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Show ! ' ' I i ''' j. , B .. - ' " ' -J ' 362C j i i,-...,-'-.;"'-; '"TX" .... .... , .- - This Boeing- Stratotanker gently tourhes clown, gliding smoothly along the runway at Hill Field. It made a short stop Friday at let noon. Jet Tanker Lands at Hill Jets are no novelty at Hill Field. They are screaming around night and day. But Friday afternoon a different dif-ferent jet was the object of numerous cameras and watchful watch-ful eyes. The plane was the new KC 135 Stratotanker, which screeched low over the runway at about 3:40 p.m., settling softly to the runway at about 3:45. Its visit was short; only about ten minutes. Just long enough for a few handshakes. The blasting four J-47 engines were not even silenced, but were kept purring their soft roar. And then it was off again in a trail of black smoke and booming blast. The Stratotanker, built by Boeing, is used to refuel jet bombers at operational altitude and speed. It replaces a propeller pro-peller driven plane which could not climb to the jets altitude. It claims a ceiling of about 42,000 feet, with a top speed over 550 miles per hour. It was in this piano that General Curtis I.tMay set a speed record rec-ord last fall in a flight to South America. Standing 36.4 feet high, the plane has a wing span of 130.G feet and a length of 130.3 feet. This particular plane was on its shakedown run, from Boeing's plant in Seattle, Wash Officials at Hill requested it to land in order to give crews experience, and see how well they could handle it. |