Arty Fufkin wrote:
Not really the end of the world, after all we used to operate a fleet of white, wide body MRTTs did we not?
Yes, the RAF did indeed operate such aircraft. But the 2 which went to KKIA in 1991 had first to be repainted in desert pink to reduce their visibility. I did a quick check and found that the pink pigs reflected about half the light of the white whales.
Later, all TriShaws (except for ZD949, which spent years at Marshalls, only to be scrapped as soon as the flight trials had been completed, wasting several £M in the process...
) were repainted in battleship grey. Not just because, with so few ships left in the RN, that there are warehouses full of 'paint, grey, war canoes for the use of' - but for tone down reasons.
Would the great unwashed worry about the colour of their charter flight transport aeroplane? I doubt it very much - the only issue which would concern them would be the price of the flight. It's perhaps more likely that some foreign airports wouldn't be too keen to be seen to be accepting 'military' aircraft? But, in reality, is there much of a risk of the RAF actually needing 14 x tankers in this day and age?
With 8 x C-17s, 24 x C-130Js, 22 x Atlas and 9 x Voyagers, not to mention around 60 Chinooks, the RAF will soon have a very considerable AT fleet to support operations....but where?