Tanker tracker: KC-135 Stratotanker and KC-46 Pegasus flying right now
Aerial refueling tankers are what let fighters and bombers fly across oceans, and they are some of the easiest military aircraft to find on a tracker: they fly long racetrack orbits for hours while receivers top up. The KC-135 has done the job since 1957; the KC-46 is slowly replacing it.
Government and military aircraft appear here only when they broadcast their position publicly over ADS-B. Many of their flights do not.
| Flight | Registration | Operator | Type | Altitude | Speed |
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KC-135 Stratotanker and KC-46 Pegasus at a glance
- KC-135 Stratotanker
- First flew in August 1956 and entered service in 1957; 732 were built
- KC-135 today
- Roughly 400 remain with the US Air Force, Air National Guard and Reserve, plus small fleets in Turkey and Chile
- KC-46 Pegasus
- Based on the Boeing 767; first flew in 2015, first delivered in January 2019
- KC-46 deliveries
- 103 delivered to the US Air Force by February 2026, out of 183 on contract; Japan and Israel fly it too
Why tankers fly in circles
A tanker's job is to be in a known place at a known time. It flies to an assigned track, a long oval drawn on a chart, and orbits there at a steady speed while fighters, bombers or transports slide in behind it to take on fuel through the boom. On the map that looks like a jet drawing the same loop over and over, often for two or three hours, which is exactly what it is.
The KC-135 is a 1950s Boeing design, a cousin of the 707, and the oldest aircraft type still in front-line US service alongside the B-52. Most of the fleet is based with Air National Guard and Reserve units across the United States, which is why a tanker orbit can appear over almost any state.
The replacement
The KC-46 Pegasus is a converted Boeing 767-200 with a boom and hose-and-drogue pods, built in Everett alongside the airline 767s. The program has been expensive for Boeing, which has taken billions of dollars in charges on it, including a new $565 million charge in January 2026, largely over a remote vision system the boom operator uses to see the receiver. An improved system was in testing in 2026. The Air Force has still been taking deliveries, at around fourteen to twenty aircraft a year, and the KC-46 now flies operational missions, including deployments to the Middle East.
Questions
Why is a KC-135 flying the same loop for hours?
It is holding in a refueling track so other aircraft can meet it there and take on fuel. The loop is the mission.
How can I tell a KC-46 from a civilian 767?
You often can't from the map alone: KC-46s broadcast as 767-200s. This tracker follows them by their individual transponder codes instead, so anything in the list is a tanker, not an airliner.
Why isn't an aircraft I know is flying on the map?
Positions come from volunteer ADS-B receivers, which only hear aircraft within roughly 200 nautical miles. Over oceans, deserts and parts of Africa and Asia there are few receivers, so an aircraft can vanish mid-flight and reappear near land. Military and some government aircraft also switch their transponders' public data off.
More live trackers
Positions from the adsb.lol volunteer ADS-B network (ODbL). Aircraft are shown only while a receiver can hear them.