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First KC-767A Tanker Delivered to Italian Air Force

A press release issued by the Italian Air Force stated that on January 27, 2011, the first Boeing KC-767A tanker/transport for the IAF was delivered. The aircraft was accepted at the Boeing plant in Wichita, Kansas, USA, and assigned to the IAF’s 8th Gruppo/14th Stormo.

A dedicated delivery ceremony was held at Pratica di Mare Air Base, near Rome, in the presence of General Giuseppe Bernardis, Chief of the Air Staff, and the American Ambassador Rinaldo Petrignani, President of Boeing Italia.

Curiously enough, it is actually the fourth one built (of the four KC-767A’s ordered by Italy in 2002). These were originally forecast for delivery between 2005- 2008, to replace the IAF’s venerable Boeing 707 T/T aircraft. Italy and USA signed a parallel agreement for industrial compensation in Italy. This included the modification of the green aircraft to tanker configuration by Aeronavali at their Naples and Venice plants.

The history of the KC-767 Tanker Transport, as it was named at the beginning of the programme, is particularly strange. In 2008 it was the loser to the Airbus A 330 MRTT (offered by Northrop Grumman), in the competition to replace the USAF’s KC-135 tanker fleet. Then, the Obama Administration cancelled the result of the contest, and with a remarkable 180° turn, the DoD has recently ordered the same aircraft which it rejected three years before (does this sound a bit like the AgustaWestland VH-71 saga?).

The KC-767A just delivered to the IAF is not the same aircraft which made its debut in the static display at the 2005 Paris Air Show. Following its return to the USA, it continued its outstandingly long period of “fine tuning”. In the meantime, with the last Boeing 707 T/T going to the scrapyard, in 2009 Boeing loaned a former TWA B.767 to the IAF to begin crew familiarization, albeit for handling and navigation aspects only.

A comparison between the swift and straightforward development of the KC-135 in the 1950’s, from the legendary prototype of the Boeing 707, is discouraging with respect to the time needed to convert the B.767 from passenger to tanker configuration.

The Italian Air Force’s KC-767A, derived from the Boeing 767-200 Extended Range and powered by two General Electric CF6-80C2 turbofans, is fitted with a tail flying-boom, two hose-and-drogue pods under each wing and a ventral hose-and-drogue point (in the fairing at the root of the flying-boom), but with a different installation to that seen on the aircraft displayed at Le Bourget in 2005. The Air to Air Refueling (AAR) operations can be managed by a single crew member, thanks to the remote console of the RARO II (Remote Aerial Refuelling Operator II) system. The aircraft is also fitted with a dorsal receptacle (Universal Aerial Refuelling Receptacle Slipway Installation), above the cockpit compartment, to receive fuel in flight.

For transport missions, the wide cabin can be configured as either all-passenger, all-cargo, or mixed combinations. The second KC-767A for IAF, whose delivery is expected soon, is also undergoing a testing phase in the United States.

In the picture: Italian Air Force Boeing KC-767A 14-04/MM62229 makes a low pass over Turin/Caselle airport (2011). (Aeromedia)

(Aeromedia, February 2011)