Talk:Boeing KC-97 Stratofreighter

It is a great shame that 816 aircraft and crews working for 23 years do not have a better record written here.---plumalley

I am not happy with the word "triumph" since that is an emotional opinion. But I do not know how to describe the routine success at Thule, 1956, of starting 20 each Pratt & Whitney R-4360 28 cylinder radial engines cold soaked at minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit on an open ramp in the wind. We really need an old maintenance superintendent to tell us how that was done with limited combustion heaters. In order to insure that three KC-97s would, in fact, launch on time, five birds were prepared.--plumalley

WikiProject class rating
This article was automatically assessed because at least one article was rated and this bot brought all the other ratings up to at least that level. BetacommandBot 10:20, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

WikiProject Military history/Assessment/Tag & Assess 2008
Article reassessed and graded as start class. --dashiellx (talk) 13:57, 14 May 2008 (UTC)

Merge with C-97?
It's a bit confusing to jump between the two articles for what is essentially two versions of the same airplane. If each article were huge, I could see the need for a fork, but both articles are fairly short. There isn't a page for every version of the much more popular C-130, for example. Bachcell (talk) 16:29, 2 July 2010 (UTC)


 * I would agree as some information is duplicated, but notice we do have a number of articles for different C-130 variants! MilborneOne (talk) 16:33, 2 July 2010 (UTC)


 * I'd oppose a merge at this time. Both articles have unique content, and neither are short. Note that the C-130 has ten articles. - BilCat (talk) 23:43, 2 July 2010 (UTC)

Stratotanker
Just reverted a change of name from Stratotanker to Stratocruiser. Needs some evidence that Stratotanker is wrong but I suspect if it is then the name should be the standard C-97 name Stratofreighter not the civil Stratocruiser. Comments? MilborneOne (talk) 12:51, 30 December 2010 (UTC)


 * Just inserted a "citation needed" template concerning the name. Reason: No reputable source found for the KC-97 named as Stratotanker hitherto. NB: Somebody had even changed (falsified?) the original name in a reference to an ASN article, from "Stratofreighter" to "Stratotanker" (see my edit of 10:15 today: Accidents and incidents, 14 December 1959).


 * All accessible quoted references (except one) refer to the KC-97 as Stratofreighter, not -tanker. This includes USAF Museum, Aviation Safety Network and Joe Baugher.
 * Reputable sources checked so far call it the Stratofreighter:
 * Jane's 1952-53
 * Bowers: Boeing Aircraft since 1916. (Putnam)
 * Swanborough / Bowers: United States Military Aircraft since 1909. (Putnam)
 * Bach: Boeing 367 Stratofreighter, Boeing 377 Stratocruiser, Aero Spacelines Guppies. (NARA)
 * Once my claim has been verified, someone should change that (including the article title). Best regards --Uli Elch (talk) 10:51, 15 September 2014 (UTC)


 * Boeing seem to call it KC-97 Stratofreighter where they call the KC-135 a Stratotanker, through their history pages. The difference seems to be that the KC-97 had freight and passenger carrying capability where the KC-135 did not? Don't quote me!! Nimbus (Cumulus nimbus floats by)    13:03, 15 September 2014 (UTC)


 * Bill Gunston's book American Warplanes, printed in 1986, has an entry on the aircraft entitled "Boeing C-97 Stratofreighter/Stratotanker", so the Stratotanker name has been associated with the KC-97 for at leat that long, and I believe I've seen it in older books, but I don't have access to any. Someone might check the FlightGlobal archives and see what turns up. (I'm on my tablet, so I can't access the archive pages in my browser, but maybe I can try from my laptop later.) - BilCat (talk) 18:56, 15 September 2014 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the feedback so far. Checking FlightGlobal archives was a good idea. The term "Stratotanker" first appears in 1954, and exclusively refers to "Boeing 707", "KC-135" and "pure jet". So, concerning FLIGHT, it's clear. In the meantime I've checked quite a bit of my aviation library and found several more sources calling the KC-97 "Stratofreighter", but none using "-tanker".
 * Gradually I am becoming more and more convinced that the suspicion first mentioned by MilborneOne above is correct: Both Boeing and the USAF call it the "Stratofreighter", and in my opinion they should really know the subject. --Uli Elch (talk) 20:08, 15 September 2014 (UTC)

Time for a change
After more than half a month since starting this discussion, and all reputable sources quoting the KC-97 as "Stratofreighter", I think it's time for a change. I am going to move the article to the correct title in the near future. --Uli Elch (talk) 07:51, 1 October 2014 (UTC)

External links modified (January 2018)
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Move Survivors to own 'List of surviving KC-97 Stratofreighter' page?
Should we move the survivor list to its own 'List of surviving KC-97 Stratofreighter' page? Redjacket3827 (talk) 17:53, 11 December 2019 (UTC)


 * Its not that big bit I dont see why not, although it should be List of surviving Boeing KC-97 Stratofreighters. MilborneOne (talk) 17:36, 12 December 2019 (UTC)