Mid-air refueling

RE: Mid-air refueling

this has been done on commercial flights, albeit postal flights. It was done in the thirties with the sea empress seaplane i believe, it had a parasite aircraft which would deliver mail along the way, and to places unreachable by the ‘mother aircraft’ the sea empress was the forerunner of the WW2 sunderland. the parasite aircraft was twin engined, and i remember it being called mercury- it was written on the nose of the aircraft- appropriate dont you think?? any way flight refuelling limited was started up and they tested the idea on these aircraft, it worked pretty well as I recall.

there is no major problem with doing this now, we’ve seen pics of KC10’s refuelling each other, so why not a320’s, the weight gain in extra pipingwouild be a mininmal fraction, and the technology is mature. a GPS guidance system coupled with a very short range laser, or millimetre radar would do for distances within that capable of the GPS With these systems the safety factor could stay almost the same, and would hardly add to the crews management task, as it has become. The sensitivity of the controls would be the limiting factor for this operation, but a flying boom type operation could cure that. refueling at altitude, with the exception of aircraft generated turbulence, and cloud generated turbulence would be a relatively calm affair, there would be no need for a race track pattern if the airliner is on a straight leg for four hours, you may aswell plug in there and then.

of course when do you pick up your cargo and passengers?? this would only be worth it if you are traversing a major part of the world. the reduction in fuel load if in flight refuelling was available wouldnt really matter because you still have to house a certain number of people in a fuselage and to a large extent this dictates the size of the aircraft- so your wings arent going to be that much smaller, your fuselage certainly isnt, what would you do?? probably just change the aerofoil to give u an acceptable lift co efficient……………nice thought tho.

coanda

RE: Mid-air refueling

Yes, and we must (or the airlines) think of the passengers. A 14 hour flight to Tokyo from London is murder to most-even us plane people! Airlines would have to totally review their in flight procedures, policies, facilities and safety if it ended up being 22 hours rather than 14!

As mentioned, its a good idea, just too costly and in most cases Unnecessary.

Regards

Benair

RE: Mid-air refueling

The idea has some merit; I don’t think airlines would do it themselves though. It would probably necessitate a dedicated refuelling airline.

However the start up costs would be too high. It is not really necessary on most routes, only really the very long haul sectors – and really, the 747-400, A340 or even 777 can handle the majority of routes. The modification costs would be huge.

RE: Mid-air refueling

wel all the new tanker (kc-10 and modern ones) cna receive fuels themelves as wel las the big tansposts (think huge c5) so o that froont it possible.

on the air forces front the raf is “privitising” this part of it so a comercial; company could do it.

IMHO only when a) its more safrer and b) when the cost of alnding at a hub like heathrow exceds the cost of the tanker

rabie :9

RE: Mid-air refueling

Just imagine how much more the already astronomical insurance premiums would go up when the underwriters take into account that two enormous aircraft like a 747 and(for example)a KC-10 – are flying about 30ft line astern, they’d have mild heart attacks!

RE: Mid-air refueling

Of course this was considered. The reason is quite simple that why it was not implemented. First of all there is too much of risk involved in this. Fighter jets are so much more lighter and agile than airliners, its easy for them to adjust speeds etc. when doing mid-air refuling. Also in an emergency fighters can move away from the tanker quickly, it will take lots of time for a jumbo to do that. Secondly this will cost the airline much more money, the airlines cant ask there countries respected Air Forces to send tankers for refuling, hundreds of filghts will start doing this and the AF will just supply mid-air refuling to airliners and forget there own fighters. Or, airlines will have to buy there own tankers which triple the cost of that route, it will effect the airline but largely the passenger whos tickets price will shoot over the roof.

Well all this doesent come under consideration as safety is first and NO airline will ever try this. Its just too risky!