MCDONNELL DOUGLAS KC-10 EXTENDER / KDC-10 KLU

McDonnell Douglas KC-10 Extender is a modern, American so-called a flying tanker in the low wing configuration. The flight of the prototype took place in 1980 and a year later (1981) the plane entered production. Until now, 62 examples of this aircraft have been built. In the KC-10A version, the length of the machine is approx. 55.4 m with a wingspan of approx. 50.4 m. The drive is provided by three General Electric CF6-50C2 turbofan engines with a thrust of 236 kN each. The maximum speed is approx. 995 km / h. The KC-10 Extender aircraft was developed at the McDonnell Douglas Aircraft Corporation (now part of the Boeing concern) for the needs of the US Air Force. In order to shorten the research and development work, the KC-10 was created as a very far-reaching modification of the DC-10-30 passenger plane. Compared to its protoplast, it differs in the use of a different avionics, a completely differently designed fuselage space, the addition of equipment for refueling in the air, while maintaining the same engines and the general aerodynamic system. In total, two versions of this aircraft were created: KC-10A (basic version, dedicated to USAF) and KDC-10 (version intended for the Dutch air force). As an interesting fact, in 1998 the cost of acquiring a single aircraft of this type was approximately USD 88 million.