Keith Willshaw wrote:


"guy" wrote in message
...
On 3 June, 22:01, Peter Twydell wrote:


Did they not develop a system to refuel Tiger Force Lancasters/
Lincolns for the assault on Japan?

Guy

Yes. In January 1944 three different designs had been prepared, the
third of which was adopted. In this the hose-drum and equipment was
placed towards the front of the aircraft and the fuel supply consisted
of two 640 imperial gallon (2,880 litres) tanks in the bomb bay.

50 sets of equipment were ordered for development and training. It was
then intended to convert a total of 500 tanker and receiver aircraft to
mount the long-range operations.

Trials for the Tiger Force operation were carried out with the prototype
Lancaster tanker PB.972 and receiver ND.648, using the looped hose
system. It was found that refuelling could be carried out at an
indicated airspeed of 160 mph at any reasonable altitude, over or in
cloud and at night, there being no difficulty in illuminating the
receiver's hauling cable.

Then the Americans went and dropped a couple of really big bombs.

Keith

Come on, Keith, those bombs weren't all that big. The Brits had
Grand Slam and Tallboy bombs. Surely you wouldn't begrudge the U.S.
helping the Japanese with urban renewal, would you? Besides, those two
bombs provided Japan with some really nice fireworks to help celebrate
the end of the war.

Dan, U.S. Air Force, retired