The Air Force Is Dumping a Plane So Hot, It's Called 'Big Sexy'

While next-gen fighter jets and bombers like the F-35 and B-21 get lots of love, the U.S. Air Force would grind to a halt without its refueling tankers. Airplanes like the venerable KC-135 and the KC-10 top off these badass warplanes with fuel, all while supplying some impressive cargo-carrying abilities. But with the arrival of the U.S. military’s newest tanker, the KC-46 Pegasus, three is officially a crowd—and so the KC-10, nicknamed “Big Sexy” for its alluring sleek wing design, is now beginning its slow send off into retirement.

“She’s a good plane,” Scott E. Speck, a flight engineer with the 70th Air Refueling Squadron (ARS) at Travis Air Force Base in California, said in a press release. “She is temperamental at times, but always in good ways. And she takes care of you.”