KC-135T variant is a repurposed KC-135Q, the “Q” model being used exclusively to supply the special JP-7 fuel to the SR-71 Blackbird fleet while they were in service. As the Blackbird leaked fuel on ground due to contraction of airframe panels, a less volatile fuel was developed to remove the chance of fuel fires when parked – JP-7 would not ignite even if a match was dropped in a puddle of the fuel. After the Blackbird fleet was finally decommissioned in 1990, 54 of the “Q” variant were re-engined and converted to operate with normal jet fuels, being redesginated as KC-135T.

USAF Boeing KC-135T Stratotanker 59-1520 takes off from Brisbane (YBBN) on a mission to refuel a USAF B-52 over the Coral Sea.
USAF Boeing KC-135T Stratotanker 59-1520 takes off from Brisbane (YBBN) on a mission to refuel a USAF B-52 over the Coral Sea.

Second departure was KC-135R 62-3562 operating with callsign “PEARL32”. This aircraft was built in 1962, 60 years of age at time of this mission. I managed to capture a wingtip vortex as this aircraft took off.

USAF Boeing KC-135R Stratotanker 62-3562 takes off from Brisbane (YBBN) on a mission to refuel a USAF B-52 over the Coral Sea.
USAF Boeing KC-135R Stratotanker 62-3562 takes off from Brisbane (YBBN) on a mission to refuel a USAF B-52 over the Coral Sea.
USAF Boeing KC-135R Stratotanker 62-3562 takes off from Brisbane (YBBN) on a mission to refuel a USAF B-52 over the Coral Sea.
USAF Boeing KC-135R Stratotanker 62-3562 takes off from Brisbane (YBBN) on a mission to refuel a USAF B-52 over the Coral Sea.

The final departure was KC-135R 58-0093, operating under the callsign of “PEARL33”. This aircraft was built in 1958, making this the veteran of the group at 63 years of age at time of writing this article!

Boeing KC-135R Stratotanker 58-0093 takes off from Brisbane (YBBN) on a mission to refuel a USAF B-52 over the Coral Sea.
Boeing KC-135R Stratotanker 58-0093 takes off from Brisbane (YBBN) on a mission to refuel a USAF B-52 over the Coral Sea.

The tanking mission was completed successfully, and the aircraft returned to Brisbane Airport later that afternoon. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to be there to capture images on their return. All four aircraft left for their home base the next morning, again I wasn’t able to capture their return flight to home base as the information I had about their scheduled outbound flight was late by around one hour. I arrived at Brisbane Airport only to hear a radio call from the last of the four to leave (PEARL34), saying it was climbing past 34,000ft and was leaving Brisbane airspace. This was bad luck for me, but you can only go off what information is available at the time. It was great to get a chance to see them in any case, and I’m sure the spectators at the Wings over Wairarapa Air Festival appreciated the effort to get the B-52 demonstration, even if they didn’t see the tankers that got it there and back.

Where is Brisbane Airport?

Where is Kadena AFB?

Brisbane Airport (IATA:BNE, ICAO:YBBN) is located 5Km from the CBD of Brisbane, state capital of Queensland, Australia. For more information about the airfield and its operation, visit the airport’s website.

Kadena AFB (IATA: DNA, ICAO: RODN) is a United States Air Force base on the Japanese island of Okinawa  in the East China Sea

Where was Wings Over Wairarapa Held?

Where is Andersen AFB?

The Wings Over Wairarapa Air Festival was held at Hood Aerodrome in the town of Masterton, in the Greater Wellington Region of New Zealand’s North Island. It is approximately 100Km by road from the nation’s capital of Wellington.

Andersen AFB (IATA: UAM, ICAO: PGUA) is a United States Air Force base on the US-owned island of Guam. The island is part of the Marianas island chain, situated in the Micronesia area of the western Pacific Ocean.

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