A former Air Drive tanker is up on the market in a KC-10 public sale, full with a multimillion-dollar price ticket, strict purchaser necessities, and a protracted checklist of caveats.
Do you keep in mind that track Grown Up Christmas Listing? The one about setting apart childhood needs and asking for issues that basically matter.
This Christmas, although, there’s at the least one very particular, very audacious merchandise you would add again onto the checklist. A former United States Air Drive KC-10 Extender tanker.
Sure, actually.
A McDonnell Douglas KC-10A Extender is at the moment up for public public sale by GSA Auctions, the federal authorities’s on-line market operated by the US Basic Providers Administration. The GSA’s job is to promote surplus and extra property from federal businesses, which implies the whole lot from workplace furnishings and automobiles to, apparently, strategic air refueling tankers.
It’s 40 years previous. It’s not airworthy. It’s not FAA-compliant. And even when somebody someway discovered the time, cash, and endurance to reverse all of that, it’s completely doable this plane might by no means legally fly once more.
Nonetheless, you probably have ever wished a strategic air refueling tanker for Christmas, Santa would possibly lastly have a shot.
Meet the Star of the KC-10 Public sale
The plane in query is the KC-10A Extender, tail quantity 87-0119, a mothballed tanker at the moment saved on the 309th Aerospace Upkeep and Regeneration Group (AMARG) Boneyard at Davis-Monthan Air Drive Base in Tucson, Arizona.
Powered by three Basic Electrical CF6-50C2 engines, the plane first flew on 16 March 1987 and entered US Air Drive service later that yr. It spent practically 4 many years supporting aerial refueling and airlift missions all over the world earlier than making its last flight on 26 September 2024.
The Air Drive formally retired the KC-10 fleet in September 2024, closing the ebook on 44 years of service for the kind.
This specific plane is listed as “non-flyable, not FAA compliant,” and bought strictly “as is.”
Bidding opened to the general public on 10 December 2025. As of 15 December 2025, the very best (and, on the time of this writing, solely) bid stands at $5 million. The public sale is scheduled to shut on 7 January 2026.
The Timing Might Not Be Worse for a Comeback
Even when a purchaser had desires of restoring the KC-10 to airworthy situation, there’s a main regulatory roadblock standing in the best way.
Following the deadly crash of UPS Flight 2976 in Louisville final month, the FAA moved to floor all DC-10 and MD-11 plane. As of now, there isn’t any publicly introduced timeline for lifting that grounding.
The KC-10 is, at its core, a closely modified DC-10-30CF airframe. Meaning this plane falls squarely beneath the identical umbrella because the grounded civilian tri jets. Even a totally restored KC-10 may discover itself legally unable to fly for the foreseeable future.
Ought to the grounding ever be lifted, the burden would nonetheless relaxation completely on the customer to carry the plane into full FAA compliance. That features acquiring all crucial inspections, certifications, and modifications beneath 14 CFR rules. The itemizing makes it clear that neither the Air Drive nor AMARG owns the technical knowledge or offers professional help. Consumers can be liable for coordinating immediately with the unique tools producer for all required documentation.
In different phrases, Santa isn’t throwing in a upkeep guide.
What You Are Actually Shopping for
From the start, the KC-10 was not simply one other tanker.
Launched in 1981, the Extender was developed by McDonnell Douglas as a heavy tanker to complement the KC-135 Stratotanker fleet. Based mostly on the DC-10 business trijet, the KC-10 was designed to do extra of the whole lot.
With three most important wing gas tanks supplemented by three large tanks beneath the cargo flooring, the KC-10 may carry greater than 356,000 kilos of gas. That was practically twice the offload functionality of a KC-135.
Gasoline was primarily delivered through a flying growth, however the KC-10 additionally featured an built-in hose-and-drogue system. This allowed it to refuel US Navy, Marine Corps, and allied plane with out modification. The plane may additionally carry as much as 75 personnel and 170,000 kilos of cargo, giving it a real twin function as each tanker and airlifter.
The Air Drive finally acquired 60 KC-10s. One was misplaced in a 1987 explosion and fireplace at Barksdale Air Drive Base, leaving 59 to serve till retirement. They’re now being changed by the Boeing KC-46A Pegasus, a navy spinoff of the 767.
It’s unclear whether or not the built-in hose-and-drogue system stays put in on the plane at the moment provided on the market.
The Demilitarization Actuality Verify
Earlier than a purchaser may even take into consideration future plans, there’s obligatory demilitarization to cope with.
The public sale requires the elimination or everlasting deactivation of a protracted checklist of military-specific programs. That features safe communications tools, encryption units, navy avionics, survival gear, and practically the whole aerial refueling system.
The growth meeting, refueling pumps, motors, hose reels, wing pods, and refueling controls should all be eliminated. Gasoline traces have to be capped and sealed. The aerial refueling operator station is to be fully stripped and bodily secured, together with completely fastening the ground hatch closed.
Even the formation lights and refueling commentary window have to be electrically disabled by chopping wiring and eradicating circuit breakers.
The estimated value for demilitarization alone is roughly $35,000. That determine doesn’t embody transportation, inspections, storage, or any try at restoration.
When you’re involved in bidding on the KC-10 public sale, we’ll embody the required demil checklist under to your planning functions.
A Very Grown-Up Christmas Want
In some unspecified time in the future, all of us cease asking Santa for toys and begin asking for socks, batteries, and perhaps an honest evening’s sleep. That’s the entire level of Grown Up Christmas Listing. Sensible needs. Wise needs.
And but, right here we’re, looking at a former US Air Drive KC-10 Extender with a bid button and a time limit, and pondering, yeah, that’s tempting.
No, it in all probability won’t ever fly once more. No, it undoubtedly won’t match down your chimney. And sure, explaining a $5 million tanker parked within the desert to your partner can be a dialog all its personal.
However there’s one thing splendidly absurd about the concept, in December, you possibly can casually scroll previous vacation decorations and used workplace furnishings and stumble onto a strategic air refueling tanker. Simply sitting there. Ready.
So if Santa occurs to be searching GSA Auctions this yr, perhaps skip the cookies and milk and go away him a word about this KC-10 public sale as a substitute. All you really need is a KC-10 Extender, some FAA approvals, a demil crew, and a miracle or two.
In spite of everything, it’s Christmas.
