Boeing's KC-46 Aerial Tanker Debuts

Company’s defense chief hands the keys to Air Force general
Uncertainty remains over full delivery goals for 18-jet batch

Boeing KC-46 Air TankerPhotographer: Spencer Soper/Bloomberg

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By Julie Johnsson, Spencer Soper, and Anthony Capaccio

January 24, 2019 at 11:34 PM UTC

Updated on

January 25, 2019 at 12:28 AM UTC

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Boeing Co. is poised to make history as a pair of its new KC-46 Pegasus tankers take off Friday for a U.S. Air Force base in Kansas to provide overdue and much-needed replacements for Eisenhower-era aerial refuelers.

The two planes are the opening deliveries in Boeing’s $44 billion program to create the first U.S.-built flying gas station for the Pentagon’s fleet since the KC-10A Extender in 1981. Boeing workers, defense officials and reporters marked the event alongside a gunmetal gray tanker parked in a Seattle-area factory Thursday, munching on tanker-themed cookies while a live band blared Jimi Hendrix’s “Foxy Lady.”