I'm looking for information about the KC-135 landing gear. Specifically I want to know if its life limited and if so where is it documented? If its NOT life limited where is that documented? I'm talking about gear that has regularly been maintained or gear that's been overhauled. I've been looking on the internet and a variety of 135 manuals.
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$\begingroup$ Welcome to aviation stack exchange! Very good question. Gotta upvote. $\endgroup$– Air Canada 001Apr 14, 2020 at 15:07
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All landing gears have a limited lifespan unless they undertake in really, really big maintenance, as we saw with the Antonov 225, which went under maintenance for 18 months! And the KC-135 is no exception. Most landing gears last about 20 years, and the one's of the KC-135's is designed for 30 years. But even though it was designed for only 30 years, the operators of the KC-135 still extend it's life by a lot, with as you said, regular maintenance. So, you might see some KC-135 landing gears that are 40 years old!
Aging landing gear life extension
The committee is concerned that the Air Force has been extending the use of aircraft landing gear far beyond their original design life. The KC-135 was designed for a 30-year lifetime, but will retire at 86 years and the B-52, designed for a 30-year life, will retire at 94 years.
Source: congress.gov
