An entirely new career began for the B-29 Superfortress bomber when the Strategic Air Command decided to use aerial refueling to extend the range of bombers and fighters rather than ordering new, longer range bombers. In 1948, Boeing reactivated its Wichita Plant, nearly idle since the war ended, to convert B-29s into KB-29M tankers. The KB-29Ms had about 240 feet of hose and jettisonable tanks, holding about 2,300 gallons of fuel, installed in their bomb bays. However, hose-type aerial refueling required a slow airspeed and was difficult in poor weather. To solve these problems, Boeing developed the flying boom, an aerodynamically controlled swiveling and telescoping arm that a crew member, using cockpit-like flight controls, guided into a receptacle on top of the receiving aircraft's fuselage. In 1950, KB-29P tankers - B-29s equipped with the Boeing flying boom - began operation. The boom became the aerial transfer system of choice and was subsequently used in the KC-97 tankers, and, later, in the K-135C jet tankers. The development of aerial refueling techniques provided the Air Force with a fleet of fighters and bombers that could fly anywhere in the world without landing for fuel.