Posted on 09/04/2018 12:23:33 PM PDT by MCF
I believe they always dump fuel anyway to get down to a certain landing weight (all planes, not just tankers, or planes with buddy stores) I believe airliners have to dump fuel on occasion too, but they probably plan it so that the plane reaches its landing weight when it gets to its scheduled destination, but...I suppose if they had to divert. (Any Freepers with knowledge of this care to comment?)
Anyway, it is critical on a carrier. Too much fuel on landing is bad for the bones...
LOL, we should shut up, the environmentalists would probably go ballistic if they knew just how much raw jet fuel was let loose into the atmosphere each and every day!!!
The A-6 was used as a refueler before it’s retirement.
“I wonder about the wisdom of not having someone manning the boom to keep an eye on things”
No one is manning the booms today on the F-18s with pods.
We should tie them down at the end of the runway and
make them watch older model B-52s take off.
They would all die of horror.
It sounds like freedom to me.
“Next up: The drones to refuel the refueling drones.”
Reminds me of the refueling scheme the Brits used to get a Vulcan bomber to the Falklands.
I was stationed at NAS Atlanta when Lockheed brought out
the C-5 for taxi tests. I had landing watch at the end of
the runway in a small mobile trailer. When they ran the
engines up it sent my booth rolling along.
Wow, that is pretty cool. Historic, That must’ve been one of the biggest damn things you had ever seen!
I always loved the C-5, a beautifully designed plane.
Wow.
A total of eleven tankers were required for two Vulcans (one primary and one reserve), a daunting logistical effort as all aircraft had to use the same runway.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Black_Buck
The Brits did a bunch of "outside the box" things in the Falklands war, like using a cargo ship as a carrier for their Harrier jets.
The Marines are working on using the MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor as a refueling tanker for their F-35's. I could see them forward-deploying a refueling Osprey on a destroyer's helicopter landing pad, so as to keep the carriers further away from hostile missiles.
I remember driving past Larsen AFB and all you could see was a ton of B-52 tails like shark fins. The planes were hidden by a low hill. Our house was in the landing path, a mile or two off the runway. In the early 60’s the planes were silver with white bottoms. In the late 60’s they were green camouflage with black bottoms for the Vietnam war.
My dad worked on those “double fuselage” P-51 looking planes in Korea, and moved on to the analog computers for B-52 tail guns as well as the Titan missiles. It’s why we lived in a lot of backwater towns up until 1967, for a few months at a time in each place. The worst was Altas, OK, and the best was Anaheim, CA. I could see Disneyland’s Matterhorn from my bedroom window. And being in third grade, that was a big deal. :)
BTW, on a side note, In Anaheim, our school was right across the corner, and across the street from the school was a huge Orange orchard. I went back there in 1999 and it was not only all warehouse space, but OLD warehouse space.
Being a Military Brat had its ups and downs (I went to eight different schools through high school) but overall, I would not have traded that for anything else.
Yep. The good news is that it made me make friends fast. The bad news is that it makes them easy to drop and kinda superficial.
BTW, In my case my dad was a contractor working for the government.
One funny story from today’s perspective: When he worked on the B-52’s in those often very hot environments (Texas, Oklahoma, etc.) he would just park his car under the wing to keep it fairly cool.
Try that today. :-D
That bird is Huuuuuge.
Isn’t it though.
I admit: I was sad when they retired them. I loved seeing them in the sky. We sure do produce some nice hardware.
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