Having watched retraction tests on many occasions I wish you luck.
I now wish I had filmed it at the time.
I’m sure Olly can help you but I’ll also have a look around to see if I can find anything.

It’ll still look good in my front garden.

Exactly.

Cheers,

Logan

It proves nothing because you miss the essence of the Black Buck operations.
There were so many Victors needed because of the lack of transferable fuel, not because of the refuelling system used. The Victor was limited in the amount of fuel they could take on due to structural considerations. Even if they could have gone with a full load it would have only been some 16,000lb more.
All you are showing is your knowledge is second hand and poorly interpreted at that.

You were trying to state that a boom going out would leave you up a creek without a paddle. That’s correct, but it’s also rare enough that it’s a non-issue. Far more common, however, is a hose not unreeling, damage to either the hose/basket or the receiver due to a collision (P&D refueling requires far more proficiency on the pilot’s part than boom), or a probe getting bent, broken, or just deciding not to work that day.

Cheers,

Logan

That is a gross exageration in my own experience. In the four and half years I was involved in P & D tanking I can only think of four or five instances where there was a hang-up requiring an abort of a mission or change of profile. That was in the bad ole days of mk20b and mk17b units, which were notoriously ‘unreliable’.

Compared to:
Victor
Either 55800kg fuel off-load, or 9,200 gal /(41,823 litres) (different sites hence disparity in values)

It was a little more complicated than that. First 55800kg gives you 122760lbs, the Victor could take off with a max of 126000lb although he could then top up once airborne to a higher value (sorry can’t remember the total anymore) even so it gives you very little to fly on if you off-load 122000lb. The other factor (at the time) was that of the Falklands the Victors had been restricted to 110000lb due to wing problems

To be honest it’s 50:50. Who do you believe less? The Guardian or the politician?;)

To be honest if either would bid me a good day, I would look outside first to check if it was.
As for the rest, we will indeed have to wait until the next election. After all, a week in politics……………………

I didn’t know that US Navy shipboard-certified jet fuel HAD a wiring diagram?

That’s because we know it as avcat or F44:D