Forum: Civil and General Aviation

I've read that the UK uses retired airliners from BAe - like the model 146 - to cut acquisition costs. It makes sense for the airline as they can sell off the asset and recoup some of that investment in an effort to buy more efficient stock. Buying a more efficient plane may be profitable just from the lower overhead costs and the public likes the cleaner interiors and general overall improvement of these newer planes. The military wins when they need an affordable airframe that can be acquired that can be nodded for their use. It works because the quantity is small enough to get batches of the same model block where their parts supply is interchangeable.

The KC-135 family was basically customized 707's. They had lifetimes projected in the tens of thousands. With the current pace of operations the first airframes won't hit their projected life limits for almost three decades. That makes me wonder how many civilian airframes aren't out there within specific lots/blocks that might fit a similar re-useability. The KC-135 replacements didn't perhaps need to be new builds, maybe there are a lot of seasoned airframes on the market that would be excellent for military use?

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The 707 (C-137) and C-135 are different evolutions of the model 367 prototype.

Wasn't the KC-135 Boeing's original 717 designation? Shrug

TEG

That_Engine_Guy wrote:

Wasn't the KC-135 Boeing's original 717 designation? Shrug

TEG

Yes, if you look at the data plate on a -135 it's listed as a Boeing Model 717 then the block number. The -135 was actually first and was much more similar to the -80 prototype than the 707 ended up being. In the end even through the airframes look similar there are actually very few common parts between the two planes.

Forum: Civil and General Aviation

Retired Airliners for military use