A-310-300 Mrtt
Although the German and Canadian A-310 MRTTs could technically be fitted with 5 lower-hold Additional Center Tanks (ACT), each ACT having a capacity of about 4,580 Kgs of fuel, they are only fitted with 4 of them. This is in addition to the 48,862 Kgs of fuel located in the regular tanks. All but the 6 tonnes located in the outer wing tanks can technically be transfered.
I think that the reason they have 4 ACTs instead of the max of 5 is that they converted lower-powered A-310-304 to MRTT standard, which only have a Maximum Take-off weight of 157,000 Kgs. In order to be able to carry the 5 lower hold tanks, they would need to have an Airbus 310-308s, which have a MTOW of 164,000 Kgs.
In order to upgrade their A-310-304s to A-310-308s, to benefit from that extra 7 tonnes of take-off weight, the aircraft would need to upgrade their engines from CF6-80C2A2 of 53,500 lbs, to CF6-80C2A8 of 59,000 lbs.
They are fitted with two Flight Refuelling Ltd Mk32B pods.
Last edited by Minorite invisible; 24th Oct 2009 at 17:53.