Originally Posted by
havoc
Single Pilot KC-46 Tanker Operations Eyed By Air Force For Major Conflicts (msn.com)
There is a reason why the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) places restrictions on what kinds of private and commercial aircraft can be flown with just one pilot and when – certain
light jets and smaller aircraft only, and even then
only under certain circumstances – and those flights can generally be expected to be far less demanding than operating a tanker on a potentially long-duration sortie in a conflict zone. Nowhere in the world are commercial jets of a similar size to the KC-46 allowed to fly with just one pilot.
Robert Hopkins, an aviation historian, author, and
contributor to The War Zone, who flew C-135s variants, among other aircraft, during his tenure with the Air Force, further highlighted on Twitter how this two-crew concept seemed to both acknowledge the vulnerabilities of traditional tankers and offer as a solution simply putting more of them in harm's way.
The planes are military aircraft. Flying SPIFR is not unreasonable when there is a chance of losing the plane from hostile action, and operationally, get the boomer to come up to the cockpit to keep the coffee flowing for both. There are not too many things on the 767 that actually require a fire axe and someone cutting their way out of the fuselage and along the wing with a fire extinguisher under their blues or zoom bag. For force training, that can be simulated, and also practiced with a safety pilot if that is felt to be necessary. Back in round 2, not sure that B-17 and B-24, A-20s etc fared any better for having 2 polers vs the Lancasters, Stirlings, Halifax, Wellies and mossies... Seems like a prudent force surge capability to have on hand.
Rimpac 80 mass brief: "y'all gotta go out, ya don't gotta come back..."