The US has developed a number of long lasting airframes since 1950. Not surprisingly, most of those are not tactical aircraft. They don't fire guns, they don't shoot missiles and they don't drop bombs. One of those is the KC-135. Developed from Boeing's Dash 80 prototype, the 135 kept this aircraft's smaller diameter fuselage instead of the using the slightly large fuselage of the Model 707.

The need for a jet powered refueling tanker came about as the then current batch of prop driven tankers simply could not easily handle modern jets. In most cases, the KC-97s then in use had to fly down hill in order to maintain a speed that would keep the refueling aircraft from stalling out. For those wondering how the prop driven KC-130 can handle it, it is because the KC-130 is a faster aircraft.

Over the years, the airframe has been modernized, re-engined (twice) and still, some 70 years after the initial builds, is still in service and doing well. This will soon be coming to an end and the long-in-development KC-46 is now slowly replacing the long serviing KC-135s.

This book is truly a tome at 446 pages of fairly small print. The full story of the development of the KC-135 is covered along with its operation in service, but this book is really about those other versions that were not strictly tankers. By this, I dare say that most of what's in these pages are on the EC and even more on the RC-135s in their multitude of variations. Not surprising as the author was involved in these planes.

Each of the myriad sub-types is covered along with a plethora of photos of these planes at all points of their service. The book has a considerable number of appendices starting with a Mission-Design-Series, a section on Attrition with write-ups on each incident, one on retirements, one on SAC tail markings, one on records, and finally, one on US units that flew the plane. This is not a short read and to be honest, it took me several months to get all the way through it. However, it is the most detailed reference I've yet read on the type and as such it is a book that I highly recommend.