RAF long distant flights

I know these are not RAF, but…

In January 1929, the US Army Fokker C-2 ‘Question Mark’ remained continuously airborne for 150 hours and 40 minutes, corresponding to nearly a week aloft. During this time the engines consumed 5,812 U.S gallons of fuel.

The tanks on the aircaft were of course insufficient for such an amount, so the Question Mark was refuelled in the air at intervals. In total, more than 20 tons of goods were transferred to the Fokker in the air by other aircraft. On 7 January, an engine failure forced the record flight to be terminated. By then the aircraft had been refuelled 37 times.

The crew consisted of Chief Pilot Major Carl Spaatz, First Pilot Ira C. Eaker, Pilot Lieutenant Harry A. Halverson, Pilot Lieutenant Elwood R. Quesada, and Flight Engineer Sergeant Roy W. Hooe.

On Feb. 26, 1949, Capt. James G. Gallagher and a 13-man crew took off from Carswell AFB, Texas, in a B-50 bomber named Lucky Lady II. 94 hours, one minute later, they landed back at Carswell, having completed the first non-stop “around-the-world” flight. They refuelled 4 times from KB-29s.

On 24–25 November 1956, four B-52Bs of the 93rd BW and four B-52Cs of the 42nd BW flew nonstop around the perimeter of North America in Operation Quick Kick, covering 15,530 statute miles (13,500 nm, 25,000 km) in 31 hours 30 minutes (493.0 smph). SAC noted that the flight time could have been reduced by 5-6 hours if the four inflight refuellings were done by fast jet-powered tanker aircraft rather than propeller-driven KC-97 Stratotankers.

On Jan. 18, 1957, three B-52 Stratofortresses completed a 24,325-mile around-the-world nonstop flight, nicknamed Operation Power Flite, in 45 hours and 19 minutes, with several in-flight refuelings by KC-97s, at an average speed of 534 mph.

Thanks for the responses.
Can anyone help with a date and other details for the C-130 24 hour round trip to the Falklands mentioned above. Thanks.

Resmoroh, my post refers to RAF AAR Hercules flights!
The B-36 wasn’t AAR equiped.

Really need to keep this thread Air to Air Refuelling related as we have done to death non AAR long range flights on this forum in the past.

Pagen01,
The original post was for RAF AAR flights in excess of 10 hrs.
Some of the USAF B-36(?) flights were much longer. One that I was told of in the early 50’s was from Edwards AFB to Burton Wood. Burton Wood went out with fog, so the a/c was diverted to Weisbaden. Weisbaden went out with fog and the a/c was diverted to Wheelus Field. Wheelus went out with sandstorm, and the a/c was diverted to Dahran. Dahran then issued a Sandstorm Warning. As the B-36 was reporting “o/head El Adem” he was advised of the warning. The skipper is reputed to have said “Aw, nobody loves me, I’m goin’ home” (to Edwards!). Now I don’t know enough about USAF AAR techniques in the early 50’s to know if this was possible, but if it was (and the B-36 was not the fastest a/c ever built!!) then that must come close to being a time record! Interesting research project for someone!
HTH
Resmoroh

Some other interesting non-in-flight-refuelled ‘Cold War’ sorties in the two Shackleton books on the bottom of this weblink

http://www.newarkairmuseum.org/shop.htm

I have heard that the ‘Corporate’ Hercules flights are the longest refuelled missions ever – can anyone add to that?

Lindoug, Hi,
Most of the Airbridges Ascension to Stanley in the early days of Op CORPORATE exceeded 10 hrs and used AAR.
During the Unpleasantness the Hercs would do the round trip ASI>S Atlantic>ASI to drop spares/supplies/mail, etc, to the Task Force.
After the Unpleasantness one trip got as far as Falkland, couldn’t land, and had to turn round and go back to Ascension – flight time getting on for 24 hrs!!! Don’t know date/Sqn/airframe number but one of the Lyneham Truckie boys will know – or know who does know!
HTH
Resmoroh

The Shackleton was capable of flights of around 15hrs – Mks 1,2 good for 14.5hrs, Mk3 Phase 1 could manage 16, and the AEW.2 about 13 according to Chris Ashworth’s book ‘Shackleton – Avro’s Maritime heavyweight’. This is with a 20% fuel reserve. However, I’ve heard anecdotal stories that sorties in the MR variants could last longer…

… It all falls down though, as the Shack never used air to air refuelling..

I wonder what the longest flight using air-to-air refuelling is? I suppose theorectically it could be days if it wasn’t for crew fatigue and the engines needing their oil topped up….

All the best

Scotty

You can do far worse that to look at any Falklands Conflict litetrature.
I think there has been a thread running on this subject in general.

A good start would be the book “In Cobhams’ company” by Colin Cruddas.
A fascinating read about Flight Refuelling Ltd.

No – but to start the ball rolling, & for a bit of fun, here’s General Gromov’s signature in my logbook while we were stuck in the ice in Archangel in 1941!!

Sorry – he didn’t use in-flight refuelling!