Hercules Tanker
 

I've been asked whether the RAF ever had any Hercules adapted to act as tankers, presumably for other Hercules. Does anyone have any gen on this?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_Martin_KC-130

Sure that somebody will be along shortly to give chapter and verse, but googling "RAF Hercules Tanker" gives this, which looks like a good place to start:

The story of RAF Hercules air-to-air refuelling in the Falklands

There's also this earlier thread

https://www.pprune.org/military-avia...s-tankers.html

Thanks Guys. I should have been more specific, since I knew about the Falklands. There is a picture showing a Hercules with "mission tallies" on the side, which look like tanker missions. However, the picture is dated early '73. I was on the Hercules fleet from '73 to '76. and know nothing of this. I suspect the tallies are for something else, but the picture isn't clear enough to tell.

Possibly Operation Khana Cascade, air drops of relief supplies following an earthquake in Nepal, in 1973.

Herod,
the now quiet Hercules thread has a gr
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....c5dd16d6c7.jpg A reat deal of info and pics of the Conversion and use of the Hercules as a tanker It was used to tank other Hercules nut also many FJ a/c as well. Especially supporting the RAF FJ element in the Falklands and of course the Airbridge..

Herod,
I was associated with the Hercules tanker virtually from the beginning to the end when they were converted back to standard. I have a collection of pics of the tanker inside and out. If you are interested PM me with your e-mail address and I will send you a selection.

Thanks wub. That looks like it may be it. The tallies could be meal sacks, indicating number of drops. The picture was taken at Luqa in Jan 63. The date doesn't quite tally, but then the photographer may have that wrong by a couple of months. After all, it was a LONG TIME AGO.

Herod,
the RAF did not operate the Hercules in 1963, so you must mean 1973 I think.

Herod,
I got your PM but not sure if my reply went ! If you send me your e-mail address I will send pics etc. Better I think than boring the rest of the readership.

email address sent

Boring?! I think you would find most of us here would love to see some early herky-bird tanker interior pictures. Bring' em on!

sandie,
the reason I said 'boring' was that it was all covered in the Hercules thread.
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....dedfa67239.jpg

A gazillion gallons of Avtur. One 5kg BCF.

"Its H&S gone mad, I tell you".

Grab the Lockup (about 4000lb IIRC), then 5 mins of fun over Stanley in the world's fastest steam engine, the magnificent FGR2....

Superb photo.

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....ad6c33427.jpeg
The view from the opposite end.

Thank you.

Are those the ex Andover tanks that were also used in the Chinook?

They were certainly ex-Andover tanks. Initially the fitment was 2, latterly 4.

VM. great to see the `goofers gallery` full ,as usual,for a 24 Sdn crew demo...
KS,suggest the aircraft is a little `low`,as the hose is not level from the drogue...but hey ,I`m just an old AARI....!
`Scroggs` will be along to comment...

I swear the Captain of Henry's Honkies would have given up his own seat for them if he could!

Duncan,it was H& S that finally saw the demise of the Herc tankers,as the Andover tanks were single skinned,and would be a nightmare if involved in any shooting war,as the system did not allow fuel to be directly offloaded thu` the HDU to a receiver,but transferred up to the main fuel system,not that the rest of the aircraft`s fuel system was any different,ie no self sealing /flame-suppressant system,either...
I took a couple of tankers to the `scrapyard at Marshall`s` `,ostensibly for scrapping,but they were later sold on to the Sri Lankan AF ,and also the Austrian AF..Still in service I think...and they`d been operated at up to 175kMauw......! or thereabouts...

It was never comfortable looking out at the wings/engines`nodding`; one felt that Marshalls should have put a couple of extra `struts/flying wires on the wings....

IIRC,
the tanker always had 4 internal tanks. It was the PLR 2/4 mods that varied the tanks. As sycamore says they were
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....c1e342238b.jpg
routinely operated at 20000 lbs above the normal T/O weight. I would noot have bought an ex RAF tanker but I assume they are still giving good service. View from my 'office'.

IIRC, that overload was allowed for in the design, but had to be authorised by a VSO, as wartime necessity.

In the latter days of their lives, fatigue on the Tankers was monitored more precisely than any aircraft in the fleet. My (limited) understanding is that instead of using TOW multiplied by the load factor to produce Fatigue Index, we monitored AUW and recorded it, plus the fatigue meter reading, at every change of flight profile, as a result, there was plenty of life left in the Tankers before they were withdrawn from service,

As there seems to be a rewed interest in the RAF Hercules tanker I have several pics of them. Most are mine some are not If I put any up then perhaps the owners of the rights can forgive me ! I will put up one a day to gauge the interest.
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....fa4327fcda.jpg

Herod,
yes the 175000 lbs overload weight was meant to be an emergency one off. Not the norm as we did with the tankers. I understand that Lockheed were approached for fatigue information about this but refused to help !

Today's offering.
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....6359a03272.jpg

The Austrian ones certainly are, and grace UK airspace from time to time:

Austrian Hercules

Dave,
thanks for the information. However with quite a few tanker hours in my log book I would still have opted for other redundant RAF C130k a/c were I to buy one. !
I suppose you can see the sales pitch. One titled lady owner, never raced or rallied and full service history.

I thought that the ones the Austrians had bought were not ex-tankers. The Sri Lankans had bought a few of them but at least one was scrapped in situ at Marshals in Cambridge, I saw it reduced to nothing over a number of visits to drop off & collect frames. The Austrians had some of the good ones, I remember seeing a couple up in Norway parked near us some years ago (around 2005ish?), they’d upgraded them including INAS etc (no need for the Nav!)

Some years later I was on a land away to Austria in a newer TacAT type and saw one of them in the circuit, the trails of black smoke seemed rather innocuous for this day & age…

The 3 Austrian C-130K's are:

8T-CA (4198), formerly XV181
8T-CB (4256), formerly XV291
8T-CC (4257), formerly XV292

if that helps in identifying whether any of them are ex-tankers.

XV292 wasn't a Tanker - it was the aircraft that carried the 25 Years In RAF Service livery in 1992.

As I thought none of those were tankers. From my logbook I have XV201, 204, 213 & 296 as tankers. I think there were only four.

XV192 ,XV203 were also tankers,6 altogether...

Then H&S would have positively sh*t themselves at the sight of the Puma’s ferry tanks.

Nutty,maybe they`re still `in service`...

Are they? Dick Langworthy hadn’t got a good word for the spreader plates as he said he designed the originals and the final MOD product didn’t address the problem with them pulling the mounts out of the honeycomb floor panels as they just moved the loading from the tank feet to the revised mounts.

Though in fairness we never had a problem again.



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