A Serious Question
Yes I know I should know the answer, but I dont!
I spent some 5 years in HQSTC and HQ 1 Gp procuring the RAF Wide Body Tanker - which became the TriStar despite the RAF rejecting it out of hand. MOD PE ignored all advice and went for the cheap option - sound familiar???
It was essential that the wide body tanker be 3 point - in other words - two wing refuelling points, and a center-line HDU (Hose Drum Unit). I will not go into the justification for this, but it was, and is cast iron. The RAF was very suspicious of the TriStar's active wing flying technology, but the MOD PE ignored all questions about it, testing various aircraft from Boscombe Down flying in AAR positions around a BA Tristar. The Wing Pod modification was to be a "bolt on" job similar to that on the Victor and VC 10. In the event, when it came to it, the pods could not be fitted to the "active" wing without huge modification costs including a totally new outer wing with "split" ailerons. As a result, the pods were never fitted, and the RAF got a huge tanker with only one hose for fuel transfer. So in major deployments in later years, we had TriStars transferring fuel to VC 10s who then passed the fuel to the fast jet receivers.
My understanding is that the Airbus Tanker employs active wing technology. However, I can find no evidence of trials, or practical employment of AAR pods on active wings. In still air - probably no problem, but in my experience - true still air is not often the case. So does anyone out there know if AAR has been routinely conducted using pods on active wings?
The aircraft look great - (I wish I were still flying!!) - but I also wonder how the winglets affect the wing tip vortex - a critical factor in AAR on wing pods. Do they intensify the vortex into a smaller cross section, or weaken it over a bigger cross section? I am not a fluid aerodynamics person!
Looking back in this thread, I have to smile. In the early 90s, when the FSTA programme got going, I was heavily involved in the crewing issues from a training perspective. Now, many years later, I see all the same questions arising!!!! Mind you, none of my AAR experience was in the "shirt sleeves and coffee" environment being kept away from dangerous areas. I hope the AirTanker management have got their crewing, civil/RAF act together by now!! Surely there must be a "Prune" observer somewhere close to the programme?