Boeing C-135 Stratolifter
The Stratolifter
“Born a stopgap transport. Became the Air Force's do-anything airframe.”
Boeing · military
The C-135 Stratolifter is the KC-135 tanker without the fuel boom — just 45 were built as pure transports while the Air Force waited for bigger airlifters. They never stayed ordinary. Over six decades the fleet was converted into testbeds, VIP transports, missile-tracking platforms and special-mission jets, and the handful still flying are essentially one-of-a-kind aircraft.
Boeing's internal name for the C-135 was the Model 717 — a name the company later reused for a completely different airliner.
Looks like a KC-135 with no refueling boom under the tail. If you catch one, look up the tail number — nearly every surviving C-135 is a unique special-mission conversion.
One might be overhead right now.
Bogey turns the The Stratolifter from a dot in the sky into a card in your logbook.
