Boeing and U.S. Air Force aircrews completed the first refueling flight with the KC-46A tanker on January 24. The new tanker offloaded 1,600 pounds of fuel to an F-16C fighter flying at 20,000 feet over Washington state.

The first refueling flight was earlier expected to take place by the end of 2015. It started an aerial refueling demonstration that is a prerequisite for the Air Force’s “Milestone C” decision to begin low-rate initial production of the tanker. “Program officials anticipate awarding the first production contract shortly thereafter,” the service said.

During the five-hour, 43-minute flight, Air Force and company refueling operators made multiple contacts with the F-16 to confirm the system was ready to transfer fuel. Master Sgt. Lindsay Moon then “flew” the tanker’s 56-foot boom downward and waited for the F-16 to move into position before fully extending the boom into the fighter’s refueling receptacle.

Controlling the boom from the KC-46A’s air refueling operator station “is night and day different from laying on your belly in a KC-135,” said Moon, who is assigned to the 418th Flight Test Squadron in Seattle. The Air Force pilot on board the KC-46A during the test flight was Lt. Col. Donevan Rein, also with the 418th squadron. Rickey Kahler, Boeing KC-46 air refueling operator, also guided the boom during contacts with the F-16.

The EMD-2 tanker that conducted the mission first flew on September 25 and is the first fully configured KC-46A. It is one of four prototypes Boeing is building under an engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) contract the Air Force awarded in February 2011. The EMD-1 aircraft, one of the two 767-2C “provisioned freighters” that will participate in the EMD phase, first flew in December 2014. The EMD-3 and EMD-4 aircraft will begin flight testing later this year, Boeing said.

The first refueling flight fulfilled an Air Force requirement to connect with a “light/fast receiver,” the service said. Remaining tests with the KC-46A boom will use an A-10 Thunderbolt II as the light/slow receiver and a C-17 Globemaster as the heavy receiver. Flight tests using the tanker’s centerline drogue system and wing aerial refueling pods will use an F-18 Hornet as the light/fast receiver and an AV-8B Harrier as a light/slow receiver. The KC-46A must also demonstrate its receiver capability by taking fuel from a KC-10 Extender.