gopher01,
thank you for the very full explanation of the initial tanker fit to the 'K' and confirming my belief that the strakes on the door were aerodynamic (and wooden).
As you say very 'suck it and see' as it had never been done before on a Hercules. So not surprising that Lockheeds did not know. The USMC tankers use wing pods and a ro-ro system for the fuselage tanks. In the time available this option was not open to Marshalls and I believe the firm that made the USMC tanks said we could have some in 18 months.
I understand that Lockheeds were also asked for fatigue data for operating the tanking at the max overload weight, which was 20000 lbs over the normal TOW.
As we intended doing this on a regular basis Lockheeds, understandably, did not want to know.
I was also told that initially the HDU panel was supposed to be bolted onto the forward face of the HDU for the ALM to operate, but because the 'spare' Nav on the Victor did the job, it was positioned above the Nav station on the 'K'. This would chime with the famous fitting of the emergency exit door on the VC10 tankers at great expense. There were other Marham 'irritations' !