henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) (06/02/91)
From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) >From: wb9omc@ee.ecn.purdue.edu (Duane P Mantick) >... knowledge of nasty turbulence generated >by the big planes. This has been given as a justification for using >the flying boom to refuel fighters from something BIG like a KC135 >or a KC10 Extender... However, a recent AW&ST (reference on request, but it's not handy) reports that the USAF now attaches a much higher priority to equipping the KC-135s and KC-10s with wing pods for probe-and-drogue refuelling, and to equipping USAF fighters with probes (!). Whatever technical problems there may be with probe-and-drogue from a large tanker -- which, please note, have never bothered the British, who do it all the time -- the USAF now sees being able to refuel more than one fighter at a time from the same tanker as more important. Apparently far too much Gulf War flight time was spent waiting in line for the tankers. -- "We're thinking about upgrading from | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology SunOS 4.1.1 to SunOS 3.5." | henry@zoo.toronto.edu utzoo!henry