USAF McDonnell Douglas KC-10 Take Off With Wingwave | RIAT 2024

I've been lucky enough to enjoy the Royal Netherlands Air Force McDonnell Douglas KDC-10 for some years in the past. Since the retirement of the last remaining one in 2021, I have not been able to see one of the classic DC-10 trijets fly. That's not surprising as only a handful are still active these days, and not anywhere near Europe. The best chance I had, was to catch one of the KC-10 Extenders from the US Air Force. But that too, is very very challenging... Unless they kindly send one to the RIAT airshow at Fairford! And that's what they did! As usual with the Americans, the anouncement came in the later stages. Still I managed to fly the UK for the RIAT departure day! And that's when I finally got my very first catch of a KC-10 Extender! I'm so happy with this! And just in the nick of time aswell! The KC-10 will be retired from the USAF by the end of this year, they say... I mean, there was a story that this frame, 81-0031, which first flew in 1986, was going to go directly from Fairford to the boneyard. But that turned out not to be true. Actually, it wasn't even the last UK visit of this bird because she came to Mildenhall last week!

Anyway... The beautiful triholer looks the part in the dark air force colours. And that classic black tip on the nose... love it! And then there is the sound of the classic General Electric CF6 engines... music to my ears! I was at the eastern viewing spot and got pretty much perfect shots of the KC-10 backtracking the runway, turning around and performing a powerful heavy take off! After getting airborne, the crew made a wingwave, or wingroll salute! Sadly I got unlucky at this point because someone's cameralens got in the way. I still wanted to show you guys this though! So in collaboration with Charlie from Planespotting Ringway, and a very kind fellow enthousiast called Samuel Horwat, I'm able to bring you a multiview video from the KC-10's departure on this amazing day! Charlie filmed from the west end of the runway and Samuel from somewhere near the middle!
So take the sound up, and enjoy!

I've got to give credits to a few guys for making this video possible!

Ryan, my trusted UK partner in crime, for the amazing efforts to help me catch the KC-10!
You need to see his pictures from this day! Have a look at his Flickr page here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/rtyrpic...

Charlie aka ‪@planespottingringway‬ for kindly agreeing to collab for this video!
If you haven't already done so, subscribe to his Youtube channel here:
   / @planespottingringway  

And last but certainly not least, massive thanks to Samuel for kindly providing his footage for this video!

Outro song:
Davina Michelle - I Love Me More (Rock Version)
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** This video is property of Rudi van Goch and may not be used in any way without permission! **

#riat #usaf #kc-10
Date of recording: 22-7-2024