"Chris Manteuffel" wrote in message
om...
Alan Minyard wrote in message
. ..

I don't recall ever seeing a probe on a SAAB and I thought
probe and drogue was the "Brit method".


AIUI, everyone but the USAF uses probe-and-drogue (USN, NATO countries
other than USAF, people who buy their jets, etc.). Buddy refueling is
a tremendous advantage for people operating tactical jets, and so they
use probe-and-drogue. The USAF, though, needed (and still needs) much
higher flow rates to keep their enormous aircraft in the sky. For
uniformity, the USAF went to booms for all of their aircraft, even for
the tactical jets that don't need those flow rates.

Not quite correct. Some other air forces also have boom tanking; IIRC the
Turks have some KC-135's to handle their own F-16's, as does Singapore, and
the Netherlands has their own DC-10 conversions with boom.


The Soviets worked out some crazy-fool system involving passing the
fuel from wing-tip to wing-tip for their big thirsty jets, I seem to
recall. Though I'm not sure what Backfire and Blackjack used, the wing
system was for the Badger, I do believe.

That system was actually first developed by either the US or Brits, from
what I recall, and quickly discarded in favor of the hose and drogue, and
then the boom in the case of the USAF.

Brooks


No guarentee's on this info; it's based on memory of an article I read
several years ago.

Chris Manteuffel