"Brett" wrote in message
...
"Keith Willshaw" wrote:
| "Brett" wrote in message
| ...
| wrote:
| | A number of posts mentioned that 747s are capable of in-flight
| | refueling. Is this correct for 'all' 747s or just the particular
| | military versions (E-4) & AF1? I suspect it would be unusual to
see a
| | civilian 747 doing so.
|
| At a cost greater than $19 a gallon I don't believe any airline
would
| even consider it an option.
|
|
|
| Today the limit with most civil aircraft is crew endurance anyway

"crew endurance" - they can carry relief crews, the limit would be what
the "cattle in the back" are willing to endure.


Actually crew endurance is a problem, rest facilities are usually only
available for flight crews not the cabin crew which on a 747 or 777
may be quite large.

I have flown from the UK to Australia with stops at Bahrain andSingapore
that meant 2 crew changes each doing about 8 hours, we "cattle in the back"
were there for more than 24

| but in times gone by it has been used for civil aircraft. In 1939
| an Imperial Airways flying boat operated non stop across the
| North Atlantic being refuelled in mid air by a converted Harrow
| bomber operated by Flight Refuelling Ltd.

And within a month of the demonstration Britain was at war, Imperial
Airways had been nationalized and the service was used for high priority
passengers/cargo where "cost" was not a major consideration.


The trials pre-dated the outbreak of war however and the cost was
considered less than the alternatives which were limited. Land planes
could stop in Iceland and Goosebay but in winter this wasnt an
option for flying boats.

Keith