June 4th 10, 03:23 PM
posted to rec.aviation.military,rec.aviation.military.naval
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First Modern Air-Air refueling
"Dan" wrote in message
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Keith Willshaw wrote:
"guy" wrote in message
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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 bang they made was 
Keith
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