Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!spool.mu.edu!uwm.edu!bionet!ames!skipper!shafer From: shafer@skipper.dfrf.nasa.gov (Mary Shafer) Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle Subject: Re: In-Flight Refueling Message-ID: Date: 18 Apr 91 14:52:35 GMT References: Sender: shafer@skipper.dfrf.nasa.gov Organization: NASA Dryden, Edwards AFB, CA Lines: 33 In-reply-to: sandersn@nietzsche.rdrc.rpi.edu's message of 17 Apr 91 18:43:57 GMT In article sandersn@nietzsche.rdrc.rpi.edu (Donald Sanderson) writes: Have there been any consideration of making modifications to the 747 ferry aircraft to allow for in-flight refueling ? If this is possible it could cut at least a day of turnaround time. Or is it the case that the configuration of 747 + Shuttle is too awkward to allow for this maneuver ? Not only was this considered, there was an actual flight test program to explore the possibility. I was the flying qualities engineer on the program. The pilots talked to the 747 pilots (I forget the military designation, E-4 maybe, but it has refuelling) in the Air Force, flew their trainer, and rode along a couple times. We used both the KC-135 and the KC-10 and discovered that the SCA bow wave made it a little difficult with the KC-135 (it tends to push the 135 away) but the heavier KC-10 works fairly well. We were about to mount Enterprise on the SCA when they discovered cracks in the verticals on the SCA. Although these weren't new cracks, there was a suspicion that they'd grown, being buffeted in the wake turbulence of the tankers. Since we were single-string on SCAs, that was the end of the program. The primary purpose, incidentally, wasn't to save time, it was to retrieve the Shuttle from such alternate landing sites as Hickam AFB in Hawaii. The SCA doesn't have the range, carrying the Shuttle, to make it back from there. -- 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