"Brett" wrote in message
...

So the limit would be at least 24 hours and the number of relief crews
available.



The crew changes took place at Bahrain and Singapore. If you assume
12 cabin crew for each sector going non stop would result in a need
to lose space for another 24 people at least 12 of whom would need
sleeping accomodation. This would be a massive overhead.

| | 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

By a month __On 5 August 1939, The Cabot, a Short C Class flying boat,
took off from Shannon, Ireland and received 1200 gallons of fuel shortly
after takeoff from an Armstrong Whitworth AW-23 tanker on its Western
flight to Botwood, Newfoundland. After a short ground refueling stop at
Botwood, the flight continued on to Montreal, Canada, and to its
destination of New York City. On the Eastbound leg from Botwood, The
Cabot received 1,200 gallons of fuel from a tanker based at Gander,
Newfoundland. A total of sixteen crossings were made and the success of
these trials led to a decision to add two or three flying boats to the
service and continue operations in 1940.__

http://www.au.af.mil/au/database/pro...ugherty_sj.pdf


So the pre-war trial was ajudged a success.

| and the cost was
| considered less than the alternatives which were limited.

What was the cost of delivering 1200 gallons of fuel to an aircraft in
flight? What was the average cost for each passenger with and without
inflight refueling, how large a subsididy was the British Government
willing to pay in peacetime/wartime, how much would a passenger be
willing to pay in peacetime.

Its quite true that seat price was not the driving factor it is now
but I suspect that cost was still an issue and not having to land in
nothern canadian waters in a flying boat was seen as a real plus.

The data you provided indicates Imperial Airways considered the
trial a success and were only prevented from extending the service
by the outbreak of war.


Then ask yourself what $19 per gallon would do what to the seat mile
costs of a modern airliner (airlines get upset with 30 cent price
variations).


I dont recall advocating this as a policy today, especially since modern
aircraft can fly for extended periods without refuelling. Flying from
London to Singapore non-stop takes around 12.5 hours and
even if there was no need to refuel the aircraft there's a need at that
point to swap cabin crews (they already carry extra flight crew) and
clean and re-supply the aircraft. I have been fortunate enough to
have always made the trip in business class but I'm told the
lavatories back in economy can be pretty grim by this point

| Land planes
| could stop in Iceland and Goosebay but in winter this wasnt an
| option for flying boats.

How attractive is Botwood in winter?


Not very I'd imagine but both Pan American and Imperial airways
used it pre-war and the RCAF operated Catalina from there
during WW2

Keith