Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!bellcore!att!cbnews!cbnews!military From: james@castle.ed.ac.uk (J Gillespie) Newsgroups: sci.military Subject: Re: Air-to-air refueling Message-ID: <1990Nov15.015207.4031@cbnews.att.com> Date: 15 Nov 90 01:52:07 GMT References: <1990Nov14.011557.16297@cbnews.att.com> Sender: military@cbnews.att.com (William B. Thacker) Organization: Edinburgh University Computer Services Lines: 43 Approved: military@att.att.com From: J Gillespie bjohnson@athena.mit.edu (Brett W Johnson) writes: >From: bjohnson@athena.mit.edu (Brett W Johnson) >I have a question on air-to-air refueling. I read recently that >modern jets/tankers have electronics (ie radar) designed to maintain >proper seperation of the planes and nozzle alignment. Can AA refueling >be accomplished w/o this? Using only the skill of the pilots & boom >operator? >If so, why wasn't this technique used in WW2? Or was it? I haven't recently discussed this in detail with him, but my father is a Nimrod pilot in the RAF, and as such carries out refueling exercises on a regular basis to maintain currency. The last time I talked to him about this, he said that the only guidance pilots have is special markings on the tanker; none of our tankers (Victor, C-130, TriStar) were purpose built as such, and all use unguided fuel hoses, i.e. a long flexible hose with a basket on the end. To clarify the system, the tanker drags a hose with a basket on the end, and the tanking aircraft has a probe somewhere near the nose, rather like a CH-53. The tanker flies on autopilot, and the tankee (?) flies manually. To make things more interesting, when C-130 Hercules are used as tankers, their top speed is slower than a Nimrod's slowest speed, and so refueling has to be carried out during a descending maneuver. A note on the hose and basket: separation is fairly critical, and any changes must be smooth - yo yo-ing can set up waves which break either the basket or the refueling probe. The same effect can be obtained by too great a docking speed. Hope this helps. -- __ /~~~~~~~~\ / / @ @ \ "Happiness is being famous for your financial / / /\/\ / < \ ability to indulge in every form of excess" \_/_/_/___/_/ \________/ \__________________________________________-- Calvin