Photo: USAF/Staff Sgt. Lawrence Sena
Aerial refueling is one of those things military aviators just need to do from time to time. After all, it’s what keeps their airplanes in the air for extended periods of time, and knowing how to do it right might spell the difference between winning or losing.
Aerial refueling is something that’s been going on for a long time now, and some of the crews involved, especially the ones flying in the tankers, have found they can share the excitement and vistas they get while on duty with the rest of us.
And we couldn’t be happier that’s so, as without aerial refueling photos coming our way courtesy of the U.S. Air Force (USAF), we wouldn’t have been able to enjoy this F-35 Lightning (main photo), wearing a livery the kind of which we haven’t seen before.
The USAF released the image recently, and it shows the fifth-generation fighter jet flying a refueling mission over the coast of California, during U.S. Navy Gray Flag exercise at the end of August. We are not told which unit the plane belongs to.
The pic, snapped by a Staff Sergeant from inside the tanker, a KC-135 Stratotanker that flew out of Fairchild Air Force Base in Washington, shows the upper side of the plane, asymmetrically covered in dull dark gray and big gray-white-ish spots of camo, in a combination that looks unique, and which we will probably not see again anytime soon. A perfect fit, then, for our Photo of the Day feature.
The paint job is even more exciting given how America's flying fighting birds usually do not adopt camo, going instead for different shades of gray, evenly spread on all the body parts of the airplane. The most exciting camos though, are those adopted by the planes of the 64th Aggressor Squadron, playing the role of enemy aircraft during training exercises.
And we couldn’t be happier that’s so, as without aerial refueling photos coming our way courtesy of the U.S. Air Force (USAF), we wouldn’t have been able to enjoy this F-35 Lightning (main photo), wearing a livery the kind of which we haven’t seen before.
The USAF released the image recently, and it shows the fifth-generation fighter jet flying a refueling mission over the coast of California, during U.S. Navy Gray Flag exercise at the end of August. We are not told which unit the plane belongs to.
The pic, snapped by a Staff Sergeant from inside the tanker, a KC-135 Stratotanker that flew out of Fairchild Air Force Base in Washington, shows the upper side of the plane, asymmetrically covered in dull dark gray and big gray-white-ish spots of camo, in a combination that looks unique, and which we will probably not see again anytime soon. A perfect fit, then, for our Photo of the Day feature.
The paint job is even more exciting given how America's flying fighting birds usually do not adopt camo, going instead for different shades of gray, evenly spread on all the body parts of the airplane. The most exciting camos though, are those adopted by the planes of the 64th Aggressor Squadron, playing the role of enemy aircraft during training exercises.
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