((Picture Courtesy of Grays Harbor))
Type: KC-45A Airborne Refueling Aircraft
Crew: 2 (pilot/co-pilot), 2 Reserve Crew, 4 Refueling Specialists
Height: 16.92m
Length: 62.8m
Wingspan: 63.4m
Empty Weight: 115,000 Kg
MTOW: 245,000 Kg
Speed: 930 Km/h
Range: 15,750 km (On standard internal fuel, not counting off loadable fuel)
Ceiling: 13,100 m
Max Fuel Load: 115,000 Kg
Re-fueling Apparatus: 1x Flying Boom, 2x Probe and Drogue
Propulsion: 2x Trent 1000
Thrust: 311 Kn Each
Radar: AN/APG-67
Countermeasures: flare and chaff pods
Unit Price: $190 million standard dollars
The KC-45A Airborne Refueling aircraft, a modification of the Boeing 787-9 Civilian Airliner, is a design by Pennsylvanian Air Incorporated (PAI), in a attempt to construct a smaller family of support aircraft for the nations that cannot afford its larger family of A380 based Aircraft. They did this for going searching for the smallest airliner they could find at a cheap price, while still maintaining a decent amount of internal space to implement the equipment they were going to put into the aircraft. The only choice they found for this goal was the Boeing Designed 787-9 airliner, because not only was it cheaper than the Airbus A310, A330, and A340 also looked at, but it was also a newer aircraft, meaning that it had newer electronics, which would also mean that the cockpit electronics would not have to be replaced or modified much, in order to make the needed aircraft.
When PAI began designing a Refueling Aircraft based around the Boeing 787-9 airliner, the first thing they did was to remove most of the internal Passenger Arrangements, basically turning the aircraft into a empty shell. The next thing they did was to replace most of the internal volume, with the exception of some room for the refueling specialists and the reserve crew. What PAI did with the remaining internal room in the aircraft was to turn it into various Fuel Tanks, for a total of up to 115,836.8 Kg max fuel load. The KC-45A uses 2 different re-fueling apparatuses, 1 Flying boom, for the fast re-fueling of USAF style aircraft, and 2 Probe and Drogue Refueling lines for the refueling of 2 additional aircraft similar to Soviet Style Aircraft. The Flying boom allows for much faster re-fueling of aircraft, but it is harder to line up with than a Probe and Drogue. The Probe and Drogue re-fueling line is a slower means of refueling, but, due to its smaller size ,can accommodate more aircraft at a single time and is much easier to refuel from, requiring minimal training compared to a Flying Boom to operate.
The Aircraft, for defense against missiles, has just Flare and Chaff pods, due to the fact that it should never get within range of which to have a missile fired at it from. The Aircraft also carries an AN/APG-67 Radar, for Collision avoidance and navigation. Unlike the Previous KC-40A Tanker, based upon the Airbus A380 Airframe, the KC-45A is significantly smaller, allowing it to operate out of places that a KC-40 would not. This, coupled with its being much cheaper, allows the KC-45A to be a good aircraft intended to be aimed at selling to smaller nations.
The KC-45A Tanker is intended to be sold to smaller nations with a smaller defense budget, allowing them to maintain a decent Tanker Fleet on a smaller budget. It is also intended to be sold to larger nations that have large Re-fueling tankers, but to be used out of smaller runways that their other, large tankers cannot operate out of. Between the Aircrafts relatively cheap price of just $190 Million USD, and its small size coupled with a decent fuel load, makes this aircraft a good tanker for anyone to use. The aircraft, able to reach over 15,000km ranges using its original internal fuel load, is able to reach past 30,000km on a ferry flight using all of its available fuel, including the fuel that would typically be used for refueling other aircraft. The aircraft also has its own ability to be refueled, in case it ever runs too low on fuel while on a mission to make it back to base, another Aerial Re-fueling aircraft can come over and give it enough fuel to either continue a mission some more, or to make it back to base and land.
This Aircraft, along with others, is availiable at Pennsylvanian Aerospace Incorporated
