How does Avtur get to the airports?
 

Does anyone know how they transport all the avtur to the major airports? :confused:

My guess would be via pipeline, but where does this start? and if a 744ER can hold something like 240,000 L there must be huge quantities of fuel going through these lines and being used?

Just curious as this has been bugging me for a while and I would be interested to find the answer to this question. Thanks

In the UK by land pipeline. If you read up on Buncefield explosion you will see how it works.

Further to this, it is sometimes delivered to the aircraft by a further hydrant system. A small mobile pump and metering unit is plugged into a pipe on the pan and the fuel pumped into the aircraft. This means that large fuel bowsers do not have to drive around the airport and, as you point out, this would be more than 1 for a 747!

I think that this has been going on since the second world war but the authorities don't make a fuss about it for evident security reasons. If you don't mention something most people will never ever think about it.

This also has an obvious impact on deciding the location of new airports...

Manchester
 

There was a news item a few weeks ago that mentioned that Manchester airport uses 3 million Litres per day. But only holds 4 million in storage. (There was some pipeline problem and they were asking for as many flights as possible to fuel up someplace else) It mentioned that it takes 12 hours per day to pump the 3mil into the airport.
To do this by tanker would have to be a logistical nightmare. Not to mention the extra wear and tear on the roads.
Would like to know the numbers for LHR.

A public diagram of the pipeline network can be found at http://www.linewatch.co.uk/network.htm. Shows how the major airports are connected to refineries.

Simon.

Don't tell the tree huggers but LHR get through nearly 14 million litres a day. Several pipelines including one from a nearby railway station that allows deliveries by rail to be pumped the short distance to the fuel farms. Not used often I think but certainly in use for a while after Buncefield.

In addition to Bunce there is a pipeline from SOU and this joins with one that is located in the N-East. These pipes layed during the war have served well but do in fact fail often with problems at the pumping stations. They are owned by the government and are in desparate need of investment and upgrade. if that is not enough they also present an issue of security and diusruption that could cause the industry more problems.