Rockwell Collins Picked for New Air Force Project

Updating Flight Deck in Air Force Stratotanker

CEDAR RAPIDS -- The U.S. Air Force announced it has selected Rockwell Collins to provide updates to the flight deck and other features for the KC-135 Stratotanker.  Rockwell Collins was picked to modernize the flight deck on the refueling tanker with a next-generation autopilot, flight director, radar altimeter and electronic engine instrument delay.

The company will modify two prototype KC-135s during the engineering, manufacturing and development phase of the contract.  The prototypes will establish the production baseline for the 415 additional aircraft that Rockwell Collins said it expects to receive for updates.

The autopilot and software upgrades give the user vertical navigation capabilities, which the company said adds to an already strong navigational platform for the KC-135.  The analog instrument panel on board the KC-135 Stratotanker will be replaced with a large format color electronic display as well.

The KC-135 was the first jet-powered refueling tanker for the U.S. Air Force, serving as the primary tanker for more than 50 years.