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Recently, AvGeekery was invited to fly with the 22nd Air Refueling Wing on an amazing nighttime mission. Watch as B-1 bombers do aerial refueling training under a dark moonless night, captured in night vision at 20,000 ft!
Our KC-135 was scheduled for a sunset takeoff out of Wichita, with the 350th Air Refueling Squadron “Red Falcons”. The B-1s we were flying to meet were coming from the 7th Bomb Wing at Dyess AFB, TX. The mission was a collaborative effort between Mike Killian and Forbes, whose journalist went flying in a B-1 that day. You can read about it HERE.
Late night refueling training at 20,000 ft
Once in the air our tanker headed for the rendezvous. With the last light of sunset on the horizon the bombers came on the radio, informing us of their upcoming arrival.
While the pilots enjoyed the view and put the tanker in position, the boom operator and I transitioned to the refueling station at the rear of the plane to prepare.
With a twilight horizon a B-1 finally appeared, call sign CROOK 1, slowly trailing us and creeping closer inch by inch. It all looks very graceful, even though both aircraft are flying at 300 mph.
Lights on the refueling boom connecting to the bomber help give both the pilots and book operator a descent visual. However, once the bomber disconnected it virtually vanished. Even feet away you could barely see it in the darkness. Just a black silhouette against a black background or city lights far below.
One of the bombers was actually conducting a check-ride, so they did not actually take any fuel. Rather, the crew was training, connecting and disconnecting numerous times over the course of an hour as we flew high over Kansas.
Bomber gave us an afterburner as a thank you
With the refueling training done, the tanker informed the bomber that I was onboard to capture visuals. With gas to spare, CROOK 1 happily agreed to give us an impressive sendoff. You can watch it in the video above too.
They pulled alongside our tanker, with only a wingtip light visible to us. Once I aligned the shot and confirmed the B-1 was in position, the bomber lot up all four of its afterburners and raced ahead, falling away and vanishing into the night back to Texas.
Mission accomplished. We headed home to McConnell, landing at midnight.
Just another day for our warfighters
While it was a huge privilege to join, and an experience that never gets old, these crews make it look easy. They do this work every day in service to our country, regardless of the noise happening constantly in news media and politics.
Aerial refueling is a critical aspect of America leading the world in air dominance. As the saying goes, there’s no kicking as* without tanker gas.
We flew with the 22nd ARW late last year too, to refuel the Thunderbirds cross-country. It was an amazing experience, check that out HERE!
We also toured a KC-46 Pegasus at McConnell, America’s newest refueling tanker. Check that out HERE.
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