KC-10 Extender from C-141 cockpit

A KC-10A Extender aircraft from the 22nd Air Refueling Wing returns to base after participating in a joint U.S./New Zealand operation to resupply both South Pole and McMurdo Stations in Antarctica. The operation was staged from Det. 2, 619th Military Airlift Support Squadron, at the New Zealand International Airport, Christchurch. The KC-10 Extender is an air-to-air tanker aircraft in service with the United States Air Force derived from the civilian DC-10-30 airliner. The KC-10 was the second consecutive McDonnell Douglas transport aircraft to be selected by the US Air Force following the C-9 Nightingale. Conversion to the KC-10 involved only minor modifications to the DC-10-30, the largest of which was the addition of a boom control station in the rear of the fuselage and extra fuel tanks under the main deck. First deliveries to the Strategic Air Command (then in control of AAR assets) commenced in 1981.