Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!bu.edu!att!cbfsb!cbnewsc!cbnews!cbnews!military From: shafer@skipper.dfrf.nasa.gov (Mary Shafer) Newsgroups: sci.military Subject: Re: Air-to-air refueling Message-ID: <1990Nov20.021726.27228@cbnews.att.com> Date: 20 Nov 90 02:17:26 GMT Sender: military@cbnews.att.com (William B. Thacker) Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories Lines: 41 Approved: military@att.att.com From: Mary Shafer Henry Spencer (henry@zoo.toronto.edu) writes: >>From: Mary Shafer >>because USAF's big bombers can't feasibly be refuelled with >>probe/drogue. >Can you substantiate this, Mary? The RAF routinely refuelled heavy bombers >with probe/drogue. The p/d fuel flow rate is lower than f-b with current >hardware, but one could always use a fatter hose... It would have been better had I written "... big bombers _couldn't_ be refuelled ...." since I was referring to the original conditions. >I believe the USAF did cite difficulties with p/d as their original reason >for going with f-b, but they were mostly minor problems likely to yield >to modest engineering effort. (Which is exactly what happened when the >effort was invested.) There wasn't anything fundamentally wrong with p/d >that I know of. There's nothing wrong with probe-drogue refuelling, but once you've decided to use boom/receptacle and all your receiver aircraft have receptacles, not probes, the question becomes moot. I personally think that probe/drogue refuelling is superior, even if you ignore the compatibility issues. There is a small advantage in having the high-gain part of the task rest with someone other than the low-on-fuel pilot, but not enough to make any real difference. Also remember that the only thing the USAF and USN have ever agreed on is that the Army shouldn't have fixed-wing aircraft. -- Mary Shafer shafer@skipper.dfrf.nasa.gov ames!skipper.dfrf.nasa.gov!shafer NASA Ames Dryden Flight Research Facility, Edwards, CA Of course I don't speak for NASA "A MiG at your six is better than no MiG at all"--Unknown US fighter pilot