Originally Posted by
BEagle
KenV , the 'wiki' figure you quote for Maximum Take-Off Weight does not agree with the Airbus brochure figure for the A330MRTT, which is 233T (514 000 lb).
The same figure is quoted by Wikipedia, which further states that the OEW is 125T. Thus 125+111 exceeds MTOW by 3T, so my estimate of a day-to-day maximum fuel figure of 109T was fairly close, assuming rounding errors. Which means that with max fuel it cannot carry any cargo.
I have no idea why the 'normal' 242T MTOW for an A330-200 wasn't used for the MRTT.
Now its starting to make sense. Yet not. It makes sense that with a reduced MTOGW the MRTT can reach MTOGW with just a full load of fuel. It makes no sense at all that Airbus reduced the MTOGW of the basic airframe by 9 tonnes to produce the MRTT. In effect, every MRTT has a max weight restriction relative to the baseline -200? How does that make sense? Because fuel is a dense payload, tankers are usually based on the highest gross weight version of an airframe. But for the MRTT Airbus went the other way and
reduced the MTOGW? But OK. I concede the point. Which raises the following question for
Just This Once: why does your "source data" not agree? You know, the "source data" used to justify grievous personal attacks.
FWIW, I was hesitant to use the Airbus MRTT brochure because it seems to be a marketing tool, not a technical document. For example, this leading phrase in Airbus' brochure states: "
The A330 MRTT can carry up to 111 tonnes of fuel; this is the highest capacity of all tanker aircraft, even those which have additional fuel tanks in the cargo deck." This is total nonsense. Both the KC-10 and KC-747 (granted only two of the latter were built) carry much more fuel (161 / 165 tonnes respectively). Dutch Air Force and Commercial KDC-10 also carry more fuel (159 tonnes). And depending on the source, Il-78 also carries more fuel (138 tonnes).