By: wysiwyg - 14th August 2004 at 17:06
As mentioned before, there is no real need as aircraft can already fly as long as duty hours permit. Air Forces do it in fast jets because they burn their small quantities iff very quickly or because their transports (which are not capable of the range of todays modern equipment) need longer time on station (eg AWACS, etc) or very long range using multiple crews. Remember that the military pilots are exempt from CAA style flight time limitations. In fact their pilots do not hold licenses.
The cost of inflight refuelling would be vastly greater than the cost of stopping off at an airport and picking up gas.
By: tenthije - 14th August 2004 at 09:31
Another aspect to look at is fatigued pilots – which is a bit invalid because the miltary do it, but they don’t need to think about passenger comfort do they.
In the military they got a nice solution for that. They are called “go-pills”. A dutch documentary revealed that they are no more than XTC (I thought that was it, but it was definately an illegal drug). USAF pilots take lots of them apparantly.
By: steve rowell - 14th August 2004 at 07:57
With the aircraft of today like the A345 and the new longer range 777, is there any need????????
By: tenthije - 13th August 2004 at 22:14
The refuelling equipment required would make the plane a lot heavier, making the system uneconomical. Besides, with the modern jet engines of today planes can be made that have enough range to nearly fly halfway across the world. There is therefore no need anymore for aerial refueling. Technically it is possible though. The USAF has several tanker/transports that can be refuelled. Those are for the most part converted pax planes.
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August 13, 2004 at 10:06 pm