Is it REALLY the RAFs?
 

Given that its a PFI does it really belong to the RAF?

BBC News - RAF's largest aircraft Voyager officially unveiled

No, it is not owned by the RAF. It is owned by Air Tanker, who hold the AOC for operating the aircraft and do what the customer (The RAF) ask. The aircraft are maintained by Air Tanker with a pukka 145 approval from the UK CAA with sponsored reservists (LAEs), Civil LAEs, RAF LAEs and a combination of contracted and RAF personel as the mechanics. Management will be Civvy/RAF like the 2 line contracts.

Don't know about pilots (possibly all RAF), and military rules will apply to most operations I would assume (due to role, but the CAA cater for this).

Disappointing lack of detail in that article; there was no mention of double-decker buses or Olympic swimming pools.

GalleyCoffeePot,

OF COURSE they are the RAF's. They may be financially owned by a contractor but that contract exists solely to provide the RAF with an Air Transport and Air to Air refueling capability.

They will be flown by RAF crews, maintained by RAF engineers, be organised into RAF squadrons and located on a Royal Air Force station.

How much MORE RAF could they be?

I think the question is how less the RAF's could they be?

Suppose Roman Abramovich decides to buy AirTanker Plc and withdraw from the contract at VERY short notice?


In the words made famous in Snatch! You're gonna be "Proper Fcuked"

Willard, they showed it in size relative to a Lancaster. Are you suggesting that most of the great unwashed are not familiar with a Lancaster as a unit of measure?

Maybe most Chavs living in Lincolnshire might have a better idea of the size of a Lanc than the size of an Olympic size pool right enough.

airpolice,

Now you are just in plain old fantasy land!

WHY on earth Roman Abramovich want to buy AirTanker and what makes you think that the AirTanker share holders would want to sell?

You could make the same ludicrous argument about absolutely any defence company in the western world.

Thread creep off the ownership topic, but isn't the 'Voyager' the 1st new tanker a/c to ever be delivered to the RAF?

The Valiant's that I played with on 214, and the Victors that were rushed into the role when the Valiant's got their metal fatigue problems were 'field upgrades' from bombers, and of course the Tristars and VC-10 weren't even new airframes when the RAF got them. They were all 'tour ex' from civilian airlines.

I appreciate that the Voyager is a modified A-330, but it was modified on the drawing board and built as a Tanker not as an afterthought.

Isn't that a bit arse about face? Test something AFTER you have signed a £10.5bn contract...

Trogger,


That's been the exact same case for each and every military aircraft ever purchased by UK MOD.


ian16th,


I think you are right.

QQ is doing the tests that can't be done on the drawing board and with equipment not available in Spain, that the RAF/MOD is insistant on keeping in its inventory until it's the same age as the Lancaster is now.

Still, we should know how it works in practice - not from theory...

prOOne,

The question of who owns the Voyager fleet in not a simple one to answer. Some of the fleet will be available to thje RAF to meet daily tasking but some will be used by Air Tanker to meet purely civilian tasks. Whether those aircraft would be instantly available to the RAF if there was a sudden increase in tasking is debatable. Those aircraft on civilian tasks would certainly not be crewed or serviced by RAF personnel.

As far as equipment is concerned, only a proportion of the fleet will be 3 point Tankers, the rest will only have wing pods which may be removed for civilian operations. I suspect there are still some questions to be solved before the aircraft is in full service, welcome as it will be.

If every aircraft in this fleet holds a full CAA Certificate of Airworthiness, then we should give thanks to every Aviation deity that we believe in. The obvious next point is, God forbid that there be an Air Accident involving one of them, who would then carry out the investigation, the AAIB or the MAAIB?

So at a time when budgets are at a premium no one has picked up on how much this capability is going to cost!!!!

Current cost of A330-200 = $175-201m.
14 ac = $2450 - $2814m.
PFI = $16,9b for 27yrs.

If my maths is even close, and I've had to borrow a lot of fingers, this means each ac will cost $941m over the period of the PFI, or, $34m per yr, or, $2.9m per month etc etc etc:eek:

Questions:

Why did the MoD buy out the lease on the C17?
Is there an option to buy?
Who will own the ac after the 27 yr PFI?
Would Branson have 'purchased' his ac capability ( this includes addressing all the DLoDs associated with a new ac) in the same way?

As these hold a full UK CAA CofA it will be the UK AAIB and definately not the MAAIB (though the MAAIB may well be observers)

And yes - thanks to the deity that saved them from RAF certification.

They will be welcome stepping stones into the Airline World :E

CBTL,
You forgot to add the rest of the deal to your sums:

Hangars and buildings
SIMs,
part 147 ground staff and crew training,
part M,
part 145,
AOC,
FCL,
AIRWORTHINESS reviews

i.e. All those things the RAF does (or used to do) and more - and, hopefully, to a reliable standard for a reliable service. (No. I'm not employed by them)

It will not work without Loadmasters
 

The only way this aircraft will work is if you put loadmasters on it!!!!

Stand back and wait for the Flak

Mole Man:ok:

...and I thought the CofG was sorted?

Why would they need more weight?

I believe the RAF took delivery of 11 Brand new VC10's from Vickers. There is an interesting book about the VC10, weird concepts were on the drawing boards