USAF KC-135 Refuels RAF F-35s over Europe...
marsavian wrote:Last one at 5:20 showed how nervy this operation can be !
As Delta Flight Path and JPALS have proven the ability to fly the hook repeatedly into a 6” box, why can’t the fuel probe fly into the 12” basket? Both are working on the same 4D location, target!
Neptune
- Elite 3K
- Posts: 3890
- Joined: 16 Feb 2011, 01:30
marsavian wrote:Last one at 5:20 showed how nervy this operation can be !
The basket was relatively stable. It was a tense, misaligned approach by the pilot.
- Elite 1K
- Posts: 1748
- Joined: 28 Feb 2008, 02:33
The basket was relatively stable.
Looks very stable compared to a basket attached to the short hose from the boom, with apparently a lot more fore and aft flexibility on the reel after contact, although that does look like relatively smooth air also.
Those Cobham MK-32B wingtip pods with the long hose might have made 135 P & D AAR in the 100 or 105 less challenging. Less 'spring effect' and potential for hose twisting I would think, plus multiple receivers, but never refueled P & D on a long hose so don't know the potential pitfalls involved. Even KC-97 was short hose P & D, but at least had option of rigid or maneuvering boom whereas 135 was rigid boom only because of boomer's limited visibility of the basket.
Seems to have taken a long time to consider adapting such a practical solution to the 135R.
(Who needs the KC-46.)
- Elite 3K
- Posts: 3890
- Joined: 16 Feb 2011, 01:30
KC-10 most stable I saw, sometimes so much so that the ‘competition’ was not touching the feathers on the way to the plug. All the long hoses tended to be cyclic in movement, and those that flew form on the basket instead of the tanker typically got ‘exposed’ as they chased it.
8 posts
|Page 1 of 1
Who is online
Users browsing this forum: Bing [Bot] and 12 guests