Chicago Air and Water Show: Behind the scenes of the KC-135 Stratotanker
CHICAGO (CBS) -- The roar of the jets you hear downtown can only mean one thing: the Chicago Air and Water Show is back in full for the first time since before the pandemic.
You've seen the military jets twisting through the skyline, but do you know about the plane that fuels them?
CBS 2's Marissa Parra got the ride of a lifetime on the KC-135 Stratotanker, which is used to refuel other planes up in the sky, allowing them to stay airborne for up to 9 hours longer.
The KC-135 Parra rode on was built in 1959.
The Stratotanker is much bigger in size, and perhaps lesser known in fame than stars like the Blue Angels, but the KC-135 has mammoth of a job: to serve as a hovering gas station, essentially a fuel pump in the skies.
"It's very tight and high-precision, and it's pins and needles every time you perform that task, but it's also very rewarding," said military aerial demonstration team coordinator Brian Allendorfer.
Allendorfer works for the Air and Water Show. His job is to get all the jets to Chicago and keep them flying, but he also used to work on the KC-135. He was what you call the boom operator. He did what Master Sgt. Paul Fusek, of Romeoville, does now.
Using a controller, laying on their stomach, in either very hot or very cold conditions, boom operators guide the attachment full of fuel from the back of the plane to other jets in midair.
"It's not real comfortable, but it's 1950s technology when that aircraft was built. So the ergonomics aren't the best, but we work with what we've got," Allendorfer said.
The way the refueling is done looks a little different depending on the plane being refueled. Jets that aren't Navy fighter jets require the most precision from the boom operator, who must guide the probe into the jet trailing behind.
But Navy fighter jets are built different than the rest, demanding the most precision instead from the Navy fighter pilot; a long attachment from the back of the KC-135 that has to be installed on the ground before takeoff, called a "drogue."
During our flight, an F-35 Navy fighter jet seemingly glided into the drogue (which looks like a basket attached to a hose) as it flung about in the air, until the two "made contact."
They make it look easy, but it's a tough operation made tougher while flying over 300 miles per hour at over 15,000 feet (they prefer higher altitudes because the air is calmer).
The flight was at once a teaching moment and a reunion. At the back of the plane on either side of Fusek, today's boom operator, were two people who once sat in his seat decades ago: Allendorfer and Faruza Kalaba. Not only had she once broken the local glass ceiling as a female boom operator in Illinois, but she's married to none other than the voice of the Chicago Air and Water Show himself, Herb Hunter, who was also on board.
What's more, Hunter himself used to fly these same planes. If you don't already know, the world of aviation is a small one.
Unsurprisingly, the entire crew was made up of Chicagoland natives, making for a particularly meaningful Chicago Air and Water Show. It's not just a chance to show off their skills, it's a homecoming for Maj. Patrick Burke.
This will be the Schaumburg native's first time flying in the very same show that once inspired him to be the pilot he is today
How proud is his family?
"Super proud," Burke said. "I hear about it all the time, so 'Hi mom!'"
Now when you see the simulation of jet refueling from afar on the ground, you too will know what it looks like up close.
You can catch the action at this weekend's Chicago Air and Water Show on Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at North Avenue Beach. Some other good spots include Fullerton Beach and Navy Pier, where the planes make their turns; and, of course, Gary Airport, where they land and take off.
