{"id":36141,"date":"2024-07-10T13:27:16","date_gmt":"2024-07-10T13:27:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2024\/07\/10\/mcconnell-based-kc-46-completes-round-the-world-flight-in-45-hours\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T21:24:06","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T21:24:06","slug":"mcconnell-based-kc-46-completes-round-the-world-flight-in-45-hours","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/air\/2024\/07\/10\/mcconnell-based-kc-46-completes-round-the-world-flight-in-45-hours\/","title":{"rendered":"McConnell-based KC-46 completes around-the-world flight in 45 hours"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Air Force Col. Brent Toth needed to stay awake into the wee morning hours as he prepared for an upcoming marathon mission that would usher him and a crew around the world in less than 48 hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For several days in late June, Toth, the commander of the 22nd Operations Group at McConnell Air Force Base, Kansas, relied on his Netflix queue to stay awake, adjusting his sleep cycle to go to bed around 3:30 a.m. local time and waking up around noon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere was a bunch of things in the queue,\u201d Toth said of his binge sessions on the streaming platform. \u201cAnd I just kind of let it pick things out for me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Flying a KC-46A Pegasus tanker nonstop around the globe takes stamina. For the McConnell-based airmen who recently pulled it off on REACH046, it involved adjusting work-sleep cycles to synchronize with events, like crucial aerial refueling rendezvous that require razor-sharp focus, that helped make the sortie a success.<\/p>\n\n\n\t