More Planes Refueling in Flight

Monday, 28th April 2008 by

Over at the Google Earth Community they've found a fantastic sight - not one, but two planes about to be refuelled mid-flight over the California desert.

From their measurements, these appear to be F-16 fighter jets, moving in (or perhaps moving out) from a KC-10 "Extender" - a tanker which is derived from the commercial DC-10.

This sight is also unique on Google Earth in that it is perhaps the largest collection of planes found in mid-air at the same time, with 7 aircraft captured in a single image! Waiting behind the re-fueler are two further F-16s, and another pair are ahead - presumably they've already had their fill.

There's a fantastic photograph of a DC-10 refuelling an F-16 at Wikipedia, and see our previous post showing another mid-flight refuelling.

Thanks to tsb60robert at the Google Earth Community.