Operation Centennial Contact

Four KC-135Rs from the Hawai‘i Air National Guard's 203rd Air Refueling Squadron participated in Operation Centennial Contact this morning. It is the commemoration of 100 years of aerial refueling, that many of the US Air Force and Air National Guard refueling units participated in. The four KC-135Rs, flying as TANKER61, performed the flyover with refueling booms lowered, after a refueling training mission. The route took the tankers over Kalaeloa, Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Marine Corps Base Hawai‘i, and the National Cemetery of the Pacific (Punchbowl). 

The four Stratotankers seen in the photos above in order, in the flight were :

63-8030 "Mākaha" (c/n 18647, l/n 686)

63-8883 (c/n 18731, l/n 714)

59-1499 (c/n 17987, l/n 402)

61-0290 "Hōkū Lele" (c/n 18197, l/n 512)

We also shot a video of the Stratotankers on final approach for Runway 8L following the flyover.