Two complete crews were needed to complete the 45-hour mission against the prevailing Jetstream, which concluded at 13:00 hrs on July 1 when Pegasus 20-46075 of the 22nd Air Refueling Wing (ARW) landed back at McConnell Air Force Base (AFB), Kansas.
The sortie was not a simple ‘dash’ across the globe, but involved multiple, complex link ups to offload fuel to US Air Force assets flying training and combat sorties.
Part of the preparation for the flight was the pre-positioning of some tankers from McConnell to refuel the Pegasus. The three squadrons of the 22nd ARW fly KC-46As or Boeing KC-135R Stratotankers.
Pegasus 20-46075 departed McConnell at 16:00hrs on June 29. During its journey the KC-46A accepted fuel from other tankers on four occasions, as well as offloading to other aircraft. Extensive use was made of Link 16 tactical datalinks to track and communicate with other aircraft involved in the mission, easing the process of coming together and the logistics of the transfers.
The first rendezvous was with another KC-46A off the coast of California, with 20-46075 going on to top up a Boeing C-17A Globemaster III near Hawaii. As the tanker transport approached Guam in the western Pacific it received fuel from a pair of KC…
