The first KC-30, a future aerial refueling aircraft in the A330 MRTT standard, has just received the painting by the Brazilian Air Force (FAB) in Ireland.
Air Force Commander Brigadeiro Baptista Junior published the first image of the Airbus A330-200 displaying FAB colors on Wednesday.
The widebody aircraft will receive the designation FAB2901 and is heading to the United States, where it will be officially delivered, the official explained.
Upon delivery, the KC-30 will fly to Brazil on July 26, bound for the Galeão Air Base in Rio de Janeiro, where the aircraft and the second KC-30 will be based.
The two A330-200s were acquired from Azul SA, the holding company that controls the Brazilian airline. Both were manufactured in 2014 and were not originally owned by the company, which acquired them from lessors.
The KC-30 FAB2901 has the civil registration PR-AIS and flew with the partial colors of Azul until last year. The FAB2902 belonged to Avolon and was stored in Tarbes, France, until the beginning of the month, when it would have flown to Perpignan, in the same country. The aircraft was operated by Avianca Brasil with the PR-OCK registration.
The FAB paid US$ 80 million for the two commercial jets, but still needs to contract the conversion of both to receive the in-flight refueling equipment and other adaptations developed by Airbus for the MRTT (Multi-Role Tanker Transport) standard. This is expected to happen in 2024.
