Aerial refueling was a major advancement for military aviation. It extended both their range and their loiter time over a tactical location. Depicted is a flight of North America F-100 fighters being refueled by Boeing KC-97G Stratofreighter. The USAF began operating the Kc-97 in 1950. It's design was based on the B-29 which was used as a very early large refueling platform. The Air Force began phasing out the aircraft in 1958 in favor of the KC-135 which solved the "97s" speed problem. It was just too slow for a lot of jet aircraft to refuel safely and comfortably (a relative term, of course!). Even with the later addition of two jet engine pods on the outboard wing position, the lumbering Stratofreighter had a limited time of almost adequate speed. The B-52, for instance had to deploy its flaps and lower its landing gear in flight to slow down enough to refuel. The newer jet powered tankers solved the dilemma. The Stratofreighter had upper and lower cargo decks. The upper deck could carry a significant amount of cargo, while the lower deck carried tanks with fuel. The small pod at the root of the refueling probe was manned by the boom operator laying on his stomach while peering out the windows and operating the controls to guide the boom during refueling. A delicate operation to be sure! The KC-97G Stratofreighter is from fs-freeware dot net by Manfred Jahn. Nice model that took a considerable amount of work for texture placement and putting parts in their proper place, but totally worth it. The really nice F-100 in SEA livery is by Bazze. I almost always "fix" certain issues that bother me with the models in Blender, and of course, do a lot of texture re-working and adjusting to get the models ready for their moment in the camera lens. Please enjoy! Typical workflow between Blender, DazStudio, and PsE. No AI.