Fly to the sun with the RAF

Meanwhile, the government will continue to lease large twin engined jets for its VIP work, which will have to have defensive aids added to it.

Whilst the leasing company for the RAF jets will have borrowed the money from the Government to buy the jets, and will charge the Government for the priviledge of using them…..

Wouldn’t it be great if they applied a similar plan to the VC-10’s and Tristars ???

quickly painted in their flagship colours for use.

Yea, OK! :rolleyes:

This may be ture, but where is he RAF going to get the addtional crews to operate these extra aircraft that have now been pressed into service. Unlike the States that has Reserve and National Guard to pick up the slack when there is a need the UK does not have the same capability. They can’t be operated by cilivians.

Are we going to see a reserve pool of A330 rated pilots training up for a dual military/commercial role ?

… and the only time the RAF will ever use ALL of the converted aircraft is during a huge crisis – a war… I would hazard a guess that the aircraft could be re-roled witrhin a ‘C’ check timescale – probably a week or so. The majority of wars have build-up phases which would give the MOD plenaty of time to lease the remaining aircraft and re-role them.

This may be ture, but where is he RAF going to get the addtional crews to operate these extra aircraft that have now been pressed into service. Unlike the States that has Reserve and National Guard to pick up the slack when there is a need the UK does not have the same capability. They can’t be operated by cilivians.

… and the only time the RAF will ever use ALL of the converted aircraft is during a huge crisis – a war… I would hazard a guess that the aircraft could be re-roled witrhin a ‘C’ check timescale – probably a week or so. The majority of wars have build-up phases which would give the MOD plenaty of time to lease the remaining aircraft and re-role them.

How many of the 14 will have been converted to act as air to air refuelling tankers?

All 14 will be modified. The hose and reel pods and all military equipment will be removed when not with the RAF.

A plan to sub lease the RAF’s new A330 fleet to commercial operators during downtime is afoot…

This has always been the plan. The aircraft will be owned by Air Tankers. Air Tankers, they will lease some to the RAF (up to nine) and the remainder (five) to cilivian operators. Because the cilivian operators put more hours and cycles on their aircraft than the military does, the aircraft will be but on a rotation so they all age at approximately the same rate.

And Ryanair can use the Herks for their planned ‘standing up’ routes 🙂

But they won’t be able to put their slot machines on the toilet curtains,though!:D

How many of the 14 will have been converted to act as air to air refuelling tankers?

How many of the 14 will have the capability to receive fuel transfers whilst in the air?

Will they be convertible to act as flying hospitals like the Tristars? Will they have a cargo capability?

I would have thought continual repainting would have proved expensive, from air defence grey to the colours of the lessee and back again.

Let’s hope it works, the RAF need the capacity.

Regards,

kev35

Why would you need to repaint them for a short term lease?

I am sure that it will not be a good solution for the RAF, like most public/private sector relationships, the public side will loose out.

And Ryanair can use the Herks for their planned ‘standing up’ routes 🙂

Seems a good idea to be honest. Only negative side is that the aircraft will be repainted, I would much rather turn up at TFS in a plane that has “Royal Air Force” on the side!:D instead of flyglobespan. Though flyglobespan do most of the RAF troop flights nowadays anyway!

Why not…an aircraft sitting on the ground doing nothing is losing cash…may as well earn some dollars instead of sitting on a ramp somewhere corroding

Wasn’t this part of the original plan, though? (Still stoopid though)

Just checking the date.. no, it’s not April 1st

another ridiculous idea, i wonder how much the continuous paint changes will cost :diablo:

im not sure why the MOD arent buying the aircraft? it seems to be a bit foolish (pardon my naieve opinion)